MVLA Annual Leadership Conference and Fall Forums

Come to the Mississippi 4-H Volunteer Leaders’ Annual Conference

If you haven’t been to the MVLA Annual Leadership Conference, you don’t know what you’re missing! If you have been, please come again and bring more with you!

The MVLA’s Annual Leadership Conference is a fun-filled day and a half of education, recognition, fellowship, and all things 4-H as 4-H Volunteer Leaders and Extension personnel from across the state come together at Mississippi State University.

This year’s MVLA Leadership Conference will be held February 21-22, 2025 in the Bost Extension Conference Center. This year’s theme is 4-H Volunteers – Moving Mountains for Youth (because that’s what we do!). The Leadership Conference will begin with registration at 4:00 p.m. Friday, and conclude Saturday by 4:00 p.m. with our Grand Prize Drawing!

Registration kicks off at 4:00 pm on Friday, February 21 followed by a reception in the Bost Conference Center lobby. The Annual MVLA Recognition Banquet begins at 6:00 pm where a delicious meal is served and the MVLA choir and a motivational speaker entertains the audience. After the speaker, twelve 4-H Volunteers are recognized with the Outstanding 4-H Volunteer Awards and Extension personnel who go the extra mile to support Volunteers are recognized with the Kenneth Cook Award. Nomination forms are available on the MVLA website.

The MVLA Recognition Banquet concludes with an exciting auction which serves as the primary fund-raiser for MVLA. Volunteers and Extension personnel are encouraged to bring auction items and then fight hard to outbid all others to get that perfect item!

To close the night out, there will be Funshops where participants can learn a new skill as they craft an item to take home. There’s also a Coffee Shop so participants can sip, laugh, share 4-H stories and play an exciting game of Bingo!.

And there’s always some surprises!

Saturday begins with a quick business meeting and then the educational fun begins with the morning workshops. Then there’s lunch and another business meeting. Officer elections and other matters of importance take place during the business meetings. This year, the Vice-President, Parliamentarian, and Treasurer positions are open and members are encouraged to campaign and run for these offices. Nomination forms are available on the MVLA website.

There’s also door prize give-aways that happen throughout the Conference and a silent auction. Participants are encouraged to bring small door prizes and silent auction items. There’s more fun as there’s always a rush to get that high bid before the silent auction closes and see whose name is drawn next for the door prizes. There may even be a game of Heads or Tails thrown in!

After lunch, the afternoon workshops take place and this year’s line-up promises to be some of the best ever. The MVLA Leadership Conference concludes with a quick recap and large door prize drawing.

This year, MVLA is doing a community service project to support Mississippi Project Package, a volunteer organization that collects requested items and sends them as care packages to our troops overseas. Conference participants are asked to bring items from the list given in the community service article in this newsletter.

The MVLA Leadership Conference is an excellent opportunity for 4-H Volunteers and Extension personnel to learn more about 4-H and get hands-on training in a variety of areas. It’s especially helpful to first-timers and new agents as they navigate the many opportunities 4-H has to offer.  But whether it’s your first year or your 40th, there’s something for everyone. We invite everyone to join us and we hope you will encourage others to come, as well.

Fees, deadlines, and additional information are available on the MVLA Facebook page and on the MVLA registration portal on the MSU Extension website.

Please note the MVLA Annual Leadership Conference is designed for Adult Learning and there are no childcare accommodations.

A block of rooms has been reserved at the LaQuinta Inn in Starkville, MS at the reduced rate of $134/night (plus taxes) and must be reserved by February 6, 2025. Call 662-270-4100 to reserve a room and ask for the MVLA rate.

For questions, contact the MSU State 4-H office or Connie Darden, MVLA President at 601-403-2280 or [email protected]. If you need additional information about MVLA, photos and contact information for the current MVLA Officers are available on the MVLA Homepage on the MSU Extension webpage. They will be glad to answer your questions or direct you to someone who can.

Attendees must register through their local Extension office.

We hope to see you there!