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Wabasha County Extension outlines volunteer recruitment, growth and retention goals for 4-H
Summary
Wabasha County Extension presented its quarterly 4-H report, detailing volunteer counts, recruitment and retention goals, partnerships and upcoming youth programs.
Wabasha County Extension presented its quarterly 4-H youth development report, outlining goals to recruit volunteers, grow enrollment and retain first-year members.
Lisa Dirks, regional director for extension, introduced the report and said the extension will add quarterly progress reports to the packet. Kristen Hurley, program leader for youth development, described three interlocking goals for the year: program (volunteer engagement), growth and retention. Hurley said the county currently lists 49 screened volunteers, of whom about 26 are regularly active and about eight play leading roles such as livestock superintendents, club leaders and executive council members.
Hurley said the program's growth goal is a 15% increase for the 2024–25 program year, and that retention aims to keep 70% of first-year members from 2023–24 reenrolling for 2024–25. She reported 212 youth enrolled last year, about 25% of whom were Cloverbuds (kindergarten through second grade). She said roughly half of last year's new members were first-generation 4-H youth (that is, the youths' families had no prior 4-H history).
Planned and ongoing activities include: - Preparing role descriptions for volunteers and meeting with club leaders to distribute them (role-descriptions work scheduled for February–March). - Recruiting and reengaging volunteers not currently active to avoid concentration of duties among a few volunteers. - Continuing youth programming including Cloverbud day camps, a winter blast event, and partnerships with Wabasha-Kellogg schools and an exploratory Lake City partnership.
Dirks and Hurley also thanked volunteers for stepping up at the awards banquet and described communications and support for first-year members, including fair preparation materials and recognition at events. A river cleanup invitation that regional partners run was discussed as a possible service opportunity for local 4-H clubs and ambassadors.
Commissioners thanked staff for the revised report format that links goals and deliverables; no formal board action was taken on the report during the meeting.
