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”.

NLCSO

June 16th 2008, two vans loaded with luggage and 13 state officers excited to hit the road, except that it was a 10 hour drive. So we headed south to Aurora Nebraska as a state officer to attend National Leadership Conference for State Officers (NLCSO). Jamming out to the radio, cracking jokes, and making our state officer bracelets is what most of the drive down consisted of. Rolling into town around 9:00 we were all quite tired from our long drive. While in Nebraska we stayed at the Nebraska State leadership center. Unloading out things we got our rooms and hit the hay.
June 17-19th 2008. Our first day was a day of getting to know everyone. The Nebraska, Kansas, and South Dakota teams arrived and we got acquainted with them. NLCSO is put on by the National FFA Organization. They have two national officers present the 5 day conference, we were so lucky to have Southern Region Vice President: Brady Revels and Western Region Vice President: Kari Boettcher to work with. The theme for NLCSO this year was “Discover the rhythm”, using tons of music, and video clips made this theme and conference a kick’ in one!!!!!
Over these 5 days were able to work on a lot of our planning for SGLC. Working with our partners to plan and lay out our sessions was great, I think planning this far ahead is why I think we had a stellar State Greenhand Leadership Conference! We also learned more about things we knew and things new to us such as; smart goals, being a stake holder, team development, teams vs. groups, barriers for teams, using one another’s strengths to help the better of the team, setting priorities, decision making strategies, and accountability both for my teammates and myself. One of the biggest things that opened my eyes was being told I am not a big deal, having the a office is important but me as an individual in the position does not make me any more special than before being elected. It is not about me, it’s about the 9,000 plus members of Minnesota FFA! We had several sponsors of this event stop in and visit with us. It is always nice to have the opportunity to ask questions about their companies, along with what they see happening in the future for this ever changing, exciting, roller coaster ride of an industry.

I will say we as a state officer team we had our great times and not so great times. We had our times of forming, storming, norming, proforming, and adjourning. I can honestly say we formed closer as a team, we had our times of storming, which I leaned can be healthy for a team to do. We preformed as a team in several tasks, and we adjourned together as a team, we all made it through it together!
One of the most exciting things was getting to know the other state officer teams along with the two national officers, all of them were so fun!! I can’t wait to see all of them again at National Convention in Indianapolis. Being told we are the leaders of tomorrow was a real eye opener. This really made me think about my future and how I want to give back to this industry that has taught me so much. I remember hearing someone say “treat every student as your best student”. I think about this and as I meet FFA members from across the state I tell myself that these members are also the future of our industry and the ones who could be in my shoes someday leading Minnesota’s FFA Association.

June 20th 2008 review and close, wow what a week! Where did the week go? Recapping on the week we were able to refresh our memories on the material we covered and why we were there. Receiving some sweet gift from the national officers; thanks to the sponsors of this event, a lot of the stuff will be useful throughout the year. OK everyone in? load’um up, time to hit the road once again, and head north. Traveling through Iowa on the way back home made the trip even more boring, ha-ha just kidding. The trip home was fun, laughing about thing from the week and finishing making our trinkets for SGLC made the drive go by fast. But what a great experience, I am so glad I got to be part of it and be with my teammates on this road tip!