1. Ellis County Recordbook Workshop 2017
Megan Parr
CEA-4-H & YD

2. Overview
What?
Why?
How?

3. The What…. What is a recordbook?
Recordbooks are a tool used to keep track of your 4-H activities from year to year.
Recordbooks can be used in award selection and to help you fill out scholarships.

4. The Why….. Why complete a recordbook? Record Keeping skills
Award selection
Scholarships

5. The How…. Completing a recordbook is as hard as you make it.
Your score will reflect the amount of time you spend completing it.
This is a record of your WHOLE year. Don’t wait until the night before it is due to begin!
Broken into 3 age divisions and then into project categories
Ex. Junior-Goats
Ex. Intermediate-Beef
Ex. Senior-Public Speaking

6. 1. Where do we start? Begin by knowing your age division.
Junior=3rd-5th grade
Intermediate=6th-8th grade
Senior=9th-12th grade
Which project are you going to report on?
Juniors and Intermediates can choose 1 project to report on.
Seniors can report on up to 4 projects.

7. 2. Know what Judges are looking for
GRAMMAR!!!!!!!!
Please make sure you have somebody proofread your book before you turn it in.
Complete sentences are a must!
Check for misspelled words.
The judges want to know about your experiences, not your sibling’s.
When necessary, provide a little detail on your activity.

8. The Forms
There are different forms for each age division. (This is why it is super important to know what age division you are)
Each age division form builds on each other (i.e. Intermediate builds on the Junior, Senior builds on Intermediate).

9. Juniors Let’s take a look at the Junior report form.
(We are going to skip down to the box, because you should have already decided which project you are going to report on).
Why did you choose this project?
Use your creative writing skills to write out a good paragraph (It’s ok to have your parents help you with this). Include examples of why you chose this specific project.

10. Juniors Goals. What did you want to accomplish this year?
Setting goals is an important part of your 4-H project. What were the goals you had for this project? These can be things like, -Learn to give vaccinations, Learn the correct way to chop food, Learn how to be a better shopper.
These goals need to be related to your main project only!
What did you want to accomplish this year?
Was there something specific you wanted to do? Did you want to make the sale at county? Did you want to place somewhere specific? Did you want to attend a specific activity?
What activities did you want to try?
What were some things you wanted to try or do this year?
Did you want to try livestock judging for the first time? How about Food Challenge? Attend a clinic?

11. Juniors Diary of 4-H Events Lump things together!
There is no page limit!
You can include everything.
Make sure you put something about what you learned (this is what 4-H is all about!)
This can include taking care of your animals, making dinners, attending workshops or clinics, etc.
Lump things together!
If you attend your club meetings each month, you can put monthly in the date column .
Make sure some of these tie back to the goals you set at the beginning.

12. Juniors
4-H Story
This is an important part of your book. This is the part we build on from year to year. The junior form is the beginning stages of the intermediate and senior forms.
This should be a story! Please do not include lists.
Tell the judges about you. They want to know about your life and your family. Where do you live? Do you have animals? Where do you go to school? This story will include all of your 4-H projects.

13. Juniors Why did you join 4-H? Project activities Favorite parts of 4-H
You can be honest here. If you joined because your mom signed you up, its ok to say that, but be sure to include something about your experience since you joined.
Project activities
Put the highlights here.
Favorite parts of 4-H
Share a fun story or experience. You want your book to be memorable.

14. Juniors What is something you want to do better next year?
Give details!
Tell us anything else about yourself or your 4-H experience.
DO NOT LEAVE THIS BLANK!!!!
Awards
If this is your first year, you likely will not have a huge amount of awards yet. That’s ok. You can include any award-how did you place at county? Be sure to tell why this award is meaningful to you.

15. Juniors Community Service Leadership
Each club does community service projects. We also do them at the county level. You should have several projects you can include here.
Leadership
This is not limited to serving as a club officer.
Can be things like leading the pledge at a meeting, bringing the snack to the club meeting, helping someone else with their project, or anything else you help lead.

16. Juniors
You can include up to 3 pages of pictures. Show off what you have been doing this year.
Pictures help tell the story of what you have been up to. You can include captions or not, that is your choice.
Make sure you add some pictures! Don’t leave this blank!!!!!!
When you add pictures, make sure they don’t overlap each other too much.

17. Intermediates
The intermediate book builds on the junior book. Most of the same information carries over to the intermediate book.
Goals
What were the goals you had for this year?
You need to list at least 6 goals.
As an intermediate, you should be able to come up with 6 things you wanted to do this year.
Make sure these goals are only for the project you are reporting on.

18. Intermediates Personal Journal Personal Journal Tips
Focus on major accomplishments
You can include non-4-H activities.
Summarize as much as possible.
There is no page limit.
You can include as many of these pages as you want.
Personal Journal Tips
Use this space to record all activities, events and experiences as they are completed.
Include things like school, sports, church, community service, awards, honors, etc.
This is for ALL projects and activities.
Enter the most important activities & lump things together as much as possible-if you feed your animal everyday, you can put “Feed Lamb-Daily”
Summarize as much as possible.

19. Intermediates Summary of activities and accomplishments
This is only for this year! DO NOT INCLUDE THINGS FROM ANOTHER YEAR!
You can only list 10. Make sure you pick the top 10.
Don’t include things that would be considered leadership here. You will include those later.
Include those from your main project first, and then add the others.
Try to make sure these things cannot be included in other sections like community service or leadership.

20. Intermediates Recognitions and Awards Things you can include:
This should ONLY be your 4-H awards and recognition.
Make sure you show important this was. You really want to highlight why this is such an honor or why it has such great meaning to you.
You can only have 5. Make them count!
Things you can include:
County & Club awards
District Awards
County Youth Fair awards
Placing at contests
This does not include FFA Stock Shows.
Details are SUPER important.

21. Intermediates Community Service
These are things you did to serve others, not yourself.
This can be for all of your projects, but must be from the CURRENT year only.
You will need to include what role you had-Y=completed by yourself, M=completed as a member of a group, P=Led or implemented the project
Your word choice and the impact this service had are going to be very important.
Use words like “impacted xxx people”
Use words like coordinated, lead, organized, planned, created

22. Intermediates Leadership Experiences
Again, CURRENT year only. Can include all projects
Details are IMPORTANT!!!

23. Intermediate
Leadership Experiences-
See list on packet

24. Intermediates Project Summary
This is only your main project
This is a summary, so you should only use paragraphs.
What was the most exciting about your project?
You don’t want to concentrate on the winning aspect of things as much as you will what you learned, how hard you worked, was it a team effort, etc.
What would you do differently in this project?
Use complete sentences and not a list.
Things you may include: research more, spend more time, do more community service, learn a wider variety of things.
Make sure you elaborate and give details
DO NOT LEAVE THIS BLANK! We can always grow and learn more!

25. Intermediates What are you future plans with this project?
Use complete sentences
Items may include: developing my leadership in project, trying to incorporate community service into the main project, joining the planning committees to help plan the project, help teach younger youth about project, recruit friends to join 4-H and become part of the project.
What are you most proud of in your project?
This could be a summary of your project and how it really helped you learn about 4-H and your life.
You could tie in how it has helped you become responsible, dependable, a leader, etc.
Remember, this NOT about winning!

26. Intermediates 4-H Story and Photo Portfolio What goes into the story?
This part is getting you ready for your senior book.
This needs to be at least 3 pages and cannot be longer than 10 pages.
You can include pictures in your story.
What goes into the story?
You know those questions you answered at the end of your report form? That goes into your story. This is where you tell us about you, your family, your life, and your 4-H year. Do you have a fun story to share? Was there something particularly interesting about your year? Include it!

27. Seniors-Section 1 1. Project Experiences
You get to include up to 4 projects! Please include more than 1!
This is the section is where you answer the questions-What is your project? How did your project change or grow? What have you done and what have you learned? This can include learning experiences gained in other youth or community organizations but make sure they apply to your project.
The key is to report the LEARNING AND DOING that took place
You only have 3 pages for this (That seems like a lot for some of you, for others, it is not enough room).
Using a table works best. This way you can list out your experiences in a very readable way. (This is also how you will do this on your scholarship application. Do it now, so you are that much more ahead when you get there!)

28. Seniors-Section 1
Make sure you include what you have learned and how many hours you have spent completing this activity.
Only include those activities that go with that project (i.e. Food Challenge goes with the Foods & Nutrition project. Anything livestock related goes with that particular species project.)
Include the level at which this activity was completed
L=local
C=County/Club
D=District
S=State
N=National
Make sure you tell us why these experiences are important. Why should we care that you completed this activity.
See the list on the handout for more specific information about what goes here.

29. Seniors-Section 2 Tell us about your Leadership Experiences
Leadership are things you taught, led, or did to assist others. Generally includes things like being a club officer, County Council, Committee, etc.
Community service are things you did to serve others. Don’t get the two confused.
You only have 2 pages for this section. Only include the highlights.
THIS CAN ONLY INCLUDE THINGS FOR THE CURRENT YEAR!!!!

30. Senior-Section 3 Community Service
Community Service is something you did to serve others. Don’t get this confused with fundraisers or other leadership type things.
See handout for list
You only have 2 pages for this section. Make them count.

31. Senior-Section 4 Other 4-H Projects
You are only allowed to report on 4 projects and their project experiences in all of the other sections. This is the place to include those other projects you might have.
You have 1 page to do this.
Again, use the table system. This makes it so much easier to read and to keep track of. (Scholarship alert!).
Make sure your projects are on the project list.
List any 4-H projects not listed in Section 1. Include the number of years and summarize participation. Remember you can add projects you only dabbled in. Example: You went to a workshop on a project during the summer, you can make that a project as long as you have 6 learning experiences. Remember, leadership, public speaking, and citizenship/Civic education (community service) are projects and can be added to this section. You generally have this project throughout your other projects.

32. Senior-Section 5 4-H Recognition & Awards This can include:
You MUST put something here.
You have 1 page.
Make sure you tell me why this is important to you!
This can include:
County & Club awards
District Awards
County Youth Fair Awards
Placing at contests
Does NOT include FFA livestock shows.

33. Senior-Section 6 Non 4-H Activities Again, UTILIZE THE TABLE!!!!
You all have other activities outside of 4-H. This is where you get to tell us about them.
Again, UTILIZE THE TABLE!!!!
1 page max
See list on handout for specific examples.

34. Senior-Section 7 College/Career Exploration
As you go through high school, you are asked to think about what you want to do in the future. Any research you do on that goes here.
This cannot be left blank.
Realistically, a freshman is not going to have as much here as a senior, however, you should have something.
If you attended a contest on a college campus, THAT COUNTS AS A COLLEGE VISIT! (make sure you write it as a college visit and not a 4-H contest)
1 page max.

35. Senior-Story & Photos Tell your story Be memorable.
You have 10 pages to tell us about yourself, your life, and your 4-H experiences.
In your story, I would like to see something about the goals you set for your projects this year.
I would like to see something about how you accomplished those goals.
Be memorable.
Include pictures throughout your story (you can insert them into the text).
Tell us an impactful story. Something that happened to you this year (impactful does not have to be dramatic, it can be funny too).
Tell me how you grew as a person throughout this year. Where did you start the year and where did you end up?

36. Where to find the forms
We now know what needs to go in our books, where can we find out forms?
Texas4-h.tamu.edu/recordbooks/
All report forms and tips sheets are on there.
There is also a list of categories on there.

37. What else do we need to know
Record book covers can be purchased online at the 4hmall.com or through the Extension Office. Covers are $3 each.
All forms need to be typed. Please do not handwrite anything. If you need help with this, let me know.
Recordbooks are due to the Extension Office by June 14th at 3:00pm. Please do not wait until 5:00!!!!!!!!!!!! We will not be here to accept them.

38. Questions

39. Remember, you can always call me and I can help with most any question
Remember, you can always call me and I can help with most any question. I would also be happy to look over your book anytime to give pointers or proofread.