Revised after the AZMN meeting of 4 March, 2005:
The Arizona Master Naturalist program requires 6 hours or units of Continuing Education Credits (CEU) annually to achieve or maintain certification along with a the yearly volunteer service requirement of 40 hours service in the first year, and 20 hours per year thereafter to maintain your certification status.
1. We want to stress that sessions held by the Arizona Master Naturalist program coordinator are our recommended method and means to satisfy CEU hours. These sessions serve an additional purpose of providing news and program updates, seeking feedback, and discussing the direction of the program with you.
Other Talks, Seminars, Conferences, and Events are candidates for CEU if:
2. It is a topic related to one of the topics we addressed in our classes. These might include: Noxious Weeds, Ethnobotany, Ornithology, Wildlife Habitat, Wildlife Conservation, Climatology, Drought/Water Use, Hydrogeology, Evolutionary History, Historical Naturalists, Life Zones, Geology/paleogeology of N. AZ, Fire Ecology, Forest Health, Interpretation Techniques, Sharing Nature with Youngsters, Open Spaces/Landscape, GPS/GIS Tools.
3. It is from the Master Gardener program, topics Native Plant Botany, Composting, Native Soils, Using Native Plants in Landscaping.
4. It is from the Watershed Master Stewardship program, topics Soils, Riparian Ecosystems, Aquatic Ecology, Water Quality, Environmental Conflict Resolution.
5. It is from the professional community, AZGFD Wildlife Workshops, MNA monthly Naturalist Lecture Series, automatically qualify.
6. It is from the academic community, and only if you are not seeking a degree, courses in Sustainable Environments, Quaternary Studies, Biology, Geography, Wildlife Management, Forestry and related sciences.
7. Your personal presentation, facilitation or organization of a natural resources class, conference, field event, meeting or workshop.(added04Mar05)
8. It is docent or interpreter training, but only up to a max of 3 hours for any one training course or sequence.(added05Mar05)
9. The talk, lecture, event, is not something you are otherwise required to do as part of either degree-seeking enrollment in a school, or paid employment.
Notes and Frequently asked Questions:
A. Please note that talks or events from other programs probably do not qualify if they do not apply to our list of topics shown above. Talks, etc., on other topics may qualify if you can pursuade the program coordinator that they will convincingly and directly relate to your volunteer service, or be useful to you and the program.
B. CEU hours or units recognized for this program are only recognized for this program, and are not applicable to any other program without the approval of the relevant authority within that other program.
C. Hours that you report to other organizations so that they can document your volunteer service, you can and should also report to the Arizona Master Naturalist program. You should not consider this "double-dipping" or "taking credit twice." It is important to us to estimate the number of hours given you give to all these other organizations.(added05Mar05)
Always feel free to ask. We want to be as open as possible to the many opportunities available.
Posted by at May 29, 2004 2:20 PM