On May 23rd, 2022, N.B. 4-H hosted a leader conference at the Fairway Inn in Sussex. We had 23 leaders present and had representation from all 5 districts.
We began the day with a presentation on Public Speaking. Kelly Power ran a fantastic session for leaders on how to prepare your members, organize a competition, and even taught some ice breakers to help members build confidence in speaking to a group. Kelly also facilitated a discussion on the current N.B. 4-H public speaking rules. The conversation led to several edits that will be brought to the N.B. 4-H Council Board of Directors in hopes to re-structure the rules.
JJ’s Inn and Diner provided a wonderful lunch with four different options that the leaders could choose from.
After lunch, Becky Perry presented her presentation on judging. Becky really engaged the leaders as she demonstrated how she teaches her members to judge. She then discussed the proper way to use the judging cards, Hormel the results, and gave some tips on how to organize the competition.
Leaders then had the opportunity to gather with other leaders who teach the same project as them. They were given a copy of the record book to go through and make notes on what they liked, or didn’t like.
The day ended with a review of the Achievement Day score sheets that Ally McConchie digitalized and prepared for the leaders. She compiled helpful information into a leader binder that leaders got to take home with them to use as a resource.
After the conference, several positive feedbacks were received. It was evident that N.B. 4-H leaders enjoyed getting together and discussing relevant topics to N.B. 4-H. In the future, N.B. 4-H plans to host more conferences for leaders so that there is more opportunity to connect and add resources to their leader binder.