Any 4-H leaders or members ?

[chickenmamalp]

My husband and I are just getting ready to start our town's first 4- H group.
I am nervous . I want to be successful so the kids have a great time .
Any suggestions?
How many kids do you have?
What are your meetings like?
Do you go on field trips?
How do you recruit leaders so we can have more clubs?

 

[chellebyerly]

My kids are in 4-H I have 4- 2 are 4 and 5th grade, so they are old enough to show. one is 5 and is in clover kids.

we do livestock and shooting sports.

I'm not gonna write much tonight, but will come back as I remember more. LOL

one thing, every month we do a 'community service' like the kids are told at Nov's meeting that they need to bring their 'community service' to the next meeting, decembers is always Toys for Tots.

we do go to the nursing homes, just your general community service projects.

thats a big part of 4-H. I think things like food pantries etc are great ideas. Get them involoved in that sort of thing.

scholorships are something else. we do a big BBQ fundraiser each year, parts of the money goes towards a scholorship.

as far as the meetings and our club- honestly, they suck. I am thinking about starting up another branch of our county club next year. LOL

as you get it started, you will be able to find people, but dont get discouraged. I'm in the PTA, 4-H, and a few other organizations, 98% of people wont lift a finger. - its sad, but its true.

just be open and honest, and ask for help, all the time. and make it as fun as possible. even when your ready to wring someones neck.

 

[froggie71]

This is my 2nd year of having my kids in 4-H. I myself am not a leader, but I do what I can to help. They are 15, 14 and 12. We had a great time last year, this year there is a bit more focus on learning and doing project books. The kids are being encouraged to present before the group things that they know, such as the parts of an egg, parts of a guinea, kinds of combs, etc. Our group is called Fancy Feathers so we focus on birds, but we have a new member that is just into photography and the kids are also encourage to enter into horticulture, woodworking, leadership, etc. And community service is also a big part of 4-H as well. We just finished collecting items to send to the soldiers in Iraq and collected items to donate to our local animal shelter. Good luck to you and your new group.

 

[vicki2x2]

I am a 4-H leader, it is a pretty big in our area. We have to have 3 leaders and 5 members to make a club in our state. Our club (administrative) leader and at least two more leaders. I am not the admin leader, I am the small animal leader. Our club does mainly dogs and small animals, like poultry, rabbits, goats, etc. We are a small club, we currently have 10 kids, 3 of which are mine.

We have monthly club meetings and then I have meetings once or twice a week for the last month or so before fair for the kids to work with and practice with their animals. We also do community projects, fundraisers, etc. We have been really fortunate with some pretty great kids and families that are all pretty involved. Tons of fun!

I was in another club, very large, where there was a handful of people who always did all the work and the other parents just dropped their kids off for meetings, etc. When they did show up, half the time, you didn't even know who they were because you rarely saw them! It happens, no matter what the venue though. Good luck with your club, I am sure you will enjoy it!

 

[joletabey]

I grew up in 4-H and loved it - good luck and bless you for starting one in your area- I am still proud of certain ribbons I got at the county fair!!!