This year, instead of holding an in-person Leaderama event, a series of webinars was held during the first three weeks of December.

The change in the program allowed 4-H’ers to enjoy the webinars in the comfort of their own home. In total, 25 people attended the webinars, with many attending more than one throughout the three weeks. Here is a quick run down of all of the webinars: 

Ag Awareness Champions - Dec. 1

Guest speaker Clinton Monchuk from Farm & Food Care - SK to the attendees about how to speak positively about agriculture, shared some statistics around what people think about ag, clarified what terms to use when talking to people who may not know much about agriculture, advised how to deal with difficult conversations and had some discussion around what they would do in certain situations. The 4-H’ers had some great conversations about how to speak positively about agriculture and were interested in hearing more from Monchuk in the future. 

Connecting Communities Through COVID-19 - Dec. 3

This presentation was presented by Shelby Longworth, the North East Regional 4-H Specialist. Shelby spoke about current COVID restrictions, what clubs can do, leading by example, technology in your club, community service, and fun ideas for clubs. There were good conversations and people enjoyed the positive outlook for the 4-H year.  

Mental Health In Rural Communities - Dec. 8

The Mental Health webinar, led by Kalynne Martin, the North West Regional 4-H Specialist, began with a bit of background in the differences of mental health and mental illness. The leaders learned a bit about the six major points of mental health and how to look for them in themselves and others. Then the session challenged participants with a list of trivia questions around the facts relating to mental health, prevalence of it in society, and the stigma that is still attached to it to this day. Lastly a list of resources was complied with a brief summary of what they offer and how to offer support to those around you.

4-H 101 - Dec. 9

This session was run by Melodi Hawkesford-Lee, the South East Regional 4-H Specialist. Participants learned the basics of running a 4-H club with Melodi Hawkesford-Lee, using 4-H’s Club Resource Guide as a reference tool. Topics in this session included: Motivating 4-H Factors; 4-H Club Personnel & Duties; Running the 4-H Club and Planning your Year; Event Planning; Finances; Club Autonomy; Risk Management; Successful Club Secrets; and Beyond the Club. 

Peer Mentoring - Dec. 10

This session, led by Kaitlyn Keller, talked about how peer and traditional mentors could be established, how to set guidelines and make sure both parties involved feel heard and understood with their desired goals of the relationship. This is something naturally built into the 4-H program, as older members are usually helping younger members and our leaders are teaching both their peers and the members. We worked through scenarios showing how to help each other in a positive way and teaching members how to return to their goals if the relationship were to get off track in a negative way. Another topic was how to establish boundaries within each relationship and  how to have multiple mentors or peer mentoring relationships at the same time. Overall the webinar went smooth with all in attendance.
 
Fundraising - Dec. 14

This session was hosted by Development Officer Shelby Corey. The webinar started off with a brainstorming exercise to help set goals and get clubs thinking about what they could accomplish through increased fundraising capacity. Next the group discussed different kinds of fundraisers and the different role fundraisers play in supporting clubs and communities. Lastly, the webinar talked about safe fundraising through COVID-19 and the different fundraising opportunities offered through the provincial office.

For more information, please contact:
 
Jodi Schellenberg                                                         
Program and Communications Specialist                   
4-H Saskatchewan                                                        
306-933-6961                                                             
[email protected]  

Correction: This article was first published with District #10 announced as the top seller - it is actually District #36.                         

Nineteen 4-H members and one leader took part in 4-H’s first-ever virtual Club Executive Training Webinar on November 28, 2020! 

Participants started with a learning session, led by South East Regional 4-H Specialist Melodi Hawkesford-Lee, about: parliamentary procedure basics; creating an agenda; using proper terminology; exploring motions; addressing meeting problems and an executive position study.

We also had several “breakout room sessions” led by 4-H staff Kalynne Martin, Kaitlyn Keller, Shelby Longworth and Jodi Schellenberg, where members were divided into smaller groups and moved into a separate virtual “rooms” with other participants and two 4-H Specialists / Leaders.

These “breakout” session topics included:

• Motions – members learned the proper steps to making a main motion, and also amending, rescinding and postponing a motion
• Fixing What’s Broke – participants reviewed problem scenarios that a club might face at General Meetings. They pinpointed what the problems were and came up with solutions which they shared with the larger group afterwards
• Knowing Your Role – Using specific executive booklets that were sent to participants in advance, members learned the specifics about the executive roles they held.

Our participants enjoyed the afternoon and learned more about how to run their 4-H Clubs! 

Thank you to Nora Schock for helping supervise a breakout room!