Transitioning to Youth Boards

1
Transitioning to Youth Boards
http//texasvolunteer.tamu.edu

• Chris Boleman
• ct-boleman_at_tamu.edu
• Angela Burkham
• ab-burkham_at_tamu.edu

2
Available Resources

• http//texasvolunteer.tamu.edu/PACmaterial.htm

3
Objectives
4
Objective 1Developing the Youth Board
5
Transitional Period

• September of 2006 kickoff
• You can start before that!!

E
6
Visual Schematic
OTHER?
OTHER?
Clothing Project Focused
Youth Board
Outcome Program Focused
Livestock Project Focused
7
Youth Board Membership (An Example)

• 1 representative from 4-H club / unit
• 1 representative from a 4-H special interest
  group
• 5-6 members from other youth groups
• 3-4 adult members

8
What youth groups should we consider?

• Members of youth groups you partner with from
  time to time
• School districts
• FFA
• YMCA
• Scouts
• Church groups

9
Who are the adult members?

• Keep the good ones from the 4-H PAC onboard.
• Teachers
• School board members
• Legislative aides
• County commissioners
• Business people

10
Characteristics of Youth Membership

• The Youth Board shall consist of 8-15 members.
• The Youth Board should be diverse and be
  representative of the communities within the
  county.
• Youth Board should match county demographics.
• Youth Board would meet at least twice annually
  face-to-face. This would most likely include a
  fall/spring meeting structure.
• Members would serve two year terms.

11
Technology and Youth Boards

• In addition to the two face-to-face meetings, the
  Youth Board will be strongly encouraged to
  communicate using distance technologies. These
  include
• secured Youth Board chat rooms,
• e-conferencing and
• blogs.

More information on technology assisted meetings
will be coming in Summer of 2006. STAY TUNED!!
12
Youth Board Activity

• In addition to providing program development
  support, we want the Youth Board to sponsor one
  large marketable program activity.
• This will allow them to have ownership to at
  least one significant effort yearly.
• This should be something youth can market and
  have a high impact on the county.

13
Examples of Activities

• Leadership Workshop- a one-day leadership
  workshop sponsored by the youth board, focused on
  bringing potential youth leaders together and
  provide subject matter to help them lead.
• County-wide Community Service Project- a one-day
  event sponsored by the Youth Board that
  identifies local youth partners to help with a
  one day community service project.
• Farm Safety Day Camp- a one-day event sponsored
  by the Youth Board that is focused on teaching
  youth about safety on the farm.

14
Objective 2Motivating and Recruiting Youth and
Adult Members
15
Recruiting Youth

• Make a list of youth that you personally know.
• Invite current adult members to make the same
  list.
• Ask your youth collaborators to make a list.
• Develop a brief questionnaire for youth

A
16
Recruiting Youth Cont.

• SPEAK TO THEIR MOTIVATION
• Sell the benefits of involvement
• Remember what the research tells us (these youth
  simply develop communication, interpersonal,
  problem-solving, and understanding-organizations
  skills

17
What can motivate youth?

• Have a say about their community
• Represent youth of the community (looked upon as
  a leader)
• Helps with resumes
• Can help with scholarships
• Builds individual life skills

18
What do I do with my Current 4-H PAC?

• Keep the good ones!!!
• Rotate some off!!!
• Shift others to project support
• Have them identify youth that could possibly be
  members

19
Tricks for Smooth Transition of Change

• Prepare Adults for Youth Members
• Create the Youth Position
• Recruiting Youth
• Selecting Qualified Applicants
• Educating Youth Members
• Completing the Details

20
Prepare Adults for Youth Members

• Adults must be willing to be flexible with
  meeting times to accommodate school schedules.
• Culture change from doing things for youth to
  with youth

A CLEAR VISION STATEMENT WILL TAKE CARE OF THIS!!!
I
21
Create the Youth Position

• The general requirements can be found in the
  Program Area Committee / Youth Board publication.
• Youth members should have equal opportunities as
  adults on Youth Board.
• Clearly define expectations

D
22
Recruiting Youth

• Make a list of youth that you personally know.
• Invite current adult members to make the same
  list.
• Ask your youth collaborators to make a list.
• Develop a brief questionnaire for youth

A
B
23
Selecting Qualified Applicants

• Conduct interviews with youth.
• Ask for references.
• A conversation with a parent/guardian is
  essential.
• Seek out evidence of positive contributions each
  applicant would make.
• Interest Form/Application

B
24
Educating Youth Members

• Orientation vs. training
• Full understanding of boards role
• Include meeting minutes (from previous meetings)
  for new members
• Provide agenda ahead of time
• Be patient
• Have an open dialogue about dress code
• Hold meetings at appropriate times for youth to
  attend.

F
G
C
25
Completing the Details

• Have a transportation system in place.
• Call parent / guardian of new members to
  compliment them on their child after first
  meeting.
• Notify the organization (school, FFA, church
  group) they represent concerning the youth being
  appointed to the youth board.

26
Objective 3 Developing a Common Vision for the
Youth Board
27
Objectives

• Ensure members of the Youth Board sees the
  function of the group
• Help build a common vision for building a
  Successful Youth Board
• Allow members to get to know each other by
  one-on-one discussion

28
Writing a Vision Statement

• Says what you want out of organization.
• It defines the organization.
• Details principles and beliefs.
• Gives the organization the power to create and
  design itself around personal values.

29
Steps

• Step 1 Framing the question
• Step 2 Self thought
• Step 3 One-on-one sharing
• Step 4 Repeating the process
• Step 5 Developing themes
• Step 6 Breakout groups write vision statements
• Step 7 Selecting the vision statement

30
1 Framing the Question

• Imagine it is 2 years from now.
• What are our accomplishments?

31
2 Self thought

• After each person has thought through the
  question, ask them to write down as many
  responses as they can on a sheet of paper.
• After allowing five minutes or so, ask them to
  rank their most important to least important on
  the same sheet of paper.

32
3 One-on-one sharing

• Ask each person to find a partner and share their
  ideas with this partner.
• Then, allow the other person to share what they
  wrote down.

33
4 Repeating the process

• Ask each person to meet with another partner and
  repeat process, but this time only allow 4
  minutes for both to discuss ideas
• Repeat the same process again, but this time only
  allow 2 minutes.

34
5 Developing themes

• Gather the group back together and discuss the
  ideas heard.
• Ask the group for feedback.
• Ask them what they learned from their rotations.
• Write down responses

35
6 Breakout groups write vision statement

• Then, break group in three to four smaller groups
  to use the key words captured on the flip chart
  from step 5 and write a one-to-two sentence youth
  board vision statement.
• Have them start with. to be the premiere
  ___________________

36
7 Selecting the vision

• Post the vision statements on the wall (one for
  each group).
• Have a member of each group read their vision
  statement.
• Then, take a break and allow each person to vote
  for their vision statement.
• Once the break is over, reveal the votes and name
  one as the official vision statement for the
  Youth Board.

37
Conclusion

• Start each meeting with the vision statement.
• Provides direction for all decisions.
• Move on to a strategic planning process and
  determine the necessary steps to meet the vision.

H
38
Objective 4 Strategic Planning with the Youth
BoardWays to Identify Issues
39
Why Strategic Plan?

• Focus energy
• Ensures that members of the organization are
  working toward the same goals
• Adjust the organizations direction in response
  to a changing environment

40
Group Planning Strategies

• Brainstorming
• Nominal Group Technique
• Multi-voting

41
Summary

• This is an excellent exercise to use with the
  Youth Board after a Visioning lesson.
• This can be implemented every fall with the Youth
  Board to develop and prioritize county youth
  issues.
• Results from this exercise should help develop
  ideas for outcome and output programs.

42
Objective 5 Defining the Relationship between
Youth Board, 4-H Council, and VLAT
43
Relationship with Youth Board, 4-H Council, and
VLAT
44
LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT
County Youth Board (Primary) LAB (Secondary)
VLAT 4-H Council
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
ADULT DEVELOPMENT
PROGRAM MANAGMENT
Task Forces (Examples - Outcome Program, 4-H
Traditional Projects)
45
Program Development

• County Youth Board (primary)
• Leadership Advisory Board (secondary)

46
Leadership Development

• Volunteer Leaders Association
• Purpose The County 4-H Volunteer Leaders
  Association is composed of volunteer 4-H leaders
  who meet and work together to improve and enhance
  opportunities available to 4-H members.
• 4-H Council
• Purpose To provide an opportunity for youth to
  develop citizenship, leadership and life skill
  competencies by becoming involved in county,
  district, state, national and international
  activities.

47
Program Management

• Task Forces
• Youth Adult Partnerships
• Examples
• Livestock (or)
• By species or
• Large Animals
• Companion Animals etc
• Family and Consumer Sciences (or)
• Food and Nutrition
• Clothing
• Consumer etc

48
Program Mtg. Continued

• Examples
• Resource Development
• Recognition/Achievement
• Others as needed

49
Objective 6 Developing task forces for 4-H
projects
Special thanks to Susan Ballabina, RPD East
Region, Susie Breitling, Dallam CEA-FCS, Susie
Spurlock, Sherman CEA-FCS, and Mr. Joshua E.
Vodehnal, Galveston CEA-ANR for their input.
50
Why have this group?

• We (typically) have volunteer/parent support of
  our traditional projects in counties.
• These traditional projects take A LOT of our
  time.
• Currently, not strategic in our educational
  approach.
• Community buy-in builds the program.
• We have a comparative advantage here.

51
Purpose of Group

• Define the role of the task force
• What support will the county office provide in
  support of the project ( i.e. educational
  sessions)
• Give guidance on what the group may want to do on
  a county-wide basis
• Generate ideas on what to do within a local
  project group.

52
Points to Consider

• Assess the risk and need for the project area
• Building relationships with people
• Know the people in your communities and their
  interests.
• Place the right person in the right job.
• Have a broad diverse group (each club or precinct
  represented)

53
Meeting Dynamics

• Use ice breakers/get acquainted activity at the
  first meeting
• Listen! All members have value in what they bring
  to the table
• Work to make the group a team.

54
Other Resources

• texasvolunteer.tamu.edu contains resources such
  as
• Working with Groups,
• Strategic Planning
• Nominal Group Technique
• Focus ?s
• How can the project experience be enhanced?
• What tools and resources are needed to enhance
  the project?
• How can the project be marketed to new youth and
  volunteer members?

55
Example 1 - The Members

• The Galveston Example (6 people)
• Parents that were connected to the program (now
  have grandchildren in the program) 2 people
• Fair Board members 2 people
• Club leaders / club managers 2 people
• Other options
• Youth, Master Volunteer, current parents
• Volunteers who have an interest in the area

56
Example 2 Membership(General FCS Committee)

• Ideas for membership
• Six members may work well
• Senior 4-H members
• FCCLA members
• FCS Project Leaders
• Professionals with a career in an FCS area For
  Example
• Chef
• Local bank representative
• Interior designer
• Entrepreneur

57
What can your Task Force do?

• Plan/Host Project Leader Training
• Plan/Sponsor county-wide educational workshops
• Assist in implementation of county contests
  associated with the projects
• Assist with District 4-H educational events and
  contests
• Secure curriculum and educational resources in
  the project area

58
What can this group do?

• Hosting Project Clinics
• Host Volunteer Trainings
• Project Visits
• Major / County Show Validation
• Quality Counts

59
Conclusions

• Be proactive with this audience (not reactive)
• Utilize the opinion leaders in these areas
• Proper utilization will save time and lower stress

60
Thanks!!!

• texasvolunteer.tamu.edu

61
Vision Statement

• To be the premiere youth organization providing
  opportunities in identifying relevant youth
  issues and developing something meaningful for
  local youth. This will eventually increase 4-H
  membership, increase knowledge, and enhance life
  skills to accomplish goals ultimately making a
  difference in our community.