Friday, October 29, 2010

Finally Friday!

Happy Friday, everyone! What a week it has been in the Texas 4-H Natural Resources Office....

On Monday, our mobile office had two wings and a few propellers. Larry and I ventured to Lubbock to check out an indoor range at South Plains College in Levelland. As you may have heard, in 2012 Roundup will be moving from the campus of Texas A&M University in College Station to Texas Tech University. There is a very good probability that we will be hosting our 2012 Roundup Indoor Rifle Match at their campus. This provides our participants a great opportunity to have the complete Roundup experience for the first time since we held our match in the Trigon at Texas A&M University. 2011 Roundup will still be held in College Station, with our Indoor Rifle Match held the same week but in Rosenberg at the Fort Bend County Education Building. Please note that the dates for 2011 have been moved to coincide with State Roundup. The Roundup Indoor Rifle Match will be held June 14-15, 2011.

After recovering from Monday's trip, we have been plugging away on finalizing our coach training dates for 2011. Our schedule includes:

State Headquarters - College Station: January 29-30, 2011
North Region - Lubbock: March 25-26, 2011
East Region - TBA: May 21-22, 2011
State Games - San Antonio: July 16-17, 2011
West Region - TBA: August 13-14, 2011
South Region - Victoria: October 22-23, 2011

We will be busy traveling to these locations to deliver materials, to evaluate consistency, and to ensure our trainings are meeting the needs of coaches across the state.

Yesterday, Larry and I put our heads together to develop or presentation for next week's Texas 4-H Summit, a three day long teleconference for 4-H faculty and county agents across the state. More than likely, we will be unavailable on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week as we both listen to and give presentations during those days. Of course, Janice will be in the office to answer most of your questions. We can always count on her to keep us in line!

Here we are on Friday. I've been finalizing the November edition of /Straight Shots, our monthly newsletter. If you haven't read it before, check it out online at http://texas4-h.tamu.edu/youth/shootingsports/index.php#newsletter . The newsletter has good information on recent developments, upcoming events, and even includes a printable monthly program calendar. Generally, the new editions are published online the first of every month.

I'd like to take the time to thank you for keeping up with our program, whether it is on this blog, on Facebook, on our website, or through phone and email correspondence. We appreciate your willingness to serve as volunteers, adult leaders, Extension staff, and maybe even dedicated participants. Thanks for all you do to "Make the best better." Have a Happy Halloween and be safe as you begin your weekend.

Have a great weekend,
Karen

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

2011 Texas 4-H Shooting Sports Team

Congratulations to the youth selected to the 2011 Texas 4-H Shooting Sports Team. The team will represent Texas at the 2011 National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational held at the National Shooting Complex in San Antonio on June 19-24. 

Team members include:


Air Pistol
Captain: Matthew Barnes
Cody Cedergren
Dylan Lee
Dan Smith
Alternate: Kailey Hart
Coach: Gene Jones

Air Rifle
Captain: Danielle Snow
Calvin Dietrich
Derik Kubenka
Amelia Springer
Alternate: Kailey Hart
Coach: Kevin Kubenka

Compound Archery
Captain: Brittany Dockery            
Don Malone
Brooks Modesitt
Lee Payne
Alternate: Hunter Martin
Coach: Leslie Dockery

Hunting
Captain: Keaton Harlow
Steven Arceneaux
Conrad Day
Danial Gibich
Coach: TBA

Muzzleloading
Captain: Kyle Rother
Michael Garner
Mary Beth Marcak
Conner Willis
Coach: Goober Mitchell


Recurve Archery
Melanie Sera
Blake Estep
Kyle Locke
Taylor Holman
Coaches: Mickey Estep & Max Sera

Smallbore Pistol
Captain: Victoria Kusak
Madeline Jones
Will Marcak
Ethan Aschenbeck
Alternate: William Dean
Coach: Andrew Marcak

Smallbore Rifle
Captain: Landon Hart – Captain
Benjamin Zimmerer
Barrett Ancinec
Lachelle Rutledge
Alternate: Corey Crowell
Coach: Michael Zimmerer

Shotgun
Neal Hodges
Colt Woods
Drucilla Meier
Stephen Garza
Alternate: Jace Jenkins
Coach: Bill Massey

Members will be receiving further information from the Texas 4-H Natural Resources Office in the near future. Please ensure you are checking your email for correspondence from the State Office.

Once again, congrats to the team members! I look forward to working with each one of you over the next year!

Have a great rest of your week!
-Karen

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

What makes a good National Invitational t-shirt?

We are in the midst of the 2011 National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational t-shirt design contest. The flyer for the contest can be found online at http://texas4-h.tamu.edu/youth/shootingsports/index.php#NationalInvitational.

Rules for submission include:
Participants:
Must be a 4-H member (not necessarily a shooting sports participant). May
be a team (any size), 4-H Club, or individual submission. Participants must be
from the same county.
Logo and Theme Requirements:
Images may be hand drawn or computer generated.
Electronic images must be in a jpg format.
Logo will be featured on the back of the t-shirts
If selected, the image may be modified for printing purposes.
Submission Deadline:
December 3, 2010.
Submission Rights and Credits:
All submissions become the property of Texas AgriLife Extension Service.
4-H Members release all rights to future use of logo.
Credit will be provided to individual, team, or club submitting winning logo in
the 2011 National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational program of events.
Winning Entry:
Winning entry will be voted on by Texas 4-H faculty & staff.
Winner will be notified and winning entry will be featured in January
newsletter.

So, what makes a good t-shirt design? There are a few things to remember:
  • Texas is the host for the 2011 match. Include a reference to the state in the design so that the shirt isn't just another Invitational shirt, but a memento of the Invitational Texas hosted.
  • Try to come up with a catchphrase or slogan for the event. Last year, we used "Shooting Straight in the Lone Star State." Nebraska used "Aiming our best in the Midwest." 
  • The logo will be used on our event program for the week, so make sure it is appropriate for many different contexts. 
  • Be sure the logo is relevant to all disciplines represented at the match: air pistol, air rifle, compound archery, recurve archery, smallbore pistol, smallbore rifle, hunting, muzzleloading, and shotgun. The logo doesn't have to include the image of a firearm, but if it does, make sure it can represent all disciplines.
  • We just need a design for the backs of t-shirts. The front logo remains the same. You can find that on the top of the image below:
This is last year's early design. We made modifications to it when we selected the final design, but this can give you a basic idea of what we look for. Don't pay attention to all the color information on the sides of the image, the print shop that created this (CC Creations), include that for their purposes. We do not need that from contest participants, we just need a logo. CC Creations will do the rest to make your design printable!

If you have any questions about this office, feel free to contact me. I'm more than willing to help. Good luck and I hope to see your submissions in the office in December!

Have a great rest of the week!
Karen

Friday, October 1, 2010

Happenings in the 4-H Natural Resources Office

Good Friday afternoon, everyone!

Can you believe it is already October? I can't! We have been so busy wrapping up our fall training workshops and finalizing the program calendar for the next year. I can assure you we have many great things in the works for the upcoming year.

Today marks the first day the Shooting Sports program has utilized 4-H Connect for Event Registration. From today until November 5, participants can register for the 2011 Postal Leagues via 4-H Connect. I am excited that we are finally utilizing this program and I know it will help our program out immensely. I believe we will be more efficient and will be able to wrap up these events in a timely manner.

We have been deep in the planning processes for the 2011 National 4-H Shooting Sports Invitational. I'm sure we will be making multiple trips to different venues between now and June. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we can find the perfect venues to support all the activities we host during the Invitational week. Regardless, we have all been having a good time checking out the different facilities...




Even Dr. Boleman has been having fun with us on the search for venues. 

Along those same lines, we are having a t-shirt design contest for the Invitational. Because our 2010 shirt was such a success, we really weren't sure how we would improve for 2011. Our solution: we decided to let the youth design their shirts.The complete contest details can be found on our web page under National Invitational.

Since it is the first of the month, you can check out the October issue of Straight Shots on our web page texas4-h.tamu.edu. This month's issue describes the postal league registration and score reporting processes in great detail, and also includes the October program calendar. Also inside the newsletter is a call for news articles. I recently received an email with a local news article attached. The article reported on a 4-H member who is actively involved in Shooting Sports and was awarded a Gold Star award at her county banquet. I realized that I would like to have more of these types of articles in the office. I like to stay connected with our youth on their local level. That is where it all begins, right? If you have an article that your 4-Hers are featured in, mail it to us by USPS or email. I'd love to hang it on my cabinet.

If you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, feel free to contact us by phone or email (preferable). We're always open to new ideas and ways to serve YOU!

Have a great weekend!
-Karen