The Tangipahoa Parish 4-H advisory meeting was held on Tuesday November 28^th at 5:30pmCassie Faunce, Tangipahoa Parish 4H agent introduced herself and everyone from the office and then everyone introduced themselves.

There were twenty-five members present consisting of agents, parents, volunteers, and Jr leaders.

She welcomed everyone and told them about the advisory job description included in their folders. She explained everyone is present here to represent the community to help identify youth programming needs, identify opportunities for collaboration. She explained our main goal is for it to provide youth opportunities to gain knowledge and skills that will help them succeed in life.

The goal of this meeting is to gain knowledge of what is wanted most of for our programming and the direction of where you all would like the programming to go.

She requested if anyone has any ideas to collaborate with different companies or with other organizations, please let us know. Those who would love to utilize their connections and then also contribute time and effort, we would also appreciate that.

Cassie described the Agcenter ’s mission and other facts. She also covered a PowerPoint presentation with information pertaining to LSU AgCenter and a summary of current enrollment numbers and general facts about the 4-H program.

We have thirty-two schools that we are presently in. Currently, we go to over forty meetings each month. There are a few schools that have no club leader in those schools and so no club. Please let us know if you have any ideas to obtain leaders in those schools and we would love to collaborate with them.

We have been successful with the Jr Leaders Club so far also and had a few different things and events completed. We went to put out flags for veterans Day and then shopping for kids for Christmas because they are adopting kids. We had a shootings sports kick off meeting and they are doing practices throughout the year in various disciplines. We have a great start to this year, lots of deadlines coming up and passed.

We had an impressive STEM workshop where one of our members lead it with help from some other junior leaders. Our Jr Leaders on the STEM board did all the work. They did all the work, and it turned out great. The kids who attended the workshop loved it.

For future, we are going to the Pelican’s game as a parish. These several things, contests, etc., we want to continue throughout the next few years. We are going to continue doing the great contests, the talent show, the fashion show, etc. We will continue everything the same this year as they are and then revisit if we need to make any changes to the programming.

We are continuing to do regional and state events too. We are going to have a project book and Portfolio workshop in January as well as a Livestock Showmanship Clinic. We are also going to do some other service projects. The Jr Leader elected as service-Learning chair has some additional ideas and is going to head up other projects.

We are looking to gain valuable feedback on how to improve the program, how can we be better? I grew up here my whole life but that does not mean I know everything, and I need to know you all perspectives and what you all need. Angela the other 4H agent knows what she did in her parish, and I know what I did in my previous parish, but together we do not know what you all want more from here.

Cassie presented four questions to the group to answer.

1. In your opinion, what are some critical issues facing youth in Tangipahoa parish that 4-H can address through educational programs?

2. What are some steps you can take to improve volunteer engagement, recruitment, and retention? Because we have a lot of things, we need volunteers for, we do not run as a program without volunteers. We would not have a program, would not have volunteers. We need to continue to gain those. How can we continue to get volunteers to come back, such as some alumni?

3. What are some ways to Market our parish regional and state programming activities to increase youth involvement year-round? What are some things that we can do to help with that?

4. What are some ideas of new events and changes to old events that we can do and have for our parish program?

Cassie then gave everyone some sticky notes, one sticky for each of the four questions. Everyone took the notes and began to write an answer to each question. The answers were compiled onto one large board for each question.

Question 1. In your opinion, what are some critical issues facing youth in Tangipahoa parish that 4-H can address through educational programs?

Some suggestions included were Life Skills such as social skills and manners, being prepared for interviews and the workforce; Other adults’ skills such as teen parenting, money management and budgeting, automotive maintenance, ATV safety, self-confidence, and mental health; Bullying information, Social Media usage guidelines and safety, and texting safety; A Point and award system was suggested as an incentive to show up for workshops/classes.

Question 2. What are some steps you can take to improve volunteer engagement, recruitment, and retention?

Because we have a lot of things, we need volunteers for, we do not run as a program without volunteers. We would not have a program, would not have volunteers. We need to continue to gain those. How can we continue to get volunteers to come back, such as some alumni? Some suggestions included were: Recruiting from other organizations such as sports coaches, churches, college alumni, etc.; Keeping communication open with volunteers and parents such as using apps to allow volunteers to see specific volunteer opportunities and see what positions are open and how many are needed and if they have been filled or not.

Question 3.What are some ways to Market our parish regional and state programming activities to increase youth involvement year-round?

What are some things that we can do to help with that? Some suggestions included were: Have current members visit schools without club yet; social media, Facebook, Instagram; We can use Instagram and just started Instagram, so if you want to follow us on Instagram, please go follow us; More communication with kids, parents, and volunteers; Promoting on the parish government website. Have college age members come and speak; Radio interviews, events, and other advertised activities; Get kids to go to check their club’s bulletin board; Marketing at sports events, such as football games and other events; Challenge the clubs to advertise at their schools by maybe having an ambassador at each high and middle school that has football games or other events, and their job during the event would be to give a little blurb about 4H for each event / game. It could be multiple kids. It does not have to be the same person all the time; Flyers at libraries, your supermarkets and for restaurants or usual places kids frequent.

Question 4: What are some ideas of new events and changes to old events that we can do and have for our parish program?

Those suggestions were: better parish fair showing of the 4-H handicrafts; communicating with other parishes to see what they do and how they handle events and other activities; partnering with other parishes to do smaller events and activities; industry and agricultural tours and working with accomplished professionals; Establish more partnerships with organizations; having equal awards for all winners at an event; Being in different parades around the parish; Having sponsors for certain events and contest or camps,

Set up fundraisers at different parish events or setting up fundraisers with organizations sponsoring the fundraiser and splitting the proceeds with us; have more project clubs or workshops such as scrapbooking, art, sewing, food preserving, etc.

Cassie wrapped up the meeting stating there is a good outlook on what we want to do in the future. Our goal is to make our program better. We will take your suggestions; we will send you an update within the next few months of how we are going to try to reach our goal and how we are working to reach our goal in future and our steps to get there.

There will be an LSU AgCenter combined Advisory Board Committee meeting in 2024. We need a few representatives from this advisory, if anyone wants to serve on that one, to be the voice of 4H on that one, we would love to have you. Please let us know; we would like to have at least one volunteer, whether it be a parent or just a volunteer, which is fine too. Other than that, I want to thank everyone for your input. Again, I just want to thank you all for your commitment and time to the youth of Tangipahoa Parish. Thank you so much and we look forward to collaborating with you all.