 All right. So welcome again to our consumer decision making training session for 2021. We're really excited to do this this morning. I'm really excited to have Holly Johnson, Kerry Helgo and Vanessa to train you this morning. They are fantastic agents and they're very skilled at this contest and do a great job. So I'm excited they can share their knowledge with you today. And so before we get started, I just want to recognize our committee that does a really good job writing these classes, putting things together and getting the contest ready for our youth. So we have Ellen B. Allen, Alicia Harstad, Kerry Helgo, Katie Henry, Vanessa Hoiness, Holly Johnson, Deb Lee, Sue Millender, Christina Rittenbach and Katie Thompson. So all those people are working hard to get classes ready for you and to get this material to our youth this spring. So we're excited for our training this morning and be sure and ask these ladies any questions that you have because I'm sure they will have your answer. Okay, Holly. All right, thank you so much Megan for that awesome introduction and thank you everyone for being here this morning we're super excited to talk about consumer decision making we're on the committee because we absolutely love it. And we're just going to go ahead and get started. So what we're going to talk about today we're going to talk through obviously consumer decision making kind of help guide you. We can coach your team, but also at the end we're going to have kind of a more open discussion about how to hold a county contest so you guys can throw questions at us ask for tips. Kind of whatever you need how we can help support you in your counties, doing your contest every county does it a little bit differently which was what makes it really cool and unique. So we'll do our best to answer your questions, and I'm going to turn it over to Vanessa. So if you have questions go ahead and put them in the chat or interrupt us, and we'll go ahead and get started. All right. So of course, in 4h who I always want to talk about life skills and that it's this isn't just an event but if there's a reason for having students be involved, and for each member is being involved in this type of activity. Critical thinking it helps kids to be able to take some facts that they know some things that they're looking for be able to critically go through the process of making a decision. And obviously we start with things like, you know, choosing snacks or buying clothes, but hopefully they're going to take these same skills and be able to go on and purchase a car or maybe a home. The same type of critical thinking is needed for those big purchases, just like the small ones. Why is decision making, again, using those same kinds of ideas, express ideas clearly and concisely. We're going to talk about how, excuse me, how 4hers will need to not only make that decision, but then also be able to articulate the reasons why. And of course, we all know that public speaking and being able to collect our thoughts with the in front of a group or with another individual is our skills that we use every day. Verbalize and defend those choices through those reasons that we give, and then also problem solving so great opportunities for them to learn many new things. Then I'll turn it over to Carrie. Yep, I'm like sorry. I was like lost my train of thought. So there are three different age categories that we use in consumer decision making. I'm going to start with the beginner on those ages eight to nine. So if you're doing a county contest or maybe in a district contrast, have you set it up. The beginner ages are ones where you can pretty much kind of walk them through and what they're doing. It's a learning piece. They are separate. They are separate. So what I'm looking for. They're studying different pieces. So like in this case for this year for the beginners, the beginners are actually going through. They have pets. They have t shirts and they have bread. So they will be learning those. The beginners are able to participate at the state contest but they may do that we but we will force. We want to get on that. This is a lot of reading that is involved in and a lot of those decision making pieces so really judge your ages as you're sending some of these kids out at those younger pieces. We want this to be a very positive experience for them. We want them to learn and to be comfortable in what they're doing so kind of know where they're at when you're judging that. So then at the state contest normally we have the junior and senior division and those ages are 10 to 13. I just want to point out to though they are as of September 1 and up to age 13 of December 31 and this year would be of 2020. I have that in mind doing my numbers right girls on that so that would be in the junior piece the juniors and the seniors both study the same study guides this year we are the categories are boots, dairy snacks and portable speakers. And so then the senior ages on the senior teams you're looking at ages 14 through 18 that same caveat they want to be those ages as of December 31, 2020. And the reason that what they have those. That day done because normally everything is as of September 1. The start of our for each year, we put that on there because then that corresponds with the national ages that they can go out at that national contest that is usually held in conjunction with the national roundup out in Denver. The first part of January of the following year. My turn. So, kind of how I like to start out. If I'm working with some new juniors or new seniors is we really focus and start talking about standards and you'll hear that word come up a lot throughout the rest of the presentation. But I kind of walk them through a conversation of something that they've purchased recently, maybe did you buy a candy bar did you buy a shirt like I asked them something they've purchased because buying things as part of our daily life. They make it relevant to them so I asked them something of that nature, and then I asked them what did they look for, and then they'll tell me something well I want my favorite flavor or I wanted to be in my size, or I have only so much to spend. And then I basically have them identify those are standards that they're looking for. A standard as the slide says is criteria on which the class items are judged, and you find those in the situation statement, and I'll be showing you a situation statement in a little bit. And the really important thing to remember is the standards in that statement are listed in order of importance. So that's going to help you really rank your items that you're comparing something to kind of keep in mind when you are reading a junior situation statement. There's usually three or four standards written in that story, but the seniors they can have up to six so there's not it's not for every time it's not the same number every time it varies a little bit. And as you see those are some examples so dollar amount the size color flavor calories different health nutrition options. So those are all different examples of standards that we're looking for when we're purchasing a product. So here is the situation statement that we're going to be walking through the remainder of the presentation. This is a relatively straightforward one that would probably be either beginner or juniors. So you're welcome to follow along with me as we go through it. And like I said this is a story that has the standards written within it. So Douglas has $10 to buy a t shirt. He wants a t shirt he can wash in the washing machine. He wants to tumble dried in the dryer and he wants it to have long sleeves. So how on earth do kids stay organized when they're looking at the situation statement and they get four products that they're looking at. How do they, how do you organize it off. Well the next thing that we're going to show you is this grid, and I'm going to share a file in the chat. Hopefully you can see it once I get it in there. So I'm going to have this grid and it's also going to help break down how to write your reasons. And my network is not working with me right now so hopefully maybe we can either have someone else attach it, or we can email it out afterwards. But this is the chart that the kids will write down their standards in and then they'll mark which products meet those standards. So going off of Douglas's situation statement. He has $10 to spend. He, and that's the most important standard and it was listed first so we listed at the top of our grid. He wants to wash it in the washing machine doesn't want to have to hand wash it or something like that or dry clean it wants to wash it in the washing machine. He wants to be able to tumble dried in the dryer, and he wants it to have long sleeves. So that's how you pull those standards from your situation statement and organize them into this grid. And then Vanessa and Carrie are going to walk you through four different products and we're going to compare and contrast how they all meet, or don't meet the different standards and how we place our class. Alright, so here's our very first, our very first shirt, you can see it's an Arizona long sleeve t shirt. And I'm going to have everybody help me fill in these standards so you can see we have highlighted we have number one and we have boxes below that and so whenever item has the standard that we are looking for we're going to put an X in there meaning that it meets that standard. So the very first one $10 who can unmute themselves and tell me does this, does this t shirt meet the standard is can we buy it with $10. Okay, I heard somebody very quietly say yes. So we're going to put an X in that box, and who can tell me how much what is the cost and we already have that in there 899. We have that information in there because that will be helpful for us later on when we're giving reasons. It's always important to tell, especially the juniors and even more importantly the seniors to put as much information within this grid as they can gather because that will make their reasons just that much more informative, and will give them more basis for their for their reasons Okay, next machine washable. Okay, give me a thumbs up if this particular t shirt is machine washable. So everybody go into reactions or or yet physically give me a thumbs up. Hey, I'm seeing that in there. So yes they say it is machine washable. All right. How about tumble dry. Can I tumble dry this one. Give me a thumbs up if it's tumble dry. Give me a thumbs down if it's not tumble dry. Right, we don't tumble dry this who can unmute and tell me how do we dry this one. Line dry line dry okay so that would be something we could put that in in our box here we could put line dry if we wanted to. Lastly, our final one is long sleeves everybody does this have long sleeves give me give you another thumbs up if it is. All right I see some thumbs up so definitely number number one is also that has long sleeves. Okay, let's move on to our second shirt and our second shirt. Let's see, kind of take a look at it, take some time to read read through some things there. So I'm going to start picking on people now but I see. Okay, how about Sarah. Sarah, is this shirt within our budget of $10. No, no right how much does it cost 1399. Okay, so we're not going to put an X but we are going to put 1399 in there. Next, let me pick on somebody else how about Sandy. Is this machine washable. Oh, I don't think your mic is working. Try again. Oh, she says yes it is in the chat. So we're going to put an X there for machine washable. How about tumble dry. Let me see I saw Cindy's face earlier. Cindy is this shirt tumble dry. Nope, it says line dry. It says line dry. Okay, and then finally we're looking for long sleeves and Amy, can you help me out with that. It has short sleeves, it has short sleeves so again we're going to leave these two boxes open. All right, so I think I'm going to turn it over to you carry. All right, so I'm going to continue on with what Vanessa is doing and pick on you guys from the audience as it comes through so we have a Viking shirt that we have here so the first standard again is going to be the same can we purchase it for $10. So Aaron, are you out there. And how much is the T shirt. 799. All right, so we will mark that into our box that corresponds in that column three. So next we want to know again with that standard is a machine wash washable. How about Louis, are you out there. I am. And it looks like it is very good. So again, the kids will check that box put that X in and tumble dry is third so what about Karen. Yes, it's tumble driable. So we're going to roll with this one this is looking good and then the last thing of course is long sleeves so how about Rachel. Me Rachel. Yes Rachel that sounds good. All right yes it is long sleep. All right so let's check that box as well thank you Holly. So that one is you'll see we got all four checks okay that's perfect now we have one more though to look at. This is our shirt this little pro spirit short sleeve t shirt, and we go back to our first standard always starting at the top. Can we purchase it for $10. How about Kim. $5 very good so we're going to collect that information as we go through. Next step we got machine washable. How about Millie. It is hand wash. It is hand wash. So if you want to make that note in your in the box you certainly can or you can just leave it blank but you know juniors. Again like Vanessa said they're not going to probably capture as much for the seniors the more information you have the better off you're going to be down and these are your notes. So tumble dry. How about Deb. It is not it's line dry. So no X will go in there and then our last piece that we have about. I'm looking what about Kendra Kendra does this one have long sleeves. No it does not. Okay, so then we leave it just as that so that finishes out our grid we've looked at all four standards now what do we do with our grid. I'm going to turn it back to Holly. Hey, thank you guys for that awesome participation. So now we've got our grid filled out that's half the work. Like Vanessa said at the beginning, we have to be able to explain. Explain why we're placing things the way we are. So the first thing we need to do is create our placing so I'm going to scroll through here. And I'm going to pick on Lynette can you tell me what you think our placing is and just take a guess. I would pick number three first. And number one second. Number two and then number four. Okay. So, this is a good opportunity to kind of walk through what why we would place them because we've placed them for over two and we're going to explain why in a little bit you're really really close with just mixing up that bottom pair. So the placing for this class is 3142. So now how do we explain that how do we defend that, or if if Lynette were to do this you might write her reasons a little differently and defend it a little differently. So now we're going to go through the process of writing our reasons. So we start by saying I placed this class of t shirts 3142 and this layout of how to write your reasons is also in that sheet that Megan shared so there's the grid in there and there's a blank slate of how to structure your reasons to always start out by saying the order that you're placing them in it's a good way to start off and just keep yourself organized. So then what you do is you go pair by pair and explain your top pair, your middle pair, your bottom pair, and then the last product. So we're going to start by our three over one. So let's look at product three and just look at product one and say I placed three over one because so let's see. Tyler, can you tell me something that three has that one doesn't have. That's how I explained it to my kids when we're writing reasons. It's really easy to say three has all of the standards and that's it. That's what kids really like to say and they're right in this case, but we want them to be specific on what three has that one doesn't have so Tyler, if you're out there you want to tell me what three has that one doesn't place three over one because three is tumble dry and one is not awesome. So we're looking specifically at that one category and that's how we would say it in our reasons so we write that out or as seniors get older they'll be able to make more shorthand to make their notes a little bit easier to memorize but yep three can be tumble dried well one cannot. Okay, now we're going to move on to our middle pair one over four. Let's see going down the line. So now we look at what one has that for doesn't have. So, let's see who else we've got. Max, can you tell me what one has that for does not have. Let me see. In addition to being machine washable it also has long sleeves which is required for the scenario. Okay, so one is machine washable and it has long sleeves. So you want to listen both of those things out you don't kids again are going to want to say one has more standards than two or one then four excuse me for only has one of the standards. It's really easy for them to just shorthand it but if we want to coach them to be specific so awesome job Max thank you. We compare our bottom pair, which is four over two so now we're going to explain why why we placed four over two, and I can I'll take this one. So we're looking at four over two for what for has that to does not have is its price. So, our scenario the student can afford that $5 t shirt but he cannot afford that $1399 t shirt. So that $10 standard is the most important. So that is what brings for ahead of two, if that makes sense. It met the most important standard. So that is why we would place it for over two. However, this is where we would bring a grant into play and this is something we really encourage our seniors to do. If your juniors are comfortable throwing in grants, you want to have them try it out that'd be great. So this is an opportunity to look at okay does to have something that for doesn't. And in this case it does. So let's say I place four over two because for cost less than $10 granted to his machine washable. So we're still recognizing that to has got something going for it that for doesn't. But for is still the more affordable option. And then you end it off with placing to last, and then you explain everything that's wrong with to. I'm going to say maybe to didn't meet any of the standards in a different example they're going to say they didn't meet any of them. You want them to be specific. I have to really pound that into their heads sometimes. But you list everything that's wrong. So it's costing more than $10 can't be tumbled dried, and it does not have long sleeves. So I'm going to just round off the class by saying for these reasons I places class of shirts 3142. Thank you, having big smiles on their faces, because they just got through a class reasons. So I'm going to turn it over. Oh, go ahead. Before you go on there is nothing in the chat they're asking about grants does it just have to be let's see the actual chat coming from Robin is do you only do grants the last pair or can it be done on each pair. This is just an example of where it was only in the last one but you can do grants wherever you find them. That's a great question. Yep. And then they were, they were having fun with it in there. And they were talking about nobody likes the Vikings so of course that's going to be a grant that you have to take it out. So do kids's opinions ever come into play like I don't like purple or I don't like the Vikings. So I'm not going to check this shirt. So what happens because kids do they take a look at things go no I really don't like that. We got to remember that they are the standards that this situation is looking for, not what their own opinion is no matter how much we might hate the Vikings right. Yes. And you can help you can have them think about you're buying a gift for a friend. I was just going to also add about the grant that the grant would never happen in the final. When we're talking about the one that places last. And the other kind of defining thing between the upper half of the reasons and that last one is that on top we're always talking about on the positive what the top one else always has that the other one doesn't. And the last place we get to that one, we're talking about all the stuff it doesn't have. We totally ignore that it has anything that's of value if we just tell them what what it didn't have. Absolutely does anyone have any other questions on what we just went through. We had some great ones. This is Louie white. I have a comment. One thing I've always done is I have them go through and write down their placings and their pairs, first, because I have found if they go down and do them in order. Sometimes they will write down the wrong pair. Whereas if they do it at the beginning and do it up front, then they know that they've got all their pairs listed correctly. So that's why I'm writing out a bunch on a comparison and then going back and going, oops, I did that wrong. Especially the younger ones. That's a good tip. Thank you so much. All right, if anyone has any other questions or tips. If not, we'll keep on rolling. Oh, I guess to kind of cap it off the difference between a placing and those are your reasons. Study guides we've we've kind of touched on this just a little bit but to kind of explain what those are. And these are the items that four hrs are asked or given to study, as they begin to learn the particulars about each of the subject areas that will be judged this year, and these topic areas do change every year. This year is when as was mentioned before for the junior and senior topics will be dairy snacks work boots and portable speakers. So they, they're given kind of all the facts the things that they should be looking for the terms that are important when when you're a consumer of any of these products. And so that is what's included and then also one sample class per each topic area. And that will come in mid April. So they're given that to be able to study. A lot of times, most of the information you know kids will come to our county contest, and they will find that juniors for sure will find that they can, you know they might be able to with a little bit of knowledge and a little bit of studying that they can actually figure out the classes pretty easily seniors on the other hand, we, we got them figured out. So when we're writing classes for seniors, we do put in some things in each of the classes or at least a few of them that are pieces of information that we give them kind of just enough information so they understand the product, but we're not going to give them all the information so in other words they have to study the study guide to know for example if it's a nutrition piece you know what is considered low fat what percentage of fat is considered low fat for example. We're not going to give them the standard that we're that they're looking for low fat but we're not going to give them what what number is related to that standard so they're going to have to know that. So encourage your, your four hrs as they're preparing for both the county contest and the state contest, especially seniors that they need to study the study guide and that to know some of those specific facts about whichever topic that they're looking at. For the state classes, those classes will be available in mid May, and those are. Those will be your opportunity to use two of those classes for your county contest perhaps in in each of the topics, and then also maybe one. A couple classes that you can use to practice, I have both ahead of the county contest if you wish, and then also practicing for the state contest. In the county contest, normally we have six classes for each for each or two judge, two classes per topic area. And when they score those, their placing scores are worth 50 points per class so just for placing. They can earn a total of 30, a total of 300 which would be a perfect score for placing all six correctly. So we have 12 minutes per class, and with they are timed, and we also usually give them some warning when they're coming down to their last minute or so so they can kind of engage their time. Then we also have three sets of reasons so of those six classes, for example when we're talking about the boots that that being one of the topic areas. When they're at the state contest they will have two classes of boots they judge one class will just be a placing class. The second class would be a placing and reasons class. So they would give three sets of oral reasons one for topic area. And again those sets of reasons are also worth 50 points so again a perfect score with reasons would be 150. So 450 is the total possible per participant. And one other addition that we have to the contest. We added in 2018 was the group think. And we are actually doing group thing for both the juniors and the seniors this next year out at the state contest so just kind of keeping that in mind that that will be something that's different. This is a team team process that they do. So with for each week. There was a couple of reasons that we added this in number one it is part of the national contest so the kids that were sending out that are representing North Dakota had to learn something new before they participated in that to do that so we thought we would better prepare them for that situation but the other part about it is, we do you always want to include everybody for each of that sense of belonging and inclusion. And so learning to make decisions together as a group and get everybody's opinion and everybody's involvement is it is a is a learned is a learned piece that they need to do. So the group think part is again it's a timed piece, and it's a judged piece. The team which can consist of three to four or five members on your team. They have 10 minutes, they were given a situation when they get into the room. They do have judges that are there watching and evaluating them. They will read through the situation they can choose to read it out loud. Together as a team or read it individually and they will go through that and then they will talk about the different standards that they are seeing that they're pulling out. They will talk about different solutions that they come through. They will come up with. They have their own input into which way it goes, but ultimately they have to make a decision as a team, and what they want to do and then present that to the judges at the end. So, it is not always the same as what they've been placing. Sometimes they're not for set things in a class. It's always one of the classes that are one of the topic areas that are at the state for that year. So it could be workbooks could be the dairy snacks or it could be the portable speakers this year. And then there is the final score so there's 200 points per team. And this does this so this kind of puts a whole different kind of spin on standard way that we used to me long ago called a consumer was it consumer choices. Well, now we're actually making those decision makings. So in the group think, and this is broken down into one of the resources that we have on the consumer decision making resource in CC 616 that we'll get to in a little bit. We want to state the situation and nine times out of a 10 the team will have worked in practice and then they will come up with a leader who is going to kind of make sure that everybody is participating that their voice gets heard. And the judge knows that everyone is doing that so the state the situation. They'll read through it maybe out loud, and then they'll go through the standards what are the pieces that they're looking for, and they'll look for possible solutions that might be in the standards but then they also have to get creative. So, pushing that creativity button button. What are some of the alternatives that we can do. What can we add in what's going to be kind of off the wall so the judges are all looking for how much effort they're putting into this as well. They will then evaluate each alternative based on the criteria that was put forth and that's in those standards, and they are pulling those standards out chart papers available for them so that they can write it out nice and big so they can see. They can also write it individually on scratch paper that they have before them, but ultimately at the end they come up with a team decision and they select the best choice for the situation. And then they will usually sum that up with their choice to the judges and why they did that. And then the judges will judge them on a set of criteria as to how the group work together. What are the alternatives and the situations that they found that they understand what was going on, and what not and how they, the ultimate decision that they had. So group thinks a lot of fun to work through into plan and it's really interesting to see some of those Shire teams really step up to the plate and get those individuals involved in this process. Awesome now we're going to kind of move into the county contest discussion portion. This is going to be a little bit more less of us just talking at you and just kind of more of like a dialogue conversation so if anyone has questions about a county contest or if Vanessa carry if you have tips you want to start off with kind of opening up the floor. Well I can start it out maybe we each can kind of talk about how we've done our contest, and if there's anything different. Mine has been pretty traditional has been very similar to how we would hold a state contest. So maybe, you know with the six classes per per age group and so on. Maybe one addition that would be something I would that I think is helpful is when you have beginners and sometimes even juniors if they're new to consumer decision making. When they're doing their reasons. So I would like to construct the judges that are listening to reasons to the first the first after their first set of reasons have been given that they take a minute or two to give them some feedback about you know what they're doing well, what they need to they are missing a piece you know if they're totally forgetting to talk about the last item you know for example or whatever it might be because I guess what I have found is that if you allow them to continue they're just going to do the same thing they just did two more times and and that's just and they're losing on an out on an opportunity to practice it. In a in a better way, and so giving them that opportunity to make a switch before they do the final two. sets of sets of reasons. And then the other thing that we have done is that we've had. We're going to hold our contest in the afternoon and then in the morning like I encourage kids to come in. Like 10 o'clock in the morning if they want to bring a sack lunch, and we practice we go through, like, kind of like what Holly just did going through a couple classes together as a group, and then they practice individually. They usually just practice individually on some of the practice classes and kind of prepare themselves they can ask questions we're all just kind of working on things together in a, in a large room, and then have lunch together and then move right into the contest. And that usually helps to kind of curb some of those nerves, that kind of thing they've gotten some practice and they feel a little bit more confident as they go into the contest. Yeah, when do you usually hold your contest. Usually. Okay, usually I've held mine the first part of June. And then that has allowed us some time to do more practices with kids that are interested in going on to the state contest. I think I reiterate the same thing as Vanessa, yours is usually the first part of June, maybe the end of May depends on what our council has chosen but we kind of wait to that first part took pretty much till they're done with school for us. We do things very similar to the way that Vanessa does them. I would say with my, I don't always hold two classes for all my juniors or my beginners with my beginners. So the sheet that Megan put into the chat. I will have that available for them so that they have a grid that they can work off of, and then they can fill in my first class and maybe my second class depending on the number of kids I have. I will do together, you know, I mean with the, with the beginners so that they have an understanding. Some of them might not come in with any other experience at all. It's kind of an easier way to walk through that I will bring in some of my. Oh, if my, I usually have a helper, you know here there that can work with them or can kind of shadow them and give them some things. My juniors, I might only make them do five classes instead of all six, depending on on on how I have them as they come through but they pretty much kind of just roll through it the same way that the seniors would. Usually usually I will set up a maybe if time allows for me I'll set up a practice before the county contest and I get a few here there. One of the things that I've noticed with my kids, especially my seniors are really busy and can't do it. They will ask for alternative times or alternative contest so I will try to work with the, the, my name bring counties and find out what they're using which situations they're using and if we can use the same ones and if it's the same. I can put my seniors over to their contest, their scores do not go against their county one but they, you know, we use their scores back here and that and we only used to do that when they was a limit as to how many kids you could send on a team or whatnot so we don't do that as much. But there's some different things that you can do that are available so the kids maybe get some prior experience if that's part of your county thing but there is no coming into the state fair they don't have to have participated in a county contest. You know I mean you, you just have to sign off of them at the county level that they will be part of your team that way so that's what that's what I do Holly. So yeah, what you just ended with Carrie kind of leads into what I do I don't actually hold a county contest out here. I start practicing with them in May. May 1 and then we meet every week until until the state fair that's how many practices my kids have expressed that they want because they really, really want to work through that group think and just have plenty of time to get through everything. If the classes aren't available at that time I just use old ones as long as so they get just the rhythm of how to give reasons and what to look for. And as soon as the study guides and sample classes and the county classes come in we really use those for practice. We can really use anything anything old or the new material. So yeah my kids don't really qualify, per se, because we don't have a county contest I just like Carrie said, sign off on them at our county level and they're good to go. And don't forget to you guys there are the combination county county team so if you don't hold a contest, or do we, you know, you can set it up so that two counties can combine to form a team, provided that there's no more than two members from the, no more than two members from the same county. And they don't have to know each other beforehand it's kind of nice that group thing throws it a little bit more. I know I had a group I sent out one year and we, I was Barnes and coming to County, and they had the group thing so we tried to do lunch together when they had a break so they had a little bit more chance to know each other so they were a little bit more comfortable speaking but the seniors surprise you how quickly that they, you know, can can get through that so juniors could can be the same especially if it those that are very comfortable and talking and bringing others in. I think looking at the chat. Sorry, I just want to Lindsay had put something in on how they run their contest and around when or how that looks if it's a workshop or whatnot so sorry. I was just going to add to that I think you know if you are having to put two counties together kids from two counties. Don't be surprised that they already do know each other. Because a lot of our kids do do know each other they've already networked at other events and things. Yeah, and I just wanted to add another another way of doing a county contest cast county has done this for a number of years and I know Rita isn't on today but she'd be happy to visit with anybody who has questions but they've done. She's done like a come and go. It's held pretty much all day on one day, she starts on or like nine o'clock in the morning and goes to, she says you have the for each or has to be there by six o'clock on that that evening. That's the last person to get in kind of thing so if you get there at 630 she's not going to let you start then. They just come and go they don't pre register, they go through the classes, and she's also said that it's been fun to do that because it's been flexible with then kids other activities that they have in the summertime whether it's summer school or sports or other things and so kids have been able to kind of work their schedules around being able to partake, and then they've also hold held at the same time their clothing review contest. So kids can come, they can, you know, get their, their CDM done, and then they can also do their, their clothing review on the same day. So if you have more questions about how she does that she's more than happy to visit with anybody about that too. And then we know we did the state contest via zoom. So we know that that's now an option for you as well that you can do that so there's all kinds of there's all kinds of different ways to get kids involved these days that Oh, and I think like, like Carrie mentioned to not only visiting with other counties to send kids to different contests, but also working to if you don't have a large number. And if there's a county that's close enough or it makes sense that that for each of you would travel between your two counties, holding a contest together is more fun to you just have that many more kids involved. And it just makes it more fun and kind of dividing the work among, among two folks or if one person is just going to take the lead and lead it. It's really much more work to do it for 40 as it is for 20, you know, so you might as well work together if you can. And Holly, do you have mentioned that you have your kids, like, make up their own. There was that Vanessa. No, that was me. So cool you got to talk about it. Well, if you have kids that are really interested in practicing a lot of times, it won't take long until your practice classes have been exhausted. And so unless you as an agent want to start writing about your classes. Another tip is to go online and pull out some different products give each for each or some different products in one of the areas and ask them to write a class and bring it back for the next week. This is probably better for seniors just because they have, you know, spent a lot of time with this and they really pick it up as a challenge. Because of course when they bring their class back, then their peers on their team are going to be judging their class and they get to listen to the reasons. And so believe me, those are some of the trickiest classes I've seen written because they really want to stump their peers. So that can be a really fun, fun opportunity and I will say if you've ever written a class. That's the way you learn about consumer decision making is writing a class because you know the ins and outs and how to word it and it really helps them to know what to look for, you know, whether it's up to this amount or no more than or this or more, you know, all those words mean different things when I'm reading that situation and those are the things that can trip can trip for ages up so having them test each other is fine. That comes up quite often on that price standard. People will say what about sales tax. You want to address that. And I don't know if I think we have just said that this is the cost. So we haven't necessarily said price. So hopefully that helps with that. But that's probably one thing we need to make sure of. The, you know, kind of in the other other realm of that, helping kids not to read into things too much to just take the facts as they're given is is really important too. And then, you know, along those lines when we were going through the grid before one thing that happens sometimes as kids will go through a class and they'll end up they'll say well, I don't know how to how to place these because number two has the same things, you know, has the same standards as number four. And so my answer to them is, you know what that means, you either miss something or you miss or you miss read something, because we're not going to have two things that are exactly the same so you got to go back. And so telling them that will help them in that case to if they read into something maybe they'll go back and read it again and realize oh, it didn't really say that I just assumed. I had one spoken with a coach coming out of Minnesota, and this was all pre COVID, I don't know if you could ever do this again post COVID but she used to take her kids for the older ones shopping so they would go to a long or target. And they were pretty much what Vanessa was saying rather than having the homework though of coming back with a class sheets and them out into the store and they had to find for similar items come up with the standard. Bring them up to the front of the store and the kids, you know, right there and then at the store put together their own, their own class, and then had each other judge it and then they would put the items back on the store shelves when they were done so. Again, you can get as creative as you want and trying to get the kids to actually think about, you know, like how do I evaluate how I shop, you know what are what are the most important things. The money always comes to the top two and this is one of those pieces that you will notice if we ever have money in it comes very high to the top because if they don't have enough money. They cannot purchase that piece in real life. You know they'd have to come up with some some other resources and way to find that we it's pretty cut and dried in North Dakota as you come through it. I have seen other if you look at other states and other ways to do it where there's much broader. I remember coaching a team one time and the kids were looking at the fact that he, he worked at a movie theater, and he was buying his sister a birthday present. There was no cost in there at all there was nothing listed, but cost was us was a standard because because he worked at a movie theater he didn't have a whole lot of extra cash, and he wasn't going to spend $100 on a pair of jeans for his sister probably didn't you know, how you would actually spend in real life. So they really kind of want to get you to think so when we lay it out in a situation it's pretty laid out so that Vanessa says those kids don't have to think too far into these things they just have to evaluate what they have, but they're what they're given. Any other questions is great discussion. And I guess I would say any of us on the committee I think we'd be more than happy to have a discussion with anybody who is looking for some tips or ideas or you want to change it up and do it differently and you want to bounce it off somebody. We're happy to help out because we have a passion for consumer decision making. That's why that's why we do it. I have a question in the chat are they given grids at the contest or do they bring it with them so are you talking Lynette at the county contest or state. So at state, they're only given scratch paper blank scratch paper given that morning. So they, if they want to use part of their 12 minutes to draw out the grid and draw out. If the standards fill in the blank they can, but they're not given, they're just given blank scratch paper at state and then county I think it's up to each agent's discretion on how much material you provide them. Vanessa and Kerry talked about giving the grid to their beginners which I think is a really great idea just to help them stay organized because it can get really overwhelming for those kiddos so county contest I'd say your discretion state it's blank scratch paper. And sometimes if I've had a new junior who's doing this for the first year, I might give them the grid, just so that they, you know, feel more comfortable and confident about what they're doing. Especially now when that when we, the kids really don't have to win their way on to a team, anybody that wants to go to state can go and so I'm not as concerned about giving somebody an edge, per se. In the chat. This is a good question for both of you, depending on how you do things. Caroline wants to know, can she recycle her old. Where's the word Caroline, her placing cards remember old, so we do use the scantron at state. But we don't I know I don't use the scantron at the county level. I don't practice with it to fill it out so they know which way it is but I still use the placing cards at my county level when I'm doing that, or to at least show them some of those different options but how about everybody else. Yeah, I still do use the placing cards at our contest in in the county. Like I said I only do practices and then the state contest so I do practice with my kids with the scantrons because that's another really overwhelming. There's a million bubbles to fill in do I fill in all of these numbers. And they don't even use the back half of the scantron so, but I, I would agree that if I, I hope to get a county contest out here. I would just use the placing cards to they're really simple and a good way to get them started on things out. Keep half of them at least. When I practice with kids, I kind of isolate some of these skills. So, one of the pieces is to decide, you know, how to place a class. So I have a bunch of grids made up with just the X's placed randomly around there. And then they need to come up with how would you place this class and it doesn't even matter what the standards are because all we're looking at is how to evaluate the placement of those X's. So that's one thing I'll isolate, and they'll practice for that and then when we were using the placing cards, and you could practice this with a scantron, scantron sheet two, but I would just, I have a bunch of arrangements of the numbers three, one, four, two, two, one, three, four, whatever, a whole bunch, and then they have to practice just marking their card, the scantron, the scantron sheet or their placing card. You know, it was an A, B, C, D, etc. And so it just isolates that and we just focus on that one skill in isolation and then, you know, put them all together eventually too. It gives them lots of practice at each of those individual skills. Those are great tips, Cindy. I too use the, just show them different grids and how do you place it because a lot of times kids will get caught up in, well this one has three, you know, this one meets three standards and this one only meets one, but the one that only had one standard met the top standard. So that one's still going to place over the other one. And so it gives you an opportunity to have those conversations and having them see the grid. So that's a great tip. And I too, when I'm using the placing cards as we're getting ready to start the contest, I will have everybody look at their cards and I do like a quick little, okay, I'm placing the class one, four, three, two, call out the letter that is next to that placing. So they quick look it up and call it out. Now I give them another one. So they get used to looking for those combinations on that card. Same kind of thing. I noticed too though, when we did this last year at our county level, and we're putting everything together in a packet, rather than sharing the items on the table, which I really liked, they had everything. But I did notice as I was walking through the room, my seniors were grabbing them from both the top and the bottom so they weren't going in order. So some of those pieces, making sure that your kids know which group or situation you're working on, you know, I mean they really have to look, and then I also will mix up, you know, like, you know, as they play things down how important it is to make sure that you're reading your top that this is number one, this is number two, this is your number three, this is your number four in a certain situation, because those things do get moved around or they reread them differently. So like Vanessa said, again, you've either missed something, or you've misread something so it's, they can whip through things really quick sometimes, but just kind of taking the just glancing at how they're doing things and correcting which way they go. And again, the practice part, you know, the more the hands on that they have with it, the better they are and it doesn't matter if it's the contest we're doing the with the information we're doing now, or later is the skills that you're learning you can you're listening to all the girls give these different tips and tricks as to how they're teaching these skills, so that they know how do we evaluate they know how to pull out such standards they know how to compare and contrast those type of pieces. I know Robin is asking for that earlier piece with it and, and sometimes it's just you know I mean we are doing the best that we can. We're all volunteers doing multiple things in the past, they used to have it hired out and done. So it was kind of completely taken off on somebody else's piece. It would be great that yes if you have the specific scenarios, but there's lots of time for the kids to prep, even in the in between time coming into the state contest I think which is really the biggest thing that they concentrate on at the end. And that's just my opinion but so. But I know that Holly has resources that we should want to share with you to before our time. Yes. Yes. Thank you everyone for the great questions, we are going to move on to other resources portion. I'm going to attempt to put something else in the chat see if it works. I'm just putting the link to the website there we go that we're mentioning here so the state for each website. If you go to program and events state contests and consumer decision making there is a wealth of information. We talked about the CC 616 that is like the CDM Bible, it's it lays out everything really really well it talks about group think. I think there's even a sample class written out in there, and it talks about how things are scored if you don't remember what we talked about earlier so that's a really really great publication to use. The screenshot at the bottom of the screen is a pow toon really awesome consumer decision making video that's also on that website that you can check out to kind of help promote consumer decision making you can show it at the beginning of your orientation or like a whatever group presentation you have to get new kids interested. The study guides are available. They will be there and they're also on ag info there's some older options for older classes and things on on that side as well so there's a lot of awesome links and videos that you can check out to kind of even kind of familiar eyes yourself even further than what we've talked about today. Did I miss anything ladies. I have a question. I haven't been to the state contest for a few years with kids. Does it explain anywhere how to use the scantons. So, what we do we the state for each office created these really big posters that have them on there and then at the beginning of before the kids get started, there are helpers in each room that explain how to fill those out. That piece is kind of handled at the state contest and then you can work with. I think that same poster is also on this website there's a. It's got written markings all over it that show this is what you fill out this part ignore this part so it's on the website and it's also gone through at the state contest how to fill out a scantron. Great question. Yeah, yeah there's a there's a sample sample that you can print off and show the kids so they're so that they can feel comfortable when they come to the state contest. I was going to say to that pouch and I think would be a great thing if you're, if you're kind of advertising the beginning of consumer decision making in your county, you know, even sharing that with with clubs because they could easily play that during one of their club meetings, and and be able to answer some questions within their club. I love the videos they have on there I think sometimes I'm a visual learner so I like to, you know, like, especially the reasons they, they list our kids, you know, from North Dakota doing their own reasons at the state contest so you get a chance to hear how they do it well, you know the ones that have all that information in with those, they're putting the prices in they're putting maybe your calories in or your whatever they were looking for in that situation you hear that little bit extra, so that if you don't know you got kind of examples that you wouldn't go back with that. And speaking of videos there's also some really good group think videos on there at the, not this past state contest but the last one we had in person. The group thinks we're videoed on site while the kids were actually doing the contest, and those I believe have comments or annotations that say what the kids were doing well. So I know that really helped me to show my kids a video like that so they could really see how to form those good habits of working together from the get go. So that's another really good video option. And there's a question in the chat how much weight is given to saying one item versus her item one versus the wrangler jeans. So I mean I guess how important is it to, you know, how much weight is given to referencing them by their item number 1234 versus by a description of the item, the Vikings t shirt, the Adidas t shirt the wrangler jeans. And I believe that when I'm taking reasons. I like to hear if they can say both. Item one that wrangler jeans. They're probably going to get a little better score. And I encourage the kids I work with to, to continue to use the number because I think that also helps them to keep things straight in their mind, because they have to give the numbers in the placing. To add what that is that they're talking about. That's always going to be, you know, a great addition to their reasons but that's just my opinion. And the day the contest is held at the State Fair is usually that Tuesday morning, the of the first full week, right. Megan, she's nodding her head. Yeah, it's Tuesday, July the 27th up with that in the chat to perfect. Thank you. And that runs on central standard time, correct, Holly. Yes. Yes, it does. And it does turn early so just reminding you mountain time people that yes, so that that in case we do have. I think they we've slipped and not put that in there once or twice and that does hurt the kids. Yep, thank you look at making that a perfect. So yes, keep your fingers crossed that we are able to have at the State Fair this year. That's the plan. And also remember that we are starting in a little bit earlier. We did make that change a couple years ago so that kids can have an opportunity to have a break at lunch and eat. Because we know they need food for their brains, they can come back and do the group think. All right, well I see we're right around 12 o'clock so thank you ladies so much for providing this training it was excellent. And so I really appreciate that and we will definitely get this recording sent out to everybody so you can share it and use it in your trainings. Absolutely. Does there any more questions for them today. Okay well thank you Vanessa Holly and Carrie for this fantastic training this morning.