Dear California Naturalists and Climate Stewards:

We are pleased to introduce you to the new Volunteer Portal! Over the last year, we've developed a new platform for our naturalists, stewards, and instructors to record, review, and generate reports on their volunteer service. This replaces the UCANR VMS (volunteer management system) and provides new capabilities and will streamline some common processes. 

This week, we are transitioning to this new Volunteer Portal and this post provides the information you need to get started in the new system. Here is the link to the new Volunteer Portal. Please use the email address which is associated  with your existing VMS profile to ensure that you are matched up with the information we transferred over to the new system.

You should be receiving an invitation via email to create an account for the new portal. If you didn't receive it in your inbox, please be sure to check your spam or junk folders. If you didn't receive the email, here is the link to the new Volunteer Portal (same link as above). This is a multi-phase roll out so we ask for your patience as we add in the hours and information from the previous VMS. 

As with any application transition, we may encounter some bugs or errors in the transfer of data. Please know, that we have a team of people working behind the scenes to resolve any issues that arise as quickly as possible. For general questions, please join us for open office hours. We have scheduled office hours (Tuesdays 3:30-4:30 PM; Wednesdays 5:30-6:30 PM; and Fridays 9-10 AM) to answer your questions over the next several weeks (from 2/16 through 3/8). These optional office hours are intended to address general questions and provide general help and information regarding the new Volunteer Portal. Please feel free to drop-in at any time during these hours as your schedule permits. 

The link for all these office hours is the same (Join Zoom Meeting: https://ucanr.zoom.us/j/94384448938?pwd=YU9UVHNQVUtrTjZISENLNmwyNGtQZz09; Meeting ID: 943 8444 8938; Passcode: calnat) 

We will be producing some simple video tutorials and FAQs on the most basic tasks such as recording hours (or for instructors only, creating a new course and uploading your course participants).

For any pressing issues please reach out to Eliot Freutel (etfreutel@ucanr.edu), please start the subject line with “Volunteer Portal Help” in the subject line. Please hold all general questions for the open office hours.

Sincerely, 

The CalNat Program Team