Answers About Enrollment& Manuals

You do not have to order a project manual to do a project. We will be working with the townships to establish or re-establish a manual library in each township. Also, some manuals are for certain grades and that level may be used for more than one year. It varies from project to project.

We are hoping that the new policy will encourage people to work on recycling manuals at the Township level. Also we will be working on a policy that will help to address financial need in some cases. We thank you for your patience and understanding.

This decision was made by 4-H Staff in conjunction with information presented by Marion County Extension Director Ron Hoyt. Federal guidelines regarding user fees for core Extension educational programs now state (and please forgive the legal jargon)that:

[7 CFR 3015 ...the imposition of user fees for core Extension Educational programs is inconsistent with the statutory purposes of the Smith-Lever Act. Therefore, user fees may not be charged for educational services, especially if the proceeds are to be used to augment the operational cost of the Cooperative Extension Services in substitution of State appropriations for that purpose.]

So to make it plainer, we are having to move away from an enrollment fee at the county level. We agree that manuals are an expensive replacement, but we also saw a lot of waste in the past system. Many manuals can be reused because they do not have worksheets in them. Some projects use the same manual for more than one year. We are willing to help each township establish or re-establish a library of all manuals. Also we will be working on a policy that will help to address financial need in some cases.