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Introductory Information for all Chapter Leaders

Thank you for taking on a leadership role for your chapter! We would not have the VMN Program in your community without volunteer leaders like you. In this section, you will find important information on how the VMN State Office works to support, communicate with, and provide resources for chapter leaders

Communications

Resources

Support

State Office Contact Information

General Information for Chapter Leaders

Annual Re-enrollment Responsibilities for Chapter Leaders

This section outlines the responsibilities of VMN Volunteers, Chapter Leaders and the VMN State Office regarding annual Re-enrollment. For general information about the Re-enrollment process, please see the Volunteer Enrollment and Re-enrollment section of the Policies and Procedures page of the VMN website.

Individual Volunteer Responsibilities

Each VMN Volunteer who is required to Re-enroll must complete the Re-enrollment process in Better Impact or request a paper form from the VMN State Office. Instructions for Re-enrolling in Better Impact will be emailed directly to every VMN volunteer who needs to Re-enroll.

VMN State Office Responsibilities

The VMN State Office will do the following:

• Alert Chapter Leaders annually about when the Re-enrollment Period will be and if there are any changes to the process.

• Determine, based on enrollment dates, which VMNs need to complete the Re-enrollment process for that year and who does not.

• Include information about Re-enrollment in Bi-weekly emails leading up to and during the Re-enrollment Period.

• Send emails to every VMN volunteer with instructions for how to Re-enroll and the deadline to complete the process.

• Add badges in Better Impact for everyone that completes Re-enrollment.

• Send numerous reminders to all VMNs during the Re-enrollment Period.

• Follow up individually with all VMN volunteers who do not complete Re-enrollment.

• Archive in Better Impact any volunteers who do not complete the Re-enrollment Process and communicate to those volunteers what the change in status means.

• Send information to chapter leaders detailing how to run reports to find volunteers who did not complete the Re-enrollment Process.

Local Chapter Leader Responsibilities

Chapter Leaders can support individual volunteers by answering questions and explaining the process, but they are not allowed to complete the Re-enrollment questions for anyone. Each volunteer must complete the process for themselves.

When the Re-enrollment Period is over and volunteers who did not complete Re-enrollment have been archived, each chapter can decide if they would like to reach out to those volunteers individually. It is not required but if a chapter would like to do that they can.

After Re-enrollment is complete, chapter boards may need to update external communication tools (e.g., Google Groups or mailing lists) to reflect the current roster of enrolled volunteers on Better Impact, if those communications are intended to only go to current members.

Risk Management and Civil Rights Trainings - Info for Chapter Leaders

The Risk Management and Civil Rights trainings are both required for new volunteers as part of basic training and must be completed in order to graduate. Completion of these trainings is tracked in Better Impact. Both trainings are eLearning modules in Better Impact and should be completed online. After graduation, VMNs need to renew their Civil Rights training on an annual basis and their Risk Management training every three years. 

Currently, the renewal of these trainings is not required to remain in the VMN program. However, the VMN State Office is working to encourage all VMNs to keep their trainings current and sends reminders on a monthly basis to all VMNs whose trainings are about to expire or have expired. Chapter Leaders are not required to track this for their members but can if they wish to.

The Civil Rights training is created and updated by Virginia Cooperative Extension (VCE) for all of the master volunteer programs within their purview. The annual renewal requirement comes from USDA NIFA, the federal entity that administers all state Extension programs in the US.

Our Risk Management training was created specifically for VMNs and the activities they participate in. This means that for any VMNs who are also Extension Master Gardeners (EMG), those individuals will have two Risk Management trainings they must keep current - the one for VMN and the one for EMG.

Topics that we are still working on

Let us know if you think we should add anything to this list.

List of typical Chapter Board positions

Transferring your Chapter Leader responsibilities to the next person - Guidelines and Checklists

Wildlife Collections Policies for Chapter Leaders

Non-VMNs participating in a VMN activity - When is it ok?