Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Minutes
A meeting of the St. James Parish 4-H Council was held on Tuesday, September 18, 2007, at the Gramercy Police Department in Gramercy. The meeting was called to order by Kenneth Guidry at 6:00 pm.
Those in attendance were Terri Zeller, Times Picayune; Ken Brass, former town council member; Lindsay Dufresne, Lutcher Elementary 4-H’er; Rebecca Davis, Lutcher Elementary 4-H’er; Tracy Chauvin, 4-H parent; Reverend Ferdinand Gaines, Jr., local minister; Wilson Marlbrough, Parish Council; Ben Becnel, Paulina Elementary 4-H’er; and Danette Becnel, 4-H parent; Robin Hart, 4-H Agent, and Kenneth Guidry, 4-H Agent.
Kenneth welcomed everyone to the meeting and introduced the 4-H Staff. The participants introduced themselves and informed the group of their involvement with youth in the parish.
Kenneth reviewed the advisory process, the selection process, and the possibilities of how the recommendations given throughout the meeting will shape the current 4-H program.
Kenneth then informed the group of the LSU AgCenter system and how the 4-H Youth Development Program along with Family and Consumer Science, and Agriculture and Natural Resource personnel deliver researched based knowledge to the community. He then reviewed the vision of Louisiana 4-H, it’s mission, and goals so that the group was well informed of its efforts. He also mentioned that February 2008, marks the 100th year of Louisiana 4-H and opportunities for celebrating throughout the 4-H year. He then discussed enrollment over the past six (6) years and discussed its consistency and decline over the years.
Kenneth then gave an overview of the parish program and educational focus for the last educational year and the current year. He mentioned that new programming efforts of Youth Wetlands Week and the Smart Choices program were offered to the school system with four elementary teachers interested in teaching wetland programs and two schools selected for the Body Walk. He then presented roadblocks that are faced within the program and solicited ideas for other roadblocks that could be foreseen by the program.
Robin then divided the council members into groups to discuss the following areas: Not Served, Underserved, and Community Needs that the 4-H program could address.
The following ideas were the result of the brainstorming session:
· Increase parental involvement
· Increase Jr/Sr involvement
· Increase discipline areas offered in Outdoor Skills Program
· Tree planting opportunities
· Using youth to promote 4-H in school system (to peers and parents)
· Provide different programming areas from year to year
· Provide programming that will interest males (Fishing Sports, ATV, Building, Electronics)
· Clubs to provide community service of documenting streets in need of proper identification
· Visits to elderly
· Provide reading lab and/or youth reading to elderly
· Provide cooking classes
· Provide 4-H curriculum that can be transferred into college credit (or credit towards high school graduation credit) (ex. Culinary Arts, Agriculture, Dramatic Art, or Leadership)
· Reinforcing Character Education in the school system
· Donate remainder of meals from cookery contest to local churches or organizations to deliver to the needy
· School Health and Fitness Day
· Inform community of other project areas offered to increase enrollment
· Provide summer programming to engage youth educationally and socially (beyond 4-H Camp and 4-H University) (ex. Day trips to local or surrounding area locations)
· Job Training
· College Preparation
· Livestock facility for underserved/not served members to house animals
· Market 4-H
· Provide 4-H link on all parish websites (school system and Parish site)
After the discussion, appreciation was expressed for their attendance and ideas and the group was provided refreshments.