Hi Sean,
First, the banners can't be clickable. Well, technically they could, but that's outside of my UI design for the site.
Now as for the "the" before NGA, it depends on the context of where it's used. If you're saying "NGA" then typically you'd leave off the "the". But if you're saying it all together, you'd say "the" National Gardening Association. (But not everyone follows that.)
I left it off the header primarily because of space limitations.
