Check out our County Calendar here!

OCTOBER

• October 22 - Sequoia Open Sewing Project starts!
• October 24 - Youth in Action Award Applications DUE!
• October 26 -  Wildlife Project Meeting
• October 29 - North Bay Science Discovery Day @ Sonoma Fairgrounds

NOVEMBER

• November 1, 7pm - County Council (CCC) Meeting
• November 5 - Sonoma 4-H Achievement Night, 6:30pm, 4-H Center
• November 4-6 - 4-H Mindfulness Retreat
• November 11-13 - State 4-H Leaders Forum in Santa Rosa

DECEMBER

• December 6, 7pm, Council Council (CCC) Meeting

• CAL Conference Registration. Due November 29th. 
  CAL conference application is now on our website! Click on our CAL conference page to learn more.
  
  

• Hi Sewers, future sewers!

  

  Come join us for some sewing fun working on a stuffed animal or your choice of project. Check out the attached flyer and call or e-mail us so we can have forms/materials on hand for you! If you have to be at Camp Staff Training Weekend on the 22nd of October but want to join, let us know, we'll send you everything we go over at the first meeting.

  Thanks,

  Diana and Naomi
  hamptond@mac.com
  weloveusa@comcast.net

• National 4-H Week Window Display Contest!
  

  WINDOW DISPLAY RESULTS ARE IN!!! Thank you to all the clubs that participated, the judges as well as community first credit union for sponsoring this event. A big thank you to you, Siegrid and Canfield 4-H for organizing the contest.

  1st- Green Valley 4-H 
  2nd- Wild Oak 4-H 
  3rd- Lytton Springs 4-H   

• North Bay Science Discovery Day
  October 29, 2016 between 10:00am-4:00pm @ Sonoma County Fairgrounds
  http://ucanr.edu/nbscienceday
  Help promote the University of California 4-H Youth Development Program at the North Bay Science Discovery Days! We welcome 4-H members of any age (preferably 9 or older) to serve a 2-hour shift at the 4-H booth. Members will help lead the activities with children attending the event. 
     
• Everyone invited to attend the Sonoma County 4-H Achievement Night, "Go for the Gold"
  November 5, 2016, 6:30pm, @ 4-H Center in Rohnert Park
  The Sonoma County All-Star Team invites you to join them for a fun filled Achievement Night! Dress like your favorite Olympian or 4H appropriate attire!
    
• Youth + Adults: We need your help on Sonoma County 4-H Committees!
  Consider becoming a committee member on incentives and recognition, livestock judging, teen events, presentation day, camp steering, chickenque, chicken run, scholarship, Friend of 4-H Award, officer training, fashion revue, or outreach and promotion. Check out our committee Descriptions for more details.
     
• Announcement: 2017 Bay/Coast Area Presentation Days
  The Bay/Coast Area Committee will hold 2 presentation days, one at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo for southern counties, and one in Eastern Contra Costa county for the bay area counties. 
   
• California Make It With Wool Contest
  November 19, 2016 (Check-in- 9:00 am, Judging: 9:30am, Style Show- 2:30pm)
  Due Dates: entry forms- October 18, 2016
  Berger Drive Auditorium, 1555 Berger Dr. San Jose, Building 2  
  How to enter: Complete an official entry form for each entry. Entry fees are non-refundable.
  Any Questions? Call me at 408.612.8634 or Camiww6@gmail.com
   
• Community First will once again be having our 4-H Photo Contest again this year! Don't forget you can use a new or older photo, it can include the whole club, just a few kids, or just animals…it's really up to you! It's a great way to promote 4-H and your club. Not to mention the winning club gets a special prize as well as having their photo on our cards for whole 2017 year! Also please let me know if you have any questions about the AG loan program, which gives kids a chance to borrow up to $2,500 for their market animal project at 0% interest. They also receive checking accounts, debit cards, and earn a credit score when they pay their loan back! I know it's still early for most of you to even think about market animals, but please keep me in mind when you are planning your 4-H meetings in the future as I would love to come and talk to the kids and parents about our program (springtime gets very busy so the sooner I can come out to your club the better). To schedule a time for Rebecca to come out to your club or if you have any questions about the Photo Contest or AG loans please call me at 707-543-2654 or email at rnystrom@comfirstcu.org  

• "Go for the Gold" at the "2017 Fashion Games"
  A new 4-H year is starting and it is also time to start thinking about how you will "Go for the Gold" with your creations at the next Fashion Revue - The 2017 Fashion Games! If you need more information or have any questions, please contact the Fashion Revue Committee Co-Chairs: Naomi at weloveusa@comcast.net or Heidi at hmlavell@gmail.com or Diana at  hamptond@mac.com Announcing the categories for the 2017 Sonoma County 4-H Fashion Revue:

  The 5 County Only Categories
  Accessories (at least two coordinating but different accessories)
  Costume (at least 50% of costume is handmade or sewn)
  Embellished Garment (creatively decorate an existing wearable garment)
  Textile (make a non-wearable item)
  Stuffed Challenge (make a stuffed item)

  The 5 County & State Categories are
  Traditional (a sewn garment)
  $40 Purchased (purchase a full outfit for less than $40)
  Upcycled (turn an existing garment into a completely different garment)
  Knit Challenge (sew an entire garment using knit fabric)
  Stripe/Print/Plaid Challenge (create garment(s) using 2-3 of the fabric designs)

• 4-H Clover Day - Meet, Share, and Learn - For 4-H Volunteer Leaders
  February 25, 2017 in Rohnert Park
  http://ucanr.edu/cloverday 
  A new one-day volunteer development event for 4-H volunteer leaders in Sonoma, Marin, and Napa counties. The focus is to support skill and relationship building between fellow 4-H volunteer leaders for both project-specific areas as well as other 4-H topics to help improve youth engagement and learning.

• Read responses from the UCCE 4-H Office to questions posed by 4-H Club Leaders at the Annual 4-H Club Leader Training (Sept 10).
  http://cesonoma.ucanr.edu/files/249217.pdf 
  Highlights: Youth with disabilities, after school programs, code of conduct, outreach, and fair entry. 
    
• Food safety training required
  The 4-H policy manual states that training is required for adult volunteers involved with food service activities and that all events must comply with state and local requirements.InSonoma County 4-H, this means:
  • Volunteer Leaders involved with providing food sold to the public need to take the UC 4-H six-part online course at: http://ucanr.edu/sites/MISKIS/.  
  • Volunteer Leaders with significant responsibilities at 4-H events involving intensive food service (such as camp or chickenque) need to have a food handler card with preference for at least one person with a food safety manager certification.

• Steps to Success, requiring the Annual Project Report (APR). 
  The Steps to Success notes that members can receive a year strip and pin simply by completing one project and Annual Project Report (APR). Members will receive a year stripe and pin if they complete an APR. Requirements to exhibit at fair are set by the fair, not by 4-H. Some project leaders may include showing at fair as a project requirement. This is up to the individual project leader. Record Books cannot be required for 4-H participation.  Youth are free to participate in 4-H at all levels, including Club meetings and activities, presentation days, and state events without doing a record book.  However, there are some awards which do require a record book, as determined by the State Incentives and Recognition Committee. 

• 4-H Branding Toolkit
  The Branding Toolkit incorporates the branding guidelines of the UC and USDA to maintain a consistent brand image for the California 4-H Youth Development Program. Templates, logos, and a checklist are available on the website. 
    
• Self-Determined 4-H Projects
  The manual includes plans for the project where youth plan, implement, and evaluate a learning pathway (project) from beginning to end in a topic of their choosing.
    
• 4-H Club Websites
  We will start adding 4-H Club webpages on the county website under a new tab “4-H Clubs.” While each club page will have basic information (meeting dates, times, locations, and contacts), we can also provide access to a key person from each club to add, modify, or delete information for their club. If you are interested in helping us test this out, please contact Steven Worker at smworker@ucanr.edu. 
    
• 4-H Presentation Manual, new revisions for 2016-2017
  Revisions to the 4-H Presentation Manual will be released in mid-October and effective for this program year. Check them out! 

• Fundraising opportunity- For 4-H Clubs, Projects, and Groups
  Earn $$$ for tasting some meat samples!
  What: You arrange for 22 adults to give us their opinion for one hour, we feed the group wholesome meat samples AND pay the group $550!
  Why: We need to feed Sonoma county consumers and get opinions on meat samples. This is part of a large research project Texas Tech University is conducting across the U.S. to get consumer opinions on different beef, pork and lamb samples.
  Where: Sonoma County 4-H Center, Rohnert Park, CA
  When:  Sessions available: Thursday January 5, 2017 – Tuesday January 10, 2017
  How:  1 hour time commitment for a group of 22 adults at pre-assigned time-slot. Each individual receives $25 for participation in the study (plus samples of delicious beef, lamb or pork!). This means a group of 22 people can earn $550 for just one hour of their time! Each panel will be only one species (beef, pork or lamb), all meat will be cooked to a medium degree of doneness.
  Who: Any adult (18+) who consumes beef, pork or lamb at least once every few weeks. Any 4-H members who want to help (serving samples, sample station organization, etc.) and learn about meat science research are welcome to help us! Please contact us with any inquiries.
  Contact: Keelyn Hanlon (Sonoma County 4-H alumni), Graduate Research Assistant, Texas Tech University, Department of Animal and Food Sciences, keelyn.hanlon@ttu.edu, 707-535-6308

• Calling all Ham Radio Enthusiasts! 
  For anyone interested in HAM Radio, please contact Darryl Paule at 707-544-8874 via phone or text.  Their next Monthly Membership Meeting is October 5, 2016.  They meet at the Luther Burbank Art and Garden Center, 2050 Yulupa Avenue. Social time begins at 6:30 and the meeting is at 7 o'clock.
    
• LUMAFEST open house and education fair
  The day is filled with entertainment, arts and crafts vendors, and lots of things for families and children to enjoy. They would love to have your 4-H group on site with some animals for a petting area. The event will be on Saturday, October 15 from 11am to 4pmattheSRJCPetaluma campus. We expect about 1500 to 2000 people to attend. There is normally a small fee to have you as a vendor, however we would be happy to waive the fee for your participation. I have provided a link in the attachment for the application form. Contact: Marla Peter, Event Assistant, events@jgwevents.com, 707-837-1928.

• October Volunteer Spotlight - We're shining the spotlight on a long-time volunteer and 4-H alumni. Charlotte LeGallee has been involved in 4-H since she was 8 years old. Both her parents and siblings were involved in 4-H. She was a 4-H All Star for Siskiyou County in 1977-78.  As a 4-Her she had the opportunity to attend Washington Focus in Washington, D.C., in addition to a 4-H exchange program to Japan.
  Read more about her story on our Spotlight Blog. 
  
  
• Bay/Coast 4-H Area, Trent Baldwin
  Read the update "OctoberUpdateBCA". Also, please respond to the surveys to determine the needs of the area, to provide data to work off of in our first meeting. The survey for youth is here and survey for adults is here.
    
• 4-H Youth Development Advisor, Steven Worker
  The 4-H Formula for High Quality Experiences
  What is the formula to ensure youth have a high quality learning experience in 4-H? Based on research from Richard Lerner at Tufts University, National 4-H promotes the “Big 3” program elements that need to be present together in every 4-H meeting and activity.
    
• Sonoma County 4-H Council President 
  Fall is upon us and the new 4-H year is promising to be a great one!  Club Leader Training was hugely informative and set us all on the path to success.  Please don't forget that warm bodies and new ideas are still very much in need for all of our committees.  They are a fun way to ensure the 4-H gears keep turning smoothly and with each area broken up into small commitments it is extremely manageable.  Take a look at the list description of each committee below and let me know at tonyamanda@hotmail.com if you'd like to sign up for one or two! The Officer Installation event organized by the All-Star team and Rising Stars and their advisor, Matt Schafer, was also a great success!  Thank you to all of the club officers for being a part of this and we hope you are excited to step into your positions!  Make sure that Achievement Night is on your calendars for November 5^th as it is sure to be the best one yet! A big round of applause goes to Kristi Schafer, the rest of the I&R committee and all of our volunteer record book judges for taking on all of this year's record books and getting through it without a hitch!  Sonoma County 4-Hers are so talented and work so hard and we would like to see more of them recognized at the State level for their efforts so let's keep trying to encourage members to complete and submit their record books. Our next CCC meeting is October 4th at 7pm at the 4-H Office in Santa Rosa.  Please be sure to send representative of your club to each CCC meeting as they are generally packed full of important events and programs throughout the county. I look forward to seeing you then! -- Amanda
    
• Watch new 4-H videos for 4-H Grows Here campaign
  True leaders aren't born; they're grown - https://youtu.be/4vJ5Ab-uTDk 
  You're going to need us - https://youtu.be/ka5vblCkGF8 

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