Winter Board Meeting/Region II Service Day

For one of my final FFA events in the month of December the entire officer team and I headed to Suak Centre for our winter board meeting.  This was a great time to begin talking about convention, the nominating committee process, and delegate issues at state convention.

It was fun to catch up with some of the officers that I hadn't seen since state fair, and some of us just had some good laughs.  

After the board meeting Caitlin, Shari, Katie, and I headed to Staples-Motley for the Region II Service day.  We enjoyed making Christmas ornaments with the residents of an assisted living.  I met one lady from Ohio who can still remember when her husband was an ag teacher and their chapter was the Premier National Chapter.  It just reminded me that Agriculture is everywhere, and will continue to be for a long time.

We then packed up and headed home for finals.

This concludes the many posts I've made today.  I'll be back in not too long.  My family and I will be enjoying a two week family vacation in Bali, Indonesia.  Until then--

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

University of Minnesota Winter Invitational

On December 11th Emily Achen and I helped out with the University of Minnesota Winter Invitational by working with the Job Interview CDE.  Emily and I enjoyed talking with some of the members while we waited to walk participants to their rooms.  It was good to remember my days in the Job Interview Contest as well that day.

After the contests were all finished up that day I headed out with my chapter to get a bite to eat.  I enjoyed talking with them about how the chapter was doing and what was going on in their lives.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Sauk Rapids-Rice and Holdingford Chapter Visits

On December 8th, Katie and I headed North for two chapter visits, Sauk Rapids-Rice, and Holdingford.

Our fist stop was at Sauk Rapids-Rice.  Here we were welcomed by one of the chapter officers.  She took us to Mr. Magnus' room where we were to meet with two of the Chatpter officers, Samantha and Sarah.  We talked about the chapters proceedings and what they had left until they headed off to college.  I was very intrigued by the PALS program that they chapter had.

After that we headed to Holdingford.  I was excited to see Region III President Shari Yurczyk there to welcome us.  We then sat around with the chapter officers and ate cookies and drank kool aid.  We were given a tour of their school.  We then met with one of the freshman classes.  

This was again another fun experience Katie and I had.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

CHS New Leaders Institute

One of my favorite excursions this year was on December 3rd.  Katie and I were invited to help out at the CHS New Leaders Institute.  The New Leaders Institute is put on by CHS, over 100 qualified young leaders in cooperatives are invited to be a part of this great experience.  The people came from all over the country.

Katie and I were helpers at this event.  We did things such a passing the mic around and running errands for some of the CHS staff.  While there we caught the great keynote address by past National FFA Officer Mark Mayfield.  

I then headed down to the Minneapolis Convention Center to help Ms. Jesse Frank in setting up the CHS New Leaders Institute booth.  We had a great conversation about the strong relationship CHS has with the Minnesota FFA Association.

It took Katie and I a bit to find our way out of downtown Minneapolis but we eventually did.  It was a great end to a busy week in FFA world.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Princeton Ag Fair

December 2nd brought fellow officer Sydney Place and I to Princeton for their Greenhand Ag Fair.  Sydney and I presented in correlation with their chapter officers.

The chapter officers had some great activities planned out and executed them nicely as we sat back and enjoyed being part of these fun and games for a bit.  Then Sydney and I were able to present many different topics from SAE's to CDE's to travel opportunities in FFA, to our very own experiences.

Sydney and I then headed out, while I knew that I would be visiting the CHS New Leaders Institute with Katie Zenk the next day.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa Chapter Visit

The week of December 1st was by far one of the busiest weeks I've had as a state officer since this summer.  The week started out with a nice 2 hour drive as I headed to BBE High School to visit with Mr. Rodgers Freshman in Wildlife class.

This was a quick 45 minute visit, but I was excited to see one of the students succeed at the dollar jump and steal my dollar.  The students, who were almost all guys, were a great group to work with .  They never left me with a dry minute to speak.  

This was another fun trip to record in the book.  But the week was only beginning. 

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Farm Bureau Annual Meeting

Katie, Pete, Justin, Caitlin, and I headed out on some slippery roads to visit with Kevin Papp and the Farm Bureau gang for their annual meeting on November 22nd.  Upon arriving Caitlin and I went to a session about family farms.  Caitlin and I were both very impressed and found that the speaker really hit home.

We then headed to the luncheon where we would hear from Kevin Papp, and see the final round of the Young Farmers and Ranchers discussion meet.  

I especially enjoyed the discussion meet.  It was very interesting to see how these people were very informed into what was going on in agriculture, and what we can do to increase the support and involvement of the young generation into agriculture, a problem that we as FFA members face every day.

This was a great day to see the everyone from Farm Bureau and the Young Farmer and Ranchers.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Buffalo Chapter Visit

On Monday, November 24th, I headed out with a friend from college to her home town of Buffalo, Minnesota for a chapter visit.  I was very impressed with the agriculture department here at Buffalo.  They had build a new school in the late 90's and have kept it up quite well.

Sara helped me in some of the activities as we went through the FFA Motto with the intro to agriculture class.  The class was very knowledgeable on their FFA facts and dates.

After this class we sat down with the chapter officers and had pizza.  This was a good time to talk about what was going on in the chapter.  After we finished this off Sara and I headed back to the cities for yet, another day of college classes.

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek

Ogilvie and Mora Chapter Visits

It has been such a long time since I've found myself filling up my blog, which means I have been keeping myself very occupied with FFA events, school, and a few other extra activities.  I hope that everyone's school year is going great, and that we are all ready for a break.  

On November 19th, State Reporter Sydney Place and I had the opportunity to travel to Ogilvie, Minnesota to meet with the introduction to agriculture class.  It was a great opportunity to talk about leadership opportunities within the FFA, and promote the FFA Organization in general.  Sydney and I particularly enjoyed getting to speak with a few girls interested in applying for the state band and choir.  

As soon as we concluded in Ogilvie we sped down the road 7 miles to Mora, Minnesota.  Here we talked with two groups of students.  Freshman in agriculture and an animal science class.  We enjoyed pizza with the classes before we said our goodbyes and headed out.

On our drive home Sydney and I listened to Christmas music, anticipating the holidays.

You will be hearing much more from me this week!  Keep up the great work everyone!

Stationed by the Rising Sun,

Derek