CGBLLEd2020: welcome & introduction

Welcome and Introductory Discussion Forum

welcome & introduction

Suffolk County has about 230 current, active Master Gardeners.

Spring Gardening School is the annual event that excites Master Gardeners the most. We start planning in September for the April Saturday which draws about 250-300 people. We offer 40 different garden speakers in a local school. A Plant Sale and Raffle add to the day's momentum. About 75 Master Gardeners participate each year. As Donna Cooke well knows, the MGs work tirelessly and are appropriately proud of their collaborative efforts.

As a tenured college professor, I taught public speaking. When I started working in Donna's position a year ago, I wanted to build the Speaker's Bureau by encouraging more Master Gardeners to be public speakers. A group of 8 MGs came forward after I shared one of my programs and guided them on delivery. We were off and running with requests for the Winter Seed Sowing program in January and February, 2020.

The closure of venues mid March temporarily shut down the Speaker's Bureau. With Cornell zoom available, I relaunched with an emphasis on the importance of growing food. Between April 1st and today, 82 gardening programs were offered during the day, evenings and weekends, including 30 programs offered in the month of June alone. It would have been terrific if some Master Gardeners had been ready to present these programs.There simply was no time. I confess that I'm truly exhausted, but proud of the effort. County residents with no prior connection to CCE Suffolk now know who we are and what we offer in terms of diagnostic lab services, the horticulture hot line and public outreach.

Hi Roxanne,

This is a true success story! I'm really proud of the way people have pivoted so quickly in our system to meet the demand - clearly, you all have done a fantastic job of making this possible in your county.

I'm curious - beyond CCE platforms, did you do a lot of promotion via social media? How many people do you think attended your 82 sessions? I think this is a great story we could tell about the work you all have done during the pandemic to meet this increased demand for content, and really expanding your work to new audiences.

Thank you again!

Ashley

Show parent

Hi Ashley,

Those in attendance in our 82 online programs since the pandemic began--about 2500 people. Participants were generous in thanking CCE for the garden topic presented and the focused q & a that followed.

What's more significant to me is not that number which is considerable, but WHO was in those audiences. I ran these as meetings, not webinars, so there was dialogue before and after a presentation. Participants said something like...."I didnt know we had a nearby Cornell Extension office," or "thanks for telling us about the Hort Hot line where we can speak to someone on the phone ," or "thanks for telling me where I can email a photo of my boxwood ." Much of this audience had never heard of CCE Suffolk. What an extraordinary moment for them to connect to CCE!

We post programs on the events page on our CCE website. Community Horticulture has not yet ramped up to do our own social media. Each of the libraries, garden clubs or other organizations who ask for CCE programs does some social media promotion. A few have had social media impact way beyond the county. Evidence of this? I was doing an online composting talk with an audience of 75 participants for a local library. The comments in CHAT were revealing. "Got to water my compost pile here in Utah." and " Bear will be attracted by that food in the compost pile in Vancouver." and "Can you recommend where I should site my pile in Aruba?" While these participants are not in CCE Suffolk's target audience, they underscore that we're likely reaching new audiences, mostly local, for CCE and our offerings.

Show parent

Wow Roxanne, you have accomplished so much. No wonder you are exhausted. I always gasp when I look at how large Suffolk is and the density of people you've got around as potential CCE supporters. Amazing you've reached as far as Aruba :) I didn't know you taught public speaking so I'm glad you shared that. If you have a moment to breathe this fall or winter, would you consider leading a Zoom class for MGVs across the state who are interested in speaker's bureau but want a little help first? I have about 15 volunteers who can speak to an audience no problem, but I know there are more in my group who just have that initial fear but would be great once they give it a go. Not trying to make more work for you, just a casual question here. Thanks.

Show parent

Hi Becca,

Yeah, public speaking is an important skill for Master Gardeners sharing, guiding and leading in their communities.

The group that came forward in Suffolk were accustomed to standing in front of an audience. They were almost all teachers. We reviewed key speaking concepts; I gave them my presentation to present. EASY all around. I've yet to reach out to that other, larger group of MGs less prone to speaking in public.

I'd be happy to share a zoom on public speaking essentials with CCE folks.

My experience tells me that we enhance our speaking ability when we have the chance to 'stand and deliver.' Over the course of a 15 week semester, students present a half dozen talks on subjects of their choice. In so doing, the students build confidence and rapport with each other as well as identify speaking strengths and challenges. They lead the class through their examples.

Will a zoom session with me doing much of the talking enable reluctant public speakers to change their stripes? Not likely because of the time and processes needed for transformation. But it's certainly a place to start. It's a place to engage in a dialogue about what some fear and what others would like to do more effectively.

Roxanne

Show parent

Roxanne,

It is exciting that you are taking the Speakers Bureau to a new level, something that the community has always wanted, and it reaches out to LI'ers who may not know the resources CCE Suffolk has to offer. I was so impressed (and not surprised because I know you got what it takes) to see the different online programs you offered and led so quickly when everything shut down. Amazing work!!

In years past (they may still do this), in order to 'pass' our MGV trainings in the Hudson Valley and go onto volunteer, each student was required to develop and present a formal presentation to the rest of the class as a final project. To prepare them for this, one of the training sessions was a talk on public speaking by an expert. You could easily add this in the training schedule to help prepare your future SB volunteers. Although the current Action Project model does not limit the final projects to formal presentations only, when we did this in Suffolk, we did ask everyone in the course to present their project.

I agree with your classmates, a 'public speaking for MGV's webinar' by you would be so beneficial.

Show parent

Thanks, Donna, for your comments. You have the Suffolk picture in your frame.

A good suggestion on a speaking unit.

The Class of 2020 presented their Action Projects to the class, albeit via zoom. The 31 speakers were generally good. A refresher on best public speaking practices would sweeten that MG Training pot.

Show parent