How to Use An Easy Brainstorming Strategy for Your 4‑H Club

Planning for the 2026–2027 4‑H year starts now—and your club members and volunteers have incredible ideas to share! This simple, hands‑on brainstorming strategy helps everyone contribute, collaborate, and vote on their favorite activities for the year ahead. It works for clubs of any size and keeps conversations fun, fast, and focused.

What You’ll Brainstorm

Use this activity to gather ideas in three key areas of club programming:

  • Recreation
  • Community Service / Service Learning
  • Education

The Extension Office provides everything you need—markers, dot stickers, and flip‑chart paper—so all you need to do is bring your club together.

How the Strategy Works

1. Prepare Your Posters

Write one topic—Recreation, Community Service/Service Learning, or Education—at the top of separate sheets of flip‑chart paper. Hang the posters around the room with space between them.

2. Hand Out Supplies

Give every club member (including adults!) a marker and some circle‑dot stickers.

3. Break Into Groups

Divide participants into small groups and place each group at one poster.
For five minutes, they brainstorm ideas related to that topic and write their ideas on the poster.

4. Rotate and Review

Have groups rotate to the next poster. When they arrive:

  • Like an idea? Add a dot sticker.
  • Have questions? Write them down.
  • Have new ideas? Add them to the poster!

5. Complete the Circuit

Continue rotating until every group has visited each poster and returns to their original one. Give participants a moment to review what others added.

How to Use the Results

After the rotations, take a visual scan of all posters:

  • Ideas with lots of dot stickers are clear favorites for next year’s plan.
  • Posters with lots of written comments may need more group discussion.

By the end of the activity, you’ll have one or two strong ideas for each program area—Recreation, Community Service/Service Learning, and Education.

Be sure to photograph each poster so you can refer back to them at the 2026 Teton County Leader’s Summit Meeting.

Need Inspiration?

Michigan State 4‑H offers great examples and ideas for each program area. Use their resources if your club wants a starting point for generating ideas.

Michigian State University Extension 4-H Tips and Tricks For Planning Your Club Year