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Social Media Assistant: Blog Week 1

This week I started my internship with OSU Extension Adams County. For this semester I am their Social Media Assistant. I will be responsible for creating content used for announcements and recruitment.

Considering this was my first week, it was a week full of planning. I started my content calendar excel sheet, that I am hoping to also create an actual calendar for a visual. It is full of events we have coming up and when they are so that I can make posts accordingly.

I also met with my site coordinator, Kristy Watters, to talk over our game plan. We discussed what events to focus on and how often to post. She also gave me access to the Facebook page and website blog.

I started designing some posts for upcoming events. It is really important to me that I keep OSU brand guides at the forethought of my mind. Thus, I have been keeping them pulled up on my browser to utilize.

Next week, I hope to conduct a full social media audit to look over analytics. This will help us know when is the best time to post. Additionally, I will continue to design posts for the page.

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 6

This week was filled and a current reminder that State Fair is approaching faster than we anticipated. However, we are working diligently to be ready for all of the deadlines.

On Monday, I really honed into the Beef Display and making the cutout of the vinyl. It took lots of patience to sketch that out.

Tuesday brought lots of activities and discussion. In the morning, Raegan and I got to go with Ty Higgins and David Gore to shoot a video with Ohio Poultry Association. The video segment focused on the policy issues Farm Bureau is working on currently, while also drawing in commodity groups’ involvement in policy. We had fun watching the filming process and eating homemade deviled eggs. After OPA, the team and I went to the fairgrounds to meet with Westcamp. They are the company that puts up all the banners in the building, so we were coordinating dates for setup and figuring out if we needed more signage. After lunch, Jordan (farm bureau’s landscaper) came in to measure and discuss our plans for landscaping in the environment zone. We had productive discussion and really good ideas were brought up.

Wednesday, we had our weekly team meeting. The meeting was so productive and we went over items we needed to gather for planning. This week we needed to gather information to order AV needs (tvs, wifi, chairs, tables, etc.), tickets, and set up information. After our meeting, I sent lots of emails to commodity partners to confirm this information. In addition, I started continued to make the agenda and activities for the Intern Meet & Greet.

Thursday, I continued to finish a few projects in the morning, and then we had a lunch date with Melinda. During, we talked about our progress on the exhibit and all the things we were worried about in preparation. Melinda have us support and things to help out. After lunch, we had a meeting with Lyda Garcia and Lora Vest of OSU. This meeting was to plan the Meat Display, which they are going to provide meat and signage for. This display is to educate fairgoers about the types of meat grades, and the types of retail meat cuts. To end the day, we interviewed an ambassador, which went great!

In the morning on Friday, I helped load items for the golf outing. Afterwards, I went to the fairgrounds to have a meeting with Sam Custer about the iFarm Immersive Theatre. We discussed the building size and came to the conclusion that it would be hard to fit it into the area without modifying anything. So, instead I gave Sam my idea for an alternative display, which he liked and agreed to.

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 5

We are getting into the thick of all of our planning for the state fair.

Monday and Tuesday were work from home days in which I looked up facts to put onto the beef sustainability display. I also organized the agenda and activities for the up coming Intern Meet and Greet. In addition, I had two interviews with Farm Bureau employees to learn about their jobs. Jana Mussard and Kelsey Turner are both involved in the Ag Literacy area and overall member engagement. I loved talking about their jobs and how their education and prior job experience lead them to where they are now. It was so insightful to talk about how to best reach members and young people and the obstacles that come up. This week was also a lot of brain storming with the team about the Crops and Water Display and the logistics of the cover crop wall.

Wednesday, I was off due to circumstances I could not control.

Thursday and Friday was more of the same as Monday and Tuesday, along with our weekly team meeting where Raegan updated us on all the design aspects she had been working on.

In the next week, comes more meetings with partners.

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 4

Week four really began the busy time of this job!

Monday started off pretty low-key. I worked on gathering information on all the supplies and equipment we will need for both the animal and technology zones. In addition, I finalized ideas to give to beef for the meeting on Tuesday.

Tuesday, continued with two more ambassador interviews, both of which went great! We added a referral incentive last week and it is doing well already. That afternoon we had our meeting with the Beef council. Here we clarified what our message would be, solidifying that it should be a broader view of sustainability. They liked my idea for the interactive cow board with facts, so I will move forward in designing it.

Wednesday, was a day full of meetings. It was the day we went over everything. Julie updated us on all the projects she was working on and we did for her. We brainstormed lots of ideas for signage and how we could change up signups and activities for ambassadors.

Thursday, we set to work on all the updated projects from the day before. For myself,  I created a form for partners so they could sign-up for a setup day. I also worked on the agenda and created a sign up for the OFBF Intern Meet & Greet we are hosting in the next couple weeks.

Friday, I worked on brainstorming and organizing activities and challenges for us to do at the Meet & Greet. In addition, I completed the EasyIt trainings that were on my to-do list.

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 3

This week was a full week of meetings, brainstorming, and inventory diving in the basement.

On my work from home days of Monday, Wednesday, and Friday I continued to design the beef display proposal for the meeting with Ohio Beef next week. I looked up prices for materials and thought through logistics of constructing it. I figured that it was pretty simple and we could build it here in the office. This is one display I am very excited about because we are focusing on sustainability in the beef industry, which is a hot topic in regards to meat consumption and methane emissions. The display will convey facts about the industry and give positives of buying and consuming meat, in addition it will also help fight some of the misconceptions there are about the industry.

Tuesday, we had a team meeting in the morning to update everyone on our projects. We discussed how interviews were going with ambassadors (they are going very well) and talked about how we could recruit even more. The team decided and developed a incentive program which would put them in the drawing for a raffle basket if they referred more people to apply and interview. In the afternoon, we had a meeting to discuss the Crops/Water Display to our in-house landscaper. Jake gave the overview and his vision for the display. We talked about logistics and how easy it would be to accomplish. The landscapers were hopeful and believed we could accomplish this ourselves.

Thursday, brought even more meetings. In the morning we met with the design team to discuss ideas for the photo booth, and printing needs for signs. They were excited to hear our ideas and can’t wait to see the type of work Raegan comes up with. In the afternoon, we headed down to the basement to take inventory on the signs and materials. The good news is that the water leak did not damage any of our big signs and we will just have to replace the signs with old logos on them.

Throughout the week the team had a great time interacting and bonding. They are the most fun!

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 2

This week was full of meetings, interviews, and interactive collaboration.

On Monday,  work-from-home, the team and I went to work finding new facts for the Ag Hearing. We researched on commodity websites and the state fair resources.

Tuesday, brought more ambassador interviews, which we were delighted to have as our number is slowly creeping towards that 3o goal! We have around 20 now and are continuing to advertise for it. Throughout both Monday and Tuesday I looked for facts and ideas to bring to the site visit meetings with our partners.

Wednesday was the first day for site visits. My zone, the animal zone had two visits, one from OHHA and Ohio Pork Council. Each were pleased with the building and their spots in it. Going into this year there was some concern from Pork being close to the poultry due to the diseases each carry, but both groups guaranteed that we had spaced them out enough. Neither group needs very many ambassadors in their space so that was reassuring with the number we have.

Thursday was the second day for site visits. This day brought more brainstorming with the commodity groups, as they both have new displays. The first visit was with Ohio Beef Council/Ohio Cattlemen’s. They are new to our building this year and want to focus on the sustainability aspect of beef. They think it is really important that consumers know how their choice in food affects the earth, economy, and society. We threw back ideas of how we’d like to see the information displayed, and decided that I should design my vision and send it over to them. This will give each of us time to solidify our visions. The next commodity group to visit was with American Dairy Association. In the past they brought VR activity of a free stall barn, however they neither have it nor the money to bring it back so we had to come up with something different. We decided that they would do a calf hutch display, so that the public can see all the things that go into caring for a dairy calf. I loved this idea and will be moving forward with it.

On Friday, which was a work from home day, the team continued to find ideas for their respective displays. I looked at different ideas for the beef display as they are the group I will need the most inspiration for.

Next week, we have a few meetings to solidify some ideas!

OFBF Internship Blog- Week 1

I began my internship with Ohio Farm Bureau last Monday as a State Fair Intern. This summer my team and I are in charge of  creating and implementing displays and activities for the Land & Living Building at the Ohio State Fair. The building is compromised of four zones, food, technology, environment, and animal. We are excited to get to work visioning and designing for each zone.

This week however, to get our ideas rolling, we went on a farm tour trip around Ohio. The trip allowed us to experience all that Ohio has to offer and to learn from the people themselves, how they’d like their message to be conveyed.

This first day we visited Katherine Harrison of Franklin County. Katherine is a one woman farm who relies on the help of interns and volunteers to feed kids and lambs, collect eggs, and help corral all of her goats and sheep. She is very proud of raising good quality meat and eggs for which she sells at her local farmer’s market and to hala customers. Katherine also offers goat yoga in the fall, and sells skulls and bones at oddity conventions.

The next farm we went to was a sow operation in Muskingum County, Bell Farms. There Matt Bell gave us tour of the farrowing barns, weaning barns, and gestation area. He talked about the latest sanitation, culling, and chemical sterilization practices they are currently using in the swine industry. Matt spoke of the importance of breeding good quality sows in order to produce the best quality hogs for pork. He also shared his outlook on the future of agriculture and why it is so important to have young agriculturist ready and willing to advocate for this way of life.

On Thursday, we started out our day in Highland County at Nathan Brown’s. Nathan, a first generation farmer told us his journey into agriculture and why it is important to him that farmers are a good steward of the land. He has a grain operation that accompanies his small beef operation. Nathan uses no till practices, and is a huge advocate of cover crops. While we were at his farm he showed us his fields which were sewn with canola, clover, wheat,  and cereal rye. He dug up places to show soil structure and the benefits of putting cover crops on land. This visit allowed us to start envisioning ideas for the crops/water display.

After Nathan’s we visited Lane Osswald in Preble County. Lane, another grain farmer who uses no till practices gave us great insight on how over plowing can cause erosion and run-off. He took us out in fields to allow us to see the real examples at play in his farming area. After speaking with Lane, we all began to notice just where low spots and run-off had impacted fields we past on our drive.

On Friday morning we visited Rose Hartschuh’s dairy farm and agricultural education destination, in Crawford County. Rose gave us a tour of their field trip area, and discussed how they have a unique opportunity to teach young kids not only about dairy, but about ag as a whole. Next, she gave us a tour around the dairy operation; milking parlor, calf barn, and heifer lot to name a few. The neatest thing to see was the robotic milkers which collect and store data to improve not only milking, but to keep the farm running efficiency. Finally, Rose took us around the fields to talk about their crop farming practices, and to highlight the importance of water quality in the Lake Erie Basin area.

The last visit of the trip was to Bill Patterson’s in Geauga County. The Patterson’s Fruit Farm and Fall Fun Fest are two of the biggest attractions in the area. The fruit farm allows people to come and pick their own fruit while learning about where their food comes from and how it is raised. Bill explained that as a big agritourism spot they have a huge job of educating those who were not expecting it. This means constant talk with customers and discussion with everyone who walks into the market. It was awesome to see how ag education can come from the commercial level and from a place that offers fun and excitement for the whole family.

My first week at Ohio Farm Bureau was great, and I can’t wait to starting designing and visioning displays for the Land & Living exhibit!

Talk the Talk

Communications Contest Participants, Left to Right: Kole Henderson, Madee Henderson, Vanessa Trotter, JR Liston, and Erin Simpkins

Public speaking is a fear of many, but a skill that is important to have. However, a few brave 4-H’ers stepped up to test their presentation skills in this year’s Communications Contest.

The Communications Contest is a great way to get out of your comfort zone and present on an issue you are passionate about. Often contestants’ demonstrations will be about their 4-H project. Each youth is asked to give an illustrated talk or demonstration 5-10 minutes long, using visual aids or a slide show. They present in front of a judge and an audience.

This year, five competed at our county level contest on June 24, and qualified for the state contest on August 5. We were very impressed at our county contest and know they will represent Adams County proud.

Good luck to all contestants!