Earlier this week, Mid Hudson News removed an article from its website and web archive; the article celebrated the Dutchess County Master Gardener Program (republished on 3/14/24) and announced its recruitment of new program volunteers. We write in the hope that the topic of the Dutchess County Master Gardener Volunteer Program will be revisited and a more nuanced portrait of the program, which has recently seen a mass exodus of long-time volunteers, will be published.
The original article was not wrong in its characterization of the Dutchess County Master Gardener Volunteer (MGV) Program as a successful and impactful community service program. As volunteers, our mission is to help home gardeners create, enjoy, and manage a more environmentally sustainable landscape by sharing Cornell-researched best practices. But in the past few months, the program has come apart. At least half of its 74 volunteers have resigned in protest of the new program leadership’s inflexible, disrespectful management of the program, their misrepresentation of the current crisis to the CCE, and their deceitful if not libelous representations of volunteer behavior.
None of us who resigned took the decision lightly, and none wanted to resign from a program that we love and have loved serving – as volunteers. Neither volunteers nor employees should be subjected to a hostile work environment characterized by punitive dismissals, ridiculous and unsubstantiated charges of misbehavior, and a refusal to discuss sudden and substantial changes to a long-standing agreement between volunteers and the program. Efforts by volunteers to draw Cornell Cooperative Extension’s attention and aid have been met with resounding silence: among others, Ashley Helmholdt and Andrew Turner, CCE Director, were cc’d on resignation letters.
Here are some of the reasons why this mass resignation has happened:
1. The new management team has created a hostile work environment, characterized by punitive responses…
Read the full article here
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