Basic Training Chairs

Typical Duties of chapter Basic Training Chairs and the Training Committee

• Coordinates training of Master Naturalists for the Chapter’s training program.

• Plans, implements and evaluates the chapter training curriculum and develops training calendar.

• With the Treasurer, develops the class budget and recommends the class tuition to the board.

• Acquires and prepares class manuals.

• Selects all presenters and makes arrangements for their class/presentation including materials, handouts and audio-visual equipment needed for the class/presentation.

• Arranges for speaker gifts, travel and lodging needs, and confirmation and thank you letters.

• Arranges for publicity – newspaper, flyers, internet.

• Arranges for location, room seating and equipment for all classes.

• Manages any on-going class through to graduation.

NOTE: These are taken from the VMN Chapter Operating Handbook template. Each chapter may have added, to and/or removed, duties from this list. For the specific duties of the Basic Training Chairs and the Training Committee in your chapter, see your chapter's Operating Handbook. Your chapter leaders will know where this file is kept.

Basic Training Guidelines - Important notes on how to use these guidelines

Many chapters have recently requested the Guidelines for Basic Training, which used to be on the main VMN website. We took it down when the new website went live because this document needs to be updated (the last version is from 2010). 

In order to find all of the information you need to put on a basic training, you will have to look in a few places - not just the guidelines (which can be found below).  First, please read through this information:

• Overarching Goals: During COVID, we developed the document, "VMN basic training considerations for COVID and beyond" (found below) to provide guidelines for online training, since some chapters were switching to that. At the beginning of the document, you will see a list of “overarching goals”, and these are important to keep in mind. We will be incorporating them into the updated basic training course guidelines document. There are some other guidelines in there about how much training can be online, etc. that we think are still reasonable if your chapter is considering any sort of hybrid course.

• Core Curriculum and Objectives: The 2010 Basic Training Guidelines list a number of items under “A Virginia Master Naturalist should know…” and “A Virginia Master Naturalist should be able to…”. We don’t anticipate any significant change to those, and we think you can still use them as a guideline.

• Topics: In terms of the overall list of what the topics (not objectives) are, we think the list in the 2010 basic training guidelines are still reasonably accurate. The couple of changes are that “Land Use” is not really a separate topic anymore; we think aspects of land use are typically covered well enough under all the system “ecology and management” topics. In addition, “nature of naming” does not need to be a totally separate topic, as aspects of that get covered under botany and citizen science. And Introduction to the VMN Program is now “Being a VMN Volunteer”. Other than those changes, the topic list is correct in terms of the topics we expect all VMN chapters to cover in some form or fashion.

• Learning Objectives: We have developed more in-depth curriculum objectives and materials for eight of the required curriculum topics: 1) Being a VMN Volunteer (the new name for Intro to the VMN Program), 2) Aquatic Systems, 3) Citizen Science and Research Skills, 4) Virginia Biogeography and Natural Communities, 5) Coastal & Estuarine Ecology and Management (may not be relevant for your chapter), 6) Forest Ecology and Management, 7) Plants/Botany, and 8) Urban and Developed Systems Ecology and Management. For each of those, we created a much more detailed objective list. You can find the pages for each of those topics, including the objectives, at https://www.virginiamasternaturalist.org/training/basic-training/. Use those objectives for those eight topics, rather than what is listed in the 2010 basic training guidelines document. For the other curriculum topics, we haven’t done that curriculum work, so all we have are the objectives in the 2010 basic training guidelines document, and that’s what you can go by. FYI, for some of those other topics, we do have some readings developed specifically for VMN volunteers (mammals, fish, American Naturalists (that one is under revision though), and Interpretation. You can find the links to those on that same basic training page.

We also want to point out that not all topics nor all learning objectives need to be covered by an in-class presentation. Some might be covered by pre-class preparation (completing a reading or watching a recorded presentation/video) and some might be covered during a field session. And, some could be covered by an in-class, hands-on activity that is led by other VMN volunteers and not the guest instructor. (The latter can be a good option if you have a presenter who you generally like, but who mostly lectures and does not do a good job providing active learning. In that case, you can give that presenter a little less time and then add an activity led by someone else.)

Volunteer Enrollment and Screening - Guidelines and Documents

Enrollment and screening of VMN volunteers has three mandatory steps that are required for compliance with Virginia Cooperative Extension and VMN volunteer policies.  Only after all three steps are completed may a prospective volunteer be enrolled in the VMN chapter's Basic Training course.  The volunteer screening process, including the enrollment agreement, interview, and reference checks, are considered a confidential process. 

Step One: Volunteer Enrollment Application

The Volunteer Application is completed online through our volunteer management system, Better Impact.

We have standardized the application statewide so that it includes questions and agreements required by our sponsoring agencies as well as typical questions that chapters might use when making decisions about whether to accept someone into the program.  Chapters may not use their own, different application forms. Local chapters will obtain the link to their online Better Impact application and provide it to prospective volunteers when they are accepting new applications. Extra care should be taken to maintain confidentiality of applicants' and volunteers' profile information.

Supporting Documents for the Volunteer Enrollment Application:

Step Two: Reference Checks

One of the required parts of the online application and enrollment form is a list of three references.  VMN chapters must check at least two of the references provided by the applicant as part of the application review before accepting a volunteer into the VMN program.  Acceptable means of checking the references include an in-person conversation, a phone conversation, or a written form sent via email or hard copy.  Below is a document describing the types of questions that may and may not be asked.

Step Three: Applicant Interviews

To ensure the best possible experience for everyone in the VMN program, it is important to make sure that prospective volunteers understand the expectations of the VMN program and to determine whether volunteers’ expectations adequately match those of the program. Acceptable methods for accomplishing this goal include an interview with the prospective volunteer in-person or over the phone, or in a group information session in which the expectations of the VMN program are communicated and participants are given the opportunity to ask questions.  Please keep in mind that we do not discriminate on the basis of age, color, disability, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, veteran status, or any other basis protected by law.  The volunteer screening questions and suggestions documents above (under Reference Checks) also apply to the applicant interviews.

"How to" documents for Basic Training Chairs