Volunteer Instructor Newsletter - January 2023

minnesota department of natural resources

Volunteer Safety Instructor Newsletter

January 2023

A look forward to 2023

As we reflect on the past couple of years, we are thankful for you, the dedicated volunteers that continue to work diligently at providing a quality learning experience for the next generation of outdoor recreationalists!

2023 will see some updates, changes, and enhancements of our safety training supplies and PowerPoints, to better clarify the information used to teach our programs. These changes, while minor in scope, are key to stay on track, and meet the student needs and expectations.

You may continue using the current supplies as you schedule your classes, and a reorder of the supplies will be rolled into your class/supply registration requests as we deplete the current inventory.

We wish you a Happy New Year and look forward to working with you in 2023!

Event Management System

In October, some of you participated in an online demonstration of a few of the options that DNR has been looking into regarding a system to manage our safety training events.

Your input is very valuable to us as we look to improve upon the registration process for both customers and instructors. Of course, this involves several changes in the business processes as well. One of our main goals is to minimize the stress or challenges placed upon you as instructors when the new system is implemented.

We were hoping to initiate an event management system early in 2023 but have run into some unforeseen challenges with the buildout and other ongoing projects. While we don't yet have a "go-live" date for the event management system, we will be sure to provide adequate notice of any training and changes well in advance of the launch date.

Nominations for instructor of the year

We are accepting nominations for the 2022 Snowmobile Instructor of the Year through Midnight, Friday, January 6, 2023.

To nominate a fellow instructor, go to:

Snowmobile Instructor of the Year.

Watch this page for the ATV Firearms Safety Instructor of the Year for 2022 nominations periods sometime in March at Education and Safety Training Instructors | Minnesota DNR (state.mn.us).

A Message from IHEA'S Executive Director

In-Person or Online Hunter Ed?

As the Hunting Industry’s primary partner in education and safe practices, the IHEA-USA works with respected research companies to better understand current student needs and expectations to ensure we, as a community of educators, exceed them. This drive led our organization to apply for a Federal Multistate Conservation Grant for the necessary funding to contract Chase & Chase Consulting and the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) for a study to understand the effectiveness of hunter education delivery. While a national pandemic encouraged many states to offer online hunter education, questions surrounding the differences between online and in-person course delivery have been on our minds for many years prior to COVID-19.

In May, Loren Chase presented this study’s results at our Annual Conference in Jupiter, Florida, and a recording of his presentation can still be found by exercising your IHEA-USA membership benefit of online access from our website. You can also access the FULL TEXT REPORT HERE and other IHEA-USA partner studies by clicking THIS LINK for our collection of recent reports and presentations. I will add a short summary of the findings here as well.

The study examined student comprehension (through testing scores) and student satisfaction for in-person, online, and hybrid hunter education delivery methods. Iowa, Florida, Alabama, Missouri, and Texas were all direct partners on this study and deserve praise for their contributions. Kalkomey Inc. also played an important role in the success of this study with its generosity in collecting test scores and adapting evaluations as needed.

There were many interesting discoveries from the study, such as minor test scores and satisfaction result variations between differing gender and age between instructors and students, but the most significant takeaway message was this…both In-Person and Online Hunter Education delivery methods produce knowledgeable and satisfied graduates. There is a market for both, and when offered together by an agency as a choice to the student, we can expand our graduate demographic makeup. Many round table conversations have approached this as a “this or that” debate, but the research clearly shows the value of offering both to the public if we aim to increase the number of hunters in America.

I hope this is informative to your programs. Thank you for all you do for Hunter Education!

Alex Baer, Executive Director

"Register your course" link

Please use this link when submitting the registration of your safety course and ordering your supplies: Course Registration (mn.gov). It is an updated link.

NOTE: Filling out this registration gives us your class information and the number of supplies needed. It DOES NOT automatically list your class to the DNR website. We add it to the website only if you request it to be advertised.

Once your class is full, please contact us to mark the class full, and we will remove your contact information. Give us your name, the start date of your class, and town it is held in.

Thank you!

WEBSITE RESOURCES FOR INSTRUCTORS

HUNTER EDUCATION

Henry Repeating Arms Company .22 rifles, both Lever and Bolt action - 718/499-5600 or visit their website at: Henry Repeating Rifles

Hunter Safety Systems - Fall Arrest Harness Toll Free 877-296-3528 or go to:

Savage Arms .22 bolt action youth models - single shot

Third Hand Archery - Tree Stand Gun Hoist and other training aids available for purchase.

Education materials can be purchased at:

Federal Ammunition (federalpremium.com)

Subscribe to the International Hunter Education Association Email Newsletter:

International Hunter Education Association (ihea-usa.org)

IHEA YouTube videos: