2nd Executive Board Districts Reports - Dec. 1, 2007
District 1 Report
District 1 Council decided that 4-H awareness was the biggest priority for 2007-2008. We agreed that to make a bigger impact on our community we needed more participation on a district level. Instead of planning boring meetings we planned fun events that 4-hers want to attend and then throw in a meeting. It has worked great. We have increased our enrollment and our attendance.
We received the mini-grant and used it to promote 4-H awareness and healthy-lifestyles. We had a scavenger hunt. We had to first do an on-site hunt so we would know what team we were on. We were then given $25.00 and a list of objectives. Example, teach a stranger to say the 4-H pledge, buy a healthy snack to bring back and share with group, buy a jump rope to bring back for game. We also held a quick meeting.
Our next meeting is December 7th at our District Christmas Party we are expecting a large turn out with some new members present.
We also applied and received a grant that will allow us to purchase some GPS units so we plan to have another scavenger hunt with the GPS. Our main goal was to increase participation and we have achieved that goal.
Love, Alec
District 1 President
District II
District II is still hanging in there. We're working on having our first meeting, and electing our District Officers so we can really get things rolling this year. Hopefully, we'll have our first meeting before the holidays, so we can plan some awesome events for next year!
Respectfully submitted,
Bree Stark
District II Representative
District III Report
District III is coming along pretty well and we are very excited about this 4-H year. We held a meeting at the Leon County Extension Office not to long ago and although some members were unable to attend, we still had a very productive meeting. At this meeting we got some things accomplished, sat a few goals, and discussed some activities that we plan on participating in and doing. Just to elaborate more on our meeting, some of the goals that we sat included:
- Increasing membership of the District Council with a minimum of three (3) people form each of the counties within our district.
- Raising a minimum of 150.00 for Change Wars through County Competitions and donors.
- Be more active in community events and do more community service project.
- Have more fundraisers so that the district might be able to take an end of the year trip, free of charge to all those who participate in the District’s activities.
- Win the Spirit Stick.
As we sat these goals we kept in mind that without hard work and diligence our goals will never be achieved so we are planning on working very hard. This year as we have always done in the past, we submitted a booth to the North Florida Fair, and it was very nice.
We are also getting a jump start on our upcoming events such as our 4-H Blitz. Since the participation in our Junior Congress has been declining for the last couple of years, we have decided to redesign this event so that a lot of youth can come and participate with us. So the first step was to change the name so that it would be more captivating and seem more exciting than regular old Junior Congress, so that’s where the 4-H Blitz came in. We also want to drift away from some of the traditional activities and incorporate some new activities that they will enjoy more.
In addition to revamping Junior Congress, now known as the 4-H Blitz, we hope to have a better health fair this year also. This year’s health fair will include more hands on activities that allow the kids to participate more rather than having them sit there and listen to us just talk.
So to sum this report up, we are working to make the best better and we hope that we can accomplish all of our goals because wherever there is an open mind and a willing hand anything can be accomplished.
Respectfully Submitted By:
Arsenio Bright Jr.
District III President
District IV Report
This year they added two more counties to our District, Madison and Taylor. So now we have 8 counties in District 4.
The North Florida Fair was in November, most of the counties in the District were represented at this fair. We had an entry in every division from arts and crafts to beef cattle and everything in between. Our District took home a lot of blue ribbons and should be proud of their accomplishments.
We have decided on two community service projects. The 1st one is Toys for Tots. At our Dec meeting we will turn in all of our toys that have been donated by our counties.
Our second community service project is for the troops and we will finalize all details at our Dec meeting.
I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Respectfully submitted,
Krystina Thompson
District IV President
District VI Report
Clay, Duval, Flagler, Nassau, Putnam, and St. Johns Counties
District VI had their second meeting of year on November 19, 2007. Highlights of the meeting included planning Youth Adventure Weekend (Y.A.W.) and making decisions about the Ronald McDonald House Community Pride Project. The Y.A.W. committee chose to make this year’s event have an “Under the Sea” theme. In addition, leadership, citizenship, and recreational workshops will be offered. For the district’s Ronald McDonald House Community Pride Project, the council will be hosting collection drives, fundraisers, and visiting the Ronald McDonald House to prepare a meal. The council intends to kick off this community service campaign in January. Fundraisers the council plans to hold include a bake sale at District Events, a car wash, and possibly even a district-wide raffle. Profits from these fundraisers will be split between the district and the Ronald McDonald House. At the district meetings this year, the council has stayed away from having high calorie snacks as a result of the Healthy Lifestyles program. Council members have also been encouraged to promote Healthy Lifestyles within their counties. The district is also setting up a Myspace to display district photos on. So far this year, the district has been working extremely hard and has/will be fulfilling all of its goals. Goals met already include having more participation at the district level, implementing the state project into all activities, incorporating all counties into district activities, participating in community service, fundraising more, and increasing district enrollment. District VI is highly motivated and expects to dominate the Spirit Stick Competition at Florida 4-H Congress. The best is yet to come in District VI.
Matthew Simmons
District VI President
District VII Report
District VII has had a successful start to the new 4-H year. We have set many goals as a district and we are well on our way to accomplishing these goals.
We have been meeting regularly via teleconference. Our regular officers attend these meetings along with our delegates and other district members.
Some of the goals we have set so far this year incorporate many service projects as well as healthy lifestyles. We will be raising money for the orphans of Piella in Africa. Individual counties in District VII will raise money and then give the money to the district by February. We will then donate the money as a district to this worthy cause.
Last year, we had a successful District Fitness and Fun Day at Buccaneer Bay and we have decided to organize this event once again. This day is to promote healthy lifestyles and staying active. We have tentatively planned to have the Fitness and Fun Day on May 10, 2008. This day will allow the district members to meet face to face and bond with each other while having a good time and excercising.
District VII is also planning a canned food drive which will be a competition between counties. We will try to gather as many canned goods as possible and then donate them to a local soup kitchen, crisis house, or other organization that reaches out to the needy in our communities.
We are also in the process of planning an officer training workshop and fun day in which we will train the incoming officers. We wanted to allow our younger District Council members the opportunity to see how the District VII meetings are run and how we operate. The workshop will take place in Citrus County during the month of January.
One of our other goals is to have at least eight people from our district attend Third Executive Board. We want to promote this event and encourage our counties to participate in Executive Board. It’s important to our district to get the upcoming senior 4-Hers and soon to be district officers interested in state level activities. By promoting Third Executive Board, the members that attend will be able to go back to their counties and in turn promote 4-H to their own clubs.
District 8 Report
Since our last Executive Board meeting District 8 has been hard at work. In October we had our Second meeting of the year, getting much accomplished. I’m excited to say a new area of growth in our District was proposing and enacting a budget for the first time ever! We’ve been working on meeting the State Council initiative to increase 4-H participation by 10%, and have had an increase in our participation at each district meeting, thanks to sending out reminder post cards. On October 13th Volusia hosted our annual Senior Retreat, at DeLeon Springs State Park with over 25 youth in attendance. They worked on several important community service activities throughout the park, enjoyed a boat tour, and needless to say had lots of fun. On October 28th, National Make A Difference Day, District 8 was hard at work making a difference in Central Florida. Lake County 4-H’ers where involved in a peanut butter food drive, taking place at Publix Supermarkets and in one day collected over 5,000 pounds of peanut butter for the hungry! The rest of the district participated in our Literacy Initiative, implementing books drives across the area along with reading to child. Seminole County hosted a Legislature Bill Writing workshop to write bills for State Leg and district Legisl8ture on November 7 and Brevard is diligently working on planning our survivor themed Jr. Congress, which will take place in January, with a work day on December 15th. As you can see we’ve been busy and have all ready accomplished 8 of our 14 goals for the year. I’m proud to say1/3 of the Florida delegation that recently attended National Congress was from District 8. We had a wonderful experience and are excited to put into place all we have learned into making this 4-H year even more successful. Our next meeting is December 4 in Orange County and we look forward to seeing everyone at Senior LAW in January.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jennifer Sullivan
District 8 Delegate
District IX Council Report
District Nine 4-H has set high goals in an effort to “Make the Best Better” this year and we are off on the right track to doing just that! At First Executive Board in September District Nine representatives submitted our 2007-2008 District Council goals which included increasing participation in our activities and events, creating a new District Council Constitution, holding a successful district retreat and district congress, continuing and expanding a community service project that supports the state project, increasing our participation in Change Wars, encouraging active participation from our district at State level events, and hosting a District Nine Christmas Party and fundraiser.
After Executive Board, our first District Council meeting was held on September 24th at the Hillsborough County Extension Office. This was a great meeting and we were able to kick off many of our projects for the year. At this meeting we began our county by county change wars competition. This is an effort to increase our participation in the change wars fundraiser and even though it is only halfway through the year, we are already beginning to exceed our expectations.
Also at this meeting we officially kicked off our District IX Healthy Lifestyles Initiative. Our goal with this project is to reach out with the message of healthy lifestyles to 4-H members by integrating health related activities and projects, as well as healthy snacks into our meeting and events throughout the year. We also kicked off our healthy food collection project which is our effort to reach out to the community with the message of healthy lifestyles. Our District Council received the healthy lifestyles mini-grant and is using it to purchase healthy snacks for activities, as well as 4-H jump ropes for health workshops. Finally at our meeting we discussed our Christmas Party, Senior Retreat, and District Congress and began the planning process for these events.
Our next District Nine Activity will be our District Nine Christmas Party and fundraiser dinner which will be held at the Pinellas County Extension Office on December 14th. On January 5th we will be having our senior retreat and our next District meeting will be on February 25th. Until then District Nine 4-H members are excited about all of the progress we are making as we work to accomplish and go far beyond our greatest goals as we prove “It’s not just attitude – We’re really that good!
The District Nine Healthy Lifestyles Initiative, which is District Nine’s plan to support the State Project in the upcoming year, is now under way. District Nine would like to thank the Florida 4-H State program for their financial assistance with part of our project. The money District Nine received from the healthy lifestyles mini-grant is being used for the aspect of our project that deals with promoting healthier lifestyles among 4-H members. We have already used some of the funds we received to have a healthy snack at our first District Council meeting, where we kicked off our initiative. The money is also being used to purchase 10 4-H jump ropes which we plan to use, along with the pedometers donated by the state program, in fitness workshops and activities at our senior retreat and district congress. The money will also be used to provide healthy snacks at these events. Through our project we are teaching 4-H members about healthy lifestyles, as well as collecting healthy food to be donated to local food banks. This way, we are reaching 4-H members with the message of healthy lifestyles through our 4-H activities and we are reaching out to the public by collecting and donating healthy food. Once again we would like to thank the State 4-H program for their support for this project.
Respectfully Submitted,
Sean Russell
District IX Council President
District 11 Report
Indian River County, St. Lucie County, and Martin County
District 11 has accomplished several of our goals already this year. We held our last meeting on November 4, 2007. Prior to that meeting, our district had been very busy collecting various toiletries for the Hibiscus House in St. Lucie County. We organized the toiletries into many individual packages and delivered them to the Hibiscus House. We collected over $4,000 worth of toiletries!! It is expected to last them an entire year! We are going to continue to collect in our individual counties.
On November 10, 2007, we held a car wash to raise money for the orphans of Piella in Burkina Faso, Africa. It was freezing cold washing the cars, but it was obviously for a good cause. We ended up raising over $500! Granny Pam who visits the village of Piella on a regular basis told us that the money we raise will last them for months and will go to clothing and personal items and a steady supply of food for months. Granny Pam will be bringing all funds raised to Piella on December 7, 2007.
District 11 will meet again on December 29, 2007 to set more goals for this year and discuss what is happening in our counties.
Respectfully Submitted,
Katherine Kaltenbach
District 11 Secretary
District 13
District 13 held it’s meeting on November 17 at the Broward County fair. We had many new people at the meeting. We discussed and planned junior congress. We are planning to have it on March 1st at Oleta State park in North Miami. The theme for our junior congress is “4-Her vs. Wild” which will teach kids survival skills. We have already started promoting Junior Congress in our District!
After junior congress was discussed Adree Coolidge taught the YEAH program. He taught about fast food and how much calories are in them. We were all shocked to find this information out. To make a long story short, we had a very successful meeting!
Candice Drake
District 13 President
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