Volume 2, Issue 1

Welcome to the 2000-2001 4-H Cloverbud Year!

We hope that you and your Cloverbud members will have an exciting and successful year ahead. We know that Cloverbud members love to stay active!

4-H Cloverbud volunteers can help keep members active and participating by involving them in the planning of their group program.

A 4-H Cloverbud group program plan can help to strengthen your group. The program plan is a road map, which directs actions toward a goal or destination. It is a written plan that considers the group’s goals, activities, and meetings. The members, leaders and parents should develop the plan. It should be distributed to 4-H Cloverbud families, volunteers and the local Extension Office.

4-H encourages volunteers to actively involve youth in the decision-making process related to what happens in the group. The program planning process can be used to bring that to reality.

4-H Cloverbud members will need more guidance and support than older members to work through the program planning process.

Cloverbud Curriculum

A good place to start your planning is with the activities that your members will participate in at group meetings. Much of this will be based on the 4-H Cloverbud curriculum. The Ohio State Extension curriculum that we use in Illinois includes the following subject areas: Citizenship/Civic Education, Consumerism/Family Science, Environmental/Earth Science, Community Expressive Arts, Healthy Life Style, Personal Development, Plants and Animals, and Science and Technology.

There is no specific order in which the curriculum must be used. Children will more often actively participate if they are involved in the decision-making of what the group will study. All children are not interested in the same topics so you may want to try several different subject areas during the year. If you have children continuing with the group from last year, you may want to try some new topics and mix in a few of their old favorites. Remember that your children will be a year older and their interests may have changed. You may want continuing members to share their favorite activities with the others and you may want to highlight some of the new options. Don’t overwhelm this age group with too many choices at one time however!

Program Plan

Once you know what curriculum activities your group has chosen for the year, you are ready to develop your program plan. The plan might include the following information:

• Calendar of dates, time and location of meetings along with the theme from curriculum, person responsible for refreshments, and parent helpers for that meeting.
• List of members with names, addresses, phone numbers and parent’s names
• List of volunteers with names, addresses, and phone numbers
• Extension Office address and phone number along with names of staff
• Group goals for the year

Group Goals

To help you and your members measure how successful you are as a group and to aid in planning for the next year, we suggest that groups set some simple group goals. There is not a recommended number of goals or specific goals that must be included. The goals should be "unique" to your group. The following are some sample goals to guide you.

Sample Goals

• 4-H Cloverbud members will attend 90 - 100% of all group meetings.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will each attend one county level program appropriate for the age group.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will each help another member with an activity from the Cloverbud curriculum.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will learn the 4-H pledge and take turns leading it at their meetings.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will take turns providing refreshments for their meetings.
• 4-H Cloverbud members as a group will visit the County Extension Office and meet the staff.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will attend the county 4-H fair and the group will put an activity on display for the public.
• 4-H Cloverbud members will help promote 4-H and will invite a friend to join them.

When you and your members have developed and written your plan, check with your local Extension office to see if they will make copies for you. Be sure to give them a copy to keep on file.

4-H Cloverbud Recruitment Time

The 4-H Cloverbud program for 2000 - 2001 is open to boys and girls who are 5 years of age by September 1, 2000 and not yet 8 years of age by September 1, 2000.

If you are looking to recruit more members to your 4-H Cloverbud group, remember that many parents decide in the early fall what activities that they will let their children participate in. So now is the time to recruit members and leaders. The Extension office may have some recruitment materials available for your use or they can help you design some materials.

4-H Cloverbud Volunteer Application and Orientation

New volunteers need to go through the application and screening process before being enrolled. They also need to attend an orientation session to learn the basics about the 4-H Cloverbud program before they begin working with their group. Orientation sessions to date have been scheduled for:

September 18 — 7:00 p.m. — Kane County
October 3 — 7:30 p.m. — Kankakee County
October 23 — 4:30 p.m. — McHenry County
November 14 — 7:00 p.m. — DuPage County

A session for 4-H Cloverbud volunteers will also be offered at the 2000 Multi-County 4-H Leader Forum in Sycamore on October 7. More information will be available from your local Extension Office soon.

Written by Sheri Seibold, Extension Educator, Youth Development from University of Illinois Extension, Matteson Center.