Leadership in the FFA (Ch. 3)

Leadership in the FFA1

“Leadership is practiced not so much in words as in attitude and in actions,” is a quote stated by Harold S. Geneen that I have come to understand in the past two years of being in FFA.  Since the ninth grade, I have been blessed with the opportunity to experience many new and exciting events that each had an enormous influence on me by giving me new leadership skills and a sense of accomplishment.  I was lucky enough to attend SGLC (State Greenhand Leadership Conference for FFA), be elected as a Region VIII Assistant Officer, and make it to the FFA State Convention in three different contests.2

In the beginning of June, 2003, I attended the State Greenhand Leadership Conference, otherwise known as SGLC, in Hackensack, MN.  This was a five-day long camp for first year members of the FFA.  The day we left, I knew about five people who would be there, but by the end of the week I had met over a hundred new people and formed many long lasting friendships.  The bus ride up there was six hours long, which gave us plenty of time to get to know the people from our region in the state.  By the time we got up there, we were already having a great time and ready to meet even more people.  We were told to pick a room, as long as we were not with anyone else from our chapter.  Thank God for the room that I picked!  I met Ash and Wendi, who are now two of my best friends.  Throughout that week, we got to know the state officers, many members from throughout the state, and learn many new leadership skills.  Every night of camp we had “reflections” where the state officers told us inspirational stories about things that had happened to them.  Reflections on the last night of camp impacted me the most.  I did not want to go home and have to say goodbye to all the wonderful people I had met that week.  I will always remember what Luke Becker, a state officer, said to me that night.  He told me, “This is not the end to a good thing, but rather the beginning to many wonderful things.”  That gave me hope that I would keep up the relationships with all my new friends and that I would really go places in FFA.  The next day we bid farewell, shed a few tears, or a lot, and hopped on the bus for a six-hour bus ride home.  That week I developed many new leadership skills that have helped me become who I am today.    3

Because of the leadership skills I gained at Region and State Greenhand Camp, I knew that I wanted to be a Region VIII Officer as soon as possible.  I felt that I could do a pretty good job being an officer.  As soon as I heard about Region VIII officer elections, I asked my advisor for an application to fill out.  However, my advisor thought that it would be a waste of time for me to interview for a region office.  My friend, Colby, and I were so determined to run for an office and get it, but because of Mr. Schroeder’s attitude, we were discouraged.  After much debating, we finally were given our applications from our advisor.  Colby and I were both going to run for the position of sentinel, with assistant officer as our second choice.  We filled them out to make them appear as impressive as possible, and then we returned them.  In a few weeks my dad drove Colby and me to St. Charles where we had our in-person interviews.  Except these interviews were not just in front of one person, but they were in front of the entire region officer team and about 25 or so delegates.  Sure, it was nerve-wracking, but I was lucky enough to know all but five people in the room.  I thought I had my nerves under control until it was my turn to go into the room and give my speech.  I thought I was going to pass out.  Taking a deep breath and walking confidently into the room, I smiled and shook all of the officer’s hands.  I recited my five-minute speech just as I had rehearsed and then answered the officer’s questions for 15 minutes.  Because I was running for sentinel, the officers asked me questions related to how I would be a good addition to the officer team holding that office.  When my time was up, I said, “Thank you,” and walked out of the room with a smile on my face.  After a few minutes two officers came out and announced, “Your 2004-2005 Sentinel will be Amanda Anderson.”  I felt happy for Amanda because she was a friend of mine, yet I was a little disappointed.  That all went away within a few short moments.  The officers continued to say that since Colby and I had only run for one office, we were automatically dropped down to Assistant Officers, and we had the position.  At last, after a bit of arguing with Mr. Schroeder, a little discouragement, and a lot of stress, I was a Region VIII FFA Officer.4

Since I began my membership in the FFA, I developed leadership skills that helped me to be able to compete in three different contests.  In the fall I was a part of our dairy judging team.  It was my first year on the FFA dairy judging team, and I had just started judging cows the previous summer for 4-H.  I definitely had a lot to learn.  Our first contest was an invitational at the University of Minnesota at which our team placed first.  The next competition was region, held at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.  Our team felt fairly confident because of how well we had done at the U of M, and we ended up placing second and advancing to the state competition which was to be held in April.  I, however, had the lowest score on the team, so I would only be the alternate.  I would still be able to go to the State Convention; I just would not be competing.  Well, being an alternate was not good enough for me, so I knew I wanted to compete in another contest and do well enough to make it to state.  For the next couple of months I worked on a speech for the Public Speaking contest.  I decided that instead of doing some boring topic that no one cares about, I picked a more interesting topic where most people can choose a side.  My speech was entitled “Why Butter is Better than Margarine.”  The contest was held at RCTC in January.  I practiced my speech too many times to count, and I, again, was feeling pretty confident.  I do not become to nervous speaking in front of people, and I was proud that I came up with such a unique topic and researched it thoroughly.  I walked into the room, introduced myself to the judges, one of which I knew, and began my speech speaking clearly and carefully.  I made it through my speech without too many flaws and I had a good, sturdy time.  I then answered the judge’s questions for 15 minutes and left the room with a sigh of relief.  After a few hours we had the awards ceremony.  As they were announcing places, they kept getting higher and higher, and I still had not heard my name yet.  Finally, they announced that I placed second and advanced to the state contest.  I felt extremely happy knowing that I had earned a trip to the state convention.  The school year went on, and a friend of mine, a fellow percussionist in band, decided to write a drum piece that a few of us could perform for the talent show for the region banquet.  She wrote three different parts to be played on big, plastic tubs.  Mandi Goplen, the composer, Chelsea Mahoney, and I were the three that learned the piece and performed it at the region banquet.  We splatter painted the drums, drum sticks, and our tank tops with black-light reflective paint, and performed with black lights and a strobe light.  We were feeling pretty sure of ourselves because we had worked so hard and it was such a creative idea.  However, one performer named John Larki performed a song, which he composed and to which he sang along.  It was one of the most amazing things that we had ever heard.  All of a sudden a wave of insecurity hit us.  We had to perform after him.  We went out there, got everything set up, and started just as we had always practiced.  Everything went as planned, and we performed it as well as we ever had.  When it came time to give out awards, we were sure that we had gotten second behind John.  However, when they announced the winners, it was us, not John, that won.  They based it on creativity and uniqueness, which was what gave us such confidence in the beginning.  We would be competing at the State Convention in front of hundreds of FFA members from across the state.  I had now earned a trip to the State Convention with three different contests.  The State Convention was held in the end of April on the University of Minnesota campus.  The first night, Sunday, was when we performed in the talent show.  There were so many good acts, but we were just excited to have made it that far.  We had a light switch planned in the middle of our act, and we had two of our chapter members, Ben and Megan, to perform the switch for us.  Except the other people who were helping out backstage were not aware of this, so when Ben and Megan unplugged some of the black lights and plugged in the strobe light, the other people backstage thought we must have wanted all of the black lights off.  They unplugged all of our black lights, and it ended up that throughout the last half of the performance you could only see Mandi because the strobe light was right in front of her.  We were a little upset, okay, quite furious, but we kept a smile on our faces when John Larki, the second place finish back at regions, came out on top at the state competition.  Monday was the dairy judging competition.  Since I was only an alternate, I did not have to go and judge.  I wished my teammates good luck and headed off to the convention center to mingle and sit in on a few sessions.  The team did well, but they did not place high enough to advance to nationals.  Tuesday came, and with it the public speaking contest.  I soon found out that I was the last person to give my speech.  After hours of waiting, it was finally my turn to compete.  I walked into the room, gave my speech as I had rehearsed, and answered the questions to the best of my ability.  After a bit of discussing, they announced the people who had made it to the final round, and I was one of them.  That meant that I had to wait around and give my speech once more and answer a few more questions.  After all was said and done, I finally got to relax and go out to eat with my chapter at Baker’s Square.  After eating, we went back to watch the awards ceremonies.  I placed sixth over all out of 16 competitors from throughout the state.  I was extremely happy, especially since this was my first year competing in Public Speaking.  Overall, my year was very fulfilling by making it to the state level in three different categories and having a great time at the 75th Minnesota State FFA Convention.5

All throughout my years in the FFA program, I have gained many leadership skills and had the chance to experience new and wonderful things.  I know that this will only increase as my involvement in the FFA program increases.  Within just two years I was able to attend SGLC, be elected as a Region VIII Assistance Officer, and make it to the State Convention in three different contests.6