Submitted by Abigail McNear in the absence of secretary Eden Copeland.
The High Country Handiworkers meeting was called to order at 7:07 p.m. on March 11, 2024 by President Josh Ryan at the McKee Building at The Ranch.
The pledges were led by Paige Box, Summer Box, Cameron Keehn, Levi Shrout, Basil Price, Lucy Shrout, Harley Anzaldua.
Roll call procedure: Please take your name tag from the alphabetized file box at the start of the meeting. At the end of the meeting, drop the name tags in the buckets at the exits of the room.
Paige Box moved to approve the minutes from February as submitted by Eden Copeland and posted on the club website. The motion was seconded and APPROVED. Josh asked for a volunteer to take notes for this meeting, since Eden Copeland was not in attendance. Abigail McNear volunteered.
Treasurer Gideon Rivera presented the treasurer’s report. The checking account’s balance is $2,190.64, the savings account balance is $5,593.83, and the CD balance is $2,157.42. We received $28.24 in interest in March.
Willow Cameron presented the reporter’s report. She submitted the February meeting report to the Loveland Reporter-Herald, The Coloradoan, the Berthoud Surveyor, and our club’s website and social media. The club was featured in the Loveland paper three times last month.
Paige Box and Wesley Anzaldua led the sunshine report for the March birthdays. There were cards circulated for members to sign: a get-well card for Diane Kern and a thank you card for Shavawn Cornett for making carnival booth signs.
At the February Cloverbud meeting, the Cloverbuds made ladybugs for Valentine’s Day. The next meeting will be on March 18 at 6:30 p.m.
Leader’s Report:
Paid Parking at The Ranch – Sharel Cameron talked about the new paid parking at the Ranch for ticketed events. It scans and gathers license plate information. When there is a 4-H event at the same time as a ticketed event, we’ll gather the Name, State of License Plate, and License Plate Number for all 4-H families in attendance, so that families will not receive a bill.
Rob Ryan explained the importance of the Clover Connection, calendar, club website, club emails, and attending meetings.
Visual Arts – No report for this month.
Foods – There is a field trip on March 19 to MouCo Cheese Company. The sign up is on the website. On April 1 there will be a joint meeting with Beekeeping. Bring an item with honey as an ingredient to share with the group. A new leader for 2024–2025 needs to be recruited. It’s a good time to start attending meetings and training.
Scrapbooking – Leader Barb Hummel is hosting project meetings at her home on March 16 and April 13 at 9:00 a.m. Bring a picture of your mom to the March meeting.
Clothing – There is an orientation on March 30 at 9:00 a.m. at the McKee 4-H Building. Bring your sewing machine.
Junior Leadership Club – The club will be holding officer training on April 17. Any members interested in learning more about holding an office is invited to attend. There will be dinner as well. The club is taking applications for project scholarships. The due date is April 1.
Dog – Hailey McNear reported that the next dog class is March 25, and the dog expo is on April 7. Registration is $10.
Shooting Sports – The Annual Safety Meetings on Zoom are complete and orientations are coming up for all disciplines. Some disciplines have started practices, and disciplines with outdoor practices will begin soon.
Rob Ryan gave the parli pro report about the importance of the club calendar and coming to meetings. He also went over the statement “I move…” when making a motion.
Old Business:
4-H Carnival Tickets – Tickets and funds need to be turned in ASAP.
4-H Carnival Baskets – The Outdoor basket sold for $425, the Cooking basket sold for $275, the LEGO basket sold for $365, the gorilla sold for $185, one teddy bear sold for $95, and the other teddy bear sold for $55.
4-H Carnival Game Booths – We had 7 club game booths and 2 Shooting Sports game booths. The total number of tickets collected per booth are: Lollipop Pull 1,740 tickets, Iron Man 2,240 tickets, Rubber Band Shoot 1,513 tickets, Toilet Paper Toss 1,854 tickets, Plinko 1,114 tickets, Smack the Quack 633 tickets, Pluck the Duck 1,485 tickets, Skee Ball 1,997 tickets, Ammo Pull 1,362 tickets.
4-H Carnival Improvements – The club discussed some things that could be improved for 2025.
- Having backers behind the throwing games.
- Making Skee Ball and Ammo Pull harder.
- Sharing information on how to work booths when signing up.
- Repair Smack the Quack and Pluck the Duck equipment including floating ducks and bean bags.
- Organize the stuffed animal prizes into small, medium, and large before carnival. Put in boxes instead of bags.
- Having people sign up to be ticket runner and prize runner.
- Getting a paper leaderboard/easel for Iron Man instead of white board.
- Have fewer people working some of the booths like Iron Man and TP Toss.
- Having a punch ticket for the jumbo prize. If you get a certain amount of punches you get a Jumbo prize.
- Refilling the lollipop and ammo pull when people can’t see where they’re being placed.
- Need a bigger trough for the Pluck a Duck and buy new or repair the ducks.
- Need more hooks to hang signs.
- Make new TP rolls to toss.
- Split coordinator job between multiple people.
- Little Iron Man, too difficult for littles to ring and win. The only successful ones used the big hammer.
- Look at dampening the Iron Man so it’s not so loud.
The club applauded Suzanne Leypoldt, who was the coordinator of the booths and prizes at the Carnival for the entire day.
New Business:
Club PayPal and Venmo – Our club has PayPal and Venmo accounts that can be used for payment for carnival tickets or for donations. Links are on the website.
Club Shirt Orders – Our club orders shirts for all members and leaders every other year. This is not an order year, but we’ll have an order form for new members and anyone who would like to pay for a new shirt. Watch for the form to be posted in April.
Parade Theme – The parade theme for this year was proposed by a former member family a few years ago. The theme will be Fun for the Whole Herd. Our club should start thinking of float ideas.
Demonstrations:
- Nolan Osusky: Building a bee nuc,
- Ethan Osusky: Building a bee quilt box.
Paige Box moved to adjourn the meeting. Seconded and APPROVED. The meeting was adjourned by Josh Ryan at 7:58 p.m.