THE ACORNICLE

Editor: Carl Reed - e-mail – _ reedc2004@cox.net
Newsletter articles need to be submitted by the Friday following the Unit Meeting

President – Rachel Bradley	Vice-Pres. – (position open)
Secretary – Miriam Lopez	Treasurer – Christina Dietzer
Sgt. at Arms - Hope Gilces	Reporter – D.C. Reed
Supply Officer – Sydney Helms	Historian – Ashley Whipple
Recreation – Rebecca Dietzer	Teen Council Rep -
Song Leaders – Katie Raya and Alex Doar
Clover Buds – Tess Porter and Kelsey Gans

Christmas is over and New Year’s Day is coming up fast and with it comes our busiest time of the year. For those of you who are new to 4-H, I hope you’ll enjoy all of the events to come! We have Area Judging Day on Saturday, January 7^th, at El Capitan High School. I believe it will be in room 1500, check-in time is 8:30am, and start time is 9am, keep an eye out for emails from the San Diego County 4-H Office to confirm this info. We’ll do a mock judging day at our next unit meeting on Tuesday, January 3^rd. I hope everyone will try to attend the unit meeting as there things to discuss and there are a lot of fun and educational events coming up! You won’t want to miss out!

On a more solemn note, I have to tell you that Chelsea Smith has decided that being the club President is too much with her college schedule and she has stepped down from her position. After researching through Robert’s Rules of Order, it has been determined that our Vice-President, Rachel Bradley, is now your club President. We do need to elect a Vice-President to assist Rachel and to run the meetings if she is not able to attend for any reason. If you are interested in becoming the club Vice-President, please let me know. We will be holding an election for our new VP at the January meeting. The nomination board consists of our current club officers, so I would like all club officers to attend the board meeting this Thursday evening, Dec. 29^th at 7PM if at all possible. I hope everyone will support Rachel in her new position, and our VP to be as well!

Registration is coming to a close. If you wish to participate in the 2012 fairs and other competitive special events you need to be a fully registered member by 12/31/11. This also applies to anyone who wants to ride in the 4-H horse shows. The county has deleted any registrations that were not complete prior to 12/28/11. If you didn’t complete it by then, you will need to resubmit your electronic registration and get your medical forms and registrations fees to me by this Saturday, 12/31/11. If you have any questions regarding this process, please give me a call.

Hi Everyone! I was not expecting to be the club President this year. I was really looking forward to being the VP and assisting Chelsea, but Chelsea discovered that college is very demanding, and she could not dedicate the time the presidential office requires. So I hope you’ll give me your support as we move forward into 2012.

The best part of the 4-H year is just around the corner! I love participating in the fairs and I hope you will too! It’s a lot of fun and you get to showcase your projects and your animals. If you have any questions about the fairs, please be sure to ask me. If I don’t know the answer, I’ll find someone who can answer your questions.

Just what is Presentation Day? Presentation Day is your opportunity to get up in front on a small group of judges and other 4-H members and make an oral presentation. The presentations can be on just about anything, and they can be done in a number of different ways. You can give a prepared speech, you can demonstrate how to do something, you can read a short story or book, or you can do a skit with friends! Your presentation can include storyboards or displays.

If you’re wondering “why” should I do this? There are many rewards to doing a presentation. If you want to earn your stars in 4-H, you have to do 4-H presentations, there is no way around this requirement. In 4-H, we give gentle constructive criticism and we want to help you to succeed – there’s no better environment to do this! Getting up in front of a crowd and giving a presentation is the #1 fear of people, but the more times you do it, the easier it becomes. So why not get a jumpstart on your classmates – participate in 4-H Presentation Day and start to overcome your fear of public speaking!

For more info on Presentation Day – check out this link to the state website:

Sign up forms will be available at our unit meeting. Giving presentations will help to build your self-confidence and you will also earn extra Clover Bud points for participating – so start working on your presentation now!

This year the San Diego 4-H County Council is going to be putting together a cookbook. This will the County Council’s big fundraiser and it is taking the place of calendar sales. Proceeds from the cookbook fundraiser help the county council to be able to support various 4-H projects and area events around the county. They also help with scholarships to Jr. Leadership Camp, State Leadership Camp, and the State Leaders Forum.

The county wanted to be able to have the cookbooks published in time to be sold as Christmas presents; however, due to a lack of recipes they won’t be able to do this. They still need recipes for main dishes, side dishes, beverages, and salads. If every 4-H family just sends 1 recipe they would have plenty of recipes for the cookbook. So please send your favorite recipes to Robbie Cranor at: 67FORD@nethere.com, If you picked up an official recipe form at the unit meeting, please fill it out and mail it to: San Diego County 4-H Office, Attn: Carol Hrigora, 9335 Hazard Way, Suite 201, San Diego, Ca 92123. The County Council would really like to get at least 6 recipes per club, so please take the time to submit one of your family favorites to them!

At our December Home Arts and Crafts meeting our club members made cloth wreaths using wire coat hangers and strips of Holiday designed material. We also learned that there are a lot of different varieties of apples and some are better for eating raw and some are better when baked into apple pie! If the noise level of the meeting was any indication of how much fun we had, we had a LOT of FUN!

On Thursday, Dec. 29th, the Board will meet at the Bradley’s home at 7pm. All board members are encouraged to attend. All members and parents are welcome and encouraged to attend! Please call Mary for information and directions.

Area Judging Day – Saturday, January 7^th, 8:30am check-in, El Capitan H.S. room 1500 – the County will be sending out more info.

Junior Leadership Camp – Registration deadline – January 13^th. Camp is held Friday thru Sunday, Jan. 27-29, 2012, at Camp Oliver in Descanso, CA. Open to all youth member in 6^th, 7^th, and 8^th grade. See Mary Bradley for more info!

Area Presentation Day – Feb. 4^th, at the Jamul Community Church, check-in time, 8:30am. Our club is hosting this event – so please participate and help with it!

Area 5 Field Day - March 3. Area 5 Field Day and Small Animal Learning Day have been combined. It will be held at the Lakeside Jr Fair Grounds. Area 5 Field Day information and Livestock Entry Forms are in the County 4-H December Newsletter. The fair grounds will open at 7:30 A.M. to receive animals, and set up for the events. At 9:00 A.M. the classes should be ready to start. Contact Margaret Drown, for more information.

Archery - Contact Charla Cranor. This is a crossover project with the Alpine Amigos 4-H Club.

We will be meeting at the Dulzura Community Center this month. We will start our mosaic trivet project, and our bonsai trees. Contact Mary Bradley for more info.

Due to a change in your community club leader’s personal circumstances, I will not be leading a Thrive project for our club. I will be doing quite a bit of traveling this spring and do not have sufficient time available to devote to this project. If there is a parent or other project leader who would like to lead this project, please let me know. We will try to do a community service project this spring, and hold a record book workshop, TBD.

Computers - Adam learned how to use a spreadsheet. He also updated his web page with more games and learned how to add a table to his web page.

The project meetings are held on the Sunday after the Unit Meeting, 5:00 to 7:00 pm. The next meeting will be on January 8, 2011 and held at the Fletcher’s house, off Olive Vista Drive. If you are interested in learning about designing and maintaining our club’s web site at www.jamul4h.org, please contact Gene Peterson or Kevin Fletcher. Also check the web calendar for any last minute changes at http://jamul4h.org/calendar.

Dog Project- We meet at the Smith’s house, call Karen Smith for more info.

Horse and Pony Project – Meets at the Nunn Family Ranch, Montiel Truck Trail – Contact Nancy Grigsby for more info.

Sheep – Contact Margaret Drown for more info. This is a crossover project with the Japatul 4-H Club.

Sewing/Fashion Revue – Contact Jaime Dyer to set up an appointment for sewing lessons. This is a crossover project with the Japatul 4-H Club.

Shooting Sports/Air Rifles – Meets at the Vista Antique Tractor Museum in Vista. Please contact Bill Woodall for more info. This is a crossover project with the Buena Vista 4-H Club.

Small Animals (Cavies, Rabbits, and Poultry) – Contact Karen Smith, Britney Grigsby, or Kelli Helms for more info.

Remember, if you have any questions about something you have read here or anything else 4-H related you can call Mary. Also, please be sure to check our club’s website calendar. Dates and times of meetings are subject to change. Your project leader’s will make every attempt to contact you if there is a change, but you will also need to be proactive by checking the calendar and your email account for changes and up-to-date information!