Spending Energy in Pursuit of Justice

In an earlier post I wrote about the unfortunate issue of one of our beloved and award-winning Master Gardeners being "terminated" which caused me to write to the University of Illinois person who heads the Master Gardeners throughout the State. 

Another MG who is the mother of one of Laurie's high school friends, has joined me leading this effort. We've formed a group called VOICE, MGs who are deeply concerned about whether this gal was served due-process.  Interesting situation! The Albert Hirschman piece about "loyalty", "exit" and "voice" helped immensely with the formation of the group. I changed the names just in case....

June 16, 2012

Dear Molly,

The vitality in our U of I McLean County Master Gardener group continues to thrive by bringing volunteers reward by means of the thousands of hours of time we donate to the community through our many programs and projects.  We understand the Federal Supreme Court ruling stating volunteers do not have legal rights, that it is a privilege to be a volunteer.  We understand our local group has no governing power and that MG state policy must be followed.  Before going further, please note that everything herein is meant to be constructive.  As volunteers, we realize that policy is set by U of I staff and the U of I legal department.   As I said in my April 11^th letter to Mr. Hill copied to you, we find working with different personalities to be educationally productive and personally gratifying. 

Barbara asked to meet with me – I think Shelly may have shared with her a strong critique I sent in the comment area to one of the hort educators about a piece she wrote that did not follow U of I policy. 
Barbara and I spent about an hour together on Tuesday June 5^th and she explained a more about the unfortunate issue that surfaced here with the dismissal of a respected volunteer; however we did not dwell on this.  Instead, I wanted to discuss ideas to better our State dismissal policy – not county policy.  That is when I mentioned the Purdue volunteer termination policy which specifically mentions due process.   I learned from Bobbie due process was in fact used when the volunteer was terminated - but the phrase “due process” is not written anywhere in the termination policy.   How easy it would be to write the phrase into the policy!

There is a sizable group of McLean County MGs who are seriously questioning the justification of the harshness of the State dismissal policy.  A gathering was planned which was held right after my meeting with Bobbie.    Bobbie met with Anne as well.  We both had positive feelings about our respective meetings.

How did this group evolve?  After I trained Alice as the next PR chair, we looked at each other and both of us knew what the other was thinking.  We had serious concerns about what happened to one of our volunteers.  We both decided Alice would say something at the annual meeting which I was unable to attend due to travel.

After the annual meeting, we received calls from MGs who also had questions.   We decided to invite these people to gather with every intention of sharing the essence of the meeting with Barbara.  Coincidentally, that meeting was set for June 6^th, the day after Barbara and I met. We reported to the group how good both of us felt after our respective meetings with Barbara although the group had a difficult time believing us!  They do not know who to believe. The dismissed volunteer reports one thing and staff claims differently.  The dismissed volunteer was invited and attended the meeting.   Alice and I mentioned there were a multitude of complaints about her behavior.  We closed the subject and moved on to discuss the meaning of professional behavior and think future trainees would benefit from a more detailed explanation of this term.   

When an unfortunate occurrence takes place takes place involving the manner in which someone is treated by the governing body, i.e. in this case U of I staff, some are able to move on without asking questions.  Their loyalty to the organization guides their conscience and they rise above the issue.  At the opposite end, there are those who leave the group because the decision violates their value system and they exit.  Another group remains loyal to the organization, so much so, they decide to pursue change in order to make the group stronger.  This group prefers to raise questions to try to make their voices heard.  As I recall, I mentioned the loyalty, exit, and voice piece to Barbara.  

Presently this group of MGs called Voice understands there are others who would like to be included.    And that is why Alice and I wanted to meet with Barbara in order to share a modification of the Indiana MG termination policy.   

Then, Alice and I received your email saying it was futile to try to affect policy change, to stop rehashing the issue and to move on.  You mentioned Indiana is reworking their MG policy and each State sets its own policies.  Several months ago I began researching state MG policies from Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio and Indiana and found it worthwhile to make comparisons. 

We have moved on.  Even though we have no legal rights, we believe we have rights.  It is imperative a dismissed volunteer be able to reapply for readmission in the program if the unprofessional behaviors have been eliminated.   We encourage U of I legal staff to create a volunteer policy, one which takes into consideration a democratic process and one which rewards our efforts to include a dismissal policy that includes the written term:  due process. 

Finally, attorneys exist who want to uphold the present law and maintain the status quo and then there are those who embrace the law in order to remedy injustices.  We strongly believe some of the legal implications of the Master Gardener volunteer termination policy be rewritten to reflect a more democratic process. 

Thank you. 

Sincerely,

Judy Hines

University of Illinois McLean County Master Gardener

Attachment:  Modification of Purdue Master Gardener termination policy