RCMG's Speakers Bureau continues to grow
1/14/2025
The RCMG Speakers Bureau, which focuses on formal adult classroom events, is one of the strongest Master Gardener adult education programs in the state. Check out the results of another successful year and look ahead to the changes planned for 2025.
Summary of 2024
Classes
RCMG taught classes on 18 different topics in 2024. Home Composting remains the most requested class (11%) with Fall Into Winter (8%), Winter Sowing (8%) and Houseplant Success (8%) following. Planting for Pollinators drew the largest total number of attendees (114), followed by Advanced Vegetable Gardening (105), Winter Sowing (101) and Introduction to Vegetable Gardening (100).
Community Engagement
In 2024, RCMG taught over 100 classes (compared to 95 in 2023) and reached over 1,142 residents from Ramsey County, wider MN, and US nationally through our adult eduction classes. Classes were promoted on the RCMG website and through our Facebook page.
Almost 25% of residents were attending an RCMG class for the first time
Roughly 9% came from a diverse race or gender identity.
97% of attending residents expressed satisfaction with the classes. This number is a combination of participant feedback: confirmed increase of knowledge, plan to implement change with information, and recommending the class to others.
Community Partners
Most of our classes are scheduled with Community Education Programs (Mounds View, New Brighton, Roseville, WBL Township), the Ramsey County Library system, and St Paul Parks & Rec. We began teaching for 10 new public organizations in 2024, including several Garden Clubs and other Master Gardener county groups.
We returned to regular in-person teaching for classes hosted by Ramsey County Library. All other classes remain online.
Volunteer Participation
Over 60 RCMG volunteers participated in the Speakers Bureau in 2024, registering over 1,100 hours of volunteer service to classroom teaching. Several notable volunteers led teaching efforts in 2024.
Presenters
Nilgun Tuna – 14 classes
Niki Blue – 10 classes
Jan Fransen – 9 classes
Sharon O'Connor – 8 classes
Karen Randall, Roger Wippler, and Tim Iverson – 7 classes each
Aides
Brittany Anderson – 22 classes
Diane Hartinger – 13 classes
Liz Goebl – 9 classes
Emma De Vera and Jessica Fedie – 7 classes each
We were also joined by a handful of volunteers from the Washington County Master Gardener group. Washington County is developing its own Speakers Bureau and they are training by joining us in Ramsey to learn as many best practices as they can. We're happy to have them!
Amazing work, everyone!
Coming in 2025
New Leadership
Starting in late 2024, Jan Fransen and Niki Blue joined Brianna in leading the RCMG Speakers Bureau. After seven years, the extra help is very much appreciated! The three co-leads will be dividing tasks and volunteers can expect to hear from them all during the year.
Brianna will continue to schedule classes and manage the fundraising aspects of the project.
Niki will work on assisting volunteers and ensuring all classes are staffed and supported.
Jan will manage the class materials – including updating existing materials and leading new classes through the development process.
New Classes
The Speakers Bureau started development on two (2) new adult education classes in 2024. We will start offering these classes this spring. You can find the presentation materials – slides, study guide and handouts – on the RCMG website HERE.
Gardening with Native Plants: Learn about the benefits of growing native plants. In this class you will find out how to identify native plant species and get ideas for using these plants in the landscape, plus information on how to design, install and maintain a native plant garden.
The Art of Tomato Growing: Tomatoes are one of the most popular garden vegetables. (Actually, it's a fruit!) Learn the best practices to grow and care for these beloved plants to increase your harvest and avoid common mistakes.
Volunteer Feedback
Jan and Niki will be reaching out to volunteers from 2023 and 2024 to collect feedback about the experience of teaching in the Speakers Bureau. Feedback can be used to help improve the project.
They will also be focused on making sure presenters receive regular feedback from the classes they teach. We're hoping to make this a regular perk of being part of this project.
Thank You!
I've had the chance to reflect on how the Speakers Bureau has grown since I became project coordinator back in 2018. I don't know that I would have imagined the kind of success we see today when I started. This project would not be possible without all of the volunteers involved in teaching and assisting with the classes and I would name everyone except the list would be incredibly long at this point! THANK YOU! I hope you continue to stay with the Speakers Bureau and help get good garden information out into our communities.
Brianna Gohde
Speakers Bureau Project Coordinator
2018-present
About the Speakers Bureau
The RCMG Speakers Bureau, which focuses on formal adult classroom events, is one of the strongest Master Gardener adult education programs in the state. We teach on 20 different topics, with prepared and reviewed materials available for volunteers to use. Our teaching program is being held up as the Gold-Star example for other counties in MN.
RCMG classes from the Speakers Bureau act as a small fund raiser for our program and has raised over $1,000 that can then be used to support other projects.
The Speakers Bureau offer both in-person and online classes. Volunteers teach as a team, with 1-2 people teaching the materials and 1-2 people helping with the (in-person) handouts and (online) Zoom tools like Chat and Polls. This makes volunteering with the Speakers Bureau less intimidating and more approachable.