Volunteers go High-Tech

We already know we have the greatest volunteers in the state but I love when they prove it to us again and again. Due to a change in scheduling we moved our volunteer training back a day to Monday at the last minute. Instead of the five who were signed up to attend, 17 showed up with the last minute change to make this a great training opportunity.

Kate Guerdat with the state 4-H office conducted an Elluminate training for volunteers around the state. For those of you who might be wondering Elluminate is similar to a video conference that takes place on a computer. It offers people who do not have the opportunity to use microphones to communicate to type messages or questions to the presenter, as well as vote on things, share web pages, PowerPoint presentations and more. The best thing about this is that it does not cost anything to take part, you just have to show up and listen and watch the screen.

Robeson County was one of five counties that took part in the training offered by the state office. Kate showed us the web page with all the new links for club paperwork, downloadable forms, and check lists to make sure the county 4-H office has everything they need to charter 4-H clubs. Since our new club year is October 1, 2010-September 30, 2011 we will be making the rounds to our clubs in October (after the fair) to fill out annual paperwork again.

For the volunteers we had mixed reviews on the technology some liked it, some did not. However everyone gained a little something from the meeting and we hope that with the help of our Robeson County 4-H staff all the paperwork will be a little easier to comprehend as we start our new club year in a few weeks.

Thank you to all the volunteers who came out for the training. We know we have the best volunteers in Robeson County and they prove it again and again.