At Course 1 the 14-year-old members participate for five days and live together with like-minded young 4Hers from all over the country. The course takes place at Skovly, which is a Training Center and farm placed near Ribe in the southwestern part of Denmark.
Here they learn how to work as a board member in a 4H club.

What’s going on?

The participants learn the basic rules of communication. They work three afternoons with the following subjects of a fictitious 4H club board:

• Give your club a name, and make the constitution of the club board. Elect a chairman, who is responsible of PR and communication etc? Planning for a year
• How to make an arrangement - planning, thinking through the details i.e. materials, people, booking, food, drink and economy.
• How will we tell people about our 4H club and our arrangement - here the participants will meet with a professional i.e. a journalist. Afterwards they have to present their products for the rest of the participants.

Several participants are already board members in their local 4H Club, and they therefore have experience to bring to the others in the group work.

Inspiration from outside

The participants are taught by extern teachers, who are called in for this special assignment. A subject could be "How to teach", another could be focus on leadership. We try to make the young people conscious of various methods of communication and what happens between people in different situations. Some of the participants might already have experience, as helping instructors for their younger 4H-friends at home. A third could be focus on the theory concerning board work.

Presentation

On the last day the participants show their products from group work and evaluate the course by the purpose of giving ideas and helping us - the planners - to further develop the courses.

Leaders and instructors

On each course 4H have two course leaders. The course leaders are 4H members with a lot of experience.