OK so my J and DD do 4H right.. Well this year they will both be showing in swine and DD will also show a steer. Any of you who are familiar with 4H you know they are required to do meetings in order to show at fair. Which I agree they should have to do things in the field they are showing so they can grow and learn. Well last year the lady who was in charge of swine she did great!! She is a dear friend of mine and she has been dealing with pigs for years. They have a great breeding facility and she is so honest in her breeding that she follows every state and county health rule that is put on her as a breeder i.e if you come to her place and currently have pigs at your place you must wear plastic booties if you go near her pig area's and other precautions as well. All of this is to keep any type's of illnesses from spreading.. Well at the fair last year, she had some pretty unfair lashings from people in our community due to the fact that she is a County Extension Agent and her son won Grand Champion Barrow. They were claiming she had paid the judge LOL!! Well the judge that did this show she did not know nor did she hire him. It was the other agent who did all of that. But at the fair there were a couple of family's that started claiming that this was rigged. Well she felt so horrible that she didn't even get to enjoy her son winning and she cried for like 2 days over this!! I for one thought it was ridiculous what they were doing to her. My thought on this was well sucks my kid didn't win but I was so proud of the young man who did. This boy really dedicates his time to his animals, he works with them and takes care of them he even takes care of his sister's!!! So SHAME on those crying adults!!! So after all of that she resigned as Swine leader *boo hoo*, well the gal who took over is a nice lady to. I don't know her real well but she seems nice enough to me. OK so moving on to my issue's...
DD also does horses to and the dead line to turn in our horse ID cards is May 1st so I called the Extension office 2 weeks ago to find out if I needed to bring new cards for the horses I had registered last year, well the male agent we will call BW he didn't know the answer to my questions so he said the office clerk would call me the following day. Which I might add here that this woman can't seem to get my family and my BIL/SIL's family separate, meaning if I get any notifications in the mail about 4H it's usually for their kids not mine!!! And vice versa. So I of course never hear from her so I go there today to just turn the forms in because I didn't want any issues about it. So I talked to my friend last night who used to do the pigs and she informs me that there is only 2 meetings left to qualify my kids for showing...WHAT???? I hadn't heard about any!!! Except for one that was an all type animal meeting but I heard that from another parent and it was the night before and we were going to be out of town for DD's soccer that day.. So anyways I get there today and get my horse stuff situated and then I start to inquire about the swine situation. So I'm sent to talk to BW, who I've never really dealt with but I always thought he was a nice guy until I was told otherwise the other day... So I ask him what is the situation with the swine meetings and he says well there is the one next week and then there is PQA (pork quality assurance) and that's it!!! I'm like well then I have a problem because DD is doing a dance competition May 9 and she has rehearsal the same night as the meeting and she can't miss it!! He proceeds to tell me "well you should have brought her to the other meetings then" and I'm going "what other meetings"? I have no clue what he is talking about, and my next question was last year the PQA day counted for both required meetings so why doesn't it this year?? And he says it didn't and I'm like yes it did because that's the only one we had to do... So after much discussion I'm trying to tell him I am not getting the mailings for these meetings and I don't know how this is fair for DD because she can't be in 2 places at once and I have alot of money tied up in both so what am I to do?!?! He then proceeds to tell me that there is no reason why I shouldn't get the mailings because we are signed up and everyone who is signed up should get their mailings. I'm like no I don't because your office clerk can't get it straight she will constantly send the wrong things!! We complained incessantly last year!!! So then he tells me I do have another option I could do Spring show but lo and behold it falls on the same day as the competition!!! AHHHH!!!!!! So he then proceeds to tell me with a snide look on his face that all he can do for me is offer an apology and check to make sure "I have my address right on my forms"!!! WHAT!!!!! Am I some kind of idiot or something!!!! So he then asks me how long have we been members of 4H? And I tell him this is our second year and so he says well then if it's your second year then why weren't you calling inquiring about meetings and such? I'm like because I didn't know I needed to last year everything was screwed up so I don't know what "normal routine for 4H is" so then he says well your club leaders share all of this with you at the meetings because they know.. UM NOPE!! Wrong again, J is Vice President of our club and he's standing there going we haven't heard about ANY of this!!
So we leave with no resolution but with the phone number of the woman who is in charge of swine now. As we were getting into the truck one of my dear friends comes over to visit and I'm crying because I am so mad so she's like what's wrong? So I tell her and she's like well why didn't you go to the one that was on Sunday? It counted for 2 meetings? I'm like WHAT!! I don't know what you are talking about?? I knew nothing about this, well she of course got the mail flyer... She would have mentioned it earlier but she had surgery last week and I had my back procedure so we hadn't talked...So I have spoken with the new swine leader and she informs me that the reason things are different this year meaning these requirements being done so early in the year is because she is having hip replacement surgery next month and wanted to have everything done with... So I am now having to make DD miss dance next Wednesday and her instructor was disappointed, I could tell by the look on her face that this does not make her happy and I completely understand, I mean we are taking these girls to competition and their goal is to win!! Well missing practice right before isn't going to help them any....
So that is my vent, not the end of the world I know, but frustrating none the less...
I never showed pigs at the fair but I did show a steer one year and I had to take him all the way to Milwaukee because I wasn't given the information on the "classes" I had to take in order to show until all the other ones had already taken place. Kinda sucked so I totally know how you feel.
ReplyDeleteAwww Dude, I can soooo relate! I'm a 4-H Leader for my county and sometimes I don't even know what is going on.
ReplyDeleteLast year I tried to start having horse practices before school got out and everyone freaked. OMG-you can't have them if EVERYONE can't attend..blah, blah, blah...so I never could get any scheduled. I had told them earlier in the year that I would be gone the first couple weeks of June, so would not be around to schedule practices then. My step-dad passed away on June 1st, so I didn't leave town, but was very busy helping my mom with everything...and a week before the show, Megan and I were riding at the arena and everyone starts showing up for a horse practice. We were never notified. I asked one of the other leaders why we hadn't been called and he was very snotty and said, Well, you were supposed to be the one organizing these and you left us all hanging. Ummm huh? First, you all KNEW I was supposed to be out of town, so wouldn't be scheduling the June practices and Second...he is my mom and step-dad's neighbor. He knew my SD had passed away and I was helping my mom, cause he saw me drive by his house every morning and evening. Ughhh, I was so mad that they would knowingly exclude my daughter from their little practices. So we continued to practice on our own and my daughter kicked everyone's butt at the show. Don't want my help? Fine! I'll teach my daughter everything I know and she will kick your kid's butts all over the arena. Okay, I know how childish that sounds, but I'm a little on the petty side sometimes.:(
I hope you can get everything worked out. And if you feel the need to exert some childish behavior yourself, I would call that agent every week to ask what is scheduled, dates, times and locations, for every project you are involved in. Just tell him you are trying to stay on top of scheduling so your kids do not miss out on anything important. What's he gonna say? If he continues his snotty behavior, contact the state agency and report him. The Extension offices do not like getting complaints about their agents.;)
Oh BEC, I so would have been ticked if I was you!!! I would have done the exact same thing LOL!! Sometimes we just have to be that way because our kids come first!!!
ReplyDeleteGuess what I found out today?? After all of the fight with them, she doesn't even have to do these meetings!!!! Because she is only showing and not selling her pig UHH!!!! Why couldn't we have just said that upfront!! She is showing a steer also, so she will have to do the meetings for that. When I called the extension office today BW was singing with a whole different attitude!! Remember my friend is the other county agent:) But I talked to the beef leader tonight and he said because I wasn't getting the info for the meetings (it ended up being the same deal with the beef meetings, they have already had a few meetings and I was never notified) he would make sure that DD got the meetings she needed for fair. So now she can do dance next week!! So everything worked out good, I just hate the disorganization there!!!!
Thanks for the advice, I was wondering who I would contact above him cause I wasn't sure...So thanks!!