The Latest Dirt - March 2024

Continuing Education: Find Opportunities; Complete Your Hours!

Article & Photos By Terri Takusagawa, Continuing Education Project Lead

Spring is in the air, and it’s a great time to work on Continuing Education requirements for the fiscal year. Remember, active UC Master Gardener volunteers (other than First Year volunteers) are required to complete and log 12 CE hours by June 30. But no need to leave it to the last minute!

The CE team provides plenty of interesting and relevant CE options to help with your requirement. More importantly, the opportunities provide knowledge and skills to extend science-based information to residents of Contra Costa County. We use a three-pronged approach to delivering CE opportunities: internally produced CE events, announcements of approved CE events from other organizations, and dozens of self-paced options.

We look forward to our own offerings this year. We have three CE Workshops @ Our Garden planned for June, August, and October. Each workshop features three stations with seasonal topics presented and facilitated by UC Master Gardener experts, taking advantage of the beautiful garden setting. The workshops include interactive components, including hands-on activities, demos, and discussions, allowing UC Master Gardeners to practice skills to educate the public. Previous workshops have been very popular, with feedback indicating participants enjoyed sharing ideas and learning together with fellow UC Master Gardeners.

• Loved each station!
• Very relevant and interesting
• Keep offering these workshops. We learn from attendees as well as presenters.
• Actual sample questions from the public are covered in relevant topics.
• I loved the time spent with fellow CoCoMGs.

We are planning two Lunchbox webinars—Top Invertebrate Pests in the spring and Lawn Alternatives in the fall. Most other workshops will be held in person. We will offer the first of our new Project Skills Workshops in spring in collaboration with the AAMG project. In response to many requests, we are planning a Plant Problem Diagnostic Workshop! We have ideas for others as well.

Keep an eye out for announcements with details of our CE events!

We also look for relevant educational offerings from other organizations, preferably UC or other Extension organizations or research-based educational or horticultural organizations. Approved opportunities are announced to all UC Master Gardeners periodically. For example, monthly UC IPM Urban and Community Webinars are always good choices. With recent concerns about serious invasive pests encroaching on our area, we highlight training on invasive spotted lanternfly, tree-of-heaven, and others as they become available. Also, remember that the Speakers Bureau’s public classes (library webinars, demo garden talks, etc.) are always eligible for CE credit, as are their recordings.

If you are unable to attend scheduled events, find our list of approved self-paced options (books, recordings, blogs, etc.) in VMS News/Docs. The CoCoMG Hub on our website is another source for approved CE recordings. Find recordings of past Zoom CE events in the Continuing Education section and recordings of the 2022 and 2023 New Volunteer Training (NVT) lectures in the New Volunteer Training section. Hint: NVT recordings tend to be 2.5 to 3+ hours each, so watching a few can provide great refreshers of training topics and significant CE hours!

We look forward to seeing you at one of our CE events this year! We include the talented and knowledgeable CE planning team members – Mike Corby, John Fike, Stephanie Hargrave, and Joie Spinelli – to whom I am ever grateful! Thank you!