Conference on USDA Blog (duplicate post)

This is just a brief note to send you to the USDA blog in order to read more about the secretaries' visit to the National 4-H Conference. My apologies for being tardy to share this but there's a lot I'm still catching up on.

Two comments: 1) If you look at the picture, you can see Lindsey, Lauren and myself right in the center. Since I was triggering the questions during the Q & A, I'm right on the aisle. 2) If you look at the first comment on the blog below, you probably question the motive of the commenter just as much as I did. 4-H encompasses all ethnicities and there was a very diverse group there as alwayshttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif. But this is because it reflects the population of youth involved in 4-H and the welcoming community that is 4-H. If the commenter wanted to increase the number of Latinos in 4-H, he would need to actively encourage youth to join 4-H. However, what he really seemed to be saying to me was that he wished they could have been there to promote their organization to the USDA.

Back from National 4-H Conference (duplicate post)

One of the first things that I did when I got back from conference was to summarize in a word document all of the thoughts swarming my head. It's funny that until I sat back and read this document afterwards, I never had realized the amount of emotional investment I've made not just into 4-H but even into just one facet of the organization like the National 4-H Conference. I've now been there 5 times in the last 6 years in a progression of roles. Every conference has its high points and its deepest frustrations, but truth be told, I wouldn't trade one minute of any of it for something else (even as much as I missed being home with Amanda, who had a really rough week without me).

I know I've posted before how proud I am of the young people (at least younger than me) that I work with in 4-H, but once again I just want to applaud these exceptional youth who volunteered a week off of work, a week without classes, knowing the sacrifice, the lack of rest, the hard work they would put in, and the harder work they would put in trying to catch back up on their lives after conference. But knowing all of this, they dove into the conference with zeal and exceeded all of my expectations. I'm proud of you guys, just like I was proud in the past to be one of you. You are all going to go great places and if I can ever help you get there, just call.

This was also a learning experience and a new challenge for me. I've never been responsible for that much education and training for someone else. In less than a week, I learned much more about material delivery (what worked AND what didn't) and advising without answering questions. I also got to see how our pre-conference planning could have been improved to allow for more sleep among the facilitators. It had never occurred to me that lack of sleep could be a problem, but not everyone's into that, I suppose, so I learned to broaden my viewpoint once again. National 4-H was very kind in providing Lauren and I this opportunity and for engaging us in discussions afterwards as well. And I would be remiss if I didn't mention that working with Lauren was great as well. Throughout this whole process we were often seemingly telepathically connected and we provided a good balance of leadership styles. It was a pleasure.

The only other thing I wanted to comment on was the increased professionalism that surrounded the conference this year. This started with the Sec. of Ag and the Sec. of Ed both giving a short talk and doing a short Q & A session with the delegates. Unlike many of these opportunities, the secretaries didn't shy away from the tough questions or use the answer time to elaborate on other issues not addressed in the question. Instead they spoke directly and openly with the delegates. I was really impressed by both secretaries and they helped set the tone for the conference of getting down to business. This carried over into the stakeholder presentations which were new this year. All of the delegates put a lot of hard work into these presentations of possible solutions to critical youth issues, which were then presented by the delegates to different government entities. It put a professional face on the youth within 4-H and I know that it really blew away the office that I was at during the presentations. Great things came out of the conference this year and I can only hope that this progress continues to future conferences.

Pelotona Registration

This past week I registered for the 2011 Pelotonia. Although it wasn't until May of last year that I even thought about the Pelotonia, this year I wanted to get an earlier start to make the fundraising process less stressful so that I can help other people who are riding with me raise funds as well as the year progresses.

You can view my public profile here, and I encourage you to let me know what you think about the Pelotonia, my riding, or fundraising ideas/offers, etc. This was a great experience last year and the visible appreciation of so many cancer patients, survivors and families was extremely touching. If you are interested in riding and raising money for cancer research, please do. The registration info is pretty straightforward and the organization is good about returning query emails as well.

I know that my profile says I am a virtual rider, but I am actually registered for the 100ish miles down to Athens, Ohio, this August. Because we are riding in the student group and this lowers our registration fee, they are having students register as virtual riders to simplify the online system. It was a lot easier for me than last year because this year we didn't have special forms and hopefully I won't receive a warning form about not having enough funds, etc. The OSU Student Group is very active and I know that I will be trying to get to know some of them this year and participating in their fundraising events.

Additionally, me and my friends will be accepting larger donations this year and are willing to put together a sponsorship jersey with sponsor names and/or logos on the jerseys. These are pretty common among the riders and can be a great way to get your organization recognized as a donor and to advertise to many people on the ride. If you have any interest in sponsoring with an advertisement on our jerseys, please let me know as well. We are a great, fun-loving group of people and will represent your name well.

One week, already?

I realize that we're not actually quite a full week into the new year, but this first business week has come to a close and I'm frankly shocked by how fast it blew by. I know there's lots of people out there to talk about how much time flies, but I'm not here to tell you about that.

Instead, I just wanted to hypothesize that this week passed by even faster than normal because my life was so strictly scheduled. With my struggles in school last quarter and the need to get a project online for grad school, I've been busy nearly every minute of the day. And when I get home, all I want is some free time to spend with Amanda. But with both of us diving into school again, our time together has been scarce.

It just seems such a shame to have time pass so fast just because I put forth the effort to be more efficient. Frankly, it's unbelievable that there's already only 51 weeks left to 2011, and that a week blew by just like that. I have a lot to show for it, sure, but I'd rather have that week back to relax and enjoy life instead of rushing around trying to make life enjoyable.

Pelotonia update

For those of you who remember, I did the unthinkable and raced in the Pelotonia 2010 cancer research fundraiser. This ride really tested my dedication and persistence as it was was easily one of the most difficult things I've done. It also resulted in the tragic death of one of the riders in a traffic accident.

Well, the hard work of so many people finally came to a tangible fruition a couple of weeks ago when the Pelotonia check was presented at the OSU/Michigan game. The total of nearly 8 million dollars just goes to show how important this issue is to the community and how deeply the cause has touched so many people.


It's never too late to start fundraising for next year, so stay tuned for updates on our plan to ride next year in our own Peleton. We're currently looking at about 5-6 riders and will be looking for both corporate and small dollar quantity donors. Please think about how important the cause of cancer research is, and look up how much the James has done for the cause of cancer research. Until then, I'll be losing weight, trying to sell my old bike and planning out my ride for next year.