Best Practices for 4-H Publicity:

What Families & Volunteers Need to Know

As we begin the 2025–2026 4-H year, it’s important to understand how publicity permissions are handled and how we, as Extension professionals, can responsibly share the stories and successes of you, our 4-H members.

What Is the Publicity Release?

When families enroll in 4-H Online, they are asked to agree (or not agree) to a publicity release.

This release gives permission for the use of a member’s name, image, and likeness by:

• Local Extension Units
• Kansas State University (including the State 4-H Office)
• The Kansas 4-H Foundation

This includes use in photos, videos, social media, websites, press releases, and more.

If a family selects “I Do Not Agree,” their child’s name and image cannot be used. 

Some examples include:

• Kansas State Fair & County Fair entry cards, schedules, or results
• Local or state contests
• Social media posts
• News articles or promotional materials

Additional Consent Questions

To provide more clarity, families are asked to give specific permission for:

• First and last name
• Extension unit
• 4-H club or town name
• Media (photos, video, audio, etc.)
• Print-only media
• Social media
• County fair-related publicity

These responses override the general publicity release and help guide what can or cannot be shared publicly.

Best Practices for Sharing Youth Information for Extension Professionals

Even when full permission is granted, it is best practice to:

• Use first names only in social media posts.
• If no consent is given, refer to youth as:
• “A 4-H member from [Club Name]”
• Or use initials, e.g., “C.C., participant from Cloverville 4-H Club”

These practices help protect youth privacy while still celebrating their achievements.

The complete best practices document. If you have questions about publicity permissions

or how to apply these best practices, please contact your local Extension Office.

4-H Fees

Kansas 4-H has a $15 fee for all 4-H members to participate in 4-H. Adult Volunteers and Cloverbuds do not have a fee. ***Your enrollment fee should be paid at enrollment***. You can pay it either by credit card or check. If you pay by credit card and your credit card does not go through you will then have to send a check to the Kansas 4-H for the amount due.

You cannot pay at your local extension office, you are required to send your payment directly to the State 4-H Office.

Make your check payable to:

Kansas 4-H Youth Development

Please include each of your 4-Hers names on check in the memo line. So that payment will be applied to right family and kids

Mail your check to:

Kansas 4-H Youth Development

1612 Claflin Rd 201 Umberger Hall

Manhattan, KS 66506

NOTE: If you chose to pay by check at enrollment you must pay by check. 

You can not go back and pay by credit card after you mark pay by

check and have finished your child's enrollment.

2025-2026 Kansas

4-H Program Fee Waivers

The 4-H Program Fee is $15 per member. Waivers are intended for those who need financial assistance.

Waivers are sponsored by generous donors to the Kansas 4-H Foundation.

You will need to provide information on why you are requesting a waiver. If you don't have a valid reason or write why, you will not receive a waiver.  

Cloverbuds and Adult Volunteers do not have a program fee.

Kansas 4-H/FFA Dual Enrollment

4-H Youth Development and Agriculture Education/FFA promote teaching youth life skills. Both programs exist to maximize the participants’ knowledge of agriculture and its value to our communities while educating the young people to become productive citizens. Eligible youth may participate in both 4-H and FFA but shall avoid duplication. Therefore, the following principles are required to be used in delivering the 4-H and FFA programs in Kansas as we strive to educate youth.

• When young people are members of both 4-H and FFA, they shall plan and manage separate projects, and/or supervised agriculture experiences (SAE) programs.
• FFA and 4-H members may enroll in the same area of experience in 4-H and FFA, however; participants cannot identify, nominate, manage, keep records on, or exhibit the same plants, animals, etc. in both organizations. Members must designate exhibits as either FFA or 4-H at weigh-in, registration or similar deadline.
• Members may participate in judging contests and related events in FFA and 4-H but cannot represent both organizations at a contest, show or event at the same time.

Pin Applications, Record Books, & Club Seal Applications

Due October 1

MdC District 4-H Pin Application Information & Forms can be found on our "Awards" page.

MdC District 4-H Project Record Information & Forms are found on our "Record book" page.

If you have questions on record books or pins you can watch the 4-H Project Report Form Tutorial Video.

Call your extension office if you have questions.

Celebrate National 4-H Week


Monday, October 6th, Beyond Ready: 
Go Green day. Anything green goes! Beyond Ready shirts, green shirts, hats, socks, and clover face tattoos – get creative
 and have some fun! 
This is a simple, cohesive way for youth, 4-H professionals, volunteers, and alumni to support 4-H across the state of Kansas!

Thursday, October 9th, 4-H for Good Day.

This is a day to recognize all the good our

4-H members and volunteers do

throughout the year! 
Share (via social media, websites, newsletters, newspapers, at school, or other forms of communication) the impact the 4-H program has in your communities and beyond.

The Kansas Youth Virtual Entrepreneurship Challenge



A great starting point for young innovators to explore entrepreneurship, build confidence, gain experience pitching ideas — & win cash prizes!

Participation in KYVEC also serves as excellent preparation for the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (YEC Summit).

Click here to register

Who: Open to elementary, middle, and high school students across Kansas. 

What: A statewide virtual business pitch competition. Students submit a 3–5 minute video pitching their business idea for a chance to win cash prizes.



Where: Online (virtual submission & judging)

Deadline to Submit is October 26, 2025

Record Book Screening

We will be doing Record Book Screening on October 14 at Fontana Christian Church.

All Adult are welcome to help judge the record books. We will be working in Teams

to give feed back to our 4-H members.

We will start at 6:20pm with orientation and then begin with screening. 

A supper will be provided.

Clubs who send 3 or more volunteers can count it on their 2025 Seal Application.

Coming in November

Financial Reviews for 2025-2026 *** Due November 1 ***

4-H Club Financial Review Form

Financial Review Check Sheet

Officer Training

Officer Training is online

Starting November 1. 

Karla will email you the link

District Rabbit Show

~ Marais des Cygnes Showdown ~

Showmanship & All Breed Show

When: Saturday, November 1, 2025

Where: Miami County Fairgrounds, Paola, KS

Judge: Christa Deines

Showmanship Judge: Paige Miller

Check - in: 7am-8:30am

Show Start: 9am

Cost: $4/Rabbit $3/Showmanship

Project Information and Opportunities

Linn County Dog Training Schedules 2025-2026

Linn County - Training Schedule


January 26, 2026 is our first meeting. This will be an informational meeting.


Note: You are required to attend 75% of each of the 4 disciplines to participate in the dog show at the county fair.



Entomology Project

 No Entomology Meeting in October.

I encourage you to participate in the Project Palooza activities in Chanute on October 25th or in Yates Center on November 1st from 9 a.m. to Noon. 

These project fairs will highlight any projects. Take your Entomology exhibits and share with potential 4-Hers about this great project. Or put up a display at a local Library or Tractor Supply for National 4-H week.  

Saturday November 8: Family Day



Have a young person interested in learning about insects? Come learn what the 4-H Entomology project is all about! Join the SE Kansas 4-H Entomology group for a fun filled afternoon on Saturday November 8th from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m at the Allen County Extension Office meeting room.

Games, refreshments and lots of laughs are on the schedule for the day. 4-Hers please bring your insect exhibits from the County and State Fairs to share with everyone.

Questions? Call Vicky at (620)804-9170 or email vicky.wallace55@gmail.com

4-H Geology Field Trip Sat. Oct. 18

Wally Mack, geology leader in Riley County, is offering a 4-H geology field trip in his area.

The trip is limited to 50 people and about 20-25 cars due to locations and the parking.

There is no charge or fees to attend, this is a county trip. This is a great opportunity to start towards gathering your first 15 specimens for the new 4-H year.

If you have any questions please get a hold of Wally Mack at 785-317-0725 or wallyscout@yahoo.com. Wally will provide a field guide to those registered and further instructions.

Registration Link: https://forms.gle/ZauafEribv7gW5cZ9

Shooting Sports Project Requirement Changes

You must attend safety training to participate.

Archery Project requires that you attend 3 of the 6 practices and attend the safety training to compete in Fair Competitions.



Air Rifle and BB Project require that you attend 8 of the 18 practices and attend the safety training to compete in Fair Competitions.



Age Requirements (4-H Age as of January 1)

BB Project - 8-15

Archery Projects - 8-18

Air Riffle Project - 12-18

Shotgun Project - 12-18

Small Bore Project - 12-18 (If offered, depending on

instructor availability)

You can join the Shooting Sports Project Club when enrolling in 4HOnline. It can be an additional club to your primary (Community) Club or as your main club.

Practices will be scheduled throughout the year. 

We are asking that 1 parent from each family attend the practices to help their 4-H Member. Thank You! 


 There will be a Season Kick Off Meeting for Shooting Sports meeting

October 5 at 3pm at the fairgrounds

Shooting Sports Schedule for 2025-2026

Shooting Sports Intro Letter 2025-2026

For questions please contact Shannon Moser at 913-371-2197 or

email her at mdc4hshootingsports@gmail.com

4-H Judging Database 2025-2027

Adults interested in judging county and state 4-H projects, including animal exhibits (livestock, horse, dog, rabbit, etc. shows), static exhibits, communications and 4-H Day events, are invited to register for the Kansas 4-H Judges Database.

Potential judges are not required to be listed on the database in order to judge.

Registering for and being listed on the database allows for more exposure and opportunities to judge. It also ensures that judges working with youth are screened prior to working with youth.

The database is updated annually, and we ask that judges who were previously listed, complete the process annually to ensure that information is kept current.

By completing the online judges registration process, you are agreeing to be screened according to the Kansas 4-H Code of Conduct and policy. Once the screening process is complete, your information will be made available to local extension units. Staff interested in hiring you to judge will contact you directly.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

This 4-H Judge Registration system is open until September 30th, 2025 at 11:59 PM and will re-open again on July 1, 2026.