Hello, VMNs. Spring can’t seem to make up its mind about bringing the warmth of leaving us cold. We hope you’re getting outside either way but if you need to take a break from the inconsistent temperatures, take a few minutes to read through the Bi-weekly email.
This email includes:
Being a VMN Volunteer: Meet Your Chapter Advisor
Did you know that every VMN chapter has an advisor from one of the seven state agencies that sponsor the program (and some chapters have two)? These individuals are on the chapter’s board/leadership team and serve as part of their scope of duties within their agency. They are there to support, to help advise chapter members, to assist with implementing program procedures, and to be information conduits. Please consider them as a valuable resource for helping to solve problems and find answers to your questions! If you haven’t had a chance to meet your chapter’s advisor, or if you haven’t talked to them recently, we encourage you to reach out. We keep the list of chapter advisors on our website as up-to-date as possible.
Better Impact Tidbits
Better Impact is our volunteer management software that all VMN chapters use for managing volunteers and activities. One of the features of the system is badges - icons that indicate that you have a particular qualification or achievement. For VMN, we have set up at the statewide level the following badges:
Continuing Education Opportunities
Virginia Forest Landowner Education Program Events
The Virginia Forest Landowner Education Program is another terrific Extension program within the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment (also home to VMN.) VFLEP offers a variety of online, classroom, and field programs to help people learn to manage their forests better. In very many cases, their programs are applicable to the work that VMNs might do in their volunteer service providing stewardship on public lands and education of community members. Check out the VFLEP event calendar. A few upcoming highlights:
REMINDER: VMN Continuing Education Webinar Series: The Cleopatra Project: Poisonous and Venomous Animals in Virginia
As a reminder, you can always find information about the next VMN CE Webinar and the recordings of past webinars on our website.
Date: Monday, May 8, 12:00-1:00 pm
Registration: Pre-registration required
Description: The Cleopatra Project is a multi-chapter Virgina Master Naturalist educational project conducted in partnership with the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the Blue Ridge Poison Center. Ten Virginia Master Naturalists from 5 different VMN chapters produced The Cleopatra Project - Poisonous and Venomous Animals in Virginia with support from 6 peer reviewers and 36 photographers. The publication is an online reference guide to 32 poisonous and venomous animals that live in Virginia.
Written in non-technical language and filled with full color photographs, the publication is intended to be a reference for parents, educators, medical service providers, and the general public. Each of the 32 animal entries--ranging from Ants to Wasps and Bees--includes a description of the animal, its habitat and likely geographic range in Virginia, the source of poison or venom, potential physical symptoms and possible animal "look-alikes." It emphasizes the vital role that poisons and venoms play as these animals gain food, protect themselves from predators, and defend their territory and young. In this webinar we will discuss poison center data reflecting calls and ER visits, the role of poisons and venoms, and a sampling of the animals. Our goal is for readers to learn to live safely and respectfully with these fellow inhabitants of Virginia.
Presenters:
Kathleen Aucoin: Kathleen has been a Virginia Master Naturalist since 2018. She lives in far western Culpeper County on a wooded lot with her husband, chickens, ducks, and a vast array of native Virginia wildlife.
Bonnie Beers: A Virginia Master Naturalist since 2018, Bonnie works with her husband to restore 57 acres in Rappahannock County to native habitat.
Christopher P. Holstege, M.D. is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. He also directs the Blue Ridge Poison Center and is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine.
This email includes:
- Being a VMN Volunteer
- Better Impact Tidbits
- Continuing Education Opportunities
Being a VMN Volunteer: Meet Your Chapter Advisor
Did you know that every VMN chapter has an advisor from one of the seven state agencies that sponsor the program (and some chapters have two)? These individuals are on the chapter’s board/leadership team and serve as part of their scope of duties within their agency. They are there to support, to help advise chapter members, to assist with implementing program procedures, and to be information conduits. Please consider them as a valuable resource for helping to solve problems and find answers to your questions! If you haven’t had a chance to meet your chapter’s advisor, or if you haven’t talked to them recently, we encourage you to reach out. We keep the list of chapter advisors on our website as up-to-date as possible.
Better Impact Tidbits
Better Impact is our volunteer management software that all VMN chapters use for managing volunteers and activities. One of the features of the system is badges - icons that indicate that you have a particular qualification or achievement. For VMN, we have set up at the statewide level the following badges:
- Certified VMN - This badge will be applied early in the year, usually February, by the VMN State Office for those who have completed the continuing education and service requirements for certification during the previous calendar year.
- VMN training status - There is a badge for Current Trainees and a badge for VMN Basic Training Course Graduates. Chapter leaders control when those badges appear by updating the VMN Training qualification for their trainees and graduates.
- VMN Service Hour Milestones - 250, 500, 1000, 2500, and 5,000 (Golden Circle) badges. These are updated by the VMN State Office twice annually.
- VMN Request for Certification Check - This badge appears if a volunteer has requested a check of their records in anticipation of achieving Certified VMN status for the very first time. The VMN State Office searches for these requests monthly. See our information sheet on this topic for more details.
- VMN 2023 Re-enrollment Complete - This badge is updated annually between December 1 and January 31 by the VMN State Office based on volunteers’ completion of the Re-enrollment process.
- VMN Risk Management Training - This badge is automatically updated for anyone who 1) completes the Risk Management e-learning module within Better Impact, and 2) passes the assessment by answering at least 4 of the 5 questions correctly. It may also be updated manually by a chapter leader if they have documentation that a volunteer completed the training another way. The qualification and the badge automatically expire after three years, prompting a renewal of the training. This e-learning module is in use now for 2023 trainees. We have not yet rolled out the process for having other volunteers complete it, but it is available to everyone within Better Impact (look under “training” in My Profile.).
Continuing Education Opportunities
Virginia Forest Landowner Education Program Events
The Virginia Forest Landowner Education Program is another terrific Extension program within the Virginia Tech College of Natural Resources and Environment (also home to VMN.) VFLEP offers a variety of online, classroom, and field programs to help people learn to manage their forests better. In very many cases, their programs are applicable to the work that VMNs might do in their volunteer service providing stewardship on public lands and education of community members. Check out the VFLEP event calendar. A few upcoming highlights:
- Online Woodland Options for Landowners (10-week self-paced course starts June 5)
- Woods in Your Backyard Workshop (June 24)
- Trees to Products Program for Teachers (July 11-13)
REMINDER: VMN Continuing Education Webinar Series: The Cleopatra Project: Poisonous and Venomous Animals in Virginia
As a reminder, you can always find information about the next VMN CE Webinar and the recordings of past webinars on our website.
Date: Monday, May 8, 12:00-1:00 pm
Registration: Pre-registration required
Description: The Cleopatra Project is a multi-chapter Virgina Master Naturalist educational project conducted in partnership with the University of Virginia School of Medicine and the Blue Ridge Poison Center. Ten Virginia Master Naturalists from 5 different VMN chapters produced The Cleopatra Project - Poisonous and Venomous Animals in Virginia with support from 6 peer reviewers and 36 photographers. The publication is an online reference guide to 32 poisonous and venomous animals that live in Virginia.
Written in non-technical language and filled with full color photographs, the publication is intended to be a reference for parents, educators, medical service providers, and the general public. Each of the 32 animal entries--ranging from Ants to Wasps and Bees--includes a description of the animal, its habitat and likely geographic range in Virginia, the source of poison or venom, potential physical symptoms and possible animal "look-alikes." It emphasizes the vital role that poisons and venoms play as these animals gain food, protect themselves from predators, and defend their territory and young. In this webinar we will discuss poison center data reflecting calls and ER visits, the role of poisons and venoms, and a sampling of the animals. Our goal is for readers to learn to live safely and respectfully with these fellow inhabitants of Virginia.
Presenters:
Kathleen Aucoin: Kathleen has been a Virginia Master Naturalist since 2018. She lives in far western Culpeper County on a wooded lot with her husband, chickens, ducks, and a vast array of native Virginia wildlife.
Bonnie Beers: A Virginia Master Naturalist since 2018, Bonnie works with her husband to restore 57 acres in Rappahannock County to native habitat.
Christopher P. Holstege, M.D. is a Professor of Emergency Medicine and Pediatrics and Chief of the Division of Medical Toxicology at the University of Virginia’s School of Medicine. He also directs the Blue Ridge Poison Center and is a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine.
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