Make plans to attend our first major event of 2021! In an effort to provide you with as many opportunities as possible to continue your volunteer service from a distance or virtually, the TMN State office will be hosting our second ever Virtual Volunteer Fair – https://txmn.tamu.edu/virtual-volunteer-fair-february-2021/
What can I expect?
The Texas Master Naturalist Virtual Volunteer Fair will happen over two days Wednesday February 3rd and Thursday February 4th from 9am to 4pm tentatively with a series of 10-minute project sessions highlighting projects by a variety of conservation partner organizations from across the state.
An agenda for the event will be sent via email and will be posted on our website indicating the available Project Presentations and their detailed requirements.
Registration will be free to attend our Virtual Volunteer Fair and will open in mid-January. You can attend any or all project proposal presentations! TMN volunteers will earn Volunteer Service hours for attending all project proposal sessions – please use the “TMN Virtual Volunteer Service Fair” Statewide Project Opportunity for logging service hours.
How do I join?
Through the Volunteer Fair Registration Link (once shared) or a WebEx Event invite link sent to your email when registered. Join us all day or at the time of your desired project session, by joining the WebEx Event as an attendee.
WebEx 101 Guide – If you’ve never used WebEx as a platform at all, the WebEx 101 Guide linked above is a great place to start – plus there are live testing sites on the Cisco WebEx page for any day users to test their equipment and set up.
How do I Sign up to Volunteer?
At the completion of EACH project proposal and again at the end of the event, we will share the “Project Volunteer Registration” survey.
Texas Master Naturalist Volunteers will use the survey link to select which Service Project(s) they want to join. This survey will stay open for the month of February! Make sure and sign up early to ensure a quick turnaround time for our Project Hosts. From there, these Project Hosts will then reach out to you to get the projects kicked off. Please note that if a Project gets more volunteers than the Project Host can handle, he/she will make the call on how to manage the situation. Project service positions are not guaranteed.
How do I log Volunteer Hours?
For Attending the Virtual Volunteer Event :
TMN volunteers can earn Volunteer Service hours for attending all project proposal sessions of the VVF (live or recorded) – please use the “TMN Virtual Volunteer Service Fair” Statewide Project Opportunity for logging service hours.
For Projects presented at the Virtual Volunteer Fair :
As a result of the virtual service component in these challenging times, and with advance notice of the projects sent to all chapters, our hope is that each of the proposed opportunities be reviewed, and pre-approved by your local chapter using the TMN service project and advanced training criteria outlined in the TMN Chapter Management and Operations Protocols (CMOP). If chapters review these opportunities as soon as possible, then their membership will know prior to the Volunteer Fair event which opportunities are approved.
Also note – some of the Projects in the Virtual Volunteer Fair are “place-based” opportunities, i.e physical on public property service requests. Those should only be considered for approval by the local chapters within the direct ecosystem of that location/state park.
Have More Questions?
This is a new opportunity for us and for our volunteers – please let us know if you have any additional question. For questions, you can email:
Judit Green – Texas Parks & Wildlife Department – Judit.Green@tpwd.texas.gov
Michelle Haggerty – Texas Parks & Wildlife Department – Michelle.Haggerty@tpwd.texas.gov
Mary Pearl Meuth – Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service – mpmeuth@tamu.edu