CHILLICOTHE, Ohio — The Zane Trace FFA chapter held a leadership night Feb. 2.
In attendance were four members of the Ohio FFA officer team: President Jeremy Grove, Secretary Justin Bachman, Vice President Suzie McMullen and District 2 President Jeffrey Stimmell.
Also attending were more than 75 members from the Logan, Amanda-Clearcreek, Adena, Paint Valley and Zane Trace FFA chapters.
The night started with sessions led by the state officers. Bachman taught about SMART goals and also threw in a little fun during the sessions.
McMullen taught the group a lesson on teamwork and as a demonstration she asked members to play freeze tag with a twist. The twist was that members had to move in groups of three tied together with a rope to “tag” other groups.
Stimmell conducted a lesson on the importance of our actions matching our words and values. He also explained that we need to take care of the things we value most first, then work on the smaller details second.
On Jan. 23-24 the Zane Trace FFA chapter participated in the Made For Excellence & Advanced Leadership Development Conferences at the Crowne Plaza hotel in Columbus.
In the Advanced Leadership Development Conference, junior and senior FFA members learned about how they can use leadership through themselves and use it throughout their community.
The Made For Excellence Conference for freshmen and sophomore members featured many of the same challenges and games but with a safari theme.
Members formed “tribes” such as the “cornhuskers” and “big green tractors” and went on “missions” to discover the leaders that they could become.
Chelsi Hempstead, Emily Wright and Danielle George received gold ratings on their FFA officer books Feb. 4. Each year the FFA officers complete their record books that carefully document chapter activities and events and they are taken to the District 7 evaluation held at the Ohio Department of Agriculture.
The books are graded by agriscience teachers using a rubric with a graded scale.
Hempstead, who served as the chapter treasurer for this past year, completed a book that contained receipts, budgets and net worth statements for the chapter’s treasury. Her book received a 92.
Wright served as the chapter secretary. Her book contained officer reports, meeting minutes, letters sent and letters received. Her book scored a 97.
George served as the reporter for this year and completed a chapter scrapbook for her officer book. The scrapbook contained pictures of the members and activities done throughout the year as well as newspaper clippings and chapter newsletter pages. Her book received a 100.
During the state FFA convention, the girls will be recognized on stage and receive a gold pin for their efforts.
Zane Trace FFA agriculture sales team placed second out of eight teams in the District 7 Career Development Event Jan. 19 at Lancaster High School.
The team members participated in a written test, sales presentation and customer relations practice as part of the competition. Members had to complete a sale of an agriculture or natural resources related product to their judge within seven minutes, which required them to think on their feet and react to the questions each judge gave them.
The team members included Tom Orr, Sarah Cox, Emily Wright and D.J. Jordan. The students will now advance to compete in the State Ag Sales CDE March 6 at Tolles Technical Center near Plain City.
Also in the competition, students were asked to submit a resume, application and cover letter for a mock job opening in an agriculture or natural resources related field.
Once this was done, each student then had the opportunity to complete a mock interview with a judge who evaluated the student on their manners, poise and professionalism in the interview.
Following the interview, each student wrote a follow-up letter to their judge and awaited the results of the contest.
Stephanie Glass placed second in the freshmen category, Jessy Norman took fifth in the sophomore group, Danielle George finished seventh in the junior class and Samantha Grizzell grabbed third in the senior division.
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