RNC

Wow I think this could be the high light of my officer year, attending the republican national convention was truly an honor! Finding out at state fair that I was going to be able to be part of this all I could do is anxiously wait all day long. All decked out in our Official Dress and looking sharp as usual, Derek, Caitlin, Katie, Sydney, Brad and I made out way to downtown Minneapolis. The night was ours and believe it or not, we got to walk the red carpet!
The night was filled with walking around a crowd of 4,000 people and meeting new people and catching up with people I had not seen in a long time, you would not believe the number of people at this event, people from near and far. I met so many amazing people that come from numerous different agricultural fields. Being dressed in my FFA jacket I easily noticed and it was very easy to strike up a conversation with someone. A common story we heard was “Be careful those corduroy jackets will shrink and they won’t fit you some day.” I loved hearing all the stories people shared with me about their FFA experience and how proud they were to see us in attendance.

I was also very lucky to share our key message, the key message of the FFA with many news reports and camera men. I was told by the end of the night I should have my smile down after so many pictures. Between socializing and pictures we were able to enjoy some amazing food (the pork chop on a stick was amazing) Dahh you can’t go wrong with pork, there was also a kick butt live bad, where Sydney and I showed them a few dance moves!
I know the high light of the night was meeting the Executive Vice President & CEO of Win Field Solutions Mr. Rod Schroeder. His story is almost identical to mine; growing up in a small down, both having less than 60 kids in our graduating class, both of us were the presidents of our FFA chapters, we both grew up on farms, and both advocates of agriculture. Visiting with him about where I was from, where I am attending college and what I plan to do in the future, I told him this is what I love, meeting new people and coming to events like this. Both of us sharing a laugh together when I told him “I either want to have a job that allows me to do things like this or marry someone who does.” I could have talked with him all night, but it was time to leave for the night. Putting to good use I gave him one of my business cards, along with a thank you and & handshake, before walking away he ask “Do you have an internship lined up for next summer?” I replied “No not at the moment”, handing me one of his business card he said “Well we need to sit down and talk about that.” I couldn’t believe it, talk about a way to end the night.
This was just an astonishing event, and I am so thankful to the FFA and Val Aarsvold for this opportunity. People coming together like this to socialize, enjoy some food, and share the passion for agriculture really remind me why I love agriculture.

SLCCL

State Leadership Conference for Chapter Leaders
July 12-18t
h Hackensack, MN Deep Portage
Mission Possible was the theme for the week! What is your mission? Why are you here this week? Those were the questions. What a week, it was amazing to return and see familiar face from a year ago when I was the rec. director at SGLC, and to start new friendships with new members! People asked how camp was and I would tell them “out of all 7 camps I have been to over the years this has to be one of the top one’s.”

The week brought many high lights a few of them were; at each camp I try and claim room #501, at this camp it became the 501 fraternity. I wouldn’t have asked for a funnier group of guys. Starting a new Olympic sport “ultimate showing” we took 14 showers in 11 minutes. We also had a number of sayings we said throughout the week “nice shoes….”, “Who’s house? OUR HOUSE!” along with a few others. We also won the best room award at the banquet. Thanks for a great time guys! Below is a picture of my staff the guys signed for me and our certificate for best room & fraternity.

Like always I enjoy getting to meet my small group! I had an awesome small group at camp, we were the screwdrivers or as we like to put it the “BFS’ers!” We did alright in the volleyball tournament, but faced a tuff team in the semi finals and lost to the “Purplurz. “ I really felt like I related to this small group more than any other. Learning all their names the first day made it all the better! I miss all of you BFS’ers for life :).

Another exciting part of camp was the service project we did. With our goal of 20,000 service hours this year we had several different projects we help deep portage staff with. I was a part of the invasive species group; we were lucky enough to pull thistles and ragweed around the buildings. We had a great time doing this, whether we were telling jokes, finding animals like snakes, or competed to who could get the most weeds.

As state officers we had plenty planned for all the campers. Sessions to further develop their leadership skills, rec. time, reflections to have them ask themselves what their mission is, and plenty of other activates all of us enjoy. A few of the other activates were a few of my favorites, starting with the Banquet, I served as banquet officer when I attended camp and I recall how much fun it was. This year’s banquet officers did an amazing job, and had one heck of a hilarious skit. Quickly following we had our famous FFA dance! I think we often overlooked we FFA members have some mad dancing skills! Speaking of skills we had a number of outstanding talent acts at the talent show. Lastly I always enjoy beating the lady state officers in the annual watermelon feed!

As I typed this blog I got somewhat emotional because both camps for the summer have come and gone. I can honestly say SGLC & SLCCL are the reason I wanted to become A MN State FFA Officer. Having the opportunity to meet so many members and being a part of building their leadership, personal growth and someday their career success is a feeling I cannot describe. We wrapped up the with letter writing which is also one of my favorite parts of camp. But like every story must come to an end we had to say our goodbyes. It was one of the hardest things I had to do saying good bye to so many members who taught me so much. You will never know the feeling until you have experienced, but the sensation that comes to a person when they read a letter a camper writes them telling you how you impacted their life, and as they sign the letter calling you a role model is remarkable. As I looked out the rear window of the truck back at Deep Portage a tear came to my eye, because I do not now know when I will ever return, all I can say is thank you for 7 wonderful camp, all the memories, and friendships that will last a life time, my time spent here will never be forgotten!

Minnesota Agricultural Ambassadors Institute

MAAI

Minnesota Agricultural Ambassadors Institute

July 9-11^th

The 2008 MAAI conference was held in Rochester; Justin, Caitlin, Sydney, and I were able to attend this conference representing MN FFA Association. This conference is put on by the MN Pork producers and MN Farm Bureau. This conference is designed to target the agricultural industry leaders of tomorrow. We had the chance to meet pork ambassadors from across the state, leaders from local FFA chapters, and several adult leaders in the Ag industry. This was my 3^rd time attending, but I again learned something new, and met so many new people.

         At this conference we had an Ag issues session, David Preisler, Minnesota Pork Producers Association, Kevin Paap, Minnesota Farm Bureau, and Robin Kinney Minnesota Department of Agriculture Representative were the individuals on the panel who answered our questions. All day Thursday we were able to take several tours in southeastern Minnesota. We first stopped and toured the Hormel meat packing plant in Austin; from there we traveled to Claremont and toured Al-Corn ethanol plant. Lastly we traveled west of Rochester and had the pleasure to tour the Allen dairy farm. I am a swine boy so the Hormel plant was my favorite, but wow talk about a dairy operation at the Allen farm, it was very interesting!

         Another highlight we had at this conference was getting to meet with the makers of the “Farmboy” clothing brand; I look forward to this part every year. With all of us farm boys and farm girls here they asked us for ideas for new products, and to help pick out a few products that are ready to hit the stores. If you know me, you know that I love to eat! To end this conference with a BANG we went to Michael’s restaurant (probably the nicest restaurant in Rochester) for an etiquette luncheon. WOW what a meal, and I leaned so much more to improve my dinning skills

         A special thanks to Trudy Wastweet, Robin Kinney, Kevin Paap, and Tara Sammon for an outstanding conference, it was a pleasure to work with all of you once again! Best of luck to all county pork ambassadors running for MN state pork ambassador in January, as a past MN State Pork Industry Ambassador I’m rooting for all of you, keep representing our industry well!!

RLC

RLC 2008
July 1st, 2008Howard Lake High SchoolRegional Leadership Conference
Hitting the road west once again I was on my way to Sydney’s house. Kaylee, Sydney and I gathered in Okabena and then headed north for Rachael’s house. Boy talk about a fun car ride, all three of us riding in the front seat jamming out to Disney sings! Once we arrived at Rachael’s house at 12:00a:m, we had a musical marathon, which I think we watched Guys and Dolls! I sure did enjoy that. I think I was the first one asleep.The next morning Kaylee, Rachael, Sydney and I traveled to the Town of Howard Lake to attend one of the Regional Leadership Conferences. We were able to see many chapters excited about the upcoming year. Brad, Lezlie, Amber, Josh and Jon did a fantastic job presenting the information to the chapter officer teams! Sydney and I also go to inform the members about our 10,000 service hours X2 project. It was also very funny to hear about Kaylee and Rachael having to pick up the 6 foot party subs from subway and having to get them in their car from the drive-thru.
It was great meeting members from this part of the state, and making memories with some of my teammates! Also thanks to Mr. Weininger, HLWW Advisor, for giving us many t-shirts as parting gifts! Thanks Winnie! Is the Windog in you?

Day at the Dome!

Circle us Bert!!!! MN FFA in the house. What a better way to top off the week at Greenhand Camp than FFA at the Dome? Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and the Minnesota Twins along with Minnesota FFA members, Alumni and Sponsors celebrated FFA at the Dome on Sunday, June 29. Starting at 11:00 the Minnesota FFA Foundation hosted a tent of Famous Dave’s BBQ for all FFA supporters in attendance! It was great to see familiar faces from CHS, Farm Bureau and all of our supporters. It put a smile to see FFA members who were at camp prior in the week, along with meeting their parents. It was a pleasure to meet MN FFA last national officer Mr. Harder, whose son was at camp earlier in the week.


Game time, we Minnesota State FFA Officers took our seat on the third baseline along with many FFA members from across the state, and cheered on our Twins as they beat the Brewers in a fantastic game of baseball!! The South Dakota State Officer team was also there cheering on our team and it was great to see Brian, Shad, Shane, Josh, Wyatt and Maria again! Thank you to all who attended this day and cheered on the Minnesota Twins to victory! A massive thank you to Val Aarsvold, and the MN FFA Foundation for making this event possible, I can’t express how much I appreciate your support!

SGLC

State Greenhand Leadership ConferenceDeep Portage, Hackensack, MNJune 23-27, 2008State Greenhand Leadership Conference has been my favorite activity since being a Greenhand, I can honestly say this is event that started the fire inside me, a fire of passion and hard work for the FFA however, now after reliving it as a State Officer, I can honestly say that it is the most essential thing FFA members can do in FFA to develop their passion for this organization.Arriving in Deep Portage on Sunday, it felt right like home, walking through those doors entering the Great Hall brought back so many memories! The Deep Portage Staff was so welcoming and helpful with everything we needed! We are so grateful that they let us use their great facility, I hope we can continue our friendship for many years to come! Sunday was the day of setup. Hanging decorations, installing our “fake” FFA wall, and setting up tables and chairs for 150 campers was a work in progress. However, once it was finished, we were able to look back on all we had accomplished and know that the campers were in for a fantastic week of “Going for the Gold!" That night, each of the SOs got together with their presentation partners and finalized preparations for the sessions later that week.10:00 AM Monday morning, and Greenhand Camp was well on its way with 150 campers from across the state of Minnesota all arriving in Hackensack, Minnesota for a week of leadership, friendship, and fun! Lunch started at noon and the afternoon brought the beginning of the sessions of SGLC!

It was amazing to watch each camper grow as the week went on, all arriving to camp as strangers and by the end of the week becoming friends. I would have to say one of the most memorable moments from camp was cabin chats! Justin and I got to chat with a few cabins of girls and boy was it a boat load of fun and laughs, leaving them for the night singing “She’s lost that love & feeling” and receiving a “Goodnight Pete & Justin we love you” just puts a smile on my face. J Being a part of the Umpas my small group, this group of campers was amazing! Making our way to the volleyball championship was so thrilling. Even though we fell short to Jake’s team we put up a fight and made them earn it!
Between rock climbing, volleyball, canoeing, and playing football, the campers were able to bond and meet new members from different chapters across the state. The best part for me as a State Officer was seeing the friendships that formed throughout the week at Greenhand Camp. Members who had never met before Monday, at the end of the week were promising that they would be friends for life; and I could see that just from being around them. The talent show and dance on Thursday night were highlights for many, and saying goodbyes on Friday had never been harder.
It is incredible to see how members are at the begging of the week, and how they have changed by the end of camp. Most of the kids the first day are ready to go home, and on Friday not one of them wanting to return home. Also once everyone is home you can tell they miss camp and their new friends just by their facebook status.
Thanks you MN FFA and MN FFA members who attended this conference, these are memories I will never forget.

RENT!

June 21st 2008. The day started off at the department of education. Derek, Katie, Kaylee, Sydney, and I all met to crunch the workbooks for SGLC. We quickly got a system down that worked quit well; this only took us part of the afternoon. Finishing up around 3:00 we all headed to Farmhouse to take a nap before our evening festivities.
“RENT!! What is Rent? It’s a musical play. Ok, will I like it? O yes, you will love it.”Well $60.00 later I had been cultured a bit. Derek, Katie, Kaylee, Sydney, and I decided to hit the city lights! Yes I was going to my fist musical opera play. Don’t get me wrong, I was in all of my high school and I had been to London England and seen sever play performances. So I was totally up for a night on the town and a chance to look sharper than James Bond. All the ladies looking stunning and us guys looking handsome (as usual) we took off for the Ordway theater. Arriving early we posed for a few pictures, because this is one time we got to dress up and one of our first times out of our Official Dress! We then made our way walking around downtown St. Paul and making our way into Macys. Following the girls around for almost an hour I think we got to see every department in the store, but I think Derek and I learned a thing or two.


Taking a look at my watch it was about time to make our way back to the Ordway. We quickly got our seats and waited for the show to start. Getting the run down from Sydney about the play, I quickly knew I was in for a treat. I will say it was an experience I won’t forget. Especially the point in the play when an actress asked the house to moo with her…… sadly people in the house did join her. The funny part was someone two seats down from me was mooing, funny right? Dang right it is because it was Derek! At this time I looked at Sydney and said “Are you kidding me, is this really happening?” Ha-ha all I can do is laugh because it was so much fun. I love acting and seeing plays, but I am the type of person who like plays with lines. I don’t care for every word in play being sung.
This is one of the first things we did as teammates outside of the FFA, I had a great time, and would do it again, I am glad we took the time to “Sharpen our saws”.