District Council Officer Elections!!!!

The Ballots are in!!!!

The 2008 - 2009 District 9 4-H Council Officers are:

Chairman: Michael Edwards, Montgomery County
1st Vice Chairman: Elisabeth Maxwell, Jefferson County
Delegate at Large: Melissa Yates, Jefferson County
2nd Vice Chairman: Ben Wishert, Montgomery County
Secretary: Stephanie Mazurkiewicz, Brazos County
Treasurer: Emily Smith, Brazos County
Public Relations Chairman: Hannah Laird, Galveston County
Historian: Charlie Harrell, Hardin County
Parliamentarian: Patrick Jones, Waller County

Let the new year begin!!!!

More than a Horse Show going on..... But not much more!!!!

It may be past crunch time in your office in regards to District Horse Show, but here at the District Office the Horse Show is priority number 1, along with State Roundup, Leadership Lab, Goal Setting, Action Plans..... You get the picture.

The District 9 Horse Show book goes to print tomorrow, so if you have entries still pending, please move them through the system as soon as possible.

As you can tell from the opening, we are busy and I know that you are also busy in the County office, but please take time to focus on what is important as opposed to what is urgent.

The following link will take you to a web page that could change the way you think about how you organize your time and your life. The central message is "Eat That Frog!". You'll have to go to the website to see what it means.

Simple Truths

Take Care,
Kevin

TAE4-HA Follow Up

As a follow up to all the great things Jill Hughson shared with us at the Spring District 9 4-H Training, I have a link to the Social Networking material she told us about: http://eit.tamu.edu/ajh/socialnetworking/

There you will find the scoop on Facebook and MySpace along with a copy of the Power Point file she presented.

If you are feeling like an advanced user consider looking for Jill's del.icio.us . I have networked with Jill's account so we can gain access to her tags and expand our technological advances in communication. This should be interesting.

Let me know what you think!!!

Kevin

D9 4-H Training.... Good to go

First things first: The attire for this weeks District 9 4-H Agent Association Meeting is professional casual. Your professional association has provided a more detailed description of what this means, but in simple terms for guys: no coat or tie, but jeans and t-shirts are too casual; for ladies, no pantyhose or dresses, but jeans and t-shirts are still too casual.

There will be a registration fee of $20 collected on site.

As a reminder we will be meeting at the Lake Conroe KOA on Wednesday, May 21 - 22. Registration on the first day begins at 9:00 a.m. The second day starts at 8:15 a.m. (and yes, the association meeting is considered part of the training and there is an expectation that all 4-H coordinators participate)

Agenda Highlights include:

• Social networking
• 4-H Program updates
• Livestock project support: Mentor, 4-H Livestock Project Management 101, and Quality Counts Gold
• Modernizing the 4-H Fashion Project
• Personal Financial Management
• NEFE

Wednesday evening we will be dining at Fajita Jacks.

I look forward to seeing you all there.

Texas 4-H Congress ... TODAY IS THE DAY

Texas 4-H Congress intent applications are due today - May 14, 2008. As of this posting I have only received 14 applications, meaning all 14 will get to go, unless we receive a mess of applications before tomorrow morning - May 15, 2008.

As I stated in the original announcement, we have quota 18 for the District. So, I will continue to take applications until this quota is met. Please note that after today, this is going to be done on a first come first served basis.

4-H Connect is scheduled to open for Congress registration on May 20. We will not approve congress registrations that were not previously acknowledged through the intent - application process.

You can download a copy of the intent form at: http://d94-h.tamu.edu/events/congress.html

Have questions or need support..... post a comment!!!

Inspiration

Every now a then we need to re-charge the batteries and refocus on why we do what we are doing. On an ongoing basis I use quotes from histories great people to give me that added boost or guidance.

If you are fan of good quotes you'll like this video. Take three minutes and re-charge with these inspirations:

http://www.greatquotesmovie.com/

Livestock Training

You should have got the message, but it was embedded in a lot of verbiage, so here it is again..... There is no longer a MASTER VOLUNTEER PROGRAM FOR 4-H.

Ok, maybe it is not that dramatic, but from a state perspective we are no longer supporting 4-H master volunteer development. We are moving to a new program called Mentor.

This new program is going to be your best friend when it comes to extending your reach and lightning your load......Train volunteers to do some of the things you are currently doing out of necessity, so you can begin doing the really important things, like Vacation (ha, ha).

Seriously, well guided, well trained, Well Selected, volunteers can be a real asset to your county program.

Here are the basics on MENTOR training:

• Date - July 25-27, 2008
• Place - Grimes County Fairgrounds
• Registration Deadline - May 31st
• Cost - $125 (your county program should offset some of this)
• Subject Matter - Beef or Swine

The really cool part: Agents with less than two years of employment can attend the training for FREE as professional development.

For all the scoop, look for the email Sent by your Regional Program Director on March 27, 2208. Or easier yet, drop me a line and I'll forward it to you.