About the RMN
Certified Rivanna Chapter members serve Albemarle, Fluvanna and Louisa as well as other counties along the Rivanna Watershed. Among the first chapters in Virginia, chartered in 2006, the RMN trains a new class of 24± individuals annually and maintains a roster of 220± members, of which 155± report active participation in regional projects. In 2024, RMN members recorded 14,500 volunteer hours, adding up to a dollar equivalent of $548,000, which in turn supports statewide efforts among all 30 Virginia chapters that amount to about 259,000 hours, expressed in dollars as $8.35 million. How awesome is that?
To learn more about the Master Naturalist program and the Rivanna Chapter, click here to see “Introducing the RMN” or click here to go to our Training Class section for more specifics about applying and class content.
To become a certified RMN, one must graduate from the 15-week class and complete at least 5 field trainings. After graduation, students have a year to earn their initial certification by recording at least 40 hours of volunteer work in our Better Impact system, selected from an online roster of 95+ approved options. To be recertified each year, and in addition to 40 volunteer hours, they must also attend 8 hours of talks or trainings related to nature, such as our monthly Continuing Education (CE) presentations. Members must maintain a record of 40 volunteer hours and 8 CE hours each year to renew their certification, but can be active in the chapter without certification.
Volunteer projects can be sorted into activities related to citizen science, education, outreach, stewardship, and chapter administration. Review the “Introducing the RMN” PDF to see examples of this.
Useful Reminders for Members
About dues, active status, and annual meetings
Members can opt to pay $20 annually to support RMN programming, but this is not mandatory, and is collected on the honor system, often at the Annual Meeting. As of this writing, the best way to pay is by check, which can be sent to RMN Treasurer, P.O. Box 8284, Cville VA 22906.
Active Status
If you record your volunteer and CE hours in Better Impact, you are considered active—whether or not you reach the 40+8 CE hours required for certification. If three years pass without any activity in your Better Impact record, you are considered inactive—but you are never removed from the RMN member roster unless you specifically request removal.
The Google Group listserv is separate from Better Impact, at present. It includes anyone who has graduated from the training class. If you wish to be removed from this list, please make this request at rivannamn.info@gmail.com. Being taken off this Google Group means you will not receive updates about pertinent CE and chapter events. If your email address changes, please let us know.
Annual Meetings
The chapter hosts an Annual Meeting once a year, generally at the beginning of February. We schmooze with each other and review our achievements, recognitions and yearly statistics. We also invite an engaging speaker: in recent years, we’ve heard from regionally recognized photographers, researchers, educators, indigenous leaders, and museum specialists. It’s a good chance to mingle and meet. We also often host a summer gathering at a local park.
About RMN Volunteering
Volunteer effort IS the keystone for the entire MN effort. It provides a grassroots, community-based impetus to educate the public about nature, and to support our regional environment. To keep everything going, as many as 50 individuals from our chapter organize or present various committee initiatives, or provide leadership, public education, outreach, training class support, recruitment at public tabling events, newsletter articles, field trips, or new projects to consider. Based on recent statistics, these behind-the-scenes helpers amount to about a third of our active membership! Running the class alone involves as many as 30 individuals and an additional group of at least 35 instructors, who give their time to us for free.
At the end of each calendar year, our Membership Chair (kudos to Debbie Luzynski-Weber for her longstanding dedication) totals up the hours that members record. These hours provide statistics that our partners—including the departments of Forestry, Wildlife Resources, and Environmental Quality—turn over to the government, which in turn affects their funding efficacy. The hours also give us an idea of our effectiveness. This is why we encourage each member to input their hours. It is not only a matter of annual certification.
The Rivanna Chapter has an established track record of energetic work and achievement in our community and outlying counties. By our 20th anniversary class, we will have given over 500 individuals basic training in naturalist studies. RMN’s efforts significantly support the VMN’s goals, which in turn support Virginia’s natural resources.
Newsletters Archives
RMN newsletters, compiled for many years by Joanna Hickman ’16 and a dedicated group of supporters, feature a President’s address, segments about contemporary nature news, profiles about our members, and member contributions about topics like edible plants, hidden nature paradises, or recent field trips.