Now Accepting Nominations for Virginia Master Naturalist program awards!

The Virginia Master Naturalist program’s state office is now accepting nominations for three statewide awards: Volunteer of the Year, Project of the Year, and Advisor of the Year. These awards will be judged by the VMN statewide office team and at least one VMN Steering Committee member. We will announce and distribute the awards at our annual conference, Friday evening, August 26.

To submit a nomination, please send the information requested for that particular award to Michelle Prysby, mprysby@vt.edu. Nominations are due by July 25 at 5 pm. 

Volunteer of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a volunteer who has made outstanding contributions to natural resource education, citizen science, and/or stewardship. There is no minimum requirement for amount of hours or length of service for a volunteer to receive this award.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominee
• Description of why the nominee should receive the award, limited to 400 words. You may choose to include a description of the individual’s service, specific examples of positive impacts made, aspects that make the individual stand out from other volunteers, and quotes from other volunteers or local partners.
• You may include examples from the individual’s entire length of service, but please place your primary focus on the last 1-2 years.

 
Project of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a chapter or individual volunteer’s project that has made significant and noteworthy positive impacts for natural resource education, citizen science, and/or stewardship within the last 1-2 years. Nominated projects should be projects created and led by a VMN volunteer or chapter, but they may be in partnership with other entities.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation for the primary VMN volunteer contact for the project
• Description of why the project should receive the award, limited to 400 words. Please include a description of the project goals, activities completed, and impacts and outcomes for natural resources in your community. Include the roles and contributions of VMN volunteers to the project. Identify any significant partners for the project.

 
Chapter Advisor of the Year
This award is intended to recognize a chapter advisor who has made significant and noteworthy contributions to a VMN chapter within the last 1-2 years.
In your nominations, please include the following:

• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the nominator
• Name, email address, and VMN chapter affiliation of the chapter advisor
• Description of why the chapter advisor should receive the award, limited to 400 words. Please include specific examples of how the chapter advisor has helped the chapter run effectively, make positive impacts in the community, or otherwise achieve its goals.

Please help us recognize the outstanding work and people of your chapters!