Get your members in high gear at the start of 2013 by promoting the Speaking for Illinois 4-H program. We're heading to southern Illinois for a Saturday, January 12th training at the Jefferson County Extension Office in Mt. Vernon.

Speaking for Illinois 4-H trains older 4-H members in advanced public presentation - how to solicit donations, provide reports to county boards, speak to state legislators, presentations for civic groups, etc. We train these youth to help YOU in the local Unit to spread the 4-H story and get the word out! Members receive a brief training in BIGM and the importance in including that type of data/information in talking about 4-H to stakeholders. Pam Weber, the legislative lobbyist for Extension Partners, provides informaton on putting together the member's 4-H story to share with legislators and county board members. As an extra bonus, SFI4-H youth are invited to help at the spring Legislative Connection event(s).

SFI4-H trainees must be at least 14 years old to participate. Get them excited about sharing not only their own accomplishments, but those of the entire Extension program within your county and/or Extension unit.

Registration items are already posted to the 4-H Contacts Portal, including the link to the registration site. The Illinois 4-H website page (http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm) is also updated EXCEPT for the Registration link! That change has been requested and should be done in the next couple of days!

Speaking for Illinois 4-H is designed, sponsored, and taught by members of the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team -- Teens teaching teens! Members who are trained in January will be invited to assist with Legislative Connection this spring. Get your teens involved now and you'll have help throughout the rest of the program year!

NOTE: A SECOND SFI4-H Training has been scheduled for March 2, 2013 in Pontiac (Livingston County). To avoid confusion, that registration will not open until after registration for the January 12 training has been closed, but you can start advertising the date now with your members! Thank you.

Registration is NOW OPEN for the 2013 Illinois 4-H Jr. Leadership Conference! This event is targeted towards 7th and 8th grade 4-H members who want to expand on their leadership opportunities within the 4-H program. A 4-H member may invite a non-4-H friend to attend with them. JLC is planned and implemented by the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team.

The conference is scheduled for Saturday and Sunday, February 23-24 at the Holiday Inn Hotel & Conference Center in Urbana. Programming starts with registration Saturday morning and ends right before lunch on Sunday. All youth will attend all six workshops, focusing on project areas such as arts and photography, leadership skills like parliamentary procedure and public speaking, and more. All workshops are hands-on and focus on building the skills of the delegates so they can bring the information learned back home to use in their own clubs and communities.

A promotional flyer is available on both the 4-H Contacts portal (Events/Statewide/Illinois 4-H Junior Leadership Conference) and the Illinois 4-H website: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/events/juniorleadership.cfm. The registration fee was slightly increased this year to $135 to accommodate the 1 delegate/bed (2 delegates/room) policy. Registration is open until Monday, January 28. All required payments and paperwork must be postmarked by January 30, 2013. We are limited to the first 100 youth registrations that we receive.

A limited number of scholarships are available for first-time 4-H attendees. The application is also available on the portal and via the website. Scholarship applications must be received by January 7 in order to be considered.

Chaperones are also required and we ask counties to recruit a chaperone if you are sending delegates. One chaperone is required for each 10 delegates of the same gender, so we will need both male and female chaperones. Chaperones must also pay the $135 registration fee. It is up to the local Extension office if you cover this fee for your chaperones. All chaperones MUST be completely screened through our University of Illinois Extension Volunteer Screening procedures.

We hope you will promote this event to your young leaders! Last year, we exceeded our registration limits and were able to add on some rooms at the last minute. We don't know if that will be the case this year! But we appreciate your support in getting the word out about this outstanding conference.

We have rescheduled the cancelled September Speaking for Illinois 4-H Training and reopened registration for more participants! The new session is set for Saturday, November 17 at the Scott County Extension Office in Winchester.

Speaking for Illinois 4-H trains older 4-H members in advanced public presentation - how to solicit donations, provide reports to county boards, speak to state legislators, presentations for civic groups, etc. We train these youth to help YOU in the local Unit to spread the 4-H story and get the word out! Members receive a brief training in BIGM and the importance in including that type of data/information in talking about 4-H to stakeholders. Pam Weber, the legislative lobbyist for Extension Partners, provides informaton on putting together the member's 4-H story to share with legislators and county board members. As an extra bonus, SFI4-H youth are invited to help at the spring Legislative Connection event(s).

SFI4-H trainees must be at least 14 years old to participate. Get them excited about sharing not only their own accomplishments, but those of the entire Extension program within your county and/or Extension unit.

Registration items are already posted to the 4-H Contacts Portal, including the link to the registration site. The Illinois 4-H website page (http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm) is also updated, including the link to a new registration site.

Youth who were registered for the September 29th session do not need to re-register. However, they MUST complete a NEW Agreement to Assume Risk Form and send that in for the November session. If they were already registered, but cannot attend, have them notify Deb Stocker and we will refund their registration fee from the first session.

Speaking for Illinois 4-H is designed, sponsored, and taught by members of the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team -- Teens teaching teens! Get your teens involved now and you'll have help throughout the rest of the program year!

Yes, you can start planning for the new 4-H year already by promoting the next Speaking for Illinios 4-H Training!! It's been set for Saturday, September 29th in Winchester at the Scott County Extension Office.

As a reminder, Speaking for Illinois 4-H trains older 4-H members in advanced public presentation - how to solicit donations, provide reports to county boards, speak to state legislators, presentations for civic groups, etc. We train these youth to help YOU in the local Unit to spread the 4-H story and get the word out! Members receive a brief training in BIGM and the importance in including that type of data/information in talking about 4-H to stakeholders. Pam Weber, the legislative lobbyist for Extension Partners, provides informaton on putting together the member's 4-H story to share with legislators and county board members. As an extra bonus, SFI4-H youth are invited to help at the spring Legislative Connection event(s).

Start recruiting your older 4-H members this summer at your fairs and 4-H shows. SFI4-H trainees must be at least 14 years old to participate. Get them excited about sharing not only their own accomplishments, but those of the entire Extension program within your county and/or Extension unit.

Registration items are already posted to the 4-H Contacts Portal, including the link to the registration site. The Illinois 4-H website page (http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm) is almost ready - the download materials are ready, but the link to the registration site is not updated yet. (Had a glitch this morning; hopefully it will be ready to go by Thursday!)

Speaking for Illinois 4-H is designed, sponsored, and taught by members of the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team -- Teens teaching teens! Get your teens involved now and you'll have help throughout the rest of the program year!

The Illinois 4-H Youth Leadership Team would like to encourage the counties in northern Illinois to strongly consider recruiting 4-H members to register and attend the May 19th Speaking for Illinois 4-H (SFI4-H) Training. The all-day training will be held in Woodstock (McHenry County) at the McHenry County Farm Bureau Auditorium.

SFI4-H is open to 4-H members age 14 and above and provides these members with skills to assist YOU in promoting the 4-H program in your area. Youth who attend learn about PYD and BIGM, enhance their public presentations skills, and learn to put their 4-H story to best use in recruiting volunteers, soliciting donors for local programs, and most importantly, speaking to local fundors and local and state elected officials about the benefits of University of Illinois Extension and the 4-H program. While the major intent of this program is for youth to assist on the local level, SFI4-H members are also recruited to assist with state legislative contacts and are invited to attend Legislative Connection events at the State Capitol.

Youth must register on-line at: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm. Registration closes for the May 19th session on May 9th. LATE registrations are NOT accepted; if we do not have enough youth to hold the program after registration closes, the training will be cancelled. Youth who register are sent email instructions regarding the training following the May 9th deadline. The registration fee is $10 and includes lunch. The program runs from 9:30 Registration Check-in to 3:00 p.m. Youth must attend the entire day to become a member of the SFI4-H statewide team.

Think of the benefits to having youth from your Unit help you with speaking to civic groups or talking to potential donors for your special program needs. The impact that the SFI4-H youth have made at the State Capitol is immeasurable - think about what they could do at your local County Board meetings when they speak about the impact 4-H has made on them, their families and their communities! We encourage you to strongly consider getting your older members involved in giving back to the 4-H program in this manner.

Registrations continue to be accepted for the 2012 Illini Summer Academies through the May23rd final deadline. Here is an update on a few items you need to be aware of!

* The Physics Department has lowered their grade requirement for the Physics Academy. They will now accept youth who have completed their SOPHOMORE year in high school (previously it was set at the Junior year). This has been changed on the ISA website information, but obviously we cannot change the brochures that have been printed and distributed. If you could update your own information and/our send out a post on your local websites, we would greatly appreciate it!

* The Electrical & Computer Engineering Academy is FULL and we are taking names for a waiting list. The Bioengineering Academy would offer another look into possible careers in the ECE area - please promote that Academy as a potential option. It currently has 7 openings left. Veterinary Medicine currently has 9 openings left.

* Requests for 4-H Scholarships must be filed by May 1; we still have 11, $50 scholarships remaining for 1st time attendees.

* We are in need of Adult Assistance at this event -- PLEASE continue to recruit chaperones (or consider attending yourself). We are trying to recruit summer college students as well, but have not had any success at this point. If you have multiple youth attending from your county/unit, we ask that you work on recruiting at least one adult to attend. As you know on the county level - events do not happen by themselves! :-) We need your assistance to help make this event happen!

Thank you for your continued support of this statewide event focusing on workforce preparation in science & technology areas for youth!

Registration for the 2012 Illini Summer Academies opened today, March 1 and we already have several youth who have registered for the event.

Please check out the ISA page on the Illinois 4-H website, http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/events/summeracademies.cfm, and The Leaflet blog entry from February 18th for information regarding promoting the Academies and registration opportunities!! Staff members should also check out the ISA Staff Fact Sheet that is posted on the 4-H Contacts portal for staff information on the program, chaperone responsibilities, and more.

Registration is open until May 23rd or an Academy is full. We are offering an Early Bird Discount through April 15.

The Great American NO BULL Challenge is the largest campaign to combat cyberbullying in America's history: The Great American NO BULL Challenge, invites 4-H's to get involved with the annual campaign that inspires America's 25 million teens to stand up and create a video with an anti-bullying message. Check the website at: www.nobullchallenge.org.

The Great American NO BULL Challenge offers teens in 6^th – 12^th grades the opportunity to write and direct videos on the danger of cyberbullying and be a part of a national competition where the winners will be recognized as a celebrity at the star-studded NO BULL Red Carpet Awards Event in San Francisco on July 21, 2012.

If you are worried you don't know enough to get involved – everything teens need to know about making a video; what cyberbullying really is; standing up; prevention and intervention tips are available in the online NO BULL Cyberbullying 411 Toolkit. The toolkit was developed by teens FOR teens and contains everything you need to create a 3-5 minute video starring you and your friends on how you would deal with cyberbullying; upload the video; and urge your friends, family and community members to vote for your video.

Join Paige Logan, Illinois 4-H member who is one of only five teens serving on the National NO BULL Youth Advisory Council in this effort to put an end to cyberbullying! The deadline for uploading your Great American NO BULL Challenge video is March 15^th!

Registration for The 4-H Great Debate, the popular mock legislative debate event for high school youth is now open. Click here to register.

This event is scheduled for Friday evening through Saturday afternoon, March 23-24 in Springfield. Staff can access a 4-H Great Debate Fact Sheet on the portal at: Groups/4-H Contacts/ Events/Statewide/4-H Great Debate. This event is open to 4-H members; however 4-H enrollment is open year round.

Registration fee is $85 per participant (based double occupancy) and is accepted on a first come first serve basis for the first 90 completed registrations received. There is a special rate for Parents/Drivers bringing participants to the event and includes lodging for Friday evening and lunch on Saturday. Parents and family members are welcome to observe the participants in action from the House of Representatives Gallery Saturday morning.

Remember that we are looking for 4-H members ages 14 and above to join our Speaking for Illinois 4-H "team"! Our next training is scheduled for Saturday, March 3 at the Clinton County Extension Office in Breese. (Previous blog posting was 12/8/2011.) Speaking for Illinois 4-H is designed and taught by the member of the Illinois State 4-H Youth Leadership Team. Registration closes for this program on Wednesday, February 22.

Speaking for Illinois 4-H (SFI4-H) offers Extension Units the opportunity to recruit older 4-H members for training that will assist staff with volunteer recruitment, presentations to civic groups, and reports to elected officials on the local and state level. Youth are trained in Positive Youth Development, BIG-M, reading and using local and state 4-H statistics, advanced presentation skills, and putting together their 4-H story to make the greatest impact with the intended audience. Pam Weber, Extension Partners Legislative Liaison, helps with the training - providing a great insight into educating state legislators on the impact of Extension and 4-H programming.

The following items have been posted on the 4-H Contacts Portal (Youth & Adult Volunteer Leadership Opportunities = Speaking for Illinois 4-H) to help you promote this program. This includes all the paperwork that is also needed to register for this event.
* SFI4-H Fact Sheet, Promotional Brochure, and Promotional Flyer (for the 3/1 training)
* SFI4-H Application, Agreement to Assume Risk Form and SFI4-H Media Release (to be submitted prior to attending the training)
* Link to 3/3 Training Registration Site

Or you can send members directly to the SFI4-H page on the 4-H website: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm.

Youth who have completed the SFI4-H Training will be invited to participate in the Legislative Connection dates at the State Capitol this spring. SFI4-H and Illinois 4-H Youth Leadership Team members who can attend any of the Legislative Connection dates will be assigned to visit specific state legislators to discuss University of Illinois Extension and 4-H programming accomplishments. Those dates have just been finalized and are scheduled for April 18-19 and May 15-16. More details will be sent to SFI4-H youth later in the spring about registration and responsibilities.

We're getting into the final weeks to recruit 4-H members at that Jr. High age for the Illinois 4-H Jr. Leadership Conference (JLC)! Just a couple of quick reminders:

* JLC is open to current 7th and 8th grade 4-H members. They are permitted to also bring alone one non-4-H friend.

* Scholarships of $25 are available to a limited number of 1st time 4-H member attendees, but these must be applied for. The deadline for scholarship application is next Monday, January 9!! The application can be found on the 4-H contacts portal (Events = Statewide = Illinois 4-H Jr. Leadership Conference) and on the Illinois 4-H website. It is also linked here: 4-H Scholarship Application.

Note that Extenstion staff must provide a letter of membership verification for those applying for scholarships and that the JLC registration & payment MUST be completed when they submit the scholarship application. Notification of scholarship winners will be provided shortly after the 9th; however, the scholarships are not awarded until after the youth has attended the event.

Final registration for JLC is Monday, January 30, with final payments and paperwork being sent no later than Wednesday, February 1.

Adult chaperones are also needed. Chaperones must pay the $125 registration fee and have completed the University of Illinois Extension Volunteer Screening process!

See the blog post from November 21st for other details. We will be sending out a listing of current registrants this week.

The Illinois 4-H Youth Leadership Team has scheduled the next Speaking for Illinois 4-H (SFI4-H) Training for Saturday, March 3 in Breese at the Clinton County Extension Office (Unit #23). Registration is already open for this training.

SFI4-H Training is open to Illinois 4-H members ages 14-18 with the approval of their local Extension office. Extension staff are expected to work with and use the skills learned by these members to recruit new volunteers, present to civic groups, seek donors for programs, and/or provide information to local and state elected officials. Youth receive advance training in public presentations, Positive Youth Development, BIGM, using state and county statistics, how to tell their 4-H story, and speak with donors and elected officials.

The following items and links have been posted on the 4-H Contacts Portal (Youth & Adult Volunteer Leadership Opportunities = Speaking for Illinois 4-H) to help you promote this program. This includes all the paperwork that is also needed to register for this event.

SFI4-H Fact Sheet - Winter 2012

SFI4-H Promotional Brochure

SFI4-H Promotional Flyer (Updated for March Training)

SFI4-H Fact Sheet (updated for Winter 2012)

SFI4-H Application

Agreement to Assume Risk Form

FI4-H Media Release

Link to 3/3 Training Registration Site

Information has been forwarded to the webmaster and items should be updated on the SFI4-H page on the 4-H website shortly: http://web.extension.illinois.edu/state4h/members/leadership_sfi4h.cfm.

Youth who have completed the SFI4-H Training will be invited to participate in the Legislative Connection dates at the State Capitol this spring. SFI4-H and Illinois 4-H Youth Leadership Team members who can attend any of the Legislative Connection dates will be assigned to visit specific state legislators to discuss University of Illinois Extension and 4-H programming accomplishments. Those dates have just been finalized and are scheduled for April 18-19 and May 15-16. More details will be sent to SFI4-H youth later in the spring about registration and responsibilities.