Twelve hundred and thirty-six volunteers, extension agents and specialists from across Kentucky attended the largest volunteer forum in the nation, the Kentucky Volunteer Forum, in February 2024. This forum, located in the heart of Lexington, KY at the Central Bank Convention Center, featured educational workshops, recognition events and networking opportunities. Volunteers received valuable information, ideas, and resources to strengthen their local 4-H and extension programs. Participants attended from all 120 Kentucky counties and 16 states.

Past participant surveys resoundingly reported that the number one reason for attending the Kentucky Volunteer Forum was for the workshops. For the past ten years, UK Extension 4-H Youth Development Agent, Janet Turley, has co-chaired the workshop committee. Much time and energy were spent to identify, recruit, and secure meaningful, educational, and applicable workshops for volunteers to gain new ideas to apply in their home programming. In 2024, forum participants were able to choose eleven workshops from a line-up of 224 workshops.

Via a Qualtrics survey with over 2000 responses, 93.8% of respondents rated the value of their workshops at a 3 or above on a scale of 1-5 with 5 being the highest score. Many commented that they learned a lot and were excited about taking new ideas and resources back to their county programming. One volunteer from Taylor County in south central Kentucky commented on the Club Management Track, “Excellent presentation with resources for teachers/leaders and students”. Another volunteer from Letcher County in eastern Kentucky attended the Camp Track and stated, “Very helpful class to help prepare me for my upcoming 1st time as a camp volunteer!” Over 1200 comments were collected via the Qualtrics survey, all indicating that valuable information was learned.

The Kentucky Volunteer Forum would not have been successful without the 263 extension specialists, agents, and volunteers who taught the 224 workshop sessions. 100% of workshop presenters who answered a follow-up survey, gave a thumbs up on ease of submitting a workshop proposal for the forum. One workshop presenter commented, “I thought the process was super easy, and all the information I needed was communicated well ahead of time, which I greatly appreciated, technology worked great, and everything I needed was there!”. Other comments included, “Great communication and direction leading up to the conference”, “Anna and Janet were quick to respond before and during conference when a question arose. This was very much appreciated!!!”, “Appreciate the clear communication in advance about room, set-up, and requirements for presenting. It was smooth with set-up and transition between speakers”.

Because of Janet’s leadership and success with the Kentucky Volunteer Forum over the past ten years, she was recognized at the 2024 Kentucky Volunteer Forum Hall of Fame Recognition Banquet with the Distinguished Service Award, the first agent and only third person in history to receive this prestigious award.