National 4-H Conference: Ready, Set, Go!

From April 5-12, 2018 Washington D.C. will be buzzing with 4-H members. It will be National 4-H Conference!

Today was the first meeting for the roundtable facilitators. We were able to introduce ourselves to the team and have a briefing over what our role will be.

Over the course of the next few months, we will be meeting to have professional development conference calls that will cover topics of how to lead in a productive environment to how to create lesson plans to how to best engage with the participants and chaperones, etc.

During the week at Conference, the roundtable facilitators will be facilitating a group of approximately 16 youth from around the nation and Canada to create a three-part presentation for a federal agency that will answer a challenge question. Their presentation must include a script, a handout, and a branded PowerPoint. The participants must complete this task at their five roundtable meetings, while at conference. This is an extremely short turnaround time; however, I am sure that they are up for the challenge.

My role will include assisting them in making their vision come to fruition, being the liaison between the federal agency and the youth, and setting them up for success with the limited amount of time that they have to complete this task.

While it will be stressful, it will most definitely be worthwhile. In past years, I have had the opportunity to work with the Department of Labor and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. We were able to help them improve their youth outreach and programming, assist them in editing their websites, and develop marketing strategies and social media campaigns.

I am extremely excited to see what this group of young people will come up with!