Registering Online
A big THANK YOU!!! to everyone who has used the convenient option to register online for events! This feature is a huge time saver, increases accuracy and keeps important details (like name spelling) neat and organized for our staff and for event chairs. Please keep in mind, once online entries are received, you should expect a confirmation within 48 hours from Tammy. If you do not receive a confirmation, or if you aren’t sure you submitted the registration correctly, please double-check with Tammy!
Newsletter Updates
If you have visited our website lately, you may have noticed a new feature on our media page and this image (left) featured on the right sidebar of our Sussex 4-H website pages. In addition to the PDF newsletter that is released at the end of each month, we’ve created a mirror electronic newsletter (what you are reading now) that has the same content! When you see the 4-H News button, click on it and it will take you directly to this new e-newsletter!
Why the duplicate e-version? The electronic format requires no document download. Because it is totally web-based, it is a better vehicle for promoting and marketing all of our county accomplishments. The content within becomes highly searchable to a wider audience. Only a month old, our newsletter has already been read all across the country!
As content on the e-news grows, you will be able to search for a specific name, and see all the articles where that individual is mentioned. Try searching for a name you know!That will come in handy for preparing your record books, or even for compiling a record of service for a resume or application. You are also free to copy the URL address and post your accomplishment on Facebook, Twitter or your own blog if you have one. We know of several 4-H club blogs! We hope to add convenient share features in the near future.
On the right sidebar, you will see all the latest posts. When news comes to our office, you won’t have to wait until the end of the month to find out! You can also search for areas of interest via a general drop down list of topics called categories, or you can look at the keyword cloud for something more specific. The bigger the keyword, the more articles there are about that topic! Of course, you may take advantage of the search bar anytime for something specific. Hyperlinks to photos and forms will be instantaneous and many event slide shows will be embedded. Conveniently, as time goes by, all articles will be organized in a monthly issue and archives will always be available to you.
With difficult budget cuts being seriously discussed in Washington, and in our own state, it is more important than ever to promote what we do and share our good news as fast and as widely as possible. Most government officials and almost every news agency and reporters have Twitter accounts. Many custom stories originate from a Twitter post! We encourage you to share these stories in your social networks, via email, and if you have them, in your own blogs and websites! Each of you can play an important role in marketing our local 4-H program so that everyone will see the terrific accomplishments of our 4-H youth and volunteer leaders. By the way, each article or post is very printer friendly, but unlike the PDF version, the issue will not print out as a whole. Rather, you select the articles you need for printing or safekeeping.
We hope you will check out the new Sussex Connection! Which ever version you prefer, we are proud to write about the dedicated 4-H volunteers and amazing 4-H youth, and proudly recognize all our friends, supporters and sponsors that make Sussex County 4-H Youth Development Program what it is today! The greatest youth program in the country!
March and Clovers!
Clovers get a lot of attention in March, but did you know there are 300 species of clovers? Three-leaf clovers are the most common. Our original emblem had three clover leaves – Imagine us all being 3-H’ers! Inspired by rural students looking in the ground for the luckier four-leafed variety, a fourth leaf and H was added to our emblem in 1908! In botany, four-leaf clovers are more rare and finding one is considered very fortunate! Even rarer are five, six or more and the record, believe it or not, is a 56-leafed clover found in 2009!! It’s a good thing those students didn’t find that in 1908, or is it? Can you imagine 52 more H’s to go with that clover? Hmm…Happy, Honest, Hard-working, Honorable, Helpful, Hardy, Horse, Hope, Harmony…