Southern Region 4-H Program Leaders
Conference Call
 

July 10, 2008

Members on call: 
Alison Ann Moore,
Steve Sutton,
Bo Ryles,
Cathy Sutphin,
Charles Cox,
Darlene Baker,
Dorothy Wilson,
Janet Fox,
Javiette Samuel,
Kellye Rembert,
Mark Tassin,
Marshall Stewart,
Martha Couch,
Nickey Jefferson,
Thearon McKinney

Guests on call:
Beth Birnsteihl (University of Nebraska, SET),
Ron Drum (National 4-H Council, SET),
Andy Ferrin (National 4-H Council, SET),
Kathleen Jamison (Virginia Tech, SET),
Allyson McMahan (National 4-H Council, SET)

Thearon McKinney led the conference call on behalf of Claudette Smith.

Agenda:
No additional agenda items

Minutes:
No additions or corrections

PLN:
Access 4-H: Darlene asked the group to consider Bob Ranson’s request to give an Access 4-H presentation at PLN. Janet Fox reported that there has been a lot of work done to broaden the focus of this system making it important for us to give input. Bo Ryles suggested that it would be good for us to have hands-on experience with it. It was agreed to give Bob an hour on the PLN agenda.

Entrepreneurship Discussion: Nickey Jefferson reported that Penn State hosted an entrepreneurship symposium several months ago – this is where the suggestion came up for a joint discussion group (with CD) arose. A point of discussion is the inclusion of entrepreneurship education in all 4-H curriculums. The meeting of this group at PLN will be a visioning session with resulting recommendations.

Urban Task Force: This item was tabled.

Critical Health Issues: Thearon McKinney will ask Claudette Smith to give the program leaders guidance as to how she would like this reported out. Charles Cox will also contact Claudette Smith about existing data from a previous survey.

 

SET:
Ron Drum presented an overview of the discussion for this call. Basically, “What are we doing with 4-H SET?”

Beth Birnsteihl spoke to the structure of SET. There are two existing task forces:

  1. Leadership task force. This is a group of 10-12 individuals who meet once a month to discuss the “big picture” items.
  2. Management task force. This group puts out the SET content information across the country. Consists of three subcommittees: Curriculum, Evaluation, Professional Development.

Almost all of the state SET plans are in – everyone is encouraged to work with state liaisons to get these drafted. The state liaisons will be meeting quarterly via Adobe Connect/conference call by region beginning in September. This is in effort to move to a concentrated communication forum with state liaisons. Also, a list of SET committee participants will be added to the SET website. Beth thanked the program leaders for supporting the SET effort.

Kathleen Jamison – Curriculum. The goal of this committee is to provide curriculum that includes common sense, fun and engaging activities. They have been through the development phase – pilots, outside reviewers, etc. There is an individual project book as well as a facilitator guide that doubles as a participant book. Revisions of the materials are currently underway. There are ready to begin Phase Two of the evaluation process concentrating on learner outcomes and technology skills/abilities. They will be asking for pilot sites in the southern region (as well as the other regions). This group is connected to and involved in the Coalition for Science Afterschool. As far as scope and sequence: the first area of emphasis is environmental as these are the needs that surfaced from input from the states. Secondly, they will consider how this relates to/impacts other areas of 4-H. Contact Kathleen at her Virginia Tech or National Council e-mail address.

Ron Drum – Evaluation. Phased process – learning what the needs are and how those needs can be met. Also, utilizing data tracking system to see how it’s going with the 1,000,000 new 4-H members.

Ron Drum – Professional Development – similar process as evaluation. Learning what the needs of the system are and how those needs can best be met. Javiette Samuel is on this subcommittee and reported that they are working on a survey to gauge our assets. An e-mail will go out mid-August distributing this survey.

Andy Ferrin – Marketing. The simple objective is to express the strengths of 4-H in SET. An additional objective is to strengthen the 4-H brand via these new audiences. The June 18th Launch was a huge success and the first step in building media relations. They will continue to seek out national media “hits” – recent interview with Don Floyd and former New York 4-H member on FOX Business. October 8th is National Youth Science Day – will be concentrating on the environmental component of SET. A science experiment design is being developed to distribute to 4-H Leaders, specialists, agents, etc. for national participation on Oct. 8th.  This should be a great media opportunity. Public service advertising and materials will be used to remind new audiences that we (4-H) have been involved in SET activities for a long time. These PSA materials will be distributed for local use.

Beth Birnsteihl – It is important to recognize all of the partners in this effort. It is truly an integrated effort across the entire system.
Ron Drum – Plans of Action. These plans help provide direction for SET. They also help donors understand where we are going with SET.

Bo Ryles – The June 18th Launch was a very good experience.

Trustee Update:
Bo Ryles gave a brief report noting that a more extensive report will follow at PLN. Financial report from Council – 24.6 million in revenue and 23.4 million in expenses. They are moving forward with discussion concerning expansion at the National 4-H Center. Some new trustees have come on board – very good additions. Council is being asked to encourage trustees to get involved with 4-H events/activities/programs where they live.

National Leadership Structure:
Bo Ryles and Claudette Smith will share a survey/questionnaire with program leaders to provide feedback to PWG. This should provide greater understanding from both groups and should result in recommendations from PWG.

Hearing no further discussion, Thearon McKinney adjourned the call at 9:53 AM