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   Owner - Stephanie Farmer

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Layoffs at
4-H Florida Office!
4-H LAYOFFS at the State Level! THIS IS SAD NEWS. As supporters know the Governornor's line item veto eliminated $6.5 million in funding from IFAS and $ 1 million from 4-H. While UF did it's best to save positions, this week 4-H had to make layoffs at the State level. I am posting this information now to avoid any rumors or misinformation from brewing .

LAYOFFS IN 4-H
1.4-H State Internal Public Awareness position - this person was laid off. This will affect communication coming from the
State 4-H office. IFAS Communication Services is brainstorming with 4-H as to how to handle this position loss because as we all know communication is important.

2. 4-H State Maine Ecology position - this person was laid off. NO more coordination for Marine Ecology from the State level. But! a plan is being developed to work with Sea Grant to keep this program alive.

UF/IFAS supported Florida 4-H continued operations with one time dollars for the 2017 - 2018 year. This one time funding is not guaranteed to be continued past this year.

The State 4-H office IS facing additional budget challenges, if funding is NOT restored by the Legislature in 2018.

For those wondering about IFAS - At this time there are no other layoffs within IFAS. Mainly because other departments are covering their budget losses through not filing necessary positions that were frozen after the Governor did his line item veto of IFAS.

Supporters! If it was not for the one time dollars the 4-H layoffs would have been worse. Remember to avoid further "budget challenges" we MUST work as a team educating the public and government as to the diversity and importance of 4-H. Our facebook page Florida 4-H and FFA Supporters was developed as a guide to help coach supporters in doing so.

Please remember to continue to contact media with your postitive stories - phase one we launched a couple weeks ago. There is a media packet we developed on agnewstoday.com .

Within the next week we will launch a government education packet and program we have been developing since the line item veto was official. You will notice that we will be encouraging the education of IFAS as we educate about 4-H because they work as a team.

Please continue to encourage others to join our Florida 4-H and FFA Supporters Facebook page - there is strength in numbers.

If someone does not have facebook they can click the email link on right side of my website
agnewstoday.com .

Some have told me they do not do electronics. We are developing a program to mail a note or letter when needed to only those supporters who do not do FB or email - but remember my team Stacey Warden , Kelly Davis Strausbaugh and I are unpaid volunteers. Thank you again for supporting 4-H.

Congratulations
2017-2018
Florida 4-H State Officers

L to R in this photo: Megan, Miguel, Montana, Steven, Christian, Kara, Michelle, Brooke

Pres: Steven Lommerse, Seminole County
VP: Christian Rodriguez, Suwannee County
Secretary: Montana Smith, Pasco County
Treasurer: Kara Croft, Suwannee County
Reporter: Miguel Bermeo, St. Johns County
Parliamentarian: Michelle Tinker, Escambia
Historian: Megan Mahoney, Lee
Sergeant at Arms: Brooke Miller, Volusia

4-H and IFAS Supporters!
Remember!

We MUST get funding LOST
in 2017 Legislative Session
RESTORED in 2018
to avoid severe job and program losses!

Click this link to download Dr. Jack Payne UF Senior Vice President for agriculture and natural resources
Entire Letter

I encourage readers to sign up for email alerts and the Florida 4-H and FFA Supporters page on facebook. We are also on Twitter as we work as a team
for 4-H and IFAS.

Advocating has costs.
Gas, lodging, time, printing and more!
Would you like to support
what we are doing ?
You can place an ad on my site or simply sponsor us with a donation. Email me for details agnewstoday@outlook.com

Bob Renner Receives National 4-H Award and his National Forestry Team wins Quizbowl!

Recently the National 4-H Forestry Invitational posted this about Marion County's own Bob Renner. " Please join us in congratulating Bob Renner from Marion County, Floirda as the recipient of the 2017 the Tommy and Susan Futral Inspiration of the Invitational award. This award recognizes an "outstanding" 4-H Forestry Invitational coach or 4-H Leader. These individuals strongly support 4-H Forestry at the state and national levels. Bob has coached nearly 25 teams at the Invitational dating back to 1982 when the contest was celebrating their 3rd year. That means he has probably coached around 100 kids that have competed at the Invitational. Well deserved. Thank you for your dedication!"

PLUS! The 4-H team he coached this year just became 2017 Forestry Quiz Bowl Champions!

HIstory of FFA Jacket
You can't cover FFA history without the jacket. Here's an old, scratchy, yet very interesting video interview of the man who came up with the jacket we know today. No better place to learn history than from the source! Again, what we are doing is laying foundation for supporters as we prepare to educate government officials and general public. Knowing history helps.
click here to watch video

History of 4-H
4-H began in 1902 in the USA - 115 years ago! Today there are over 6 million members worldwide. In 2015-2016 more than 192,000 FLORIDA youth participated in 4-H programs.
Click Here to watch video

History of FFA
FFA began in 1928.
According to National FFA - "FFA membership today is comprised of 649,355 student members in grades 7th-12th who belong to one of 7,859 local FFA chapters throughout the United States, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands." In Florida there are about 50,000 FFA members. Here is a unique fact from FFA history I gleaned from the video. Three members of FFA participated in the Doolittle raid in World War II.
Click here to watch the video

Florida "FIVE Tie-Breaker" Winner!
During the Junior Dairy Jeopardy at the National Holstein Convention, they finally declared a winner after FIVE tie-breakers! One of your very own from Okeechobee County in Florida, Jenna Larson (center) topped the largest division of the day. Her competitors: Jordan Anderson from Pennsylvania won second place (left) and Louis Hamlett from Iowa took third (right).
Jenna is an outstanding 4-H member who is gifted as well as possessing a kind and compassionate heart. She has amazing work ethic and excels at everything that she does. Among some of the things she has set her mind to, academics, 4-H/Tropicana Public Speaking Contest, Quiz Bowl, Judging, Showing, and playing guitar are the interests that she has shown excellence. Jenna comes from a legacy of amazing people and is well on her way to adding her very own amid them!

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