| The next A-C FFA meeting will be held March 18th, 2002 at 7:00 PM. The Ag Challenge event will be volleyball. All members are encouraged to participate and support their class. Last month's Ag Challenge activity was the Marshmellow Stuffing Contest and that was won by the Sophomore class.
Robert Blosser has been hard at work. After recieving his State Degree his junior year, he filled out the application again and went through a tough interview process. He did this to become a 2002 Star State FFA Degree Nominee, one of only 2 in our district for the area of production. He has also filled out an application for his American Degree, the highest and most prestegious degree the FFA can offer, and has been selected as an Ohio nominee. He will be recognized at the State Convention. Only the top 1/2% of over 450,000 members get this honor. Congratulations Robert!!!!!!!! |
At the last meeting, the chapter voted on new officers. In order to be on the ballot, each member that wanted to run for an office had to fill out an application and participate in an interview with the nominating committee. Here's the rundown: Congratulations to all new officers and thanks to James Heidell and Nick Greiner all A-C FFA Alumni members for helping Mark Francis in the selection process. We would also like to thank Jared Johnson, also an A-C FFA Alumni member, for helping with the elections. |
| In February, the sellers who sold over 25 boxes of fruit went on a trip to the National Farm and Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. Members that attended are: Sidney Bennett, Katie Bowman, Brian Bussert, Amie White, Mark Francis, Amber Hedrick, Travis Kiser, Samantha Wiggins, Andrea Loudermilk, Rachel Makarius, Jace Spires, Tiffany Timmons and Brandy Vannoy. Thanks to Jared Johnson and Cliff Rutter, A-C FFA Alumni members, former member Nathan Holbrook, and parent and former member Joel Spires for chaperoning the trip. | Five outstanding members of our chapter interviewed for state proficiency awards. Interviews are only granted to the top few in each area statewide. Four outstanding members from A-C are in the top 3 in the state, which is the most the chapter has had in over 10 years. They are: *Mark Francis, in Agricultural Processing; *Robert Blosser in Grain Production; *Jace Spires in Home and/or Community Development and Nursery Operations; & *Rachel Makarius in Poultry Production. Robert Blosser also interviewed in Diversified Crop Production, and Erin Gilfillen interviewed in Floriculture. Congratulations and Good Luck! Final Results will be available at state convention. |
| In the beginning of February, Mr. Tilley and Mr. Sharp presented the SAE projects (Supervised Agricultural Experience projects in which the member is on their own to produce, raise, or build something to make a profit from it, or get a job and invest the money wisely), to the District Teacher's Review board. In total there were 19 applications turned in from Amanda-Clearcreek. In order to be considered, each applicant must fill out a very lengthy and in depth application, to show where each dollar came from and where it went. These applications are very tedious and require an enormous amount of writing. Each applicant has to tell what he or she has gotten out of FFA, etc. This is made a little easier by good record book keeping. Here are the district results: |  Career Development Events are team events that help members to focus on one certain topic and to learn teamwork while being competitive. If you participate in a contest, don't forget to put it in your general record book, it will help with getting your state degree. Spring is approaching quickly, and that means Spring CDEs are just around the corner. AC has traditionally done well in all CDEs, and this year hopefully will prove to be successful again. The contest areas we participate in are: *Meats, in which participants judge the quality and identify types of meat; *Agronomy, designed to assess the student's knowledge of agronomic practices for the production of field crops. A practical examination requires the student to identify specimens of crop and weed plants and seeds, diseases, and insects or their damage. Two written tests cover the use of soil tests, county soil surveys and current agronomic practices, and fertilizer, sprayer calibration problems and their solution. *Dairy Cattle, an educational activity designed as a practical method of teaching students to select quality dairy cattle. Students will be challenged with pedigree evaluation, sire selection, linear evaluation, a written test, placing classes and written class reasons. *General Livestock, in which each participant judges a class of sheep, hogs, and cattle. *Equine Management, in which each member takes a written test, completes a tack an equipment identification test, judges 4 classes of horses and judges a class of hay. *Wildlife Management, in which each member identifies different types of wildlife by track, feather, wing, etc in a written test. *Poultry, in which each member grades eggs, live birds and chicken carcasses. The members also take a written test. The chapter will participate in 4 contests this year, Mt Gilead Invitational on March 9th, Marysville Invitational on March 16th, District (at Canal Winchester) on April 13th and State on April 20th for everything but Wildlife Management, which is on April 27th. |
| Last month, the chapter participated in some more business oriented contests. They were: *Public Speaking (June Spires, Mallory McMaster and Angela Davis). In the Creed Speaking contest, June Spires placed 4th in county. (a first year member, usually a freshman, recites the FFA Creed from memory). Mallory McMaster placed 3rd in Beginning Prepared Speaking (a second year member, usually a sophomore, prepares and presents a 5-7 minute speech about anything related to agriculture )and Angela Davis placed 1st in Extemporaneous Speaking (This contest is open to members of any age, and the participant has 30 minutes to prepare and present a speech dealing with a random topic they recieve at the contest.) This is one of the harder contests to partipate in, as a recent poll found that most Americans were more scared of speaking in front of people than death! Thanks to A-C FFA Alumni members Eric Valentine and Jennifer Strickler for judging the Chapter run-off contest. | *Ag Sales (Thad Helber, Aaron Strickand, Jordan Lee and Mallory McMaster) This contest utilizes people skills in all areas. It consists of a written test, a sales presentation and a practicum. The 4 practicums are Telephone Skills, Customer Relations, Advertising and Promotion, and Product Display. One member from each team completes one practicum. This year, Mallory did the Telephone Skills, Jordan did Customer Relations, Thad did product display and Aaron did Advertising and Promotion. The team finished 3rd in the district. Mallory placed 8th, Jordan placed 13th, Aaron placed 19th and Thad placed 21st! Congratulations! *Job Interview (Amber Hedrick, Jace Spires and Angela Davis). In this contest, the participant sits down and conducts a mock interview with a "potential employer". The contest is divided up into 3 areas, Ag Science, Ag Business and Ag Production. Amber placed 5th in the Ag Science area, Angela placed 2nd in the Ag Business area and Jace placed 4th in the Ag Production area in our district. Congratulations! |