Creating a thread for Ambassadors to connect.
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Thanks for starting this thread, @orenda3.
I’m Cliff Hawley. I’m a birder and Certified California Naturalist based in the Sacramento area of Northern California. I have led birding tours for local Audubon clubs for around 25 years. I’m currently on the board of the Central Valley Bird Club as the Vice President and Youth Scholarship Coordinator. I’ve been a member of the team coordinating the City Nature Challenge for the Sacramento Region since 2019 and the volunteer naturalist for the Koobs Nature Area in Carmichael, CA. I’ve been very interesting in introducing iNaturalist to new people in the Sacramento area and getting them out exploring nature. I’d love to coordinate with other local ambassadors.
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What is a “certified naturalist”?
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Nice to meet you Cliff!
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It refers to the University of California’s California Naturalist program. Other states have called it Master Naturalist although more people are moving away from that term. It basically involves taking a class and demonstrating knowledge and love of the natural world and the desire to communicate that love to others. The class was a lot of fun and in order to maintain your status they ask you to complete 40 hours a year of volunteer work on some kind of naturalist activities. My volunteer hours are usually doing Christmas Bird Counts, organizing the City Nature Challenge, or tabling at events for various nature-based clubs.
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I don’t intend to become an ambassador, but I too would like a way to find local ambassadors. Just to see what they’re doing, and offer to help - if, for example, someone is doing a local event by themselves, and would like an assistant. Or just to show up somewhere and be an enthusiastic presence. (Sorry, Cliff, I’m on the wrong side of the country!)
The program is so new and just a trial, but I’m hoping eventually there will be a way to search for ambassadors, other than by starting another forum thread.
Do any of “the powers that be” know what plans, if any, there are for fostering such connections?
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I’m a Michigan State University freshman and an iNaturalist Ambassador. I’m working with a few people right now on how I can bring a better understanding of using community science platforms sich as iNaturalist to the MSU community. I believe I saw somewhere that there are resources for iNat Ambassadors such as powerpoint slideshows? I could be wrong, but if not, and someone knows where I can find those resources, I’d appreciate it.
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We’re currently working on finding a platform that can serve as an “ambassador directory” like this. The hope is to have something that ambassadors can add their information to in the next few weeks.
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That’s a cool idea. It would be nice to coordinate on projects with other local ambassadors.
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Hi everyone! Super excited to be an ambassador with you , I thought I would introduce myself! My name is Coley, and I have a degree in Fisheries & Wildlife Science from Arkansas Tech University. I graduated last year, and interned with the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center in Montana as well as researched Interior Least Terns on the Arkansas River during college. Since then, I’ve worked with the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in south Texas, and most recently I worked for the Arapaho and Roosevelt National Forests and Pawnee National Grasslands as a Wildlife Surveyor through the SCA. I am currently awaiting the start of my new position with the Mississippi Sandhill Crane National Wildlife Refuge : ) I don’t suppose there are any other ambassadors in the Ozarks or southern Mississippi on here?
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Hi all, I signed up as an ambassador and would be happy to connect with other local ambassadors to brainstorm and coordinate events. I’m located in the northwestern corner of the NC mountains - what we call the NC High Country. Are there any other ambassadors on here based in western NC, eastern TN, or southwest VA? Anyone in the general area of the Southern Appalachian mountains and foothills?
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I like the sound of this. I got a bit lost finding some older posts of people in my region (Ontario) so the timing and availability for activities in a newer list would make sense.
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Hello everyone!
Without giving too much detail about myself (since this is still viewable by anyone on the internet), I’m an iNat user active in the south Florida area. I frequently visit parks and also volunteer with nature-related, environment-related, and sustainability-related stuff. If you’re doing events in south Florida, especially in Broward, let me know (send me a private message on the site); I might be interested in attending. I may even be able to help with them.
re “certified naturalist”: I wonder if that’s similar to how Florida has the Florida Master Naturalist and Florida Master Gardener programs, both run by the University of Florida. And there’s a Certified Habitat Stewards program run by Broward County NatureScape and the National Wildlife Federation.
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3 posts were split to a new topic: Questions about Certified Wildlife Habitat Stewards programs
I was registered to attend a recent webinar for information about the iNaturalist Ambassador program and guidance on how to participate, but a last minute family commitment unfortunately prevented my attendance. I was unable to find a replay link or additional information on my own. Might someone have a pointer to how to get started?
I am a nature enthusiast that spends a lot of time doing outreach education in my community. I am not professionally trained or accredited beyond being a certified Texas Master Naturalist in my local chapter and just have a curiosity and love for our natural world. I use iNat as a tool for outreach by maintaining a backyard biodiversity project to show people how even small local support for native flora and habitats can support incredible species diversity even in small spaces… and every bit we all do to help is meaningful.
I am not sure if I’m a good fit or not since I don’t know anything about the program, but I would like to learn more.
If this is not the right form to ask or if my question is inappropriate for this sub, I will delete it (or please delete). Thank you! 
A recording of the webinar and more information about the program can be found at this link: https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/ambassadors
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Thank you so much!
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Glad to see this thread!
I am a new “ambassador” from the Blue River, Oregon area and am interested in learning of other ambassadors in my vicinity, either to share notes or to collaborate on events.
–Mike Palmer, @Cosmopterix
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