So You Want to Be a Club Leader? Let’s Talk

November 21, 2025

This video breaks down what it really takes to be an effective and inspired club leader—from logistics and communication to culture and connection. Whether you're new or experienced, you’ll leave with tools to lead with heart and purpose.

Video Transcript

So I'd like to welcome you all to So You Want to Be a Club Leader, Let's Talk, part of the Michigan 4-H Volunteer Webinar Series. We're going to explore some ways about leading a 4-H club, how to refresh your leadership toolkit, and what it really takes to be an effective and inspired club leader, from the logistics to the communications of it all. I'm Christine Heverly. I'm an Extension Educator in our Children and Youth Institute and the co-lead for Extension Volunteer Management with MSU Extension. and I am based in our Clinton County office, which is just north of Lansing. I will let Michelle and Lori give quick introductions also. Hi, I'm Michelle Nuff. I'm the Supervising Educator for District 6, so I'm in the Central Michigan area, and I also do youth development programming around the state for 4-H expiration days, as well as club development. And hi, I'm Lori Revetto. I am also an Extension educator. I'm based in our Wayne County office, which is where Detroit is located in Michigan. And I've been with Extension for over 19 years now, and I get to help youth be beyond ready for whatever the future brings them. So thanks for joining us. So we're super excited for you all to be with us today. We are recording this, so please try to put your questions in the chat. We will have a moment at the end where we stop the recording. If you have questions you want to ask otherwise, you can ask that way. MSU Extension believes fully in creating welcoming environments in our programs where everyone feels like they belong feel safe and have a voice we know that human differences enrich our lives work in community we embrace our responsibility to be a resource for all and are committed to providing programs to all segments of our community it is also important to understand the long -standing history and legacy of colonialism that has brought us all to reside on the land and to seek to understand our place within that history the land acknowledgement on the screen is one step in that process lori has dropped a link in the chat a quick demographic survey that helps us prove how we're meeting the different segments of the population. So if you could please complete that, unless you are attending this as your MSU Extension employee role. We just want those who are attending in a non -MSU Extension employee role to complete that demographic survey. So this is part of our webinar series. We don't have any more coming up for the rest of the year, but we do have some exciting ones that will be happening in 2026, starting in late January. The full details and registration and information on that will be up on our website by late November or early December. But you can also find there all the recordings for our past topics that we have done. So you might find something that you would enjoy listening to to help build your skills in other areas. The link for that is in the chat. Feel free to utilize that. Also, all the links will be shared in the recording afterwards for people. So to get us started, we're going to start with a quick little icebreaker question. Why do you do what you do? So I want you to be as specific as important. We want you to talk about the why of being a 4-H club leader. So I want you to take a moment to think about why are you a 4-H club leader? Or why are you engaged in 4-H? And summarize that in a couple words and put that into the chat. And I'm going to pause for 30 seconds to let people think and drop those in the chat. We have youth development. That's awesome. Yeah, we do things to help youth grow. Setting a good example for my children to contribute to their community. I want to help youth believe in themselves, as well as explore things they're interested, like hobbies and careers, etc. Why? I want to give back because I got a lot out of 4 -H when I was young. Being inspired is important and the life skills. Awesome. So it's always important to take time to think about the why. The why of being a 4-H club leader is important and ultimately gives you a drive in what you do. The clarity of why helps you stay grounded, helps you connect to a deeper purpose, and transform tasks into meaningful contributions. You can inspire others and have a ripple effect on youth, families, communities, and other volunteers. So in 4-H, we talk a lot about helping youth thrive, not just to succeed for today, but grow into confident, capable adults, that's where we have these four really key elements that are part of our 4-H experience. We want to foster spark, build belonging, have relationships, and engagement with youth. And this is what truly elevates the 4-H experience. And in your role as a 4-H club volunteer, you help do these things by, will help do these things by helping kids find sparks, belonging, relationships, and engagement. Ultimately, these elements aren't just important for 4-H success. They're what prepare youth to be beyond ready for their future, whether it's college, a career path, or leadership in their community. Youth who experience these core elements are more likely to be resilient, motivated, equipped, and take on life's next challenges. By embedding the 4-H Thrive model into the experiences you lead, you're helping develop youth who are thriving youth who are truly beyond ready. One of the biggest things we need to do as 4-H leaders is helping youth identify and foster their sparks. And in your role as a club leader, this helps design your club experience. You want to take the time as what are the sparks of the kids that are involved in my 4 -H club and how do I build those engagements, those relationships and those belonging experiences for them so as they grow. And we're going to spend the time really kind of exploring and showing how that's all embedded into being a 4-H club leader. So to get us started, there's a couple of key resources that we want to share and have you So first is our MSU Extension Volunteer Code of Conduct. And that link is in the chat. This guides what is our basic expectations of all of our 4-H volunteers. It talks about how we have to create respectful environments, how we want to have engagement for learning, how we want to be responsive to different things. It gives those key pieces. The other role that is in there is our administrative leader role description. This talks about the expectation requirements that leaders need to have that they're required to do as the administrative leader. It's a really great resource to help you look through if this is something you're considering or you're currently doing to help you see what are the things I need to be making sure I'm doing or finding a delegation of someone else in the club to help me do those pieces. And so over the content of this webinar, we will be showcasing a lot of the things that are in it and how you do that and giving you resources on how you might be able to find other people. But these are two resources that you want to keep at your fingertips. Okay, so I'm going to kind of go over some of the core responsibilities that we feel fall under a 4-H club leader. So one of the first things we want to make sure we think about is modeling that positive youth development. Somebody said that that's why they're a 4-H leader and that's awesome. We have the 4-H essential elements, which are a really great tool to use that goes through those belonging, mastery, independence, and generosity. And so really thinking about how I can infuse those elements into my 4-H club, as well as the 4-H Thrive model, which we've already kind of talked about, but making sure that we have positive youth development as the key to all that we do as a 4-H leader. We also, as a 4-H leader, one of your responsibilities is really that program delivery. It's organizing club meetings, figuring out where those are going to be, maybe having some events or putting on a workshop, helping camps, but it's really thinking about how can I make sure my kids are having hands-on learning experiences because ultimately that's what 4-H is. It's thinking about projects that they're excited about, thinking about the spark that they really have, and then figuring out how you can help them and provide them with those hands-on learning experiences. In addition to one of those core responsibilities, we always have to think about safety and compliance. We want to make sure our youth are safe at all times. And so we need to think about what is some of those risk management things that we need to maybe understand. We also want to make sure we're remembering confidentiality and respecting our youth's opinion and being a positive role model. Some of that might be also respecting other adults, maintaining, again, that confidentiality, avoiding any harassment or unsafe behaviors, making sure if we're using social media for communications that we're doing that responsibly. So it's important that we also, again, make sure that we understand our code of conduct and we're being safe and compliant. Another part of our responsibility as a 4 -H leader is to really think about communicating with our families, our staff and other volunteers. We want to make sure that we are communicating frequently and that we're engaged in that discussion about different requirements, deadlines, all that type of thing. But there's also just that back and forth discussion happening. We also want to make sure, and we can, if people have questions about that communication, we can provide you with that. We also want to make sure that we're promoting all of our programs with our youth, using your newsletters, text messages. Some people use Facebook, that type of thing, to communicate with their club. So it's really just helping make sure that everybody is in the know and what's going on in your club. We also have administrative tasks that are important. Yearly, we have annual paperwork that needs to be filled out for the MSU Extension staff. This is to keep us in compliance with the IRS regulations and many other things. We also need to make sure that all our kids are enrolled online so that we know contact information. We know health information. We know that we can take pictures. All those type of things needs to happen. So make sure that we're enrolled in 4-H. So youth are enrolled in 4-H. And then there's also finances that are important, too, is understanding if your club is going to have money, what does that look like, making sure you're following the rules as well. And then last, we really want our core responsibility of a 4-H volunteer as a club leader is to really be open is to willing to learn, to try new things, to be willing and open to our youth, but also to coming to trainings like this. MSU Extension provides lots of leader trainings or some leader trainings across the state, different times of the year. And we really want our volunteers to, you know, have that passion to be a lifelong learner and helping them improve their skills so that they can reach as many youth and other adults as they can. So when we think about some dates and some documentations, it's important to think about like just the timeline. And this is a really great time to come to this training because we've kind of just started a 4-H year. So the first date to know is that a 4-H year always starts in September 1st. So we just started not too long ago our 4-H year for the 2025-2026 4-H year. In mid to mid-September is when enrollments open up or our 4-H online system opens up for the new year for kids to enroll. Kids can, new kids can enroll at that time, but also kids who are already enrolled can re-enroll in the 4-H online system. So a lot of times you'll see in other counties across or in counties across the state, they're doing enrollment time right now. And that's good because we want kids to be enrolled so that we can communicate with them all the great opportunities that are out there, get them excited about some experiences, and then the leaders know who's enrolled in their club and who's interested in being engaged in 4-H. And Michelle, I want to say that a great note about that too is that people sometimes are surprised or didn't know that they needed to re-enroll every year. And so I think that's a really important thing as a club leader or involved in 4-H anyway to remind people that it's an annual re-enrollment. So it's not an enrollment and you're just check the box forever. So this is when changes and updates are really important for enrollment too. So addresses or permissions or medical things need to be updated. So it's an annual thing. Yeah, great. We also, in the fall, it's also the time for some of the annual paperwork that needs to be filled out. So the annual financial summary report, again, is due October 1st every year. That is a reflection of the last year of if you had financial money or if you didn't have money, we still need to know you didn't have a bank account and we need a form filled out. This is required for all clubs to have filled out every year. So again, not like, oh, I'm just going to do one and I'm done. Nope, this is again an annual paperwork. Also needs to understand if there's property, Maybe you've purchased something in your club, that type of thing. We just need to have an inventory of that, again, to make sure we're in compliance as an organization with the IRS and also with MSU. We also have civil rights signed paperwork annually. We want to make sure that all our clubs understand they're open to all, just like we as a 4-HR. We want to reach all youth across the state of Michigan. And so there's a signed paper that needs to be handed out or filled out. We also have what's called the club profile, which is another form many counties use to really just get an idea of when is a club meeting, what ages are they really focusing on, what projects are they interested in, and it gives us an overview of what that club is really into so that when new members want to join 4-H, we can say, these are the clubs that might fit best in your wheelhouse, in your area, or in the projects that you have. Important also to know there's a deadline when it, or information when it comes to finances. Many clubs do fundraisers, which is great. They raise money to help their 4-H club, whether buy supplies or just do some really great things in your club. There is an application and a report form that needs to be filled out. So if you are interested in doing a fundraiser and raising money in that way, just make sure that you understand all the policies and procedures about that. I do believe, I think there was a recording on that before, so we can also get you more information if you have questions when it comes to finances. So when we think about a successful 4-H club, we're going to go through what are some of those successful 4 -H club parts that we think really need to be included in all 4 -H clubs. And so the first one is we want to make sure youth are really actively participating in learning. So that means that you as a club leader are making sure that they get to choose the projects that they're interested in to help them develop the life skills that go along with those. They get to maybe you're going to be work including different learning styles so that they're learning maybe some visual, maybe some hands-on, maybe some audio, but really making sure that they're engaged and they're learning. You want to help them make sure they have some tangible results and really their progression and meeting their challenges that they might have. So again, you also are important to that actively engaging and learning. We want them to have fun. We want them to keep coming back and we want them to be engaged. So that's one of the first things. The other thing that we also want in a successful 4-H club is youth voice and decision making. This is a 4-H club for youth. We want the youth to make decisions. We want them to have an opportunity to voice their opinions, vote on decision making, talk about decisions that they may have to make or not have to make. And so it's really important that that is a part of your 4 -H club's experience. This could be group decisions. So like what as an individual or as a club, what are we going to decide? Are we going to buy something as a club or are we going to make a craft as a club or that type of thing? But we also want them to make decisions individually about maybe their own projects or things that they might want to evaluate themselves on. A 4-H club also is all about social interaction, and that's about interacting with others, learning what is appropriate and how we talk. It's also cooperating and in that competitive type setting sometimes, but it's socializing. And so making sure we think about how can we have some time to have some of those recreational slash icebreaker activities where you're getting together as a group, maybe having a fun kickball game and that type of thing. So, again, fun falls into there as well. Another opportunity that we want for kids in a successful 4-H club is leadership opportunities. We want those members to have leadership roles. We want there to be maybe a president, vice president, secretary, and treasurer. Those are the four main areas. But really, you could have others if that makes sense for your 4-H club. We want there to be some opportunities for kids to, again, get up in front and talk, share some experiences, again, teaching about a project that they really like, that type of interaction, giving them these leadership opportunities. We want them to serve, and maybe it's not just in your club, but maybe in your county, or maybe there's some other ways, but we want to also help train them, like guide them in their leading of the club, that type of thing. Doesn't mean we hand everything over, but it also means that we kind of guide and help them in what they do. We also want to make sure that they think about goals and setting and reflection. throughout your 4 -H meeting, we also want you to make sure that you take time to say, okay, what did we just do today and how can we do it differently next time? Or how does this apply to their real world? And this is where the experiential learning model really falls into. And if you need some help with some questions that you can ask, that kind of thing, we do have a set of questions that you can ask at different points of your 4-H meeting or 4 -H projects and really help them think about some of that goal setting and that reflection as they are doing their experiences. We also want to recognize our kids in 4-H in different ways for their achievement, for their progress they made, for the process that they went through to get to where they're at. That can be their individual accomplishments. It could be collectively a club's accomplishments. There are lots of counties who do incentives and awards programs and really want to highlight those kids. And so that's important as a 4-H club leader to know that that's important for you to help lead that. Sometimes they're not going to want to volunteer themselves for those awards, but you can encourage and encourage them to apply for those. 4-H is also about community. You know, it's in our 4-H pledge to help our community. So we want to make sure our clubs have some community involvement. So what does that look like? every county might club might be a little bit different but having some community service in that club using 4-H as a community resource you know really helping the welfare of the whole community and whether that's you know collecting food or donating things or really just being out there in the community but making a difference and then we will also want you to know that a Successful 4-H club is also connected to a lot of other things, or 4 -H in a broader sense. MSU Extension is, 4 -H is a part of MSU Extension, and MSU Extension is part of Michigan State University. Michigan State University is Michigan's land-grant university, and it's been around for a long time, since 1855. There is a national 4-H program that is an international program that kids can get involved in, can travel, that type of thing. We also have a Michigan 4-H Foundation, which helps support and looks for resources to help grow our 4-H program in Michigan in different ways and counties in different ways. And we also have connections with the National 4-H Council, as well as the Department of Agriculture, Natural Institute of Food and Agriculture, sorry. So there's lots of connections that 4 -H is a big, a part of a bigger organization, not just this little club, but really is a part of a nationwide movement of positive youth development across the United States. So now we have another activity that we want you to kind of reflect through and think through in your capacity as a 4-H volunteer. So if you have the ability to have a small piece of paper in front of you, you could just draw out a plate, a cup, a fork, and a knife and a spoon. Or you can just make titles for that and sketch out some things. And what we're going to do is we're going to have you visualize your responsibilities that you are currently doing or imagine you might be doing if you want to be stepping into this role. identify where that energy goes and reflect on the balance and the boundaries and the support that you might need for this. So we want you to think about the plate. That is your main responsibilities. What's currently on your plate as a 4-H club leader? So think about those things that are currently on your plate as a 4-H club leader. Jot some of those down. And if some people want to drop a few of those ideas into the chat, what's on your plate as a 4-H club volunteer? You want to think about the big things you do or expect to do. It could be planning meetings, communicating with families, supporting youth and projects, keeping the records. Yeah, the information, the communication, the meetings, project deadlines, resolving conflict. You can also kind of place things on, if you really want to think about this and you want to think about it later, determine how much space on your plate each of these things take. So I know that certain things on my plate as a 4-H club leader take longer than other things take? And how do I space those out? So then we want you to think about the cup. This is what energizes you and motivates you about being a 4-H club leader. So what fills you up as a cup leader? So take a moment to reflect some ideas on what fills you up about being a 4 -H club leader. And if you're comfortable dropping those in the chat. Christine, we had another one for the plate saying organizing the education and educational paths for young people too. Yes, definitely. Yeah. We definitely have to help organize some of those pieces. So things that might fill you up is seeing the pride in the members as they grow, seeing the spark kids have when they accomplish something, seeing the pride that kids get when they accomplish a project or task, the light bulb moments. Yeah. I think the light bulb moments are huge. One of my filler up as a 4-H club leader. It's the teamwork that we could see in our 4-H clubs. It's the confidence we see growing in kids. It's sometimes when that family engagement has family step up and help take on some of those tasks for you. It's that learning something new. Yeah, all of those pieces help you think about it. So now let's think about the fork, the tools that you utilize to get things done. So what helps you lead effectively? So write down any tangible tools or resources that you utilize that help you lead effectively or you imagine might help you lead effectively. The financial manual, open communication with a co-leader. I cannot say enough about open communication with co-leaders or leaders. Getting others to help, that communication piece. Having a communication strategy for whoever is helping you lead the club is key. Thinking about some joint communication systems in your club. For example, our club, we use a club email. So we can all manage the Gmail account of those that are taking on leadership roles. And it allows us to have one central place for information. Having other leaders, email lists, delegating responsibilities. Yes. The how to enroll in 4-H online video was shared. I would also add one. I like like planning out. We talked about this earlier a little bit of a planning out the whole year helps me as well as much as possible so that it's not a last minute thing. So having that plan. Yeah. So then let's look at the knife, which is the challenges or things that cut into your time or energy. What are the biggest challenges or stress points? So write down some of those like challenges or stress points you might have as a 4-H volunteer in your role of leading a 4-H club or considering. Complaints from non -leading parents. Yeah, that can definitely be a piece. The parent drama. Time commitments. I think that's a huge piece is time commitments. Scheduling conflicts. Limited help. The paperwork can be a challenge. Participation attendance. The how to get youth to be engaged. how to have this make when there's so many opportunities for youth to participate in how to getting them to be engaged in this and how do you do that things those are all things that definitely can be an energy suck or a challenge that can cut into your time and energy it could be the something that also can cut into your time and energy is one that I consider is not having people willing to help out, like people not stepping up to take on things. Because it's really hard to lead a club all by yourself. And if you can find parents and other co-leaders to take on tasks and the things that they're each good at, it is truly helpful in having a well-rounded club. So we're going to look at the spoon last. So what nourishes and sustains you? So what helps you stay positive and patient and connected? So what keeps you going, basically? It's not just what fills you, what actually keeps you going as wanting to be a 4-H club leader. Pause for a moment for you to think about it. The excitement from the kids. Yes, that's definitely something that always keeps me going. The other leaders, new members, the kids, definitely other volunteers, support that I might receive from my local 4-H program coordinator. The small wins from youth, the youth enthusiasm, the spending time at the fair and recognizing everyone's accomplishment. Yeah, that's one of my favorite things is to be able to see what all the kids in the 4-H club did and be able to recognize their accomplishments. My favorite meeting we do the entire year is actually our August meeting always because we do an entire reflection on the 4-H year in the fair and have a celebration with it. And it lets me help see what exciting things they did and hear about it from their perspective Because I might see the ribbons and things go, but sometimes you hear about, you know, for them, the accomplishments aren't always about the projects they do, but it's about the connections and relationships they made with other volunteers or youth. And that's really things that keep me going. Christine, I would also say sometimes, like we were mentioning some of the things that were nice, like, you know, it could be parents or scheduling conflicts. But then when you get some of that appreciation from parents or from other volunteers or from youth, and it's very rewarding because I think sometimes we have a tendency to notice all of, like, the negative things or the complaints or the people who are negative. But we probably also are getting the positive comments, too. At times, it's just the negative ones sometimes feel heavier. So like a good meal, club leadership takes balance. Too much of one thing can be overwhelming. So we're going to spend time with some tools to help you keep your plate full of purpose, not just the tasks. I think as you take a moment to kind of look back at your own plate, you're probably seeing what maybe takes more space than you want it to do. But you're also seeing the things that energize you and get you excited. But the one thing I want us to think of moment on is what surprised you when you looked at your plate? So what surprises you most that you wrote down? I'm just going to reflect on that one question. So what surprised you when you looked at your plate? Is there anything that surprised? It could be one of the ideas you've already shared in the chat. But what has surprised you when you look at your plate? It's so full. Yeah, our plates are pretty full as 4-H Club volunteers. That is definitely something that happens. For me, when I personally did this ahead of time, what surprised me most was how full my cup also was. It's what fills me up. is that's what keeps me going. And it was fuller than I anticipated it potentially being. So I think that is a piece I like to reflect on is how full my cup was as a 4-H volunteer. Which I love, Christine, you put a really big cup on the screen. I did, because it is very full as a 4 -H volunteer for me. Great. So another important thing to remember is that all of our work as 4-H volunteers, leaders, and staff members, too, is connected to connections, leading with our hearts. And really important to remember that youth development and those outcomes for our young people are what are most important. So we are sharing a bunch of resources, but want to just touch on some important concepts that we've referenced before as well. So the Thrive Model is the basis of our work, making sure that we're providing those elements that are really important with SPARK and belonging, engagement, and those relationships so that young people are truly thriving and it will lead to those long-term outcomes. As Michelle mentioned earlier, the essential elements are a large part of that component as well and kind of give more context to the Thrive model in terms of that sense of belonging, those positive relationships, having that inclusive and safe environment for young people whether it be physically or emotionally safe for young people giving them opportunities to engage in their learning master skills I know skills was mentioned earlier in developing those life skills which also relates to that sense of independence so that young people see themselves as active participants are hopeful for the future that they have those goals and plans for themselves in the future and see that they have autonomy to be able to shape those choices too and that they have the ability to create their own goals and plans for themselves in the future to become an individual. And then that sense of generosity, which again, we have as part of our pledge, which is amazing, but being able to value and practice service to others and in the community and the skills that that also provides as well and all of this we're of course doing with that hands-on learning approach so I think that's one of the things I love the most about 4-H is that we're not a lecture program we're not telling young people this is the information and this is what you do and that's it it's that hands-on learning engagement, being able to actually do something and then reflect on it and apply it to our lives. That's where the true learning takes place. And I think that's one of the best parts about our 4-H program. And then all of this rooted in incorporating youth voice. So making sure, which a lot of you said is something that you have some strong components on already in your programs, which is wonderful, but incorporating youth voice, making sure that youth are actively engaged in their learning and are making those decisions and taking on those leadership roles. So all of this is built around the concept of positive youth development, which was mentioned earlier, and is the foundation of what we should be doing as 4-H volunteers, club leaders, and staff. And so the important thing to remember here is that you get to, as a leader, build that club culture. There are a variety of ways to do this, and some of them are ones that we talked about with the successful clubs. So there's a lot of repetition in terms of what makes us successful and what makes our 4 -H program so exemplary. But making a plan for the year can really help. So everyone knows what to expect, what needs to be done, and when things might be taking place. That really also helps with the communication as well and making sure that everyone's aware of what's taking place and what's going to go on. And that communication, like Michelle was mentioning earlier is about to staff as well. So it's really important when we were even looking at those deadlines, your county might have different deadlines for things or might have different programs or events or activities that are going on throughout the year that require deadlines as well. So communicating with the staff is really important so you know when those are and then you can communicate those to the families as well. So there might be different components of fair involvement or recognition events that have different deadlines that are across our state are very different and so you it's really important to have that connection with your staff as well and the other volunteers the families and the youth in your program really important to share opportunities throughout the years so the local events that are taking place the state the national the international events this is where young people can really step into different opportunities You never know what someone might be interested in. And so sharing it could be creating that spark that will help a young person go to that next place in their life. And that's what we're aiming for. Creating that welcoming space. So making sure that you are creating a space where young people feel included and welcomed, that they get to be themselves, that they feel safe, that they can then learn. We know that research shows that when young people feel safe in a space, they're able to learn. And so creating that in our 4-H program is super important. And then, of course, incorporating those awards and recognition, like Michelle was mentioning earlier as well. So, again, that could be something that you're doing locally within your own program and providing regular and ongoing recognition. It doesn't have to be something dramatic, but it's noting that young people have maybe tried something or took on a challenge or were able to succeed in a situation where they've been struggling or took a chance to be brave, even if it didn't go exactly how they wanted. So, again, finding a way to make sure that there's that recognition component as well. So what strategies in the chat, we'd love to hear, what strategies do you use to build a positive and successful club culture in your club? So of these areas or maybe something else, how do you help build a positive club culture? One of the things that I've incorporated is actually having current members welcome new members. So there's a variety of ways that you can do that. But I've had current members write welcome notes to new members. And so then they already have like a connection with somebody when they when they join in the club. And that's been pretty successful. And I know Christine was mentioning earlier about sometimes nominating young people for awards or other volunteers as well, because we always don't necessarily want to self-nominate ourselves or don't think about it. But when somebody else puts that forward, it can be really beneficial. One of the things that I try to do within our club is know other things about the kids in the club. So it creates that welcoming space to help them grow and learn a little bit. I think it's also great to see when you see kids not in a club setting, but to like call them and ask them how they're doing and talk about their projects and, you know, really developing that sense of community outside of the 4-H club. Like when you see them at a sporting event or at the local grass station or whatever, that you really make them feel like, hey, she really cares about me. So, yeah, I love that. Thanks, Michelle. Right. So as 4-H volunteers, there's also the ability that you come in and wearing a variety of different hats. You've been involved and connected to 4-H in maybe a variety of different roles and experiences. You could be a 4-H parent. You could be a 4-H alumni. You could be a 4-H member. You could be an extension staff member in a different county or a different part of our organization. And all of those things shape the hat you're wearing. And it's really important when you have different hats, if you're coming into as a 4-H club leader and you're a 4-H alumni, and maybe you're an alumni from a different county and you're going to start to be a volunteer in the county you're current residing in, how they do things might be different. So it's sometimes knowing because within 4-H there are 83 counties across Michigan and each county is slightly different because it needs to meet its community needs and its components of those pieces. So when you come in as a 4-H volunteer, you have to think about the different hats that you're wearing. Focus on the role that you're taking at that moment and try and separate the different roles you might have. So when I'm coming in as a 4-H volunteer within my 4-H club, there are times I have to separate out my 4-H parent role and hope that some other parents in the club are willing to kind of focus and help my kids a little bit while I'm leading the activity. I also have to take on the thing is I have to set aside my extension role is in volunteer management and how do I focus as just the club leader tonight and keep those pieces going. You have to give yourself time to adjust to the change. If you're coming in and you're taking on the new role as organizational leader within a club, take some time to adjust. Maybe find some other leaders that will help mentor you that are past. Or maybe it's from a different club going observing one of the other clubs in your county program to see how they do things or picking that organizational leader's brains, administrative leader brain. So you get some ideas and can refresh yourself. Be honest and transparent about the roles and the space you're in. There are times when I have to say to people that right now I'm a 4-H parent or right now I'm a MSU Extension staff member and that's the role and hat I'm wearing. or there are times when I have to look at my own children and say, right now, I'm the 4 -H leader of the club. You're going to need to ask the other leader to help you with this while I'm taking leadership of this specific activity. And so it is trying to be honest and transparent about it. It's also really important to set some boundaries. So thinking about what are the boundaries you want to set in terms of the hats you wear and how it fits together to make it all be a successful piece for you and a puzzle that works out for you is we have these different hats and they play a role of who we are they shape our kind of leadership experiences we'll give in our clubs and they're important to remember that at times we have to take off one hat to put on the other hat and it's really hard to wear all of them at once so we do have to think about how do I wear just that hat at this time yeah and Christine I would also add one of the things with changing and adjusting is that especially when you have adjusted perhaps you were in 4-H as a member and now you're a leader or you know you were a leader and now you're also a parent or something is that you do have to give yourself you know that space to adjust to that change too right that that it's a different experience than maybe what you are used to and that feels different so looking at it from that different angle. So yeah. Yeah. So it is looking at it and all the angles helps you be a more successful leader. And looking at how you take that hat off and finding the resources from other people that might help you out. And I just want to also add someone shared a cool club culture idea about bringing in outside speakers involved that to present that will tie in with a potential project. So they gave the example of giving pause organization and it gave inspiration for doing additional 4-H projects and giving back to the community so um Christine kind of started alluding to resources and we're so we're going to go to the next slide right Christine okay um MSU Extension and 4-H has a lot of resources for you as a 4 -H volunteer in club leader to help lead your club and so we have a club development 4-H club development website and I really encourage you to bookmark that in there it talks about what we believe so if anybody questions what we are we you have all of that documentation there's also information about managing a 4-H club and leading a 4-H club and also virtual if you decide to ever do a virtual 4-H club so there's like four kind of components in that website I really encourage again we have broken down lots of hands-on resources in one spot so it's like all local right there you can go find what you need and if there's ever anything that you don't have or you don't know where it's just let us know we can try to help locate it for you shop 4-h also has a lot of resources um for 4 -h club leaders a lot of curriculum i would encourage you to talk to your office first your extension office before you spend a whole bunch of money on curriculum because they may have some of those resources locally um but shop 4-h has a lot of curriculum a lot of um just even some basic lesson plans and that kind of stuff for 4-h leaders um we also provide trainings and resources like i said we have a may i think it's may 7th there is a spark training coming up in michigan for volunteers and teens if you're interested in learning some new skills and some new ideas to bring back to your club um visit frankenmuth in march and that would be that's a training but we have also other ones um locally you'll have some annual trainings that happen, I would encourage you to try to make those annual meetings or annual trainings. We also do, I know staff across the state do really, really hard, or a really good job trying to get the information out in newsletters and on social media. So if you haven't been on social media or connected to Michigan 4-H, Michigan 4 -H Foundation, any of the different projects and programs that you're interested in, like for expiration days, Winterfest, or your local 4-H program, I encourage you to keep up on that. They put a lot of infographics, registration information about all those opportunities. Another great way to get some resources and tools is to connect and network with other volunteers at state events or other opportunities and just talk about what you do, some challenges or barriers or some really highlights. And I think we learn from each other in a lot of great ways. I also want you to also understand that many offices have a lot of great resources available. 4-H has been around for over 100 years. And so over those 100 years, we've collected a lot of things. And some of those are craft supplies that people like to donate to 4-H because they know we have great programs and a lot of cool things. So contact your office and say, hey, I have a 4-H club meeting. I'm looking for popsicle sticks or I'm looking for this. Is there anything that you might have? Or I want to do an activity around this, but I need some help with thinking about what those look like. The county office has a lot of those resources, some of those, and can help you with that. We also have what's called learning lab kits, which are really animal focused, but they really focus on the different parts of animals. You can go through parts, you can go through meat cuts, you can go through nutrition, You can go through reading. All that kind of stuff is in those. And we also, like I said, have some educational guides and manuals. A lot of those are on the Web, but they're also can get hard copies and we can print some of that stuff off. So just know that there is a lot of great resources available for 4-H volunteers. We don't know if you don't if we don't know if you need it, if if you don't say something. So it's important to make sure you communicate and talk with your 4-H staffers. It looks like Lori must have put a plug for one of her business guides to success, which is on sale. So that's exciting. So I we really appreciate you guys all being on today. One way we want you to reflect on our class and we want you to put it in. You can put it in the chat if you want, but you don't have to or just maybe on a sticky note. What is one thing that you will do write down one thing that you will do from this training or one thing that you're going to work on that? You're going to like, I'm going to lead with a purpose this year, and I'm going to do this type of thing. So I just want you to reflect again on our training and think about writing one thing down that you will do. And if you want, you're welcome to share it in the chat as well. We also want to take a moment to thank everyone and share that this concludes the recording and we'll be opening up for discussion. As you do leave the Zoom room, there'll be a quick evaluation pop up. So please take a moment to complete that for us. And we really do appreciate you coming and engaging in the conversation with us.

MSU Extension 4-H Volunteering & Mentoring