Fair Funding

    One-third of all fairs in Washington State could disappear within the next two years. This would be due to the devastating budget cuts that the state has imposed because of the McCleary Decision, which had begun as a lawsuit between the state of Washington and the Network for Excellence in Washington Schools. This resulted in the court ruling that the state was not filling its requirement to properly fund much of the school system. Because of this ruling, various state departments were forced to cut their budgets by 15 percent to make up the difference in education funding. The Washington Department of Agriculture, specifically, chose to suspend much of the state's fair funding, as well as some funding for food banks, on the account of the fairs "not having much to do with promoting the state's agricultural education."

    According to John Morrison, the Washington State Fair Association's current president,  approximately thirty percent of all fairs in Washington State depend on the fair fund budget by at least 60%.  Although the aforementioned thirty percent of fairs will be hit the hardest, they aren't the only ones affected.  In fact, all fairs will feel the cut in some way or another.  Some fairs don't even know what their premiums are going to be until they receive fair funding.  Larger counties, such as Clark, depend less on the fair fund and are likewise not going to be hit as hard.  On the other hand, 70.3% of Wahkiakum County's budget comes solely from the fair fund.  Without outside help, Wahkiakum would be unable to host a county fair.  A lot of these rural county fairs have a huge impact on their local communities. In an interview with Lori Tweit from Wahkiakum County, their local high school's Dollar for Scholar program relies on not only the county fair but the fairgrounds which they also fear to lose in the near future. In Skamania County, Sally Mansur, the Program Director, shared stories of family owned businesses that were able to put their kids through college, for example, by running an elephant ear booth. She also shared about out of town visitors bringing in business that would be lost and hurtful for their local economy.

    Small counties already rely on county commissioner grants, and fundraising on top of the fair funding they receive. Without the huge support of this funding many fairs would have trouble staying afloat. If nothing is done about this, the effects could be devastating. 4-Hers who know the true impacts of the fair are encouraged to email, call, and write their legislators. It is imperative to share 4-H fair stories and how a fair is one of the largest classrooms in Washington, 4-Hers and fair visitors need to share what they've learned, spread the word, and be the change that saves Washington State fairs. #tellyourfairstory #weare4H #waleg

Clark County Meeting #4

Clark County

Icey Lyman

1/14/2015

 

Clark County Know Your Government Meeting #4

We in Clark County are excited to have had our fourth meeting for Know Your Government!

We started out our meeting with a review of the five key questions of media literacy, which are:

• Who created this message?
• What creative techniques are used to attract my attention?
• How might different people understand this message differently from me?
• What lifestyles, values, and points of view are represented in, or omitted from this message?
• Why is the message being sent?

Then we asked ourselves, how do the five key questions help us determine bias? We came up with:

• We can determine the bias of the article by considering the author and their personal biases based on their background and who they are.
• All media has been constructed. So we should look how media authors design the media to attract attention and personalize their message to your biases.
• We all have had a different experience in life. So we all perceive media messages differently - one person's reaction will be different then everyone else's.
• And of course, all media will be different depending on the audience.
• Media authors are looking for emotional reactions, so use critical thinking skills to determine the biases in the different media stories you encounter.

After we discussed the five key questions, we were able to talk about our subject and plan for how to represent our topic. Last meeting we had split our group up to do interviews, pictures, and research. We were able to talk about our findings and present all that we had learned over the past week. We also discussed who else to interview, resources for pictures, and all the things that needed to be researched to present our own well put together media message. Then we created the frame work for our message - the classical what, who, when, why and where that goes into crafting a well-made expression.

There was also a discussion about how best to promote our message - what was the best form of media for our group? After listing numerous pros and cons, the conclusion was Facebook, because it had family connections, message chat, mass messaging, and many other pros that outweighed the cons. We discussed how the legislature worked and how to lobby for our message by contacting our county representatives, and finding out what committees our legislators are on to better promote our topic.

Overall we had a great productive meeting! Everyone worked together well and voiced their opinions in respectful ways.

 

 

 

 

Clark County Meeting #2 & #3

Clark County
Elise Wohler
Meeting #2 December 15, 2014 and #3 January 5,2015

Meeting #2-
In meeting two we continued discussing our hopes, fears, and how we can make this conference successful and positive for our group! We talked about why we should have the first amendment, and we came to the conclusion that it's important to protect the rights of people. Our group discussed why there should be protection for the media and talked about the importance of the media giving us a voice. Then we asked if there should be any limitation to media, but some of our groups members said if something in our world happens, people should have a right to know about it. If limitations are made where can you draw the line? We had great conversation during this meeting, and came up with ideas for our issues to bring to this years KYG!

Meeting #3-
During our third meeting we made decisions and came up with a game plan! After talking about the essence of media, how it's effective, and perceptions that that it gives we got into finally deciding our subject! It was very impressive to see how even though we had so many ideas to begin with, we were able to advocate for the subjects we found important and respectfully sway the group to come to an agreement! By the end of the meeting we all decided a subject that's important to the group as a whole and we're really excited to share it and promote our cause!

 Clark County KYG has already had one interview, and we thought we'd give you a hint to our topic!

Clark County Meeting #1

Clark County
Elise Wohler
Meeting #1 - November 17, 2014


In our first meeting we began with getting to know each others hopes and fears going into this years Know Your Government conference. This exercise was a great way to find out how we had similar goals and expectations going in. Some of our hopes included having a better understanding of the media, eating good food (which is more of an expectation than a hope), finding a welcoming atmosphere, and meeting new people with similar interests.

We then spent time discussing the difference between the definition of media, and definition of news and came to the conclusion of these two as a group.

Definition of Media: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, blogging, television, newspapers, magazines, and radio to get across your ideas and to spread the messages to specific groups of people. Constructing our messages specifically to the target audience.

Definition of News: Information that a person needs or wants, that's relevant to today that is disseminated and broadcast to the public.