Communication Endeavor

The Facilitation Coach

2016 National 4-H Volunteerism Team Award

Nancy Shelstad, Nancy Melville and Tina Holmquist

The Facilitation Coach volunteer concept was developed by an Idaho team of three, Nancy Shelstad Regional Youth Development Educator, Nancy Melville 4-H Youth Development Volunteer Specialist, and Tina Holmquist 4-H Program Coordinator.  The Facilitation Coach position is designed to work closely with the Extension office to coach or mentor other volunteers or families.  One example of implementation resulted in the ability to offer short term project enrollment.  The Facilitation Coach recruited project volunteers and mentored them through the project planning and delivery process.  They also stayed in close communication with the Extension office regarding project progress, member enrollment and completion status, and future planning for additional short term projects.  A second example is a New Family Facilitation Coach.  In this example, the Facilitation Coach works with the Extension Office with families new to 4-H, staying in contact with the new families and helping them navigate their first year in 4-H.

For more information please contact Nancy Shelstad at shelstad@uidaho.edu

 The Journey: Opportunities for Leaders of Tomorrow (J.O.L.T.)

2016 National Greg Yost Memorial Youth in Leadership Award

Mary Jo Moncheski, Conner Atencio, Alyssa Baller, Katy Cook, Betsy Grube, Justin Haas, Paige Hill, Trey Honga, Eric Larsen, Trainor Linne,  Gerald Olson,      Andrew Serventi, Angela Teskey-Peterson and Jamie Zahn.

The Journey: Opportunities for Leaders of Tomorrow (J.O.L.T.) Arizona State 4-H Teen Leadership Camp is a five-day leadership camp held in Heber, AZ. The camp is designed to fully immerse senior members in leadership development activities. Activities include workshops, involvement committees, teambuilding and trust-building, and leadership challenges. The J.O.L.T. camp is the effort of a youth-adult partnership planning team consisting of 10 teens (Youth Staff), three Extension Agents, and one certified adult volunteer (Adult Staff). The J.O.L.T. Planning Team meets over two, four-day retreats, and monthly conference calls. The Youth Staff members are largely responsible for developing the schedule, goals and objectives,  planning and implementing the camp programming with assistance and advise  from Adult Staff. While at J.O.L.T., the Youth Staff as well as campers learn and practice the tools to help them become viable leaders in their communities.

For more information please visit: https://extension.arizona.edu/4h/jolt-teen-leadership-camp

Regional Recognition

The Western Regional Brunch is the premier opportunity to celebrate all of the Regional Award Recipients. Jacki Baca, Western Region Recognition Chair, did an amazing job announcing the awardees.  If you were unable to attend the brunch, please take a peek that the 2016-western-regional-breakfast-program.  Congratulations to all of the Western Region Specialty and Communicator Recipients.

Fundraising

A major component of the Regional Brunch is to raise funds to support scholarships for conference participants.  Thank you to everyone who donated items and supported the auction through bidding on items.  I’m thrilled to announce we had a record year and raised a little over $2,700.  This is several hundred dollars more than we have brought in the last few years.

I want to thank all of the attendees of the Regional Brunch for quickly jumping to help resolve the issue of being short 20 or so seats.  It goes to show how resourceful, quick to recover, and resilient we are as individuals and a collective group.

We are just over one week out from the 2016 NAE4-HA Conference!

This past spring, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to visit our conference location while at the NAE4-HA Board Meeting in March.  Below are a few items you may consider in preparing for the conference.

Hyatt Regency New Orleans:

Each hotel room at the conference hotel has a refrigerator – a major bonus!  There is a terrific grocery store just a short walk from the hotel.  This wonderful combination equals more sleep in the morning.

The high tech (smart) elevator system is amazing, but don’t expect to just hit the up button and casually wait for the next open elevator.  You are an active participant in making this system work efficiently.  You scan your room card, enter a floor number, and are “assigned” one of the elevator cars.  Read between the lines – pay attention and move quickly.

There are eight (8) elevator banks next to each other.  Elevators A, B, C & D travel to floors 1-18.  Elevators E, F, G & H travel to floors 1, 2 & 3 and 19-32.  Let’s say your room is on floor 8 but you want to go the gym on floor 32.  You will need to travel down to a “connecting floor” (think the DC Metro) to travel back up.

All the conference meeting rooms are on the bottom floors that are connected by stairs and/or escalators.

Check out this video on the elevator system – you won’t be disappointed with the elevator music!

See you in NOLA

As Extension Educators, we rely on conference calls to stay informed, keep projects moving forward and for professional development opportunities at a distance. As someone who lives in the middle of nowhere (literally – check out Lakeview, Oregon on a map!), I appreciate being able to connect via a call to decrease the amount of “windshield time.” For those of us in the West, conference calls are vital to connecting, as we generally serve larger geographical areas than our colleagues in different areas of the United States. Yet, as much as I appreciate using conference calls as a tool – I greatly enjoy the Conference Call in Real Life skit. If you have not checked it out, please do – you will not be disappointed!

Throughout the year, the Regional Directors stay connected through monthly State Relations conference calls. Our agenda includes updates from the President and other committees as necessary. We take time to share the progress on projects in the works. Currently, we are working on updating the State Officers Handbook, State Relations Handbook and planning the NAE4-HA State Officers Workshop in New Orleans. Over the last nine months, I have appreciated the regularly-scheduled State Relations calls! It allows us the opportunity to connect and share ways to best serve our members.

Over the last year the NAEA4-HA Board has been working to gather feedback from the NAE4-HA membership to develop a strategic plan and vision for our association.  At the JCEP meeting this February, members were posed with the question, “What’s important to you about NAE4-HA and why do you care?”  Many of our colleagues expressed they identify the value of belonging to the NAE4-HA around the development of strong professional network, comradery and friendships.

Personally, I could not agree more and believe a fellow Western Region colleague put it best… “They get my life.” This statement first made me laugh but also made me think about all the great friendships I have developed with colleagues over the last ten years. Many of these friendships were developed while attending an NAE4-HA Conference. Hosting the conference in Oregon greatly accelerated this process too!

This past weekend, a group of 4-H colleagues and I completed a relay race called the Pole Pedal Paddle. The race was six legs which included an alpine skiing/snowboarding, cross-country skiing, biking, running, canoeing/kayaking/stand-up paddle boarding, and a sprint to the finish! Our team name was the “Clover Colleagues” and our team shirts were magical.  We plan to make this an annual event. To increase the stakes for next year, we challenged another group of colleagues to compete against us. This group has happily accepted the challenge and, as the “experienced” 4-H colleagues, they are calling their team the “Golden Clover Colleagues.”  I look forward to an entire year of spirited conversations and another great weekend of comradery with a group of people who get my life. 😉

Front Row (L-R): Diana Stevens (8 km cross-country skate ski), Melanie McCabe (1/2 sprint) & Samara Rufener (5 mile run)

Back Row (L-R): Jamie Davis (2.5 km stand up paddle board), Karissa Dishon (alpine ski) and Katy Joyce (22 mile bike)

The hotel room reservation system is now open! Make your reservation soon to ensure you secure a room at the conference hotel.

“Before you make your room reservations please make sure you have all your roommates secured and ONLY MAKE ONE ROOM RESERVATION.  For 2016, if you are sharing a hotel room with colleagues you will need to designate one person to make the hotel reservation and be sure to include each of the roommates’ names on the reservation. Then, be sure to share the confirmation number with your roommates so they can provide it when registering for the conference. Any cancellation of a hotel room reservation will result in one night’s room rate ($229) being charged to your credit card; therefore, it is important that you coordinate this process ahead of time.” – Toby Lepley

Check out the Spring State Relations Update video for highlights from the Spring Board Meeting, 2016 NAEA4-HA National Conference and what I have been up to as your Western Region Communication Director. It’s short and sweet at 5 minutes long so grab a cup and coffee and take short break! If you make it to the end your reward will be some pretty sweet outtakes.