4-H YOUTH DEVELOPMENT ADVISORY COUNCIL
Conference Call Minutes
Thursday, June 26, 2008
University Park: Christy Bartley, Tracy Hoover, Marilyn Corbin, Sandy Smith
Southwest Region: Kim McManus
Northwest Region: Marlene Kaltenbach
Central Region: Jen Fleck
Capital Region: Becky Kaucher
Northeast Region: Sherri Abbruzzi & Michael McDavid (NE Reg Dir)
Southeast Region: Deborah Dietrich
Sherri Abbruzzi, Chairman, called the meeting to order at 10:05 a.m.
I. PROGRAM DIRECTION & PLANNING
1. SharePoint Site---Christy shared with council that documents are posted on the new
SharePoint web site. Documents include the notes taken from the May 15th planning
meeting. The next step is to become familiar with the documents that are on the
SharePoint site and add your edits and comments. Marlene Kaltenbach opened discussion
and shared the following as an addition to the list for a vision statement.
4-H Youth Development: Head, Heart, Hands, Health- a community of young people across
Pennsylvania learning leadership, citizenship, and life skills to become productive members
of society.
Vision statement # 5 was chosen from the list and the above statement was chosen to be
the beginning of the 4-H Mission Statement. The group is digesting all the comments that
were made today and will decide the Mission Statement at the next conference call.
2. Mission Statement--- Building on suggestion by N.W. Region adding to the end. Deleting
members changing to society . Sandy Smith commented that there needs to be a special
emphasis that includes Agriculture and Environmental (land based) sciences. “This is what
we do, and these or our resources”- must be reflected in Mission Statement.
Part of the discussion centered on the importance of the caring adult other than a parent in
the club setting. It was concluded that a new mission statement would be drafted and
posted to the SharePoint website. A new meeting is being added to the agenda before the
Oct. 16th scheduled meeting to discuss the Vision Statement and Mission Statement.
3.
Person to work on each Foundation-It was decided that each region would be responsible
to organizing a writing team to draft each of the six foundations that were determined from
the program review. The information from the May 15 meeting is on the SharePoint site and
should inform the writing efforts.
Foundation IFoundation IIFoundation III-
S.W. Region- Kim McManus
S.E. Region- Brianna Shealer, Deb Dietrich
N.E. Region- Sherri Abbruzzi
Foundation IVFoundation VFoundation VI-
CentralJen Fleck
N.W.Region- Marlene Kaltenbach
CapitalEd Bender, Becky Kaucher
1st draft should be posted to SharePoint site by August 15, 2008.
B. Marilyn Corbin update---High Priorities:
 Strategic Plan in Extension including 4-H and Mission Mandates
 Goal to strengthen volunteer base
 College plan has number of places for 4-H in Sciences and resources and career
opportunities in Agriculture
II. PROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION & MANAGEMENT
A.
Insurance Meeting last week
 Outcomes of Shooting Sports meeting- We need to provide a lot more specific
information to Dave for him to determine how we are to be covered. A survey will be
sent out to acquire more specific information including number of clubs, discipline for
each club, number of youth and adults, discipline training for leaders, level of leader
certification, and leader update certification. Dave will also rewrite the shooting sports
section so that it is clearer and raises less questions about expectation. Dave suggested
inclusion of curriculum about habitat, species ID, tracking, and natural resources. We do
have these project areas but they are not normally incorporated into shooting sports.
Reminder: Insurance does not cover groups traveling to another event; the kids will be
covered under the insurance for the event attended.
 Outcomes of General Liability meetingo Adult only open horse shows are not covered under the volunteer liability
insurance and cannot be run as fund-raisers. Other groups can hold adult only
horse shows and have the profits go to 4-H. The group cannot include 4-H as a
sponsor but can make the following statement on their brochures: Proceeds from
this show will benefit the 4-H Youth Development program of _________
County.
o The volunteer liability insurance does not follow 4-H members to events outside
the 4-H program. The event insurance of the hosting group would provide
coverage.
o Volunteer liability insurance does not cover FFA. FFA needs to provide a
certificate of insurance if there is joint programming.
o Reminder: For those counties with entity insurance who are submitting grant
contracts to PW Wood, please remember to go through the contracts checklist
document in the policy manual (section 2, Organizational Structure, page 2-19)
before submitting those contracts.
o Coin toss games are games of chance and therefore are not permitted under
university policy.
B.
2012 100th Anniversary of Pennsylvania 4-H-Do we want to organize a celebration? This
is an opportunity to market the 4-H program and recognize people including donors,
volunteers, and outstanding youth. Janet MacDougall and Sanford Smith have
volunteered to be a part of the committee.
It was suggested that regions take on sub-committee responsibilities to help distribute
the work. Ideas include recruiting retired 4-H Educators as well as volunteers and
business sponsors who have a vested interest in 4-H.
Those interested in serving on a state coordinating committee should let Christy know.
Regional representatives will also identify someone to represent their region on the state
committee. Names will be brought to the October 16 Advisory Council meeting.
III. EVALUATION AND TROUBLESHOOTING
A. Problems with SharePoint--- To open SharePoint, you must put “ag\” before the user ID.
Editing documents in SharePoint can be done through the track changes feature.
B. SharePoint in the Future--- Christy would like to see information for Extension Educators
moved from the 4-H website to the SharePoint site to utilize the technology as well as
make the SharePoint site the main hub of communication for Extension Educators. This
will allow the 4-H Web site to be more user friendly for youth and adult audiences.
IV. OTHER ITEMS
A. Fair Funds-PDA has developed three proposals to take to the Fair Board. When a
B.
C.
D.
E.
decision is made, information on the new formula will be shared. At this time, it appears
that the reimbursement formula will be based on a tiered system where larger total
enrollment will result in larger base reimbursement. In addition, club enrollment will be
reimbursed to a higher level than other delivery modes. Educators are encouraged to
watch for announcements from PDA once a decision is made.
National Youth Science Day-4-H will be sponsoring a National Youth Science Day on
October 8, 2008. A single experiment will be identified for youth across the US to do and
enter data on the Web. Marketing materials and announcements will be ready for
distribution in mid-August. For those working with schools and other community groups,
you may want to consider how to engage these youth in the day.
Youth Development Program Management Coordinator-This position is currently being
filled by Phil Hoy on a 50% time basis. Further decisions on this position will be made
after August 15.
Reframing Extension-A 4-H team meeting will be held during fall in-service week,
September 2-4. The date requested is September 3, but it has not been confirmed.
Claudia Mincemoyer and Suzanne Boarts have agreed to help with the transitioning
process from POW teams to program teams. We will try to host some Adobe Connect
sessions over the summer to inform more individuals about the work continuing to date
and next steps.
Next Meeting-Christy will work on establishing a conference call in August to further
discuss the Vision and Mission statements plus review any draft foundation documents.
The next confirmed meeting of the 4-H Youth Development Advisory Council is October
16, 10:00 AM by conference call.
Minutes prepared by:
Audrey Stewart
Staff Asst., Ag & Extension Ed.