4-H Club Scrapbooks will be accepted in virtual formats for 2020!  Scrapbooks are a fun way to gather and share your club’s accomplishments and memories for the year.  They allow members to be creative, show their personalities, and celebrate their achievements.  Each year the 4-H Advisory Committee sponsors a 4-H Club Scrapbook contest with cash awards going to the clubs with the top 3 scrapbooks.

This year we have decided to go virtual with scrapbooks!  Your club can submit a PowerPoint, Prezi, Google Slides, or other virtual formatted collection of your favorite photos, memories, and designs.  Be creative!  Have members and families submit pictures and ideas, include snapshots taken by volunteers, or create your own unique design.  Please be sure submissions are accessible and easy to view.  Scrapbooks can be submitted at go.osu.edu/AdamsClubScrapbook.  4-H Club Scrapbooks are due October 31 and winners will be announced during our fall advisor training.

Traditional scrapbooks will also be accepted and should be submitted to the Extension office by 4 p.m. October 31.

The Adams County 4-H Advisory Committee plays an important role in our 4-H Program.  The Advisory Committee is charged with providing advice to the 4-H Professionals, helps assess the needs of the youth in our county and develops programming to meet those needs.  The Committee helps sets policies and procedures for the county program, plans and runs activities and raises funds to make those activities possible.

Our Adams County 4-H Advisory Committee helps make our 4-H Program great!  They coordinate events like Skillathon and Kids College, provide a partial scholarship to every Adams County 4-H Camper and meet on a regular basis to continually evaluate the needs of our 4-Hers.  Volunteers and Youth that currently serve inlcude:  Dave Baker, Kim Baker, Joy Bauman, Carlie Cluxton, Emily Collett, Summer Drummond, Marcheta Ferguson, Judy Hawkins, Sam Kimmerly, Teresa Lewis, Linda Louiso, Bonnie Simpkins, Erin Simpkins, Donnie Swayne, Erica Swearingen and Matthew Swearingen.  I appreciate these members for their dedication and their willingness to provide leadership to our county Program.

We currently have vacancies on the Committee which is made up of fifteen 4-H Volunteers, elected by their peers to a three year term, and four youth 4-H members, appointed by the committee to fill a one year term.  If you are a current, approved 4-H volunteer and interested in becoming more involved in the Program, please consider applying to serve on the Advisory Committee.   Applications can be found on the Adams County Extension website under 4-H polices and forms.  They should be submitted to the Extension Office by September 1st.  We will hold an election virtually in October 2020 to elect five adult members.  All current volunteers will receive a unique link at the email address they have on file with the Extension Office to vote for up to five committee members.

Youth Advisory Committee Membership applications are also available at adams.osu.edu under 4-H policies and forms.  All active 4-H members are eligible to apply for membership and will be appointed at the September Advisory Committee meeting to serve a term from October 1 – September 30.

If you are interested, please reach out to Kristy or a current Committee member.  We would be glad to answer any questions you may have.

Members have 2 options to complete their 4-H project(s) for 2020.

Option 1 – Interview with a club advisor.  This is a non-competitive way for you to complete your project(s) for 2020.  Please let your advisor know if you would like to complete in this way and they will schedule a time with you in the next few weeks.  This must be completed before the end of September.

Option 2 – Virtual submission video.  This is a competitive way for you to complete your project(s) for 2020.  For this option we will be using a platform called FlipGrid.  We have provided detailed instructions as well as the links to the project area FlipGrids on our website under Non-Livestock Project Judging.  Videos must be uploaded no later than August 22.  After reading the instructions and looking at the FlipGrid site, if you have questions please contact Kristy at watters.92@osu.edu.  Please do not wait until the deadline to start on this!

For either option please have some kind of display ready for your project.  This does not have to be the traditional poster, but it can be.  It can also be your rocket, tackle box, prepared food, item of clothing, rock collection, etc.  Make sure it represents your project and the work you put into it.

We hope to see many projects completed over the next several weeks!

Quality Assurance is required to exhibit market livestock at the 2020 Adams County Fair.  We have added two additional Quality Assurance dates to the schedule for 2020.  Quality Assurance is being conducted virtually using Zoom and members must preregister at go.osu.edu/adamsqa. Registration must be completed at least 48 hours before the session begins and a link will be sent to the email provided approximately 24 hours before the session.  Families should only register once and list any additional 4-H or FFA members that will be watching on the same form.  Please be mindful of the time slot you choose and remember to log on.  There are limited spots available for each session and when the capacity is reached it closes registration for that session making other members unable to register.

Quality Assurance is also available yqca.org.  There is a $12 fee to take the course and test at this site.  If you choose this option, please screenshot or print your completion certificate and email it to rowe.316@osu.edu.

This document was distributed via email to all 4-H families, FFA exhibitors and volunteers with an email address on file with Adams County 4-H.  If you have additional questions, please contact Kristy at watters.92@osu.edu or Barbie at rowe.316@osu.edu.

Livestock skillathons offer youth an opportunity to test their knowledge on production, management and nutrition of the species they are raising.  Testing and applying knowledge is an important part of the experiential learning model that we use in 4-H.  In 2020 our skillathons will likely look much different, but their importance to your project has not changed.  With that in mind, we are sharing study resources from Wayne County 4-H.  Visit the website below to practice with your species skillathon, feed identification or explore another species.

https://wayne.osu.edu/skillathon-study-materials

Want to dig in to a 4-H project that’s a good match for staying at home? See our collection of Perfect Stay-at-Home Projects.  When a copy opens on your screen, you can save or print it from there. Stay at home and stay healthy, 4-H’ers! (For accessible formats of these publications, visit cfaes.osu.edu/accessibility.)

To add one of these great project options to your 2020 Adams County 4-H enrollment email watters.92@osu.edu or rowe.316@osu.edu before the April 15 deadline to add or drop projects.

Adams County 4-H has extended the deadline to add or drop a project to April ❌30 in order to give members and families as much flexibility as possible given the current situation.  In order to add/drop a project you will need to send an email to Kristy at watters.92@osu.edu or Barbie Rowe rowe.316@osu.edu stating what project you would like to add or drop.  We will update your record in 4-H Online.

As you consider your projects going forward, Ohio 4-H offers this advice to livestock exhibitors:

• 4-H members and their families should consider a number of factors as they make their decisions to purchase 4-H market livestock projects. As with any agricultural enterprise, possible risks and rewards must be taken into account. For example, we encourage families to consider their overall available budget, space to care for livestock, availability of alternative markets, availability of local processing and family freezer space.

Club advisors, please post your enrollment report in your Facebook group, email them out to your club or in some other way get confirmation from members that they are in the project(s) they want.  If you need assistance running an updated enrollment report, please reach out to Barbie and she can assist you.