Hello, VMNs. Lots of Continuing Education opportunities for you this week, many from other organizations. Always something happening in the Bi-weekly email.
This email includes:
S.O.S. From the VMN State Program Office
Lately, we are receiving an overwhelming number of questions from volunteers on a wide variety of topics. We care about all of you and want to help you find the answers you seek, but answering all your messages does take a significant portion of our limited time. Here we offer some tips that will help you find answers in a timely manner and help us be able to respond to you more effectively.
1) Handy resources for you to consult when you have questions:
2) When contacting the state office, please always include your chapter name. We often need to point you toward local information, and including your chapter name saves us the time of looking you up in Better Impact.
3) If you do find that you do need to contact the State Office, please note that it might take us 24-48 hours to respond.
Volunteer Opportunity
Osprey Watch Productivity Rate Reporting
OspreyWatch, coordinated by the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary, is already an approved activity for many of our chapters near the Chesapeake Bay. A researcher contacted us to request that OspreyWatchers be sure to report on how many nestlings fledge in the nests that you are observing (rather than just reporting that the nest is active.) Here’s a video on why these data are important. And, if you are a chapter near the Bay that does not have OspreyWatch as an approved activity, but would like to add it, please have the chapter’s project/volunteer service chair contact Michelle Prysby to get a completed project proposal form.
Continuing Education Opportunities
VMN CE Webinar - Exploring the Mineral Resources of Virginia
Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 12:00-1:00 pm
Full description and registration link on our CE page. This is also the page where recordings are always posted.
When Green is Not Good: Nuisance and Harmful Algae
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 7 – 8pm
Location: In-person at the Wayne Theatre, 521 W Main Street, Waynesboro, and streamed online on Facebook Live
Presented by: Friends of the Middle River and Friends of the Shenandoah River
Presenters: Tara Wyrick, Water Monitoring and Assessments Manager, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and Morgan Steffen, Department of Biology, James Madison University
The two speakers will discuss differences and identification clues between “nuisance” algae and “harmful” algae that occur in rivers of the Shenandoah River watershed and how harmful algal blooms (HABs) are hazardous to humans, pets, and livestock. They will also discuss how to report suspected algal blooms to authorities for further investigation.
This event will also be live-streamed on the Wayne Theatre Facebook page and recorded.
More information on the Wayne Theatre website.
This email includes:
- S.O.S. From the VMN State Program Office
- Volunteer Opportunity
- Continuing Education Opportunities
S.O.S. From the VMN State Program Office
Lately, we are receiving an overwhelming number of questions from volunteers on a wide variety of topics. We care about all of you and want to help you find the answers you seek, but answering all your messages does take a significant portion of our limited time. Here we offer some tips that will help you find answers in a timely manner and help us be able to respond to you more effectively.
1) Handy resources for you to consult when you have questions:
- Your chapter leaders, including your chapter advisor(s)
- Volunteer Policy Handbook - A new version is in the works, but this one still has a lot of answers!
- Past Bi-weekly emails - We archive them for a month or two on our website.
- VMN Website - There is a search function in the upper right corner to help you find what you are seeking.
- Better Impact training resources - Several videos and documents available.
2) When contacting the state office, please always include your chapter name. We often need to point you toward local information, and including your chapter name saves us the time of looking you up in Better Impact.
3) If you do find that you do need to contact the State Office, please note that it might take us 24-48 hours to respond.
Volunteer Opportunity
Osprey Watch Productivity Rate Reporting
OspreyWatch, coordinated by the Center for Conservation Biology at William & Mary, is already an approved activity for many of our chapters near the Chesapeake Bay. A researcher contacted us to request that OspreyWatchers be sure to report on how many nestlings fledge in the nests that you are observing (rather than just reporting that the nest is active.) Here’s a video on why these data are important. And, if you are a chapter near the Bay that does not have OspreyWatch as an approved activity, but would like to add it, please have the chapter’s project/volunteer service chair contact Michelle Prysby to get a completed project proposal form.
Continuing Education Opportunities
VMN CE Webinar - Exploring the Mineral Resources of Virginia
Date: Wednesday, March 15, 2023, 12:00-1:00 pm
Full description and registration link on our CE page. This is also the page where recordings are always posted.
When Green is Not Good: Nuisance and Harmful Algae
Date: Tuesday, March 14, 7 – 8pm
Location: In-person at the Wayne Theatre, 521 W Main Street, Waynesboro, and streamed online on Facebook Live
Presented by: Friends of the Middle River and Friends of the Shenandoah River
Presenters: Tara Wyrick, Water Monitoring and Assessments Manager, Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, and Morgan Steffen, Department of Biology, James Madison University
The two speakers will discuss differences and identification clues between “nuisance” algae and “harmful” algae that occur in rivers of the Shenandoah River watershed and how harmful algal blooms (HABs) are hazardous to humans, pets, and livestock. They will also discuss how to report suspected algal blooms to authorities for further investigation.
This event will also be live-streamed on the Wayne Theatre Facebook page and recorded.
More information on the Wayne Theatre website.
RSS Feed