Celebrating 100 Years of California 4-H--2013 CA 4-H State Leadership Conference

     On the morning of July 24th, I left San Francisco (see last blog post) and drove out to the University of California, Davis, outside of Sacramento, for the 2013 California 4-H State Leadership Conference (July 25-28, 2013).  California 4-H was celebrating the 100 years of the state program, and was the main theme behind the conference.  I was at the conference as a member of the California 4-H Technology Leadership Team (TLT).  I worked on a few different projects, taught an educational session, and was in charge of all logistics towards the tech team at the conference (my leadership position is the Team Logistics Leader).  It was a great conference, and I am going to share the major highlights of the event.

     The tech team met on campus the day before the conference, on the 24th, to have a face to face meeting.  The major purpose of the face to face meeting was to travel to Folsom to have a tour of the innovation center at the Folsom Intel Campus.  One of the team members and a best friend of mine Daniel had connects with Intel to make the trip possible.  We arrived at Davis, had a short meeting to start things off, got settled in our rooms, then went to lunch.  For the first time in a few years, we were back in the standard dorm rooms on campus.  Daniel and I were roommates, which was awesome by the way.  After lunch, the members of the tech team and the Texas 4-H Technology Team traveled out to Folsom.  We got to the Intel Campus, check in with security, and was taken by Daniel's contact to the innovation center.  The innovation center consisted of two different rooms that housed all kinds of technology from mobile, laptops, meeting rooms, TV, computer gaming, and others.  First the Intel employee showed us all the tech, discussed what Intel is currently working on with different technologies, then let us go to explore and play with everything.  

     There were a few cool things that we got to play with.  The first was a interactive wall made from multiple large flat panel TV screens.  The screens displayed what is shown on a flat computer table that is touch sensitive   It was a little hard to work with since the screen was pressure sensitive  but it was still cool.  I mostly played with google earth with this system.  The second coolest item we got to play with was an 80 inch big screen TV that is touch sensitive   It is about to create over 100 touch points for one hand alone.  It is designed to be used on a business setting and cost a total of $30,000.  The last cool thing to play with was a remote controlled computer screen with a camera.  It is designed for people to participate remotely in meetings, classrooms, or other similar settings.  It was extremely simple to control.  You were about to move it around via a laptop computer and a mouse.  A popular item, but not as cool as the items mentioned above, were the high powered gaming computers.  A few of the team members spent most of their time playing the games on them.  

     After spending a few hours at Intel, we traveled back to UC Davis to do final preparations for the conference.  

     Every night of the conference, around 11:30 to midnight, Daniel and I would leave our room to have a relaxing bike ride of the campus.  Because I drove up to the conference, I had decided to bring my bike.  It was the best and smartest thing I have ever brought to the conference.  Instead of taking 20 + minutes to walk between the different conference activities, I am able to get anywhere in 5 minutes or less.  Since I was bringing a bike, Daniel did as well.  After a long day of running around doing conference duties, those night bike rides were needed.  The campus would be empty, the air would be cool, sprinklers were watering the grass, and the full moon was out every night.  It was perfect.  Daniel and I would ride our bikes for about 30 mins each night to clear our brains and hang out.  Great bromance moments.  After the rides, we would finish preparing for the next day and go to bed. 

     Most of the conference went the usual except for a 100 Year Celebration Dinner of California 4-H and having a surprise guest speaker, which became the worst kept secret in the 4-H program.  Before we get to those, this year I was in charge of the text message reminders that were sent out to the delegates through the conference, presenting a workshop titles "Photography Beyond Auto Settings", take photographs of the different activities, and to make sure the team is doing what they are supposed to be.  The worst issue, in my opinion, of this years conference was the workshop times.  The State Ambassadors (the youth team that runs SLC) decided that 45 minutes would be the ideal time for a workshop, which was based off studies of how long youth pay attention to teachings.  What sounded good I theory, was not so good in person.  For the workshops, they want you to take attendance before you begin.  This can take up to ten mins.  At the end of the workshop, they want to have the attendees fill out an evaluation on how the workshop went.  This could take another 5-10 mins.  With that, you don't have 45 minutes to officially teach.  I personally did not take attendance.  For the tech team, the short workshop hurt us, for teaching items with computers in 45 mins is almost impossible.  I was lucky. My session was a lecture and discussion workshop, and so was able to adjust to the short workshop times.  4-H is all about learn by doing.  This was one of those examples.  In the future, they will not have the workshops that short.  

     The first night of the conference, on Thursday, July 24, was the 100 Years of California 4-H Celebration Dinner.  The dinner was held in the east quad of the campus.  People from outside of the delegation was able to come in to participate in the celebration.  One person I did not expect to see at the dinner was one of my advisers when I was a State Ambassador in the 2005-2006 program year.  We called him Uncle Buck but his name is Jim Frapwell.  He was one amazing mentor that helped me succeed in the 4-H program. First part of the celebration began with different carnival activities.  They had activities from old style arcade shooting game (which I was extremely good at), bull riding, and others.  The second part of the celebration was the dinner.  Dinner was Tri-Tip made Santa Maria style by Jack Crane, another volunteer who originally came from my county of San Bernardino.  The best TriTip I have ever had was his.  Very glad to be able to have his again.  After dinner the games continued and we had a live band playing for the rest of the night.  It was a great celebration that made you to be proud to be in the 4-H program, and able to  celebrate it with people you consider to be your family.  

     Apart of the 100 year celebration was having a surprise guest speaker for the conference.  In January, while at South Lake Tahoe with the team and state ambassadors, we had learned that THE Morgan Freeman will be our surprise guest speaker, and it was be kept a secret.  We had to know as a tech team since we help run the tech for the assemblies.  We kept our mouths quiet, but many of the ambassadors themselves did not.  By the time the conference came around, everyone knew that Morgan Freeman was going to speak at the conference.  We were not allowed to take any videos of the speech, and no one was allowed to take photographs, except for the official conference photographer.  All the members had to leave their phones and camera in their rooms before going into freeborn hall (where the assemblies took place).  You can probably guess that the only person who was approved to take photographs of the presentation was me.  I was extremely excited.  It was so intense, that I had to get a background check before getting the approval to take photographs.  The possibilities of meeting Morgan Freeman was extremely high with this opportunity.  At the conference, the night before the presentation, at the pool party, our advisor Steven Worker came up to me. "Do you want to know the good news or the bad news first".  I knew this was not a good sign.  He decided tortellini me the good news first.  His good news was that we were now able to stream online live the assembly the next day.  Without him saying anymore, that meant that Morgan Freeman was not going to show.  It was a very large disappointment.  It seems he had gotten injured while on a set filming, and that had caused him to cancel on us.  This news was to be kept secret until the assembly.  A few moments after Steven talked away, a group of 4-H youth from my county came up to me to hang out.   One of the conversations came up about Morgan Freeman and him speaking the next day.  They were extremely excited, and trying to get any details out of me.  I felt extremely bad, because I could not tell them the truth, and they just kept veering more pumped up for the speech.  It seems most of the conference knew who was coming to speak, and many came to SLC solely on this news of Morgan Freeman.  The next day, after breakfast, Daniel and I headed to Freeborn Hall to prepare for the assembly.  There was a off feeling about the day.  All the ambassadors were in a disappointed and sad feeling about him not coming, and a fear of the reaction that will come from the delegation.  Some of this feelings passed on to the tech team, myself included.  A few ambassadors were fighting to stay calm while others were at the edge of crying.  There was an elevated runway that extended out into the center of the room from an awards night the day before.  A few ambassadors and Daniel and I chilled on that runway waiting for the delegates to be let in.  The doors opened, and a swarm of delegates came running in.  I had never seen a mad rush for front seats at an SLC Assembly before.  Everyone was extremely excited.  The all sat down, and the delegates had a very high energy/excited energy for Morgan Freeman.  Again, never have I felt this high energy glow from a SLC assembly.  I walked around taking photos and taking to members of how excited they where.  The members I knew was a shocks to see a camera around my neck, and felt extremely jealous that I was able to take photographs of Freeman.  This made me feel extremely bad  I felt as if I was lying to them.  This was not a good situation.  I couldn't handle it anymore, so I went backstage.  The ambassadors that were on the verge of crying before we're sitting along the back wall of back stage crying and feeling extremely bad.  The assembly started late because we were waiting for the replacement speaker to get ready.  As the time past, the crowd began cheering and doing a group slow clap that turned into a large roar.  This made more ambassadors to just lose it, and for the tech team, made us feel even more uncomfortable.  At that moment, it was the worst feeling I have ever felt at a 4-H Conference, and it was about I get even worse.

     With the crowd going into an out roar, the ambassadors had to do something, even though the replacement guest speaker was not there.  They began the assembly with a few lines that pumped up the delegation even more, which was not needed. I came out from back stage to see how the group would react, and to take photographs of the upcoming activities.  Right as the official announcement was said, the extremely high energy of the crowd took a sharp dive towards rock bottom.  Everyone was extremely disappointed.  The ambassadors kept going, and to kill time, decided to have everyone participate in a game.  Their choice of the game that was played made the energy in the room drop even more.  They had everyone participate in a game called walk the line.  Everyone was to get out of their seats, and go to the front or the back of the room.  The ambassador is going to say a statement, and if that statement is true to yourself, you are supposed to walk across the room to the other side.  The statements said are very serious statements.  A few statement examples said were: Cross the line if you have had a love one suffer from cancer; cross the line if you felt like you could not talk to someone about an issue you are having; cross the line if you ever felt alone; cross the line if you know someone who suffered through addiction; cross the line if you have ever been a victim to bullying; eta.   This is a very powerful game, that is designed to give a message that you are not alone in having problems in life.  Many others are going through the same thing you may have experienced.  This is a great exercise, but it was implemented at the wrong time.  During the beginning of the exercise, I was standing on the elevated runway in the middle of the room for photographs.  I have never seen a group of 500 youth be extremely quite, and walk around with emotionless faces.  There was no point to take any photographs, for it would show that the event was not fun, and that no one enjoyed themselves.  I decided to go right backstage to wait for the activity to be over.  About half the ambassador team was in the back just crying, hiding from the youth, laying down on the floor in a fetal position.  This became the worst assembly I had ever experienced at this conference, or any event for that matter.  

     After the activity, the guest speaker replacement was ready.  He worked hard to bump the energy back.  His presentation was good, and by the end of his presentation, the group had a good energy back into them and most of the ambassadors recovered from the bad situation.  Later on in the conference was the dance, by one of the best DJ's SLC has had, which made up for the bad news blow from that morning.  

     For the most part, it was an amazing conference, and I really enjoyed it.  I got to hang out with one of my best friends, plus get to hang out with other amazing friends over the weekend.