Hannah’s Happenings – State Presidents’ Conference

Hey FFA! Long time, no see! It’s been quite the summer as my teammates and I headed to D.C. for the 2009 State Presidents’ Conference beginning on July 21st. The theme for this year was “Unwritten Legacy” and during each day we discovered the Legacy of Leadership, Legacy of Agriculture, Legacy of Service and Our Own Unwritten Legacy.

During our first evening, we attended the Sunset Parade at the Iwo Jima memorial and even got to spend time getting to know some of the Marines following the ceremony.

The next day we kicked off the morning at the United States Department of Education where we heard informational and inspiring messages from the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture, Tom Vilsack, and the Deputy Assistant Secretary for the U.S. Department of Education, Glenn Cummings. Both of whom were extremely impressed with our group and expressed their gratitude for the work that our members are doing to further agriculture, agricultural education and the FFA.

Following a short workshop about conducting congressional visits, we all made our way to Capitol Hill to thank our respective legislators and talk with them about the issues facing our industry. That evening we kicked off our work as leadership delegates by revealing the issues to be considered, which were then broken down into the six issues that will come before the entire delegate body at National FFA Convention.

We revealed those six issues the following morning, signed up for delegate committees and met for the first time with our committees. It was exciting to see the very beginning of the delegate process in full swing! From there, we made our way to Arlington National Cemetery to honor those that have given their lives for our freedom. During our time there, we had the chance to watch the changing of the guard at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. I was absolutely thrilled and blown away by the fact that it was the first time I have ever seen a guard that was an African American woman. In fact, we heard that she is only the 4th woman ever that has been allowed to guard the tomb. Talk about girl power! :)

Even though it was a little rainy, we definitely enjoyed our time at the cemetery and there were plenty of wet blue corduroy jackets to go around. After drying off, we capped off the evening with a group movie – “National Treasure 2”.
Our final day kicked off with writing thank you’s to those who made SPC possible and then we spent the rest of the day touring the city. My teammates and I were blessed to have our families join us during our time at SPC and I really enjoying seeing the sights with my mom and dad, while my brother Reid toured with some of the other officers.

We rounded out our SPC experience with a night tour of Washington D.C. that included the Jefferson, Vietnam War, Lincoln, World War II, Korean War, and FDR Memorials. Our final stop was at a glowing Capitol building where we sat on the lawn for our last reflections. All in all, it was an absolutely amazing conference and I was so glad to get to spend more time with some great friends from all over the country!

*Pictures to come soon. They currently won't upload, but I'll keep trying!*

God Bless,
Hannah

Riley - Texas State Convention

Hey everyone!

Wow it has been a while since I have posted anything on here. The month of July was one absolute whirlwind of FUN! In the past month I have attended my last state convention, and hosted the state presidents conference with my teammates!

It was absolutely wonderful to head home(well sort of!) to Dallas, Texas for the 81st Texas FFA Conveniton. The Texas FFA Convention is held in a different city every year, and this was an exciting location because the convention has not been held in Dallas since 1981! It was great to experience a downtown environment for the state convention!

I was extremely excited about attending convention in Dallas, and apparently many others were too! There was a record breaking attendance at this convention with over 11,700! It was crazy. I was a little sad about the new record because the previous record was held by the state FFA convention during my state officer year...we were surpassed.

My week was full of speeches, workshops, catching up with old friends, thinking about what I want to be when I grow up, and just taking in the sights of Dallas.

On Monday, I went on the Business and Industry Visits in Dallas with the Current State Officer Team and the Incoming State Officer Team. We went to the La Quinta headquarters, the Exxon Mobil World Headquarters, a Personal Library of Historical Arifacts, and a Childrens Hospital.

During our visit to the Library we got to see some amazing pieces of history. One of my favorites was Abraham Lincoln's desk from when he was a congressman. Wow! Talk about cool!

On Tuesday everything got kicked off with workshops, concerts, vespers, and state degrees! I presented my workshop this day, we had a blast talking about influence. There were over 350 people in the workshop! It was cool!

Tuesday night we were treated to vespers by the state officers about getting rid of baggage, they did an amazing job, and the night was topped off with an Aaron Watson concert!

Wednesday was the official start of convention, I had a blast running around the convention floor hanging out with area officer teams, and members from around the state. I gave my keynote on Wednesday after noon and had a blast!

Thursday morning was the state presidential election. This is one of the biggest, craziest, and loudest sessions of the convention! There are 10 areas in the state and each area is guaranteed one state officer per year. The new state officers are elected back in May, and all ten run to be on the "Traveling Team" at state convention. The traveling team takes a year out of college and travels the state visiting chapters during the week! Pretty awesome gig!

So at state convention the new officers all run to be on the traveling team, they give speeches, the areas develop chants and cheers in support of their candidate. It is alsways crazy to see.

Here is a picture of the new state officer team during the election!

The candidates then come back in the next session and four of them will give a one minute run off speech!

Once the stress of the election is over we all get to kick back because next is FUN Night! Fun Night is a session for the talent competition. This session is themed each and every year and everyone dresses up according to the theme. This year the theme was "When I Grow Up!" It was awesome to see what some people dressed up as. Check out some of the pictures!

The next morning we finished up the convention with the final session. During this session we heard to amazing retiring addresses, and found out the results of the election. Congratulations to the outgoing state officer team, Tommy, Trevor, Mai Lee, Macy, Rachel, Amanda, James, Dean, Matthew, and Lora. You did an amazing job this year and I am proud of you! Good luck to the new state officer team, Katie, Miles, Alli, Aron, Jeremiah, Layton, Tyler, Dakota, Kaleb, and Kody. You will do an amazing job, I am excited to see all that you accomplish!

It was a great week being home and catching up with friends!