December 14, 2018
4-H Shooting Sports Update
The 4-H Shooting Sports Advisory has been working hard trying to align the Kansas 4-H Shooting Sports Program with the Kansas 4-H Policies and Guidelines during the past year. The advisory’s primary focus has been:
1. Volunteer Screening must be completed by all coordinators and instructors as a fundamental requirement for ALL 4-H volunteers, not just 4-H Shooting Sports. Unfortunately in the past, several volunteers participated in the certification training with the understanding to go home and complete the volunteer screening; however, the screening was never completed. Therefore, the 4-H Shooting Sports Advisory has increased accountability of volunteer screening completion to assist the local program in striving to improve risk management.
2. Competitive Age in the past, 4-H Shooting Sports members have been allowed to participate in qualifying events at age 8; unfortunately, age 9 is Kansas 4-H competitive age for all other events such as District Horse Shows, Judging Contests and Kansas State Fair. Therefore, the 4-H Shooting Sports Advisory encourages local programs to host a county match similar to a county fair for all 4-H Shooting Sports members to practice and prepare for age 9 opportunities.
3. Developing a Kansas 4-H Shooting Sports Handbook for documenting how the 4-H Shooting Sports Program operates statewide and provides guidance for local 4-H Shooting Sports programs. The concept of the handbook is to unravel the mystery of 4-H Shooting Sports that perplexes agents and volunteers.
4. Incorporating education within 4-H Shooting Sports Programs as sometimes the only Shooting Sports Advisory has encouraged 4-H members to share their mastery of the 4-H Shooting Sports Program through fair exhibits such as promotional posters, educational displays and notebooks. Furthermore, the advisory plans to expand STEM education into the certification training so volunteers can return home to teach the youth.
5. Extension Executive and/or Governing Bodies are requested to assign one Extension Agent as the 4-H Shooting Sports Point of Contact for managing the individually operating 4-H Shooting Sports Programs within the county/district i.e. one agent per county; one agent per county within a district; or one agent within the district. This point of contact cannot be a program assistant, program manager or office professional.