Bastrop County Extension & 4-H: 10/23/20 4-H Email Blast: General Reminders, Club Officer Training, & Roundup Contest Information

Howdy & Happy Friday!!!

I wanted to pass on a few quick additions/updates to the general 4-H email blast from last week. Please remember that you can see all of the upcoming workshops and opportunities on our calendar at https://bastrop.agrilife.org/calendar/.

AGENT SCHEDULES:

We (Ashley, Hillary, and I) would like to let you know that our schedules are fuller than normal this year due to the nature of everything going on. We are doing our best to return all calls and emails in a timely fashion, however, with all of the virtual programming and meetings we are putting on we are 3 times as busy as usual. Thank you all for being patient and understanding with us, we truly appreciated it and are going to continue to ask for a little grace during this crazy year. We will also be trying to reach out to ask for a volunteer or 2 to help us with hosting or planning a few of the virtual opportunities to try to help alleviate a little bit of that pressure.

CONTEST OPPORTUNITIES:

Livestock Show Contests: Once again, due to current restrictions, our livestock shows are not currently able to host the same number and variety of contests that they usually do. They are every bit as frustrated as we are and are working constantly to try to find a way to fit those opportunities in. We will pass along news as we heart about opportunities.
District 10 4-H Contests: Please make sure that you read the details about Fall Roundup in the emails below. We are also planning for our Spring Contests to take place at this time. So far, there are no cancellations for any of the contests, but there have been a couple of date changes to accommodate contests.

CLUB OFFICER TRAINING REMINDER:

Club Officer Training will take place at 6:00 PM on Monday, October 26^th, via Zoom – Miss Megan Logan (our D10 4-H Specialist) will be leading the training and focusing on Parliamentary Procedure! We would like for ALL Club Officers (or youth interested in being a club officer) to attend if possible.
To RSVP:
- Please sign up with your club officer information through our Google Form AND please email a completed virtual permission slip (1 per family – be sure to include everyone’s names) and email them to our 4-H Agent, Mellanie, at MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu!
- Click here to RSVP in Google Form
- Click here to download the Virtual Waiver
The Club Officer Handbooks are also available to you on the Adult Volunteer Page and are linked below:

TEXAS 4-H FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIP TRAINING – MEGAN LOGAN

Our District 10 4-H Specialist, Megan Logan, is hosting a virtual in-depth training on the Texas 4-H Foundation Scholarships at 6:00 PM on Thursday, November 19, 2020
IF you are in 10^th-12^th grades, we HIGHLY encourage you to attend this training to help you prepare for your applications
Topics Covered:
- Timeline/Process
- Online Application Platform
- Preparing your application
- What to have on hand to help you
- And MORE!!!
RSVP by clicking this link by NOON on November 19^th

SAVE THE DATES:

We are working on some new opportunities – please save the dates and look out for upcoming information related to the topics below:

Dog Project Orientation & Planning Meeting – 6:00 PM on Monday, November 16, 2020
New Parent Orientation – 6:30 PM on Tuesday, November 10, 2020
Volunteer 101 Training/Orientation – 6:00 PM on Thursday, December 10, 2020

Please let us know if you have any questions and have a great weekend!!!

Mellanie L. Mickelson
Bastrop County Extension Agent - 4-H & Youth Development
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Services

P.O. Box 650 | 901 Pecan Street | Bastrop, TX 78602
p: (512) 581-7186 | c: (512) 522-9174 | f: (512) 581-7187
MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu

Website - https://bastrop.agrilife.org
Blog - www.bastrop4h.blogspot.com
Facebook - www.facebook.com/BastropCounty4H

**************************************************************

INFORMATION IN THIS EMAIL BLAST (IN ORDER)

Food & Nutrition Series
Fashion & Interior Design Project Interest
Club Officer Training
County 4-H Council Meetings
County Fall Roundup Contests
District 10 4-H Fall Roundup Contests
New Resources Available on the Website
Other Opportunities

Good evening, y’all!

I hope you are doing well and enjoying the cooler weather! I wanted to pass on a more general email blast that had most of the non-livestock project updates on it for y’all. We also wanted to give you a heads up that we are setting aside some time in the near future to do some short-term and long-term planning on what our educational opportunities and schedules may look like this year. We are noticing a lot of virtual burnout in our youth and we want to make sure that the 4-H side of things is still as fun and educational as possible. With that, let’s jump into some fun project updates:

Food & Nutrition Series

Please join us on Tuesday evenings at 6:00 PM to participate in our Virtual Food & Nutrition Project Series! The series will be held over Zoom and the information for each session will be emailed out 1-2 days ahead of time. If you have any questions, please contact the Bastrop County Extension Office at 512-581-7186 or MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu.
To RSVP:
- Please email a simple family recipe and a completed virtual permission slip (1 per family – be sure to include everyone’s names) and email them to our 4-H Agent, Mellanie, at MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu!
- Registration Deadline: October 19, 2020 (Extended)
- Download the Virtual Permission Slip Here

Fashion & Interior Design Project Interest

While our fabulous FCH Ambassadors are hard at work with getting ready for the Virtual Food & Nutrition Series, we would now like to start thinking about the Fashion & Interior Design Project!
Quick Overview: In this project you can learn to design, construct and be a smart consumer when purchasing clothing and household items. This project encompasses the whole concept of fashion and interior design, starting with the basics of sewing and fabric selection, principles of designing a space, clothing and textile construction, incorporating artwork (photography or other medium) into a space, etc. – we will collect the topics that you’re interested in to design the series and maybe even work on re-designing one of the rooms in the County Extension Office!
If you are interested in participating in this project or learning more about it, please Complete the Google Form by Monday, November 16, 2020 – we will be using this information to get an idea of how many people we will have participating and to help with planning the project series (topics, scheduling, etc)

Club Officer Training

Club Officer Training will take place at 6:00 PM on Monday, October 26^th, via Zoom – Miss Megan Logan (our D10 4-H Specialist) will be leading the training and focusing on Parliamentary Procedure!
To RSVP:
- Please sign up with your club officer information through our Google Form AND please email a completed virtual permission slip (1 per family – be sure to include everyone’s names) and email them to our 4-H Agent, Mellanie, at MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu!
- Click here to RSVP in Google Form
- Click here to download the Virtual Waiver
The Club Officer Handbooks are also available to you on the Adult Volunteer Page and are linked below:

County 4-H Council Meetings

We highly encourage 4-H members to attend and participate in the Council meetings – they count towards their awards and leadership activities for recordbooks as we get further into the year. All youth are allowed to contribute to discussions and help direct the conversations towards the best interests of the County. Additionally, it’s a great way to get to know some of the 4-H members in the other clubs and see what’s going on in the county!
If you would like to join us, please RSVP by completing the virtual camp waiver (Download the Waiver Here) and emailing it to me at MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu - if you have already done so for Council meetings – you are all set for the rest of the year! We only need 1 form per family, just be sure to list everyone’s names on the forms.
Upcoming Council Meeting Dates:
- Tuesday, December 1, 2020 (6:00 PM)
- Tuesday, February 2, 2021 (6:00 PM)
- Tuesday, April 6, 2021 – Officer Elections for 2021-2022 (6:00 PM)

County Fall Contests/Practices:

Food Show

- If you are planning on participating in the District 10 Contest – please email your District 10 4-H recipe submission to Mellanie by 12:00 Noon on Friday, October 23, 2020 (see the D10 Contest Rules below for the forms)
- If we have more than 1 person in an age group or category we will plan to have a virtual contest on Monday, November 2^nd at 5:30 PM; If we do NOT have more than 1 youth in each age group/category then we will simply make appointments to practice your presentation at your convenience
Public Speaking & Educational Presentation: If you are planning on participating in the District 10 Contest (or are interested in educational presentations or public speaking) please contact Mellanie to talk about your topic and arrange a practice presentation

District 10 4-H Fall Roundup Contests

What is this? District 10 4-H Roundup is a clustered set of contests where youth from all 21 counties in District 10 4-H compete against each other. There is a D10 Fall Roundup and a D10 Spring Roundup. A few of the contests have a maximum number of teams/participants that are allowed to compete – for those contests, we have a qualifying County Contest where youth must participate and/or make a certain placing to move up to the District Level.
Disclaimer: these dates and locations are subject to change based on local health mandates for the safety of all participants
Date: December 1-3, 2020 (tentatively)
Location: Kerrville, TX (and/or virtual depending on contest)
Contests included:
- Food Show (Qualifying Contest Needed: 1 entry per age division, per category can advance to District)
- Entomology
- Beef Quiz Bowl (team activity)
- Horse Quiz Bowl (team activity)
- Nutrition Quiz Bowl (team activity)
- Public Speaking (virtual)
- Educational Presentations (virtual)
Registration Available via 4-H CONNECT: October 19, 2020 to November 3, 2020
2020 Fall Round-Up Guide (Posted 10/09/2020): 2020-2021 District 10 4-H Fall Round-Up Guide
2020 Food Show Junior/Intermediate Entry Form and Score Sheet: Food Show Entry Forms and Score sheets | Fillable Food Show Recipe Submission Form

New Resources Available on the Website:

On our website at https://bastrop.agrilife.org/bastrop-county-4-h-welcome-projects-resources/; under 4-H Resources & Links (also available on State Website at https://texas4-h.tamu.edu/events/roundup/)
- 2020-2021 State Food Challenge Guidelines: Guidelines | Project Page
- 2020-2021 State Food Show Guidelines: Guidelines | Project Page
- 2020-2021 State Photography Contest Guidelines: Information | Resource Guide | Project Page
On our website at https://bastrop.agrilife.org/bastrop-county-4-h-welcome-projects-resources/; under 4-H Projects:

Other Opportunities:

Other opportunities can be found on the County Calendar – registration information should be included for each post.
Other Contest related opportunities can be found on the Judging Card Calendar – to sign up for these opportunities, please contact Mellanie at MLMickelson@ag.tamu.edu or at 512-581-7186

Thank y’all and have a great weekend!