This is Behind the Clover: Real 4-H Talk with Real 4-H Pros. A look at 4-H from the perspectives of 4-H professionals from Illinois and beyond with your hosts, Henry Craft, Amy Henschen, and Ryan Littlejohn.
Amy Henschen: 00:35Welcome back to Behind the Clover. I'm Amy, and today we're continuing our discussion with Tara Buerster.
Henry Craft: 00:42Alright. So other very, very important question. What is your so you were a part of 4-H. You said You know, you were
Tara Buerster: 00:51Mhmm. Yep.
Henry Craft: 00:52A general projects gal. And so what is your best 4-H story in your time in 4-H?
Tara Buerster: 01:01Oh gosh.
Ryan Littlejohn: 01:02And it doesn't have to be, like, when you were in 4-H. It could be, like, as you're working, like, your work experience. We we just wanna know what your best one is. Like, it could be funny, incriminating. What was the other words Henry used the last time?
Henry Craft: 01:18Basically, Ryan's last thirty minutes of self disclosure and just go along those lines. It could be anything you want, really.
Tara Buerster: 01:26Oh my goodness. I don't know. I guess I could do this two two part. As far as myself, I I don't think I had anything exciting. I was pretty boring.
Tara Buerster: 01:35But yeah. Because I I I wasn't in the livestock because we we just didn't we tried rabbits, and, my dog kept killing them. So that was never gonna happen. And so I do remember being very intimidated because we had a food stand at the fairgrounds that the 4-H kids worked. And I remember being very nervous as a kid having to work that because I didn't know that side as well because I only did general show projects.
Tara Buerster: 02:04And that really kinda stuck with me, even now getting in this position that I always wanna make sure all our kids understand that, hey. Even if you don't have livestock, come over here, join us, you know, help us with fairground cleanup. You're a part of this too. We don't have the food stand in in my home county anymore. But and I see a big difference now.
Tara Buerster: 02:26There's a lot of them over there more, and they feel very included even if they don't have projects in that area. My best story, and this is gonna be about my daughter actually. So my youngest has a genetic disorder. She has a DeGeorge syndrome, and she was in 4-H. She's 18 now, but I remember and and she has a very manageable case, I guess, is the way to put that.
Tara Buerster: 02:53Not everyone realizes she has has that genetic disorder. But I remember the first time she came to state fair with her I think it was her first aid kit. And I remember standing there as a mom. I was there as mom. I was not there as county director that day.
Tara Buerster: 03:09And I was watching her, and she was very nervous, and she would only answer yes, no. You know, very short answers. And I thought, that's okay. We're learning. And and she was terrified.
Tara Buerster: 03:19But then she went back a couple more times. And the second time and to me, it's never about the ribbons and the trophies and and all of that. It's what they learn. And the second time, I was so proud of her because she was so engaged with that judge and talking about her project and talking about different things she was doing and just talking her leg off. And I just stood there like, this is what 4-H is all about.
Tara Buerster: 03:49I mean, she is so much more comfortable now speaking to people. And, she ended up getting I'm trying to think what the awards are, Amy. She got a backpack that inspiration. Inspire award. Yep.
Tara Buerster: 04:02Love it. That's what she got that year, which, honestly, I I was like, that's great. But I was just I was so proud. And my husband couldn't come that year because I think he was there the first year because it was on a weekend. That must have Friday.
Tara Buerster: 04:14And and we own a business, and and so it's hard for him to leave during the week. But I remember texting him and sending him pictures and just saying, I don't even know who this kid is as she's talking to this judge. I am just so excited. And she was just on cloud nine the rest of the day as we walked around. And her two years ago, I think she went again with a different project and same thing.
Tara Buerster: 04:37She was very comfortable. And it was a long day. You know how those days get, and she had a later judging appointment. But she was so excited, and she did such a great job. And so that's probably some of my best 4-H memories was just watching that and seeing the change in her and what 4-H has done for her.
Amy Henschen: 04:53I love that so much. Because it's like, you see you see that with you know, when you're a 4-H staff person, you see
Tara Buerster: 04:59that with kids as they just get build those skills, build
Amy Henschen: 05:02that comfort level. And just seeing an eight year old in an in an interview versus a 10 year old, it's just, like, amazing to watch that. And I know that was my experience too, like, little eight year old, like, too kicking butt and taking names at the state fair. Like, sounds like you did too. Woo hoo.
Amy Henschen: 05:18Yeah. That's amazing. I love that when we get to see that in our our kids and watch them grow like that. It's it because a lot of us consider them our 4-Her as our kids, but our kids are actually in 4-H too. It's a great when we get to see that piece.
Tara Buerster: 05:31Oh, yeah. It is.
Amy Henschen: 05:33Tara, you so were you like a how long were you in 4-H? Were you a ten year member or, like, what was your
Tara Buerster: 05:39Oh, you know, I I'm honestly just terrible to say. I assume I was. I really can't remember. That's terrible. I remember always doing it.
Tara Buerster: 05:49I remember going to state fair a lot. We were in a completely different building, and it was a big building.
Amy Henschen: 05:56A creepy building that has been condemned now.
Tara Buerster: 05:58Yeah. Maybe it's gone because I can't get there.
Amy Henschen: 06:01No it's still there. There's fences, it's real creepy.
Tara Buerster: 06:04I need to pay more attention next time I'm up there because I I know it's I keep telling the girls, I'm like, this is not where I judged. And I I remember it being very different. And it was a big deal because my grandparents went, my parents went, and we've kinda continued that tradition, you know, with our girls. When we would go, my my parents, their grandparents would go. We make a whole day of it.
Tara Buerster: 06:24But I I don't know if I was a completion member or not because I honestly can't remember, but I'm pretty sure I probably was because that's typically me. I finish everything, or my mother would make me, if I didn't want to. But I remember I I loved 4-H, and my 4-H leader has had the opportunity. She's kinda retired as a official leader, but she's done dog obedience and other things in our county. And so my girls have got to experience her.
Tara Buerster: 06:54And, I mean, she just loves the kids so much and wants them to learn. And so it's I've kind of enjoyed watching her as the county director, you know, work work with the kids. And and I remember telling JC, that was my 4-H leader. That's Joe. Because she was awesome.
Tara Buerster: 07:12But I just I have a lot of good memories of it. And our club was I was in the Bone Gap Cardinals. That club still exists, but that was the club I was in. And I just I had a lot of great memories of it. And it really helped me with my public speaking skills and getting comfortable with that Because Joe was a stickler for that, and, you know, making sure we did everything.
Tara Buerster: 07:36And, it was just a really good experience for me.
Amy Henschen: 07:40That's awesome. And like, so some people who come into extension don't have that 4-H background. Sounds like you did. So, like, we're curious. What what do you do as accounting director, and how does 4-H fit into your day to day job?
Tara Buerster: 07:55Okay. So how I how I would answer that. And when I came into this position, I didn't have a a youth development educator. Keep in mind, was COVID. Also did not have an educator.
Tara Buerster: 08:07I didn't have any educators actually in this unit. And so I came in thinking, know everything about 4-H because I was a 4-H member, and I quickly realized, Tara, you do not know everything about 4-H, and you just need to be quiet and listen for a while. And, honestly, while it was stressful not having an educator, that was good for me because I attended every meeting I could because I was trying to wear that hat and and keep things rolling and learn, and that helped me learn a lot. And so as we've had new county director start, I've told them, right now you have time to be in all those meetings because you're you haven't received a lot of state responsibilities and other things that come with being a county director. So be in those meetings because that's the biggest program you're gonna have in the most I don't wanna say intense in a bad way, but there's just a lot going on there.
Tara Buerster: 09:04So you need to have that background and understand what's going on. As far as my role now that I have an educator, you know, she's she's the programmatic leader. So, you know, there may be times that Ryan, I'll pick on Ryan, may come to me with a question and I'm like, well, okay, this is how I would handle that. But that's really a programmatic lead question. So I want you to go to Sam, you know, and and see what she thinks about that.
Tara Buerster: 09:28But this this is kinda what I'm thinking. You know, money, again, I'm looking right at Ryan because he's always wanting to buy something. You know, that's that's one thing I always tell them, just come to me if you have a request, which I don't make them ask me every time they need to buy something. But if they're, you know, Logan's getting ready to do a drone program. I'm like, yeah, check with me before you purchase those because that that's probably gonna be a big purchase.
Tara Buerster: 09:51So let's talk about that and how much that is. But just kind of having a I don't wanna say hands off, but I I feel like I'm kinda hovering from above, kind of watching everything. And and I wanna make sure everything's in on time reporting. You guys probably noticed at the State 4-H office. I I always tell my staff, we're not turning stuff in on time.
Tara Buerster: 10:13It's going to go in early. So we're I'm setting an early deadline for you, and then we're gonna get that in. Because if it's even the day before I'm stroking out, it it really stresses me out, if we're getting in things late. So making sure things like that are done, making sure they're on target for getting ready for fairs or Ryan's heard me say this a lot, pushing the pause button on them if I see them overfilling their plate. You know, I it's so hard, and we're seeing this in our unit right now.
Tara Buerster: 10:44You know, when I came in, I was like, we gotta get back in the schools, you know, post COVID, and we need to make sure everybody knows we're here. But now as of late in this news to everybody that's gonna be listening to this, it's in my unit. I'm kinda sitting back thinking, oh, maybe we need to rein it in a little because we are getting so many requests. I'm worried about staff overdoing it, getting stressed out, having too much going on and and trying to manage everything and do all the pieces of their job because there's so much that goes into it. And if it's easy to say yes to everything and it's it's hard to say, you know what?
Tara Buerster: 11:26We don't have time for that right now. Can we maybe put that on the agenda for next year? So then we're gonna have to figure out what do we take off the plate so we can put that on the plate. So maybe sometimes protecting them from themselves because they all have a servant heart and they really wanna help. And sometimes I feel bad saying, okay, we're pushing the pause button here.
Tara Buerster: 11:46We can't do all this. We've gotta figure out what we can manage and what we can't. I don't know if that's what you're looking for, but I feel like that's a lot of my role.
Henry Craft: 11:56So, Tara, I have a follow-up question. And this has been on my mind for some time, so I'm intrigued from your perspective. And I'm I'm not gonna make this loaded. So so answer as you will. But you made a mention of 4-H being the most intense and taking the most time, and I do not disagree with you from an outsider's perspective.
Henry Craft: 12:18But I would love for you to talk a little bit about a little bit more about about that dynamic versus your other programs. Like, you've got your master naturalist, your master gardeners, your you know, I don't know if you have a CED team or, you know, I don't know exactly what your counties are made up of. But how does 4-H stack up as far as time investment on the part of a county director? Because I am really intrigued by that.
Tara Buerster: 12:44Okay. So in our unit and, again, when I came, 4-H was the only thing in addition to SNAP Ed. We do have SNAP Ed that we're doing, but that was all we had at that time when I came. We now have a local food small farm educator. She joined us.
Tara Buerster: 13:05It'll be a year this May that she's joined us. We started Master Gardener during COVID. So we have that group that we're handling, and then we're doing some programming. We're doing a lot of poverty simulations. Actually, I'm facilitating those.
Tara Buerster: 13:22That's been a huge need in our area. So I went and got trained for that, and we've been doing quite a bit of those. But how does 4-H how is that different? Well, I've number one, I've got more staff in 4-H, okay, in my unit. So in 4-H, I've got six staff members an educator, five EPCs.
Tara Buerster: 13:44So in ag, I have one educator. Master gardener, when we started that, I was overseeing that along with an office support person. Because, again, there was a request for that, and we didn't really have the staff to do it, but we thought we can do this. And and so we did. I think one difference is we have several club members, okay, that we're dealing with on a regular basis.
Tara Buerster: 14:12We're also doing workshops in our communities that are for club members or non club members, special groups, special interest groups, BART groups that we're trying to create. And lately, what I'm seeing is a ton of school requests, which is awesome, but also starting to get a little overwhelming for us. And then the 4-H state office is really good at getting information out to us. And I mean that in a positive light, but there's a lot of stuff that's coming. And so as a county director, now that I'm not trying to be the educator, you know, kinda wear that hat part time, I try to watch some of it, but I often have to remind my staff, I'm not in all your meetings all the time.
Tara Buerster: 14:56So sometimes I may not know what you're talking about. Or I'm getting so many emails, I don't have time to read all of them. A lot of times I file them away or if it looks like something, I really need to pay attention to that. I will read it. But and Ryan's probably been one that, you know, started on something with me and I'm like, I don't know what you're talking about.
Tara Buerster: 15:15So let's start at step one. I probably did get an email, but I've not had time to look at it. And they're they're really good to keep that in mind most of the time that I have a lot going on. And and it's been a transition for our unit because our unit was so used to just mainly being 4-H and SnapEd. And I, you know, kind of retraining every brain everyone that the office support are here to support extension, just 4-H, but, you know, they've got SNAP Ed help to do.
Tara Buerster: 15:45And now we have ag programming going on, so they've gotta provide assistance for that. And then you just never know what's gonna come in the door or the phone call they may get that they've got to deal with. And so as accounting director, you feel like you gotta know a lot about all these or a little bit about a lot of different things and initiatives going on. But I think why 4-H takes up more time, a lot of it's just the staff. And there's a huge group we're serving constantly with that group.
Tara Buerster: 16:15Whereas with ag programming, you know, Katie Katie will do a program, and then we move on to the next program. We don't have a group of 800 kids that are constantly with us that Ryan and the other EPCs are managing, if that makes sense. There's a lot of volunteers with that program.
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:33Yeah. I mean, I think what she hit on there, a lot of the times we have a problem, right, as 4-H staff locally, who does it get kicked up to? The county director. So her email box is full of, you know, things that we need help with, or there's things from the state office or there's things from office support or from Snap. And I love it.
Ryan Littlejohn: 16:55Sometimes I'll get an email back, and it's like, yes. I saw this because I'm a gold. I'm a gold. If you don't if you haven't done real colors, we need to we need to do an episode on our colors and just kind of that dynamic because I am a very high gold. She was just talking about, like, pushing the pause button.
Ryan Littlejohn: 17:12I've created a list of the things that I have to do from now until the end of fair. And I told my office support staff today, I am not adding anything else to this list because I have to push the pause button. And that's that's something that I've learned throughout this, and it might have been a nudge from Tara. Like, hey. You need to back off.
Ryan Littlejohn: 17:34But she's right. We have so many schools. But the amount of kids that we cover, even in Wayne County I've got nine different school districts in Wayne County. That's the most out of all of them. And we can't even get to every single school because we have one county director for five counties and one educator for five counties.
Ryan Littlejohn: 17:55And that's that's something that's hard on all of us. So just that's kinda how I would say, you know, the time management aspect of it. I mean, it takes up a lot of my job, but it's hard, very hard.
Tara Buerster: 18:07And, Ryan, you said something there that from a county director's perspective and because I used to work in HR, I'm used to dealing with problems and fixing them. So I don't have a problem with that part of my job. And the one thing that my staff are really good at is I don't like surprises. Maybe it's Henry you said you don't I don't like them either. And so they're very good to keep me in the loop if I'm about to walk into a meeting or walk onto a fairgrounds, whether it's just pulling me to the side and saying, hey, heads up, you know, this fair board member's a little concerned about x y z.
Tara Buerster: 18:44I think they're gonna come and talk to you. I appreciate that. And I would say most of the county directors, they want to know that because when you're caught off guard and you may have just left a meeting about broadband, you know, with a totally different program area and then you walk on the fairgrounds and you get hit with something, if I find out my staff knew about it and didn't bother to give me a heads up, I'm usually like, hey, guys. Next time I need a heads up on that. So I'm not walking in cold to that situation or getting a cold call of of someone upset.
Tara Buerster: 19:17So that's something I think is really important is to keep us in the loop of what's going on. And I think what Ryan started to say was, there's times he sent me emails and I I can tell I'm busy, but I'm like, I can't deal with this right now. It's not urgent. No one's dying, but I need to make sure Ryan knows. It's on my radar.
Tara Buerster: 19:35I realize this is a problem and I'll just send him an email. I saw it. I flagged this. I'm gonna get to it. But please remind me if things get worse and I need to, like, step in here, you know, if this escalates into something else.
Tara Buerster: 19:49Because sometimes they're just giving me a FYI, I'm dealing with this right now. I don't need you, but I want you to know what's going on. And I really appreciate that.
Henry Craft: 19:58Man, I appreciate the communication level at which you guys are on. Because that's that's awesome. Because I I think that we it's just really valuable from a leadership perspective. It's just like, hey. You know what?
Henry Craft: 20:15In full full transparency, I think that's a perfect answer is, hey. I got you. It's not gonna be the second. I got something else going on. I really value that, especially as a gold because it's like, I just wanna make sure that I don't need to do a follow-up.
Henry Craft: 20:30Right? And so the fact that you're communicating on that level is just really, really awesome. Kudos to you guys down in the Southern half. You're it sounds like you're doing great on that. I love it.
Tara Buerster: 20:42Well, we're not perfect, but we we have pretty good teamwork. And I and I would just say as a county director, there's a lot of stuff that comes at us, so don't be afraid to remind us, you know, if there's something we need to address. Because there are some days, there are so many emails and teams messages and texts and, you know, you're getting Facebook Messenger messages that you can't respond to everything or you forget, you know, because you may be in meetings. And so I I think all county directors would say, don't be afraid to remind us if there's something hanging out there that because we we're not ignoring you on purpose. It's just we've got a lot going on too.
Ryan Littlejohn: 21:21So, Tara, my question for you is what are some examples of fruit that you have seen from a seed that you have planted or maybe it's been planted in your unit and you kinda watched it grow in your time as county director?
Amy Henschen: 21:37I mean, you've started, like, three whole new program areas. It sounds like in your unit. That's pretty impressive.
Tara Buerster: 21:47Yeah. We we have increased our programming, our marketing quite a bit, and we don't have a marketing person. We've created a marketing team, and I'm very, very proud of of them and all the work they're doing. I mean, we we've increased our outreach, getting people in our communities to understand extension has a whole lot more to offer. 4-H is great and strong, and we have a strong program here, but we have all these other programs.
Tara Buerster: 22:16I would say I'm big on teamwork, and I want everyone to feel like they have a place on the team and break down the silos. And I'm seeing more discussions happening between staff of, hey, you know, we've got this program and you've got this program. Could we work this together and and combine 4-H and SNAP, into a food challenge or or different program that we could offer. Or since Katie's come on from an ag perspective, she's all the time thinking about how she can incorporate 4-H and the 4-H members into projects and things she's doing. And so just sitting back and watching all that and watching the staff work together really well and understanding that we don't have our own silos and and SNAP's not separate and 4-H is separate and ag is separate that we all work together and a lot of our things crossover with one another.
Tara Buerster: 23:18That's probably something I've really enjoyed a lot. When we do monthly unit meetings, I always do ask them to do a report out from each program area. And sometimes it takes a lot of time, but I think it's awesome for them to hear what everybody's working on and what they have going on. And then that's also a time for them to say, hey. You mentioned this in our staff meeting.
Tara Buerster: 23:43Do you think we could partner and and do something like this together? And just sitting back and watching them and watching the little wheels turning as as they're working together, I really, really enjoy that.
Henry Craft: 23:54Thank you so much for that. I think that's perfect. Moving on to the next question in the lineup, and this is it's probably the heaviest headiest one as well. But what is the legacy that you want extension to remember Tara Beerster for?
Tara Buerster: 24:15Oh, I don't mind getting in front of a group and talking and I don't have a fear of that, but I'm not one that needs to be, hey. I'm the county director. I'm the leader of this group. Often when I'm at fair, I'm kind of I'm there. I'm talking to people.
Tara Buerster: 24:31I'm in the background. I don't expect Ryan to say, and our county director, Tara Beerster, is here today Because that's not about me. That's about the kids, what they're doing. But as far as legacy, I would probably want either myself to be remembered or just the time I was here that growth and improving our communities was very important to me, that I supported my staff, that we worked really hard to improve our communities as much as we could, you know, based on on the staff that we had. I I would wanna be remembered as somebody who's present.
Tara Buerster: 25:10I like to be present. It's hard to be present in five counties all the time, but I try to be where I can. So I would I would say that that would be my legacy just that that we really grew the program and brought more. I always tell people, we are your representatives of the university in your community. We we are bringing the university research to you.
Tara Buerster: 25:32And so if you have a need, even if I don't have an educator in that area, let's talk about your need and see if there's something I can get here for you to help improve our communities. When we moved to this new office in Edwards County, we're on the square and one of my goals, and I was told no initially, but I kept pushing. I wanted a huge block eye on one of the windows because I wanted everyone as they drove through the square and through Albion to see the University of Illinois is here, and we're here to serve you. And that was really important to me. And you can see it from the other side of the square if you're driving through town, and we get a lot of comments and compliments about it.
Tara Buerster: 26:13It's also helped people realize that the university how the university is tied to 4-H in our programming. Lot of them don't realize that, that that we're part of the university, but just doing that has really helped them understand, hey, the university's here. They care about us. There's information from them that we can use to better our communities here.
Amy Henschen: 26:37I love that you just gave us basically an elevator pitch for Illinois Extension because that ties into our next question. So, like, if if it sounds like you guys have a great, response to 4-H, knowledge of 4-H in a lot of your counties. But say there's someone who hasn't seen the clover, doesn't know what it means, doesn't know what 4-H is all about. Like, how do you pitch 4-H to that person? Whether it be a part potential partner, family, whoever you want.
Amy Henschen: 27:04Like, what's your pitch, your elevator pitch for 4-H?
Tara Buerster: 27:07Often when I'm talking to them about 4-H, I'm I'm talking about the hands on activities in the community service that we're doing with our our kids, our members. I talk about my girls a lot. The experience it gave them and helped them overcome fears they had. I talk about the positive environment that we have that, you know, we are welcoming to everyone. We have projects.
Tara Buerster: 27:35We have so many projects. We will find something that they are interested in. I guarantee you, we will find something that they are interested in. And I love not only watching the livestock shows, but the general shows and watching those kids with our judges who are are experts in that content area and seeing those connections being made. And then sometimes down the road, I guess, it's a seed you're watching being planted, you see them decide to go to school for that, maybe electrician.
Tara Buerster: 28:04They're connecting with that judge from the general show. That ends up being their mentor. Just watching all that and watching them become good citizens of our communities and making this a better place. I think that's what 4-H is all about.
Amy Henschen: 28:21Well, I'm sold, Tara. I'm in.
Tara Buerster: 28:24We'll sign you up.
Amy Henschen: 28:25I know, like, let me get yeah. You gotta get everyone. I'm in. Let's go. How do I how do I sign up for this?
Amy Henschen: 28:30That's awesome. I mean, I think I love that you bring in individuals. Like, talking about real people and real real stories of 4-H and your kids in the program and your experience in the program, I think that just makes it even more impactful for the people you're talking to. Like, I'm not just talking about this as a staff member. I've seen how this impacts actual individual use, and that can really make a big impression, I think, on people.
Ryan Littlejohn: 28:52I Amy, I like how you said the impact. Right? Tara sees the impact, but she also gets I think as a candidate director, you get to make an impact as well. Unlike you come from an HR background, like you said, and part of your job is hiring staff, and you kinda have the recruitment aspect of it. So what would be, like, a piece of advice that you're that you would give to someone starting out in a 4-H role or maybe looking to apply for a different role as a county director?
Ryan Littlejohn: 29:23Like, what's your selling point on our job?
Tara Buerster: 29:27First of all, being a former HR director, I truly believe when we're interviewing people, they're interviewing us as well. I always maybe not in the initial interview, it may be in a a follow-up call, but I I always wanna make sure they understand the job they're getting ready to walk into because I never wanna hire someone. And they have a totally different expectation of what they've left a job and they're coming to us. I I want them to understand what all this job is about. As far as advice, giving someone starting out in a 4-H role, whether it be an educator or an EPC, or a specialist, I would say, the first thing is patience.
Tara Buerster: 30:10There is a lot to learn. I think I usually we have our own our own onboarding that we do in our unit. And I think usually on day one, I say, we're gonna throw a lot at you and it's okay. I we're gonna piecemeal this to you, at least the parts I'm going to do. And you're not everything I tell you today.
Tara Buerster: 30:31And it's okay because I'm giving you this chart that has everything we're gonna talk about. And we're gonna circle back on some of these things, but some of this I'm mentioning today because I I need to and I always tell them, when they tell you it's a three year learning curve, that is the truth. I didn't believe it. When I came here, I thought one year, I'll I'll completely understand what's going on here. I'm now completing my fourth, and I feel, like I know enough to be pretty dangerous now in my role.
Tara Buerster: 31:01I think that's true in in all of our positions here in extension. So I would also tell them, find someone in your role and create a support group. So we did that as county directors. I I have a couple support groups, couple different groups of county directors, and we're a support group for one another. I've done that with my educators, you know, gotten some of them together.
Tara Buerster: 31:29I've done that with some of my EPCs as well. And I also caution them because this was hard for me at first. We're a big state. Our communities are different. Just because one unit does things one way doesn't mean another unit or even counties within that unit may do things a little differently.
Tara Buerster: 31:50So don't panic if you see that, well, his fare is set up a lot differently than mine. What am I doing wrong? Most likely nothing. That's just how we how we run it in your county. Or maybe pause a little when you when you hear things at meetings or you hear people talking and just digest it.
Tara Buerster: 32:10If you have questions about it, come back and ask your county director because there may be a reason they're doing it that way in that unit, and we're doing it the way we are here. I think that's huge because I struggled that with that when I got here, and I'd be in state meetings. And I'm like, okay. This is how this unit's doing it. And this one, why are we not all doing it the same?
Tara Buerster: 32:31There are some things we won't be, and it's okay. We we base a lot of that on our communities and their needs and what they need from us and the staff that we have available to us. I think it's a great place to work. There's, a lot of creative freedom in it, in in the roles, and you get to see so much growth and improvement in our youth, which I think is exciting. So I think it's absolutely a great place to work, and we have so much support here, whether it be from campus, state office, or just your local well, in our region and and at the unit level.
Tara Buerster: 33:05We have so much support here, and and we have great volunteers. We have some of the best, I will say, in our five county, unit, but we've just got a great system. So I think a lot of it though is just being patient and knowing, at least in my unit, Tara is probably gonna push the pause button on you at some point in your first few years, especially when she figures out, oh, they're taking on way too much. I need to pause them a little bit before they overdo it. So
Ryan Littlejohn: 33:34I I still remember my first day and we we sit down in the Richland office. So that's where I started. It was in Richland County. And she said, I I mean, I was gung ho about this. I'm gonna I'm gonna do this job.
Ryan Littlejohn: 33:48I'm gonna take on we're gonna make this the best summer ever. Right? Because I started right two months before fair. Oh my gosh. Was it a nightmare?
Ryan Littlejohn: 33:55But it was great. It was great. And she I asked what I was what I was supposed to do. What am I to do? And she said, you're gonna read the 4-H management handbook.
Ryan Littlejohn: 34:06That was my very first task. And you know what? I took that literally. And that's when I like, I love policy. I think we've talked about this before.
Ryan Littlejohn: 34:13Like, I read that book, and that's what I did. You get that grounding in it. And I think you learn so much, but you have to be patient that comes along with it. I I will always remember I had to read a book on my first day of work. That was part of the onboarding process.
Ryan Littlejohn: 34:31But it's done me it's done me a lot of good, I can say, down the line. I I know a lot now. It prevented a lot of problems because I that was that one piece of advice. I mean, we need that book. If that book ever goes away, I don't know what's gonna happen to us or me.
Ryan Littlejohn: 34:46Sorry. Me. So
Tara Buerster: 34:49That is true. When anybody new starts in 4-H, I usually bring them a copy in a binder that I've already printed for them, and I say, this is your 4-H bible. This needs to be at your desk. Because if they come to me with questions, again, I'm not in all the meetings, I usually say, is this in 4-H manual? Let's get it out.
Tara Buerster: 35:09And if no one knows, our next message is usually to Ryan. Ryan, what page is this da da da da da on in the manual so that we can find it and figure out what we
Amy Henschen: 35:19can do here? Ryan, you're in trouble because now when I do control f and can't find something, I'm gonna you're gonna be my next call. Like, I'm pretty sure this is the handbook, but I can't find it, Ryan. Where? Where is it?
Henry Craft: 35:32Press control, Ryan. Funny. Listen. There is so many more questions that I have, and I wish I could just spend I wish we could spend, like, three hours having this conversation, but nobody's got time for that. Let's be honest.
Henry Craft: 35:49Because I really do have so many questions and things that I'm just curious where you're at with it. But I I appreciate you spending the time out of your busy schedule to come and and chat with us. I I can't tell you how appreciative I am, And I know Ryan and Amy are the same. So
Amy Henschen: 36:13Thank you for joining us, and thank you for all you do for Extension and for 4-H. We really again, we appreciate our county directors when they look out for our their 4-H staff and and have the and having that 4-H background sometimes helps with that. But we we appreciate that having you having our back and having our staff back and let and giving them permission. The the reason to pause because they don't always know to do that themselves. So sometimes it takes that external person to be like, it's okay to stop and take a breath and evaluate what we can let go and what we can't.
Amy Henschen: 36:46So we need we need more county directors like you in our lives, and we're we're thankful for for you taking on that role and joining us and sharing a little bit today.
Tara Buerster: 36:55Thank you.
Henry Craft: 36:56Alright, well, thank you so much for being here with us today, on Behind the Clover: Real Talk with 4-H Pros, where we got to speak with the awesome Tara Buerster all about county directors. I know she's shaking her head and wincing in the pain of that. But we really do appreciate her time, and we hope that you got something illuminating out of this conversation and that you will join us next time on another episode of Behind the Clover: Real Talk with 4-H Pros.