State Officer Professional Development #1

State Officer Professional Development
June 4-5, 2008
Minnesota FFA Chapter Leadership House
June 4
Finally, reunited with the whole team again! It was so exciting to catch up with everyone and see what they had been up to since Blast Off! A bunch of us had graduated, a few had decided to milk their cows while they had the chance, and a few of us lead boring lives and hadn’t been up to anything. Never the less, we dove right into our assignment that afternoon and worked with the fabulous, Sheryl Meshke, (AMPI), who helped us develop our Key Messages for the Minnesota FFA and start brainstorming Theme Ideas! I am looking forward to working with her again throughout the upcoming year! She is full of energy, passion and enthusiasm for the FFA. Especially since she was never an FFA member herself! So Thank you Sheryl!!
Now, this was a truly exciting and a fun filled afternoon; however, the development of a theme….not so easy! After much deliberation, we came up with three that we all agreed we could deal with and called it quits for the evening. Deciding that quitting for the day, going out, and then sleeping on our theme would do some good; we all changed and got ready for our night out on the town! Our first stop was Buffalo Wild Wings! I had never been to BWWs before but let me tell you, I LOVED It! I can’t wait to go back again! Then, us girls took the boys out to a chick flick. Looking around in the theatre, they were the only boys in attendance. They thought this was a bad thing, but honestly, I thought they had a pretty good ratio! That night, we hit the lights and slept peacefully after a long day!
June 5
8:30 a.m. and we were up and at in with our theme. Meeting the night previously, we all came to the conclusion that the three themes we had formerly chosen, today, nobody liked. Ugh, so we were at it again with theme development. The one word that kept popping into our minds to encompass our Key Messages and our State’s Anniversary of 80 years was: Legacy. So again, we took a little break from our theme and decided to work on SGLC Camp Curriculum.
After five hours of going over camp details, which I am truly excited about (if any of you are attending SGLC you are in for a week of Olympics!!), we got back to our theme development. We finally came up with, “Experience the Legacy!” I personally love this theme and think it ties into every one of our key messages and helps us celebrate our long-lasting history, rich in agriculture and service. I can’t wait to share it with the 9,090 MN FFA members this year!!