State Junior Leadership Conference

Introduction

The California 4-H Youth Development program responds to the needs of youth from all backgrounds and all regions of California. It is a program that creates the next generation of leaders; through hands-on, experiential learning, the 4-H Youth Development Program provides non-formal education that encourages self-discovery and self-confidence. 4-H offers numerous events and projects at the local, county, and state levels to engage youth in the areas of Citizenship, Healthy Living, Leadership & Communication, and Science, Engineering, & Technology (SET). However, currently all state...

Recently I have had the opportunity to be out in the field meeting members and leaders and looking at how some of our counties and sections run different events.  I was able to attend specifically the LCORT conference in the South Central section.

This conference is unique where seniors and intermediates are able to attend where most conferences do either senior or just intermediates and juniors.  By and large it seemed from my vantage point there wasn’t any issues over interaction.

I had planned on attending LCORT so that I may observe why it worked.  I had heard from several sources, staff as well as volunteers and members that this conference was very successful and had been for years.  From my experience other...

Formal Whites

I helped with the selection of the premier exhibitor award at the State Fair.  This was a new experience for me.  I know that the State Fair is a major event but has lost some of its luster due to many participants that don’t come anymore due to distance and expense.  The award committee consisted of myself, two FFA instructors and two State Ambassadors.  The instructors and I were in business casual attire and the state ambassadors were in their suits.

We spent the next 5 hours interviewing FFA and 4-H members who qualified for the award.  The FFA members interviewed well and consistently.  With the 4-H members there were much more variation in performance.  The worst interview was with a 4-h’er and the...

It’s come down that Sharon is retiring.  Sharon represents both the academic and program side of things here in the state office.  Many of the things she has done during her term as State Director has been to reconcile the two sides.  I think one of the reasons why she asked me to come on at the state office is to support the programming side of 4-H.  While the academics are awash with their own politics, program reps and program support staff are left with vague priorities and little program support.

Sharon asked me to focus on 4hOnline learn as much as I could to support program staff.  It’s been 4 months of crash personal training and experimentation but I think I understand the system enough to help counties untangle any...