Successful Clubs

There are many factors that contribute to a successful 4-H club. Holding consistently good club meetings, maintaining effective channels of communication and a good annual club plan are all very important.

The local club is the heart of 4-H and always has been. There are numerous ways a young person can engage in 4-H, but the richest experience, by far, is being an active member of a successful community or project club.

Successful clubs don't hold mediocre meetings, at least not on a regular basis. One of the most important things 4-H volunteers do with their members is plan and conduct meetings that are interesting, fun and "hands on". Good meetings are very important as attending local club meetings is the primary and sometimes only way some members engage in 4-H. Young people are busier today than ever with many school and community activities competing for their time. Peer pressure is a major influence in their lives. Providing positive alternatives to negative influences is one of the best ways to help our youth develop into the kind of citizens we want them to become. 4-H can help, but only if we keep members engaged in 4-H. A good experience with a successful club is the best way to do that.

County, regional and state activities can be the "icing on the cake", but the local club is the cake.

The following lessons are included in this unit:

Club Communication - Keeping everyone informed keeps everyone involved

Getting to Know Your Members and Parents - The more you know the better

Club Meeting Basics - Date, place, time, agenda and more

The Business Meeting - Don't let this part of the meeting dominate

Programs and Activities - Make meetings interesting

Fun and Food - Don't overlook this important part of the meeting

Club Officers - Successful clubs are led by successful officers

The above lessons are all linked to this page. You can return to this page by clicking the back button at the top left of your screen.

At the end of each lesson, please review Learning Check for a summary of key points. To complete the lesson, choose one or more of the Learning Check topics and share your ideas with other online learners by posting a message to the Online Learning Community discussion board. Please note: due to a problem with spam we have temporarily disabled the links to this discussion forum. Please share your thoughts and questions by sending an email message to Dan at dtabler@umd.edu .

Before starting the first lesson, please take the Successful Clubs Pre-Test. After you've completed the last lesson in this unit you will be prompted to take the Post-Test (same questions as the Pre-Test). Test results are confidential.