- Adherence to COVID guidelines approved by the Chapter Board will be in effect and were taken into consideration for all course planning. These guidelines follow those of our sponsoring partners: Texas Parks and Wildlife Department and Texas A & M Agri-Life Extension.
- COVID guidelines are for the safety and health of all TMN volunteers. Hill Country chapter’s protocols are the most conservative practices mandated: masks to be worn indoors at all times and outdoors when in groups, social distancing of 6’ everywhere, surfaces to be sanitized and hand gels to be available.
- Online training. We are involving more technology in our normal charter business AND the Basic Training course. The week before the course begins we have planned Tech Topic seminars for the technology we will be using. You will be well prepared to Zoom, use our chapter YouTube channel and even practice citizen science apps!
- Texas Master Naturalist textbook, Class Notebook, and any field trip entrance fees are included in the course registration fee. Books and manuals will be distributed at the First Class.
- Class sessions will not always be held on the same day of the week. Even though class days are not the same day of the every week, there are flexible options to ensure you meet all class requirements.
- Kerrville, Boerne and Fredericksburg are our main locations for some outdoor and in-person class activities. Students will have options in some instances, taking student demographics into consideration.
- Multiple nature areas, parks, and conservancy lands within our 10 county chapter area will host outdoor field activities. A certain number of Talk and Treks and Field Trips are required; again the flexible programming allows choices of some. What a way to get to see some of our beautiful Hill Country!
- Compared to the traditional TMN training classes of the past, the Spring 2021 class has more ‘outdoor classroom”/field activities than before. This has always been a suggestion from student course critiques. So, we are thinking outside the box and have come up with creative, flexible, and innovative ways to add this feature and still meet the TMN Program requirements.
- Students will attend a series of four in-person, small group discussion sessions during the course. These “Study Groups” augment online training (and other) topics during the 12-week program. Ten students and two TMN facilitators will discuss concepts, ask questions about the assigned textbook readings, and will bring us together to bridge the person-to-person contact that you might miss with online presentations.
- Your Go-To person for questions is the 2021 New Class Training Director, Sheryl Pender. Before, during and even after the course, you will awaken on Monday mornings with a ‘Monday Morning eMail from her with reminders, announcements, and important tidbits for the upcoming week. Create this new habit to stay in touch!
- Your ‘peeps’ during the course are your mentors, the members of the 2020 New Class Committee and your TMN friends!!