Publications
Welcome to New Club Leaders
4-H Volunteer Leaders’ Series
 Printer Friendly (PDF)
The Journey •
Resources for Volunteers •
Important 4-H Concepts •
Questions to Answer •
Satisfaction and Rewards
You’ve Just Said "Yes"
• Yes – I will lead this 4-H club."
• Yes – I will work with others to make 4-H available
for youth in my community."
• Yes – I would like to become a part of the larger 4-H
system which spans our county, state and nation."
• Yes – I want to invest some of my energy and time so
that my family and my children may have 4-H experiences."
• Yes – I expect to learn new skills and grow personally
as I provide leadership to this 4-H club."
The Journey
Think of your "Yes" as the first step in a journey of
discovery, leadership and service.
• Where would you like this journey to go? What will you
accomplish?
• What do you expect to do and learn on your journey?
• With whom will you travel; with whom will you share ideas and
support?
• What tools and resources will you need?
• Will you become a different person as you travel?
The setting for the journey is your 4-H club. This club provides
the primary 4-H experience for each of its members. Your leadership is a primary
ingredient in the success of the club. As a club leader, you are responsible for
three major functions:
1. Adult volunteer leaders provide friendship, ideas and
long-term support to 4-H members and their club. The organizational leader
coordinates the efforts of this leadership team.
2. Your county Extension office and county 4-H program provide
the larger setting for your 4-H club program; you maintain contact and keep
communications flowing between the county and your club.
3. Your community is proud to support 4-H; you see that your
club and its activities are known to the community.
As you do these three things, you and your team will provide 4-H
experiences for learning for 4-H youth; you will be teachers, guides and helpers
to young men and women.
Your companions in the journey are the members of your club and
their parents. 4-H is a family affair. Parents participate with their children
in the 4-H meeting and provide project support and guidance at home.
Participation in 4-H strengthens families.
Resources for Volunteers
The
4-H Leaders’ Handbook and the 4-H Volunteer Quick Reference Guide
are intended to be a tool kit, a set of resources for your journey. These are
for your use as a club leader and for sharing with members of your leadership
team and parents.
4-H Leaders’ Handbook:
• It is written in small pieces (fact sheets) to make helpful
information easy to find, easy to read and easy to share.
• The Table of Contents will help you know where to look for
what you need. In this handbook, you will find help for:
• Starting a new club
• Understanding 4-H
• Understanding teamwork and organizing
for 4-H leadership
• Involving parents in 4-H
• Planning the club program
• Holding effective meetings
• Solving problems of your group
• Providing project leadership
• Providing record keeping leadership
• Providing activity leadership
• Knowing when you have done it well
• Celebrating with your club
• Finding program resources
This 4-H Leaders’ Handbook is not intended to be read
in sequence from beginning to end. Look for the parts where you or your team
members need help. Read and share those parts first.
The 4-H Volunteer Quick Reference Guide is a condensed
version of the 4-H Leaders’ Handbook. It discusses the key concepts
which an adult volunteer should know when working with a 4-H club or group and
references the fact sheets of the 4-H Leaders’ Handbook.
One copy of the 4-H Leaders’ Handbook is located in
each county Extension office. The fact sheets which make up the handbook are
available on Extension’s website at www.uaex.edu under Publications and
are titled 4-H Volunteer Leaders’ Series. The 4-H Volunteer Quick
Reference Guide is available free of charge through the county Extension
office.
Important 4-H Concepts
This
4-H Leaders’ Handbook has been developed around some very important
concepts. These ideas are like handles to help you "take hold of 4-H."
These include:
• Youth Development – 4-H members are front and center; 4-H
exists to provide learning experiences for 4-H youth!
• Lifelong Human Development – The importance of growing and
learning throughout one’s lifetime.
• Informal Education – Learning by doing and by discovery,
especially in areas of interest to oneself.
• Life Skills – Those feelings about self and skills for
coping which are basic to survival, productivity and human community.
• Helpership – An interpersonal relationship of support and
guidance; "doing with" rather than "doing for."
• Teamwork – Doing it together; a team is more than the sum of
the parts of the team!
• 4-H Is a Family Affair – Members and parents learn together
through 4-H.
• Communication – The key to helping 4-H happen.
Your 4-H club team (the group with which you work) and the 4-H
system (the larger 4-H family which supports your club team) are guided by these
important ideas. The ideas matter because they tell us "why 4-H is"
(our basic mission) and "how to help 4-H happen" (ways 4-H has chosen
to accomplish this mission).
Questions to Answer
So you are a new 4-H club leader! You have said "yes"
to beginning a journey. You will share this journey with the members of your
club and their families. You have a strategic role to play in 4-H. You have a
new kit of tools to use along the way.
The journey is up to you:
• How much of yourself will you invest?
• How will you involve others in the journey?
• What do you need to know?
• To what use will you put these tools?
• What do you want most for your club;
for 4-H members?
• What do you want for yourself along the way?
Satisfaction and Rewards
4-H
club leaders who have started the journey before you have many kinds of
satisfaction and rewards:
• The joy of watching boys and girls become secure and skillful
young men and women.
• The strengths which emerge as a family learns and shares
together.
• The excitement of personal growth – new skills, deeper
awareness, caring, a richer set of relationships.
• The good feeling of investing self where the pay-off matters.
Welcome to leadership in 4-H !!!
Reprinted from material prepared by Faye Caskey, Agricultural
Extension Service, University of Minnesota. Updated by Beverly Hines,
former 4-H and youth development
specialist, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Arkansas.
| Author: |
Darlene Baker, Ph.D., State Leader - 4-H Youth
and Development |
DR. DARLENE Z. BAKER is state leader - 4-H and youth development, Cooperative Extension
Service, University of Arkansas, Little Rock.
4HCB1-PD-10-02RV
|
