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Staff News & Notes - Week of 12.28.09
Hi,
Two times this month in this weekly piece I tried to relate things that worked for me when I was in a county 4-H position. As one of my readers notified me, it was an effort to share things that I wish I would have known as I began my time as a 4-H Professional. However, another reader worried that I was sending the wrong message. This reader sent me an email last week that read:
“When you stated that you averaged three night meetings/week and 2 weekend meetings/month, you may have sent the message that this is an expectation of other County Educators. This may be especially true for younger Educators. Is it an expectation that Educators average 3 nights/ week and 2 weekend meetings/ month? Is this healthy for people to do this (even if some of us did it)? Does this help with balancing work and family/personal life? If Educators have this many nights and weekends, shouldn't they receive some guidance of how to balance this with taking some time off or are they expected to work all day plus three nights per week, plus 2 weekends per month?”
My first reaction was that this was not the message that I was trying to send. I am always amazed how communication can be interpreted by others in different ways, and even more amazed that I cannot anticipate those interpretations. But this email did make me reflect a bit more.
My reflection reminded me of the first four years of my professional career when I was teaching high school. An experienced teacher gave me some advice. Among other things, he said, “As a new teacher in a school, never smile before Thanksgiving”; “Never “tick off” the custodian or school secretary”; and “No one excels in their profession by working only forty hours a week.”
I truly believe that if one wants to be good at what they do, extra time and effort is needed. There are very few truly gifted people, so the rest of us have to do more. But I also believe that having many night and weekend meetings is not incompatible with a good family life. We have to plan ahead. We need to know schedules of school musical programs, ball games, family birthdays, and the like. When unexpected things come up, we have to be willing to make the tough decision between work and family.
The 4-H Professionals work is more about relationships and organizations than it is about subject matter. This means that much time is needed in face-to-face and personal encounters with our clientele. If and when we move away from these personal encounters, that will be the beginning of the end of what we do.
Maybe I needed to note the great things about what we do that counter-balances all of those night and weekend meetings: We are not bound by a rigid schedule of class periods and ringing bells; We work for a prestigious University; Our clientele and volunteers are some of the best possible people in the local communities; Our schedule is very flexible; There is a great variety in our work, and we never should get bored; Our co-workers have a high level of professionalism; and We are a part of perhaps the best non-formal educational system in the world.
Realizing those and many other advantages of what we do, make night and weekend meeting more palatable.
Thanks,
Tom
SAVE the DATE – February 1-2, 2010
Annual 4-H Professionals Update
Monday, February 1 and Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Nationwide and Ohio Farm Bureau 4-H Center
More details and registration will follow in the weekly 4-H News & Notes
Request for Ohio 4-H Cost Recovery Innovative Funds- Form Updated
Tom Archer introduced the process and request form for use of the Ohio 4-H Cost Recovery Innovative Funds at the 4-H Professionals meeting during Annual Conference. With each request, please use the attached updated form which may be completed electronically and returned via email to archer.3@cfaes.osu.edu or FAX 614-292-5937.
CLICK HERE for the request form.
Please discard the copy distributed at Annual Conference. Thanks!
Community Service at Teen Conference
Jill Stechschulte, stechschulte.23@cfaes.osu.edu, is organizing a Community Service in conjunction with the Ohio 4-H Teen Conference, collecting for Disabled American Veterans Ditty Bags. Teens attending the February, 20, 2010 Conference are being asked to donate the following items for the contents of these bags. Collection area will be near the registration desk.
- full or travel sizes of toothpaste
- dental floss
- bar soap
- comb
- wash cloths or loofa
- tooth brush
- non-alcohol mouthwash
- body wash
- lotion
- small notebooks & tablets
- ink pens
- “stamped” envelopes
- travel size tissues
Year-End Gift Processing
December has just arrived and the deadlines for gifts to be counted in the December 2009 gift totals are just around the corner. This year's deadlines are:
Previous Month Gift-in-Kind: Friday December 11, 2009
All other gifts: Wed January 6, 2010 by 1:00 PM
Please remember to include the postmarked envelope (with a December date) if you drop something off after January 1st.
Please remember that it is University policy that all checks must be deposited when $200 has been accumulated or weekly, whichever comes first.
If you have any questions, please contact the 4-H Foundation office at 614-292-6943 or George.274@osu.edu.
More news about “I Got My Start In 4-H” Signs
Melinda Morrison in Champaign County has a limited supply of “I Got My Start In 4-H” Signs left from the Farm Science Review. If you would like a few samples for your county to take to a printer on your own please contact her at morrison.300@osu.edu. Melinda is also checking on bulk printing, so if you are interested in ordering, please let her know by January 31st. Depending on the amount ordered will determine costs and if it would be worth doing a bulk order.
Green on white corrugated “I Got My Start In 4-H” yard signs were printed for use at this year’s Farm Science Review with support from the Ohio 4-H Foundation. The FSR team thought about producing the signs for counties to use, but soon realized that because they’re so inexpensive and readily available, it is cheaper if they are produced locally. We made 500 8"x10" signs on corrugated board, which is commonly used for real estate signs, for about $1 apiece, including the little metal stand. If you are interested in producing the signs for your community, you can use this artwork:
CLICK HERE for sign PDF format
CLICK HERE for sign in EPS format
Steer Noseprint Card Information
Any 4-H or FFA member planning to exhibit a steer at the 2010 Ohio State Fair must submit a legible noseprint card, which is to be postmarked no later than January 15, 2010. Send noseprint cards to: Stacey French, Ohio State Fair Livestock Office, 717 East 17th Ave., Columbus, Ohio 43211. Noseprint cards can be ordered free of charge through OSU Extension Publications eStores.
Sharing Quality Assurance Materials
Michelle Chanay, Holmes County 4-H Program Assistant, shared a 2010 Quality Assurance Program Documentation of Attendance certificate that she and Tim Tanner, Harrison County 4-H Educator, developed for the Crossroads EERA. Two certificates print on one 8 ½” x 11” sheet of paper. A link to this certificate is posted at http://4hansci.osu.edu in the Quality Assurance section of the Livestock Resources page. Anyone who has Quality Assurance documents (lesson plans, activities, certificates, etc.) they would like to share should email them to Lucinda Miller at miller.78@osu.edu. Items will be posted and appropriate credit given.
Honey Bee Essay Contest
The Foundation for the Preservation of Honey Bees, Inc. is once again sponsoring an Essay Contest open to active 4-H Club members. CLICK HERE for information. Completed essays must be received in the State 4-H Office no later than February 22, 2010 for Ohio’s essay review and selection, which will be submitted to the National Contest. Contact Lisa Jinks, jinks.2@osu.edu for more information.
Continuum Planning for Spring Issue - Please Respond
What stories do you have to suggest for the Spring issue of the College of Food Agricultural and Environmental Sciences’ magazine the Continuum? See the information below and note the deadline. Send ideas to Ken Martin, martin.1540@cfaes.osu.edu or to Tom Archer, archer.3@cfaes.osu.edu
Believe it or not, it's time to start planning for our spring issue, scheduled to be printed and at the mailroom by mid-April.
They need to hear from us by Friday, Jan. 8, on topics for stories for this issue. They then can assign stories to the writers by Monday, Jan. 11; stories need to be written by Feb. 12 to keep the production schedule on track. Keep in mind that the summer issue of Continuum will be printed by the end of May or early June.
Youth Success Website Launched
A new Web site has been launched by the Ohio 4-H Workforce Prep Initiative to serve as a resource to Extension professionals, teachers, parents, youth, employers and volunteers interested in conducting workforce preparation programs for youth. The site http://youthsuccess.osu.edu/ shares information on OSU Extension programs and includes links to tools and related articles. The site serves as a platform to improve engagement with stakeholders on how OSU Extension is preparing youth for success. This effort has been supported through the Ohio 4-H Foundation and the Erie and Orlyss Sauder 4-H Career Development Endowment Fund. Contact Nate Arnett (arnett.67@osu.edu) if you have any questions or feedback.
Searchable 4-H Research Studies Databases
Have you recently completed a 4-H research study, graduate or undergraduate thesis, or dissertation? Are you an advisor to a graduate student who recently completed a thesis or dissertation on 4-H? Did you present a research paper about 4-H at a conference? Dr. Jan Scholl, Penn State University, has created two on-line searchable databases of 4-H studies. The first database, “Making the Best Even Better: Searchable Database of Over 800 4-H Research Studies, Agricultural Experiment Station Projects, Journal Articles and Proceedings and Other Papers,” is available at the following link: http://apps.libraries.psu.edu/agnic/state_national_search.cfm
The second database, “Making the Best Better: Searchable Database of 1700 4-H Graduate Studies,” is available at the following link: http://apps.libraries.psu.edu/agnic/thesis_studies_search.cfm
If you are the author of a study or know about a 4-H study that should be included in one of these databases, please contact Dr. Jan Scholl at jscholl@psu.edu. Unless the study is a graduate thesis, journal or is already a library holding, a copy of the study results will be requested and placed in a lending library so others may find it more easily. Dr. Scholl would also appreciate receiving a 200-word abstract that summarizes your study so that they can include this in the database. Please share this broadly with your colleagues and students. Thank you for your assistance! Suzanne Le Menestrel, Ph.D., slemenestrel@nifa.usda.gov, National Program Leader, Youth Development Research.
Order your 2010 Ohio 4-H Specialty License Plate Today!
Logo plates for customers who wish to support Ohio 4-H Youth Development are now available.
Requests for special Ohio 4-H plates may be made at https://www.oplates.com/ , any local Deputy Registrar's office, through a kiosk at your local Deputy Registrar’s office or by calling the Bureau of Motor Vehicles at 1-800-589-TAGS (1-800-589-8247).
All specialty plates have an additional fee collected. $15.00 of the annual fee collected from the sale of Ohio 4-H specialty plates is given to Ohio 4-H and used to support Ohio 4-H programming.
4-H Professionals: Share this article with your 4-H friends and families. Feel free to copy and paste the plate image above for use in your local 4-H newsletters.
Teen Conference Registration
The registration materials are now posted for the 2010 Teen Conference. Saturday, February 20, 2010. Both the registration booklet and registration form are posted for your use in prompting this excellent educational opportunity for our older 4-H youth. Please keep in mind that we will be in Ballrooms 4-5 for Teen Conference this year. The ballrooms are located on the second floor at the north end of the Convention Center.
The on-line registration site is also available at: www.ohio4h.org/register.
Ohio Volunteer Conference Registration
The registration information is now posted for the 2010 Ohio 4-H Volunteer Conference, Saturday, March 13, 2010. You can find the registration booklet and registration form at: www.ohio4h.org/volunteerconference.
On-line registration is also available at: www.ohio4h.org/register.
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