Gosh, I thought every county had a Master Gardener hotline. If they don't then what's the point of training Master Gardeners? (from the Extension viewpoint)

Yes, I thought that all counties would have a hort desk staffed by master gardeners to answers gardening questions. That's one of the reasons the mg program was started - to help the agent by answering some of the more routine gardening questions and free up his time.

We have one here in Oregon and i was terrified the first couple of times. I even hyperventilated myself. Now after 30 some hours or more I am fine and have fun. we have 2-3 people working at one time and we learn alot just listening to the "veterans".

We tried the hotline approach. We publicized the hours that MGs would be in the extension office. We found that since we live in such a small county, there were few calls at those specific times and we were virtually wasting our time. Our new system: the extension office takes the calls and emails them to one designated MG. She then passes the question, client's name and phone number to other MGs and keeps a log of who gets what question. A few are sent on to those who have special interests. The majority go to each MG in order of the list. Our MGs are capable, most of the time, of doing the research from their homes and are well prepared when they return the client's call. This has worked very well for us.

We where recently debating about the future of the hotline in our county.

With the advent of the Internet, will there come a day when the extension office handles only those cases that require indepth diagnosis and testing, leaving the routine for even complex database(s) accessable via the internet to anwser the vast number of gardening questions?

One does have to wonder! Emagine all the collective knowlage of the MG programs accessable any time, day or night, simply by logging in and clicking the mouse.

Shannon

Maybe I'm just old fashioned but I suspect people really like to talk to actual people about problems and questions. We get a large number of calls and we are definitely in an area where most people have access to the internet so I think they both trust us for accurate info and want the contact with somebody that knows and loves gardening.

Personally, I'll be sad if the day ever comes when people rely exclusively on the internet instead of contact with real voices. I love it here in cyberspace but it's just not the same.

We have both a hotline in 3 different parts of the county and an email address. Some folks prefer to correspond online rather than talk. They send photos of bugs, plants, abiotic disorders, diseases, everything. If we need to see their plants, we suggest they visit the nearest office, but it's amazing how many questions can be answered by email. Just like here.