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!