Alumni Recognition

STATE CONTACT
Martha J. Welch
Extension Associate for 4-H Youth Development
212 Scovell Hall, U.K.
Lexington, KY 40546
phone: (859) 257-5961
fax: (859) 257-7180
email: mwelch@uky.edu

4-H Alumni

General Description

Alumni are a wonderful resource to 4-H. According to a 1996 survey, Kentucky alumni are interested in becoming involved in today's 4-H Youth Development program. Counties are encouraged to maintain a database of alumni in Martech software. Rolling graduating Seniors from "active" to "alumni" status in Martech is pretty simple; relocating alumni from years ago proves to be more of a challenge.

Impact Statement Key Words

Use the term "4-H Alumnus" or "4-H Alumni" in impact statements.

Identifying 4-H Alumni

Several resources are available to make this process easier. Check out the section on Resources Available.

Resources Available:

1. Printed Resources

Guide: "Outline for Identifying and Involving Alumni in Your County" -- Super simple six-page guide.

Intended Audience: Volunteers on Alumni ID Committee

Description: This is a super simple guide on how to identify 4-H alumni in a community.
Source: LINK TO OUTLINE

Additional Resources:

a) Identification Card -- 4" X 6" post cards printed in green ink. Space left for county to stamp the county address on the face of the card. Contact Martha Welch to request a supply.

b)Prototypes of follow-up letters, news articles, fact sheets -- no need to create your own from scratch.
LINK TO LETTER

c) Prototype with graphics of tri-fold interest survey brochure -- This piece is to be sent to respondents who want to volunteer to indicate how they would like to be involved in today's program. We can provide a camera-ready black/white or color if changes are minimal.
LINK TO BROCHURE

d) Training visuals-transparencies used in training are available for loan. (The transparencies were made using Power Point software.) Colorful visuals go right along with the "Outline for Identifying and Involving Alumni in Your County". There's no need to create your own presentation visuals. To borrow the visuals, contact Martha Welch.

e) Fact Sheet/4-H Alumni News Article
LINK TO FACT SHEET

2. Web Resources:

On-line alumni registration - it's simple and accessible to many people who may not be on your mailing list. Information on persons who register on-line will be sent to the appropriate agents by email.
LINK TO ON-LINE REGISTRATION

Maintaining a 4-H Alumni Database

Once you have identified alumni, there are two different ways to create a database for 4-H alumni. You may include these in the MarTech software or use Access. Read the following information and decide which is best for your county.

About using MarTech software:
For alumni who are NOT currently enrolled in your program, enter each and mark as instructed below:
For category, use "other."
For status, choose "alumni". Do not use "inactive" as their data will go away at the end of the year.
For activity code, use "09500". This number will indicate they were identified as a 4-H alumnus.
By using the procedure above, you will maintain the person's data in the computer system but they will not be counted as currently involved in your program.

For alumni who ARE currently involved in your program, go back into the data and mark in the following way:
For category, choose the one most appropriate.
For status, use "new" or "return" only.
For activity code, use "09500". This number will indicate they were identified as a 4-H alumnus.
By using the procedure above, you will maintain the person's data in the computer system from year to year, they will be counted as currently involved in your program, AND they can be retrieved along with others when a list of alumni is needed.

You will run into a problem on "status" when an alumni serves as a leader one year but doesn't the next year. Before everyone who has NOT been involved is deleted at the end of the year by the system, you must go back in and change status to "alumni" or the data on that particular 4-H alumnus will automatically be deleted.

About using Access software:

Using Access is another option which may or may not be better for your county. A simple Access database would work. Advantages to Access: you wouldn't have to go in every year to indicate status. Once they are entered into the data base, they could remain forever without yearly flagging required. Disadvantages: Those who are active as volunteers would have to be maintained on both MarTech and Access.