Club Meetings

Both in-person and virtual monthly 4-H club meetings:

  • Develop relationships and create a sense of belonging
  • Allow for youth leadership and learning in a fun and interactive way
  • Continue to serve and be a resource for our community

To encourage and support the 4-H Thriving Model in club meetings, this guide reframes the club meeting to enhance relationship building and connection and put less emphasis on club business.

Opportunities to share power is inherent in this guide. The structure and activities are easily facilitated by club officers as well as junior and teen leaders

Please see our resources and tips below to help you adapt your meetings to this reframed approach in a virtual or small group format.

Restructured 4-H Club Meeting

The guidelines below relate to holding meetings via Zoom virtually. See the Virtual Tips and Tools page for guidance, tips, and help sheets on leading virtual 4-H meetings using Zoom.

 

Opening Activities: 35% of meeting

(Twenty-one minutes in a 60-minute meeting, or 31 minutes in a 90-minute meeting)

Focus on building relationships. Zoom will take attendance for you so you can save valuable time by using the attendance report.

  1. Select a game/activity to get to know each other, learn names and build relationships
  2. Identify and schedule your Opening games/activities for the year so things stay fresh, exciting and new
  3. Select one activity from this topic list. We’ve collected some for you
  4. You can also use recommendations from youth and families of activities they have liked from other virtual meetings. Activities should be appropriate for mixed ages and meet one of the topic areas above.

 

Business Meeting: 10% of meeting

(Six minutes in a 60-minute meeting, or 9 minutes in a 90-minute meeting)

  1. Send agenda, past meeting minutes, and treasurer’s reports to membership via email and/or USPS for review prior to the meeting
    • Be mindful of access and connectivity limitations by mailing documents to members and families who cannot connect virtually
  2. The agenda should include details about upcoming meetings for projects, service, and events and should include the URL and physical address
    1. Ask for questions, corrections, and approval. Do not read these reports out loud.
    2. Ensure everyone has a chance to ask questions.
    3. Give people time to think. 
    4. Silence is not agreement. Develop a system for participants to acknowledge agreement. Tip: Use Zoom features such as annotate, thumbs up, etc. When voting, it is important to know that all members’ voices have been heard. We recommend that you do this by using the chat feature, or roll-call voice vote.

 

Learning and Planning: 20% of meeting

(Twelve minutes in a 60-minute meeting, or 18 minutes in a 90-minute meeting)

Consider the following phrase from the 4-H pledge to be the focus of your learning and planning for the year: “My health to better living, For my club, my community, my country, and my world”.  

While our current social distancing restrictions will prevent us from fulfilling our service to our communities in the same fashion as in the past, the needs are greater than ever.

Rethink what service means to your community

Your challenge this year is to re-think what service means to your community and how to continue to meet the needs while being socially distant and safe. Now is not the time to say, “we can’t do this this year”. Rather, “We CAN do this, this year!”

  • Be creative in developing ways to secure food and clothing for local pantries and shelters
  • How can technology be used to reach seniors that are home-bound or in nursing facilities?
  • How can community gardens and beautification projects still be a point of pride, dedication, and service to your community?
  • Is it time to stretch your community service goals and identify new needs in your community?

To facilitate this process, we suggest using the following resources from YPAR Hub at UC Berkeley to assist in identifying the needs, making a plan and activating that plan:

  1. October: Who is My Community webpage
  2. November: Principles and Practices of Community Partnerships webpage
  3. January: Identifying Community Issues and Assets webpage
  4. March: Comparing your Neighborhood to an Ideal webpage
  5. April: Defining the Research Question webpage
  6. May: Getting the Word Out - Event Planning webpage

To make this manageable, we recommend dividing the club into smaller teams that work together all year in small community service groups.

Use the Zoom breakout room feature to assign mixed-aged groups of youth with two certified 4-H adult volunteers per breakout room.

 

Closing Activities: 35% of meeting

(Twenty-one minutes in a 60-minute meeting, or 31 minutes in a 90-minute meeting)

  • Ask members to debrief or share their experiences from the learning session.

Members have been mentally engaging for the past 20 - 35 minutes. Give them time to let loose, be silly and move.

  1. Identify and schedule your Closing games/activities for the year so things stay fresh, exciting and new
  2. Select one activity from this topic list. We’ve collected some for you (google drive link)
    1. Physical
    2. Relationship Building
    3. Play
    4. Social/Emotional
  3. You can also use recommendations from youth and families of activities they have liked from other virtual meetings. Activities should be appropriate for mixed ages and meet one of the topic areas above.