Year-End Report for Youth Activities Committee (National Show portion)

Committee : ADGA Youth Activities Committee (National Show)
(Convention report under separate cover)

Committee Chairs: Mary K. Biddle - (Co-chair Convention Portion)
Paul J. Plummer - (Co-chair National Show Events)

Committee Members : Danielle Barbour, Wilma (Sam) Behrman, Gail Biddle, Pegi Ficken, Bruce Foster, Jason Gray, Pamela Haney, Michael Johnston, Jessica Kaul, Debra Macke, Roxane McCoy, Susan Parker, Laurie Peterson, Cathy Pindell, Amy Plummer, Rebecca Potosky, Krista Senn, Mandi Zieglar

Statement of Goals and Objectives for the Year
To organize and host a successful youth activities weekend at the 2004 National Show in Harrisburg, PA. The weekend should include a showmanship contest, fitting team contest and judging and management contest. In addition a premier youth exhibitor will be identified and breed specific youth exhibitors will be awarded. We hope to increase breed club support of the premier youth exhibitor award in order to be able to give an award for every breed.

Summary of Committee Work:
This year's youth activities were well attended and very successful. In all we had 169 youth participate in the weekend. We had 30 entries in the fitting team contest ( a new record for the national show). In addition with the help of the National Show awards team and Sheila Nixon we were able to have 100% participation of the breed clubs in sponsoring breed specific premier youth exhibitors. We also were able to sponsor a very nice pizza party for all of the youth at the National show (Thanks to the generous support of Willow Run Dairy). Also new this year was a pair of Wahl clippers that were given to all showmanship winners courtesy of Wahl and Caprine Supply. We would like to express our sincere thanks to all class sponsors and awards for their generous support of the ADGA youth.

Financial Statement: All finances for this portion of the committee are included with the National Show Committee.

Problems Encountered: None

Decisions for Board Action: None

Work to be completed by next years committee: We have received feedback from a number of sources. The committee needs to evaluate all of this information and decide if any changes to the program need to be made for next year. In addition plans of the youth activities at next years national show need to be planned.

Long-range: We would like to see participation in the youth events continue to rise each year. This however, does present a new challenge in scheduling. Each year the single day of youth activities are more difficult due to running events back to back. This is a problem not only for the committee but even more so for the youth as they are completely exhausted by the end of the day. This year showmanship started promptly at 8 AM and the fitting team contest did not end until after 9:30 PM. In the interim there was no more then 30 minutes of downtime. Furthermore, if additional breeds are added to the show and alternatives are evaluated to shorten the show new innovative means of conducting the youth events must be evaluated. Indeed in the near future we very well may need to go to two days of youth events in order to host the number of youth participants we have attending. It is important however to remember that this is a great problem to have and we should welcome the need to come up with new ideas.

Respectfully submitted by Paul J. Plummer