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CA State 4-H Futures Task Force: Initial Outcomes and Next Steps. Facilitator: Keeley Mooneyhan, HR Matters Inc. November 21, 2013. Today’s Goals. Agenda. Review Expectations and Goals Why Are We Here Where Are We I Love 4-H, but summary of findings Roadmap to the Future
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CA State 4-H Futures Task Force: Initial Outcomes and Next Steps Facilitator: Keeley Mooneyhan, HR Matters Inc. November 21, 2013
Today’s Goals Agenda • Review Expectations and Goals • Why Are We Here • Where Are We • I Love 4-H, but summary of findings • Roadmap to the Future • Now Let’s Go . . . Recommendation Template • Next Steps • Adjournment • Review areas of interest to “Make The Best Better” • Reconfirm Interests and Priorities • Prep for December Meeting
Shared Expectations • Partner, share, and build trusting relationships • Be the voice of innovation, change and opportunity • Help 4-H evolve • Make 4-H relevant and important • Speak of aspirations • Lead by example
Guiding Principles Taskforce Goals • Strengthen program delivery: Connect People, Resources, Programs, Tools, and Technology • Accelerate distribution of information, education, and learning • Honor and respect the past while leading 4-H’s next evolution • Identify “Best Practices” to grow, develop, and support 4-H across CA Outcomes • Be committed to the mission, vision, and pillars of 4-H • Appreciate different perspectives of 4-H • Create a future where 4-H is considered a cornerstone of Youth Development • Identify areas of shared interest and value to the organization and commit to preserve what’s great and to evolve what can be better Overall Experience Goals • Minimize “Negativity” • Establish Trust and Grow Partnerships • Build Excitement & Maintain Momentum • Create Interest • Gain/Retain Youth, Volunteer, and Community Engagement and Participation • Empower Youth • Drive Commitment • Set the Stage for Success (Expectation Setting) • Recognize Uniqueness
Highlight of Key Points Impacting 4-H • Membership decline • 59% decrease over the past 40 years in the community club program • If this trend continues another 40 years, the 4-H community club program will be nearly non-existent • Need to build capacity for growth • More formalized connections, integration, and synergy across the state to free up resources, reduce missed opportunities, and be more effective and efficient in our work • Need for improved communication • Communication doesn’t flow freely across the organization to reach all families • Communication needs to flow down, across, and up the organization to ensure the program’s success • Sparse resources • There has been reduction in Staff and Adult Volunteers • Decreased government funding and an increased need of funding from other sources
Where Are We Going? Current Conversation
*The Top 5 Areas of Discussion by Level of Interest: *See Appendix for full summary of findings and detail
The Roadmap to the Future Vision, Mission,and Objectives FTF Strategy Priorities Organization Objectives Vision Mission 1. Make the Best Better 2. Learn by Doing Healthy, happy, thriving people who make a positive difference in their communities The University of California 4-H Youth Development Program engages youth in reaching their fullest potential while advancing the field of youth development Public Relations Organize 4-H to best meet the growing and changing needs of the members, volunteers, and supporters to better position growth for the next 100+ years Organization Public Relations Engagement • Define a consistent 4-H organizational management framework, tools and resource library • Advance organizational alignment, synergy and funding capture capabilities to increase funding, reduce costs, and increase resources • Develop a 4-H PR plan and associated marketing materials • Build Public Relations efforts in coordination with public values initiative to increase public awareness to the positive impact 4-H offers as a youth development organization Engagement • Enhance alignment of the various 4-H stakeholders through intentional relationship building, training, sharing, and communications • Ensure staff, volunteer, and member capabilities continually evolve to make the best better • Build cross-organization training, cultural sensitivity (generational, rural/urban, ethnic), communications, and change management processes • Share learning and continuously increase the competence of all volunteers, staff, and members Communications Communication Funding Funding • Develop, define, and implement robust communication strategies and best practices to reach each individual member/volunteer • Determine multiple methods for information delivery; especially for areas without access to internet Increase awareness, visibility, outreach and participation in the program. Build and improve relationships with members, potential members, leaders, and external advocates; increase knowledge of programs/opportunities; recruit more members to participate; increase delivery modes of 4-H; and increase diversity by reaching more people in our communities Increase communication across the 4-H organization, share opportunities across sections, and improve the flow of information.
Task Force Recommendation Template • Individual or Group Name: • Describe the Recommendation: • To which priority does the recommendation apply (underline all those that apply)? • Organization • 4-H Public Relations • Engagement • Communication • Which guiding principle/task force goal(s) does this recommendation support (underline all those that apply)? • Strengthen program delivery: Connect People, Resources, Programs, Tools, and Technology • Accelerate distribution of information, education, and learning • Honor and respect the past while leading 4-H’s next evolution • Identify “Best Practices” to grow, develop, and support 4-H across CA • What issue or issues does your recommendation resolve? (Please identify the issues) • Please describe why this recommendation is necessary and important? • Is there a dissent about this recommendation? If yes, please provide a summary of the dissenting opinion about this recommendation.
Next Steps • Continue to share information from CA 4-H Future Task Force broadly with the youth, adult volunteers, and staff • Solicit ideas and recommendations using the template • Attend our next task force meeting on December 20th in Davis, to further define recommendations for the future of 4-H • Pull forward relevant discussion items/comments for our December meeting
Discussion Notes from November 21 • PR Visibility, Public image and partnerships in combination with the State Ambassadors. • People are afraid of change, but would like to see some improvements. There is interest in improving communications and consistency. • YAP- youth are not servants, we've lost the partnership. • The issues from the state to local level are the same and are not isolated (funding, training, leadership, engagement). • Let's not forget to look at what's working and replicate it. • We need to be careful to not have "cookie cutter" answers b/c we need to look at how counties are different. • Some structure and guidance to follow would be useful for both the program and county governance. • Curriculum and handbook or "how to" to help ease people into the program; more an outline. • How do we "reinvent" or change once there is a handbook? How do we stay current? It gets confusing for members. (some of this is nomenclature not programmatic changes- how do we talk about it.) • The 4-H Framework exists to demonstrate the programs are connected and promote the outcomes outlined in the framework - to bring it all together. • We need a basic program guide for families; "what's 4-H." 4-H hasn't changed, the language changes but the program stays the same. • Administration or philosophy for engaging new members/volunteers are 2 conversations and we sometimes get stuck because they’re not separated. • The funding specific conversation needs to be set aside until we figure out organization, engagement, PR, and communication, but we need to include the funding impact in all these conversations as it impacts everything.
4-H History Public Partnership Mission 4-H’s HEAD, HEART, HANDS & HEALTH
Mandates “California’s youth will need new and enhanced opportunities for engagement.” – UC ANR Strategic Vision
Vision “Healthy, happy, thriving people who make a positive difference in their communities”
Discussion Summary: What’s working in CA 4-H* I 4-H! Identify on an individual level what makes 4-H great, for you. What Makes You Proud to be Associated with 4-H? *See appendix for full discussion points
Discussion Summary: What’s Not working in CA 4-H* I 4-H, but . . . • Identify on an individual level what could make 4-H better, for you. • What are your pain points with 4-H? *See appendix for full discussion points
I 4-H! Identify on an individual level what makes 4-H great, for you. What Makes You Proud to be Associated with 4-H?
I 4-H, but . . . Identify on an individual level what could make 4-H better, for you. What are your pain points with 4-H? Group Directions: Break into groups of 3-4 Each group should have at least 1 youth and 1 adult No group can have more than 2 members from the same Section Capture the individual and group thoughts, and be prepared to share with the group Share findings with the Group
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
What I would change about 4-H, how it can be better, my pain points
Additional Feedback/Comments ENGAGEMENT • 4-H learning curve is so steep. If it takes 7 years to learn 4-H, that is too long! The complexity of National, State, Sectional, Regional, Local and Club Level AND Different opportunities at each level. • Need 4-H user manual that explains what 4-H is • The lack of a user friendly 'how to get started' or 'this is how 4H works' • To increase enrollment, need to lower age requirements (4 years old) • 4-H can stick with agriculture (and having declining membership) or expand and adapt to needs of new audiences – with responses about how both are possibilities • It is a mistake to move away from the agricultural focus of 4-H • Difficulty in being new to 4-H (record book) • Need to do better informing people how and when to join. • I need suggestions to get our county motivated with Primary Member projects. • We need to allow youth to design their projects to tap their passions. • The challenge of retaining older youth • Schedule of events often conflicts with other things in the life of a child • Geography: One issue I see internally in the statewide program is the location distribution of many state wide events/opportunities. It is understandable to have many of the events/opportunities housed at Davis since that is location of the state office, but it is becoming way too expensive to travel. The 4-H members who really want to participate at state events that are down in southern California or extremely northern California just can't seem to make it.
Additional Feedback/Comments ORGANIZATION • Bureaucratic, paper-filled, programs “eclipsed by obscure policies, guides, and rules known to only a few.” • Streamline the simply the whole thing • California has an inordinate amount of rules • My biggest problem (and frustration) is that those learning, hands-on activities are drowned out by the never-ending administrative (aka chapter) meetings, paperwork, and ever-changing rules. • Edicts from on high should require feedback/discussion loops from 4-Hers and their parents BEFORE implementation and also training sessions, if needed, before implementation. • Clubs and counties are bogged down in minuscule details and re-writing rules • Decrease on the paper work increase on a uniform 4-H. • Disheartening how bureaucratic, paper-filling 4-H is becoming. Can we work towards streamlining and simplifying the whole thing? • So much inconsistency from club to club • Outreach documentation for the club, we are being asked to keep a phone log of contact conversations. • Many volunteers have "the responsibility to help implement this direction" but feel that their role in helping to develop policies and programs has been minimized in recent years • Minimize the amount of requirements • Lack of consistency from county to county
Additional Feedback/Comments ORGANIZATION (Continued) • Are Sectional Councils still necessary? • Provide the support for the sectional events and activities • Stay connected, network about new ideas, and provide feedback • Provide leadership roles for 4-H members • Maybe we need to regroup as a state program and see if these volunteers can better serve elsewhere • A fear that the volunteers will lose their voice in the program towards making it better • We need to have some system for the volunteers to keep doing what they do best, along with changing the program for the better • California has an inordinate amount of rules • My biggest problem (and frustration) is that those learning, hands-on activities are drowned out by the never-ending administrative (aka chapter) meetings, paperwork, and ever-changing rules. • My favorite thing about 4-H "learn by doing" gets blurred or simply eclipsed by obscure policies, guides, and rules known to only a few. • be more timely in getting new clubs chartered. • I would really like my old 4H back, THRIVE has worked wonderfully to drive leaders and kids away, ORB is a joke.
Additional Feedback/Comments DEVELOPMENT • Lack of curriculum for older members • Discussion around 4-H enrollment fees • What is the cost of 4-H participation worth? • $51 registration fee is prohibitive • $51 for a full year of otherwise virtually free training in a wide variety of subjects is not too much to ask. • The projects, when they work out, provide an education not available anywhere else for such a minimal fee. • Is there a breakdown somewhere of what the enrollment fee goes to pay for? • [Discussion about how some clubs and counties add on a fee, so the specific $51 is not representative of all counties.] • Make state wide project proficiencies • Have user friendly curriculum packets • Why doesn't 4-H have a member handbook? • Make state wide project proficiencies (adult) • Have user friendly curriculum packets (adult) • Why doesn't 4-H have a member handbook?
