Retention of Master Gardener Records

Do you wonder how long you must keep all those documents that you have for each of your master gardener volunteers?  It was a question one of the MG Coordinators asked and we didn’t have an immediate answer.  We asked the same question of the Office of Contracts and Business Services and after a bit of research, they came back with this answer based on UC Policy. 

            Keep all of the current records for the year that the Master Gardener is certified.  When they are recertified, then the old records must be destroyed and the new ones filed and retained for the current year.  The exception might be their original master gardener application.  Do not keep any records that have personal information like social security numbers.  Do not keep any records on the individual’s background investigation.  Usually, coordinators do not have access to those records—only the county director does, but this may not be true in all cases. 

            Once a master gardener becomes inactive, then the records must be retained for three years.  After the third year, the records again must be destroyed.