2017 ASHS Annual Conference

The Extension Master Gardener (EMG) program exists in 49 states, the District of Columbia as well as Canada and South Korea. Surveys completed in 2009, 2014 and 2016 did not clearly reveal how many EMGs there are in the United States (U.S.), how many hours of service are given in a year's time, or the impact that this program has in the U.S. For instance, the 2014 report had only 38 of the 49 state programs reporting, indicating more than 80,000 EMGs donating more than 5,292,130 hours of service nationwide. Each state EMG program collects their own data and reports impact using their own unique reporting system. As a result, nationally EMG programs are not submitting complete data and the overall impact of the program to our national stakeholders. The Extension Master Gardener National Committee created a task force in 2016 to address this challenge; members are tasked with developing a standard tool to be used by all state EMG programs to collect data nationwide. The goal is to create a standard tool that will eventually be adopted by each state EMG program and thus leading to a better picture of the EMG program and the impact. Input from internal stakeholders (EMG Coordinators) regarding this effort is being collected at various national meetings including the EMG National Coordinator's Conference (2016, Montana), the National Extension Volunteer Conference (2017, North Carolina) and the EMG International Conference (2017, Oregon). Reporting impact is critical to the strength of the program nationally. The EMG national committee, consisting of representatives from all regions of the country will be responsible for implementing this data collection and impact reporting.