This page contains information about the following aspects of the Annual Meeting:
- Registration
- Frequently Asked Questions
- Agenda and Advanced Training Descriptions
- Project Fair
- Silent Auction
- 2nd Annual Video Contest
- Photo and Art Contest
- Chapter Advisor Award
- Sponsors
- Vendor Opportunities
- Commuter Options
Check out the TMN 16th Annual Meeting Awards.
Registration is now CLOSED!
Registration for the Texas Master Naturalist 16th Annual Meeting closed on October 9th at 11:59 PM. This event will be hosted at a larger than ever before facility, Horseshoe Bay Resort, just west of gorgeous Marble Falls, Texas. Situated along the lakeshores of Lake Lyndon B. Johnson, this year’s meeting location will offer scenic views, close proximity to local, state, and even national wildlife areas and nature centers, along with state of the art meeting rooms, resort style accommodations, and award winning meals. The Annual Meeting provides an opportunity for Texas Master Naturalist volunteers from around the state to gather, participate in hands-on educational seminars, and receive all of their Advanced Training requirements for the year within one weekend. It’s also an opportunity for program participants and supporters to network, share new ideas/projects, and to learn from different chapters from different regions of the state. We are pleased to extend an invitation to ALL Texas Master Naturalist Program volunteers, along with all other program affiliates. This includes those certified volunteers, those still in training, program administrators and advisors of local chapters, and your local chapter partners, sponsors, or special guests. This year’s gathering has several chapter enhancement and Advanced Training topics to choose from. Our social times, chapter project fair showcase and round table discussions will offer great opportunities to meet your fellow Texas Master Naturalist peers from our 45 Chapters across the state and share new ideas from the past year. Hear what projects your peers are contributing their volunteer time towards and make new acquaintances all at the same time. The Texas Master Naturalist Store and other surprises are also on the agenda. So, come out for a weekend filled with fun, fellowship, and learning in a beautiful October, Texas Hill Country setting. If you have any questions about your registration, please contact Mary Pearl Meuth at mpmeuth@tamu.edu.
Frequently Asked Questions
You can find some of the frequently asked questions about the 16th Annual Meeting at the link below.
http://txmn.org/2015-annual-meeting-frequently-asked-questions/
Annual Meeting Agenda
The 16th Annual Meeting Agenda and Advanced Training descriptions can be found below.
16th Annual Meeting Agenda
16th Annual Meeting Advanced Training Descriptions
Click on the picture to the right for a map of the Horseshoe Bay Conference Center.
Annual Meeting Project Fair
The Texas Master Naturalist Program holds this competition during our Annual Meeting each year to share and award the premier projects of the TMN Program. Members continually list this method as a favorite way to learn about projects other chapters are doing and how they may be able to replicate such projects in their areas. Chapters entering a display into the contest will need to provide a short paragraph describing the project no later than Friday, October 9th to Michelle Haggerty at: mmhaggerty@tamu.edu.
Full details can be found here: TMN Project Fair 2015
Silent Auction
The Annual Meeting at Horseshoe Bay Resort is just around the corner! It’s time to start thinking about donations for the silent auction, where the money raised is used for Texas Master Naturalist project grants, scholarships to the Annual Meeting, and eventually, to bring in big name speakers/presenters and trainers for future Annual Meetings.
This year we’re asking each Texas Master Naturalist chapter to donate a minimum of 8 items to the auction, if possible. Individual members may wish to join together to make a “themed” basket that represents their region. Otherwise, there are many types of items that are appropriate for the silent auction including: items solicited from businesses, hand-made items and individually purchased items. Some examples are: paintings, photographs, jewelry, hand-crafted wood objects, natural arrangements, other art, outdoor gear, tools, nature guides, books about nature, and generally anything related to nature. Gift certificates for trips, tours and hotel/BB vouchers always stimulate heavy bidding. Use your imagination and keep naturalist themes in mind. If it’s something you’d like to have, someone else probably would too!
Items should be brought to the Annual Meeting on Friday if possible but will also be accepted Saturday morning. Each item should have a Silent Auction Bid Sheet with it, filled out in advance if possible, identifying the item, the donor, estimated value and suggested minimum bid. Silent Auctions Bid Sheets will also be available at the Annual Meeting.
Please contact Fredi Franki (512-431-4725, ffranki@nctv.com) or Beth Mortenson (972-741-7121, bmorte@gmail.com) if you have any questions, they are the co-chairs for the Silent Auction this year.
2nd Annual Video Contest
Spring has filled the outdoors with new life and activities. Take advantage of this time to Create a New Video, highlighting a(n)
- Experience as a Trainee
- Experience as a Master Naturalist, or
- Chapter Project.
You can either upload the video to YouTube or send an .mp4 or YouTube ready video file to jmburatti@gmail.com.
The deadline is September 18th, 2015. A judging period will take place from September 18th through September 25, 2015. The top three videos will be announced and receive an award at the 16th Annual Meeting.
Set your length goal for 1 minute, 30 seconds to 3 minutes max. The videos will be posted on the Texas Master Naturalist Playlist on YouTube. See samples of last year’s winners at: https://www.youtube.com/user/txmnaturalistprogram/videos including First Place winner, North Texas Chapter’s “Love our Native Prairies & Plants Day Project” and 2nd Place winner Dawn Hatch’s “on becoming a TMN”.
Find tips and resources in the YouTube Video Creation Guide and on our Texas Master Naturalist Facebook page.
Photo and Art Contest
The Photo & Art contest at the Annual Meeting has seven categories. Contest rules are below. If no one from your chapter will be attending the Annual Meeting, yet you would like to still enter a chapter item into the popular vote contests, please send the chapter item to Michelle Haggerty at 309 Sydney Baker South, Kerrville, TX 78028.
Entries must be submitted by 9:00 PM on Friday, October 23rd (the opening day of the Annual Meeting) at the Granite Ballroom. The entries must be labeled with the owners name, chapter, category and title of the work.
- all entries must be the original work of and submitted by a Master Naturalist volunteer.
- Photos must be Texas-specific (i.e. taken in Texas).
- Entries are limited to one per category per individual.
- Photographs should be 8×10 and mounted on a stiff backing for display purposes.
- The photos must be unmated, unframed and have no digital enhancements.
- Categories: (1) Plants, (2) Wildlife, (3) Scenic and (4) Master Naturalist at work/play.
- Art categories: (1) drawings & paintings, (2) sculpture & carvings and (3) sewing and stitchery.
- The scrapbooks, chapter newsletters and chapter brochures each compete in separate categories.
- Judging may be done by: (1) by a panel of judges where available and (2) popular vote of the attendees. Awards may be given for both judging types. Ballots for the popular vote are found in your registration welcome packed upon Annual Meeting check-in. Winners will be announced during the Awards Ceremony on Sunday morning. if there are less than five entries in a given photo or art category, a placement ribbon may not be awarded
2015 Chapter Advisor Award
The Texas Master Naturalist Program presents the Chapter Advisor Award to outstanding advisors and/or teams of advisors each year. the goal of the awards program is to encourage and recognize exceptional work and support of local Texas Master Naturalist Chapter advisors. The Chapter Advisor Team category was established to recognize the exceptional support of TMN chapter advisors working in partnership to support a chapter, just as the TMN program is supported by a partnership between Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service at the statewide level.
The winners will receive, at minimum, a plaque at the Annual Meeting awards ceremony detailing their accomplishments. Chapters are invited to nominate the advisor(s) for the award(s) by completing the TMN Chapter Advisor Award Application. In addition to the application, all other nomination information (a description of their nominee’s activity in each area described on the application) must fit on a total of 2 pages, and an electronic file of at least one picture of the nominee(s) must be included. Applications, nomination information, and picture(s) should be submitted electronically to Michelle Haggerty at mmhaggerty@tamu.edu by September 1st.
More information about the Award and nomination process can be found on the first page of the application, linked above.
Sponsors for the 16th Annual Meeting
Once again this year, we are seeking sponsorships for the 16th Annual Meeting. In addition to general meeting sponsorships we are also seeking sponsorships for specific events on the agenda such as meeting breaks, evening socials and more. These events allow our meeting to continue to provide participants networking opportunities, team building gatherings and a healthy environment for productive educational seminars. Sponsorships will receive special recognition through conference communication, fliers, announcements and programs at time of press.
Please have all sponsorship submissions given by October 2nd, 2015. For more information, contact Mary Pearl Meuth at mpmeuth@tamu.edu or (979)-845-7294.
Please send the checks payable to: Texas A&M AgriLife Extension, Texas Master Naturalist Program
Mail to:
102 Nagle Hall, 2258 TAMU
College Station, TX, 77843
Sponsorships for the TMN 16th Annual Meeting
*NEW* Vendor Opportunity
A new opportunity this year at the 16th Annual Meeting with our larger than ever meeting space is being able to open up a few key spots for naturalist-related vendors. The vendor booths will be located in the main foyer of the convention and meeting space of Horseshoe Bay Resort. They will be limited to those vendors providing educational materials, artwork, or partnership programming opportunities for our Texas Master Naturalists. Vendors will receive one 6′ table and two chairs. Electricity and other display items can be discussed if needed.
Vendors will also receive special recognition through the conference at time of press. Please have all Vendor Applications submitted by October 2nd, 2015. For more information, contact Mary Pearl Meuth at mpmeuth@tamu.edu or (979)-845-7294. More information can also be found on the first page of the Vendor Application, linked above.
Commuter Options
If you wish to stay off-site while attending the Texas Master Naturalist 16th Annual Meeting, there are a variety of options within a short commuting range to consider. A few of these options can be found on the TMN Annual Meeting Commuter Options PDF.
Call for Proposals is Closed!
The deadline for submissions was June 26th, 2015. Proposals received after the deadline and before registration opening may be considered if space is available. If you have any questions about the annual meeting, please contact Mary Pearl Meuth (mpmeuth@tamu.edu).
More information can be found here:Call for Proposals for 2015 TMN Annual Meeting
Information from the 2014 Annual Meeting can be found in the Past Meetings Archives, linked below.