Updated 1/11/2024
2023 Volunteering summary
RCMG continues to grow and find more ways to serve their community. Volunteers contributed over 19,700 hours of community service in our communities and more than 4,280 hours of continuing education.
Year-Over-Year Comparisons
| 2023 | 2022 |
Participating Volunteers (Interns, Active, Active-Emeritus) | 343 | 303 |
Volunteer Service Hours | 19,709 | 18,042 |
Continuing Education Hours | 4,282 | 4,184 |
Contacts Reached | 13,670 | 13,875 |
Opportunities & Challenges
In 2023, we spoke with volunteers, community partners, and the wider community. A few trends became apparent over the year, identifying some opportunities and challenges that RCMG can address in 2024 and beyond.
Opportunities
The RCMG Plant Sale team secured the Aldrich Ice Arena for the 2024 Sale.
Volunteer interest and capability for growing and donating food grown is increasing.
Volunteers were less likely to "ghost" the organization and are, in general, more responsive to communications.
Challenges
Many activity shifts remained unfilled while volunteers struggle to find activities they can attend. (Especially Yard Waste Site shifts)
Clarifying the roles and responsibilities between the RCMG non-profit and Extension Master Gardener Program will continue to need attention.
SignUp Genius is no longer able to deliver messages to volunteers using Microsoft email domains, including outlook.com, hotmail.com, msn.com, live.com and passport.com. This affects roughly 10% of RCMG volunteers.
Negotiations with Facilities Management of the Extension grounds continues to affect the Barn Gardens.
Photos of the Year
Volunteers shared photos from their many projects and events. These are becoming more and more valuable as we use them on the RCMG website, our social media pages, reports to partners, in stories to our community. Please continue to share your photos with us!
Expand the Headlines below to read more about what RCMG did in 2023.
New & Improved in 2023
RCMG volunteers continue to help grow and develop our local program. New educational events and volunteer service activities were developed.
Educational Events
Read more about these and other educational events below.
Peer-to-Peer Learning (New)
Train-the-Trainer
In-Person Core Course Night (New)
Volunteer Service Activities
Read more about these and other volunteer service activities below.
Administration Support (Improved)
Aldrich Rain Gardens (New)
CLUES Community Garden (Improved)
Gardens for Good (Improved)
Garden of Good Hearts (Improved)
Frogtown Gardens (Improved)
Lawns-to-Legumes Coaching (New)
Lakewood Native Gardens (New)
Monthly Project Highlights (Improved)
SignUp Genius Errors (New)
Soil Health Advocates (New)
White Bear Lake Food Shelf (New)
White Bear Lake Winter Market (Improved)
Organizational Services
Read more about these and other organization and program updates below.
2-Year Internship (New)
"Give To The Max" (RCMG) and "Giving Tuesday" (Improved)
Volunteer Activity Fair (Improved)
Season-End Intern celebration (Improved)
Board Organizational Meetings (Improved)
Clarifying differences between the Extension Master Gardener Volunteer Program of Ramsey County and the Ramsey County Master Gardeners 501(c)3 (Improved)
RCMG Volunteers & Achievements
Volunteer Service Activities
Educational Events
Organization & Program Updates