Tassajara 4-H Informational Meeting Summary: 

Hello Tassajara 4H Prospective Members

Thank you for attending our informational meeting.  I have written a brief summary of the meeting to help you decide about joining and catch you up to speed if you missed the meeting.  

Registration will begin shortly and we close membership for the year in October.  Please be sure to attend the September and October Beginning 4H and Club meetings.  This is when Sign up for projects (aka classes) and registration occurs.  Please read the summary below for more details of meetings. 

Meeting Summary:

4H is all about learning by doing.  So the kids lead.   We are a family oriented group and want to see the whole family participate, even if only one youth is registered and taking projects.  We expect at least one parent/guardian to be a participant.   Participation is key to a youth getting the whole 4H experience.  

That being said, we meet on the 1st Tuesday of each month for a Beginning 4H project.  We teach the 4H lingo, explain events, assist with registration, answer questions and have fun.   We also meet the 3rd Tuesday of each month for the club community meetings.   Both occur at the Danville Grange at  743 Diablo Rd in Danville.  Parking is in the rear.  

The first Beg. 4H meeting is on 9/2 at 6:30pm.   The club community meeting will be 9/16 at 7pm.   Often club meeting have potlucks, Bar-B-Ques, etc and these occur prior to the official 7pm start time.  This email distribution list would be how we notify you of adjusted start time.  Meetings tend to be average about an hour long.

Your other time commitment is usually an hour each month for each project you sign up for.  Some projects don't begin till the spring, others occur less often and meeting times are longer.  When we do sign ups, the project leaders will be announcing their schedules.   This isn't always available prior to sign ups, so we suggest that you sign up for what you are interested in and if it ends up conflicting, just reply to one of the leaders email notices and let them know your change of status.  this way they don't fill up your inbox, they aren't purchasing supplies for your youth and are able to open the spot to another youth.  

It is key to attend both the Beg 4H meeting and the Club Community Meeting in September, and again in October (10/7 and 10/21).   We will do Project signups in September and Club Registration in October.  Our club closes registration for the year after our October meeting.  If the deadline is missed, you will have to wait a year to join.  

Cost for the year is $60 per youth.   Adults who are renewing their membership are $25.   New adults only need to register if they plan to volunteer in a club role or drive other youth. For adults this involves attending a 3 hour training workshop and getting fingerprinted at 4H approved site.  If you have questions about whether you should be enrolling, please ask.  Otherwise, please just enroll youth for now.  If later in the year, you volunteer to chaperone at camp or take on a role, we can add you later.  We are run completely by volunteers.  We hope you will join the efforts to run the club after you have participated for a year and see what great personal growth opportunities there are for your child.

Other costs are club t-shirt, 4H hat and scarf/tie (About $10-15 range for each).  None are mandatory.   Of course if you choose to raise an animal there are the costs of  the purchase as well as the cost of keeping and feeding it.  Each animal project will explain in detail.

I hope this information is helpful and look forward to seeing you on September 2.  Please write to me via the Contact Us link on our web site if you have any questions.

Lisa Arbuckle, Club Community Leader