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From: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, Feb 3, 2022 at 9:25 AM
Subject: RE: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
To: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>, Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>, Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Anne,
Thanks for your feedback. I’ve reposted the job with the change reflected for the education being desired but not required. Below is the link to the Indeed posting and I’ve also attached the job announcement if you needed it to send to your school/mailing contacts.
Thanks,
Amanda
From: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 1:25 PM
To: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>; Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Thanks for pursuing! There was not strong interest in the existing candidates, and concern about having potentially excluded good candidates who did not apply because they did not have the forestry degree and took the qualification more literally than the others who applied anyway.
Can we do one more round of advertising making the forestry degree desired but not required? If that does not pan out, we will probably put this into the state hiring process, and I may have a different position to recruit (but have to clarify funding before I do so).
The additional advertising costs are noted, and we will adjust the budget to assure that WMRC&D costs are reimbursed.
On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 12:45 PM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi all,
Just checking back to see if there’s anyone that you would be interested in interviewing. I know we are a few weeks past the job announcement being taken down, so we may be running the risk of some candidates already accepting other positions.
If there’s no one that you want to move forward with interviewing, what would be the next steps or timeline? Did you want to wait until closer to graduation when we may get more candidates with a forestry background?
Thanks,
Amanda
From: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, January 27, 2022 6:46 PM
To: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>; Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Dan and Richard,
If we work with some flexibility on the forestry degree, who would you like to interview?
On Fri, Jan 21, 2022 at 1:23 PM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Thanks all for your feedback on the resumes we did receive. Is there anyone at this point that you’d like to interview?
Thanks,
Amanda
From: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 11:02 AM
To: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>; Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
We have extended the advertisement, and I would recommend interviewing any candidate that looks viable. This experience could inform what we propose for a state position (not set in stone). I wanted the forestry degree, but if we have the skill set but not the exact SAF accreditation, it would at least be worth an interview and see what you think.
On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 10:24 AM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Nothing to add from me. We are at $483.74 for advertising costs. Ultimately it’s up to you guys to determine what would be the best option, but my opinion is that there aren’t going to be any candidates that fully meet the requirements at this time. This is not a generalized job posting, it’s very specific on what is required; so the qualified applicants are going to be very limited if any at all.
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 9:47 AM
To: 'Richard Garrett -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>; 'Amanda Kirby' <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: 'Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>; 'Daniel Rider -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Richard and all,
The funding MOU for this position does state that the minimum qualifications are a BS in Forestry. However, Western Maryland RC&D does not have a policy against hiring an applicant that does not meet an initial job posting criteria. If MD DNR wants to waive that requirement in this instance, we could set up an interview.
We could also try reposting the job in late Spring as Richard had suggested earlier or now without the required BS in Forestry if you all think it would be worthwhile. We should note here that we’ve likely already exceeded the budged advertising costs of $400, so any additional posting would eat farther into the rest of the budget for the position.
Amanda- Please add anything in here that I’m missing on logistics for this.
Thank you,
Josh
Josh Smith
Executive Director
Western Maryland RC&D Council
1260 Maryland Ave., Suite 103
Hagerstown, MD 21740
301-671-1800 -Office
304-884-9212- Mobile
From: Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2022 8:53 AM
To: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Amanda,
None meet the requirement of having a BS in Forestry.
Hannah Price is the only one that comes close with a degree in Natural Resource Management but even that doesn't meet the specifications. Not sure how we could hire under the specs since there could have been other applicants that didn't apply since they didn't have the required degree.
Richard
Richard Garrett
Nursery Manager
Department of Natural Resources
John S Ayton Tree Nursery
3424 Gallagher Road
Preston, MD 21655
410-673-2467
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On Tue, Jan 18, 2022 at 7:54 AM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Good Morning All,
We received an additional 8 applicants over the past week. I have attached 6 of their resumes for review. Please let me know if there are any that you’d like to interview.
Thanks,
Amanda
From: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 11:44 AM
To: 'Richard Garrett -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>; 'Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: 'Daniel Rider -DNR-' <[log in to unmask]>; 'Josh Smith' <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: RE: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Thanks Richard and Anne for your feedback. I will leave it posted for now and if you can share the link with your contacts at the forestry schools and any other networks you have that would be great. I will check back with you next Monday on any new, qualified applicants.
Unfortunately this is the current norm for the hiring world as the labor shortages seem to be getting worse. We’ve seen a drastic decline in applicants across all our positions and an even bigger decline in quality candidates.
Amanda
From: Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, January 10, 2022 11:38 AM
To: Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
All,
We can leave it up for another week and distribute the listing to our contacts to help out with the recruitment. If no better candidates apply we can always wait until we start the state process.
Richard
Richard Garrett
Nursery Manager
Department of Natural Resources
John S Ayton Tree Nursery
3424 Gallagher Road
Preston, MD 21655
410-673-2467
Click here to complete a three question customer experience survey.
On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 11:32 AM Anne Hairston-Strang -DNR- <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Do you want to leave it up another week and see if more come in as people re-engage after holidays? Did we distribute it to all the forestry schools? I'd be glad to send it to my school distribution list if it gets extended.
For the State process, people will not start until after July 1, with the recruitment process starting in February. I know we were hoping to get a head start and have someone there this spring if we could.
If we don't find a good candidate, we don't have to hire, and then can start with the state process.
Anne
On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 11:01 AM Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
It doesn't look like any of them meet the qualifications; none of them have a forestry degree.
I'm not sure how we should proceed. Possibly we could get a few more responses since we are past the holidays but I don't think that is likely.
I would think we would have a better chance in late spring to early summer when there is a new crop of forestry college graduates looking for jobs hitting the streets.
Anne & Dan,
Should we wait and roll this into the 5 million tree hiring effort?
Richard
Richard Garrett
Nursery Manager
Department of Natural Resources
John S Ayton Tree Nursery
3424 Gallagher Road
Preston, MD 21655
410-673-2467
Click here to complete a three question customer experience survey.
On Mon, Jan 10, 2022 at 10:40 AM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Good Morning All,
The ANM position has been posted on Indeed for about a week now and is due to be pulled at the end of today, however, I wanted to check with you guys regarding the results. We have only received 4 applicants for this opening (attached in zip file). The job announcement has been clicked on 199 times, but that obviously didn’t lead to actually applying for the job. At this point the cost of the posting is at $232.15. I wanted to check with you guys if wanted to pull the posting, or leave it go for another week to try to get some more quality applicants. I wasn’t real impressed with what we have received so far, so I’ll leave the decision up to you.
I have also included below the link to job posting if you want to share it within your networks to try to drum up some more interest.
Thanks,
Amanda
From: Richard Garrett -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Thursday, December 23, 2021 9:29 AM
To: Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]>
Cc: Anne Hairston-Strang <[log in to unmask]>; Daniel Rider -DNR- <[log in to unmask]>; Josh Smith <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Asst. Nursery Manager Job Announcement
Amanda,
Here is the modified job announcement. Let me know if you have any questions.
Richard
Richard Garrett
Nursery Manager
Department of Natural Resources
John S Ayton Tree Nursery
3424 Gallagher Road
Preston, MD 21655
410-673-2467
Click here to complete a three question customer experience survey.
On Thu, Dec 16, 2021 at 9:49 AM Amanda Kirby <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Hi Anne and Richard,
As we prepare to start the hiring process for the assistant nursery manager position, I would like to get the job announcement finalized before the holiday so I can post it immediately on January 3rd. I’ve attached the announcement that was used to hire Phil, the nursery technician that we can use as a template for this position.
Richard – will you be taking lead on editing this announcement?
Thanks!
Amanda
Amanda Kirby
Projects & HR Coordinator
Western Maryland RC&D
1260 Maryland Ave. Suite 103
Hagerstown, MD 21740
Phone: 301-671-1800
