President Bob Barton's State of the FFA Alumni

Fellow FFA Alumni,

As President I felt it necessary to provide you an update on the activities at a national level. As most of you know November 14, 2011 Frank Saldana moved within the organization to a Local Program Support (LPS) position covering the South East. Since then Tony Small, Partner Services Division Director has been the interim Director. I have been in steady contact with Tony and the National FFA Alumni staff to ensure the voice of the FFA Alumni membership is present during the audit of current association programs. Many of you ask, what is the timeline to hire a new Executive Director? Believe me I can’t wait! However, the end of November your executive committee asked FFA to hold off on the solicitation to allow further review of the job description. Today, I am pleased to announce, that January 25th we began interviews.

During the last 3 months it has become apparent that several of our current programs have not been assessed or updated since 1971. I am not saying that it is all bad; however to run like a well-oiled machine you must have regular tune-ups, it gave us the opportunity to revisit several things and ask questions. For instance with our two main goals.
1. To have an active fully engaged FFA Alumni affiliate associated with every FFA chapter, and
2. To be the leaders in advocacy for agricultural education.
Is our Vision Statement still current? Also, looking at operation budgets and cost of doing business, should we look at rebates and newsletter expense? Are our Awards relevant? Should National FFA Alumni be providing Scholarships? Or is it our role to have in place programs and materials to help each of you provide for and support your Local and State programs? And how do we answer the question: “Why do I pay National Dues?” I would appreciate your feedback and thoughts on these!

Recently, your staff and council spent three long days working on critical items. We had the opportunity to learn and grow through presentations, brainstorming sessions, updates and reports; we created committees with attainable goals, objectives and timelines; had productive conversations and left exhausted! I feel great pride in the work the council and staff did and believe each FFA Alumni member has a voice and is being represented by people at the table. After our meeting I left feeling confident we will make great strides toward achieving our long range goals, please join me in thanking your National FFA Alumni Council for their service.

Also, we were given an opportunity to have a better understanding of our Agricultural Career Network (AgCN) FFA Alumni portals, our new membership/roster system. We are excited about the potential these will bring but unfortunately they will be delayed until summer 2012. I know you are anxious to move to an electronic system but I’m so nostalgic for our excel rosters that we can’t let them go this year. So if you would join me one last time in filling out and sending in those wonderful excel rosters we can celebrate both their retirement and mine at National FFA Alumni convention this October in Indianapolis, Indiana.

I hope to see all of you in Bozeman Montana for our FFA Alumni Development Conference, July 11-14, 2012. Staff is working on action packed workshops and plenty of sightseeing trips, including a day trip to Yellow Stone National Park. My hope is to have several things in place to talk about, gaining thoughts and insight from each and every one of you in attendance.

In closing, I would like to thank each of you for what you do as a volunteer for this wonderful organization daily! If you are raising money for your local chapter, providing assistance to your local instructor, mentoring students, or fighting to save a program within your school district, your passion and dedication to Agricultural Education and FFA is apparent. I strive every day to strengthen every FFA Alumni affiliate in every community along with having programs in place allowing community members, businesses, administrators and anyone with a voice to understand the importance of our great organization… so we can be a united force for Agricultural Education and FFA!




Bob Barton
National FFA Alumni President

National FFA Alumni Council Re-Energizing Meeting

After a long and jam-packed weekend of hard nosed work with the National FFA Alumni Council, Andrea Stevenson of Christmas Florida, reflects on how she re-energizes her passion for FFA every time she can.

"I realize I talk alot bout the FFA and this weekend is just one of the reasons why. Tomorrow I am going to Dade City to stay with some friends that I met when I was an FFA member 20 years ago and in addition I get to see another friend that I met in 7th grade at Forestry Camp. After all these years we still stay in touch. It's one of the many reasons why I am so passionate about FFA!"

Andrea Stevenson
National FFA Alumni Council
Member-at-Large Representative

Your National FFA Alumni Council worked hard from dusk-till-dawn January 19-21. Their work will propel the National FFA Alumni Association in a direction that will help achieve the two long range goals:
1. Every FFA chapter has an active and engaged FFA Alumni affiliate
2. Become the leaders in advocacy for agricultural education
And create an environment where the national association can impact more students and recruit more FFA Alumni members.
The energy was high and at times so was the tension... but this is what happens when you have passionate people working passionately to save, strengthen and sustain FFA and agriculture education.
Thank you to the 2012 National FFA Alumni Council and thank you to all whom they represent, we the staff appreciate all you do and thank you for re-energizing our passion!
Lucy Whitehead
National FFA Alumni

Idaho FFA Alumni is Engaged!

Watch out! The Idaho FFA Alumni are fired up and readying themselves to take on the world. They just wrapped up an intense weekend of strategizing, planning and goal setting to revitalize their state Alumni Association and to grow the number of FFA supporters in the great state of Idaho.

Four Oregon FFA Alumni Council members traveled to snowy McCall, Idaho to join the Idahoans for the weekend. Armed with great food, plenty of coffee, M&M’s, white board and markers, they shared their experiences and helped facilitate Idaho’s development of a vision statement, mission and short and long-term goals. And it was the help of the National FFA Alumni’s State-to-State Mentorship Grant that made this weekend of planning possible. It was an amazing experience and I’m thankful I was allowed the opportunity to lend a hand.

Chuck Radloff, Idaho Alumni Council President said in an email to all that participated “I think we made some tremendous strides forward in developing a sustainable and stable state FFA Alumni Association for Idaho. The sharing of your experiences and insights will be priceless to us as we grow and expand our services.”

Well said Chuck! And the feeling is mutual. The passion, enthusiasm and dedication of all that participated were infectious and everyone that participated went away with something. Whether it was how to organize, getting new ideas for fundraising, improving relationships with our FFA partners or renewing our commitment to the FFA Alumni, FFA and agriculture – everyone grew from being a part of this event.

Thank you National FFA Alumni for the State-to-State Mentorship Grant and for providing the seed to make this opportunity to engage blossom!

Sincerely,
Shauna McReynolds
Western Region Representative
National FFA Alumni Council

Oregon FFA Alumni Council Cooks Up Support for Ag Advisors

There are hundreds of ways to show people you care about them and appreciate what they do. And like so many FFA Alumni, we do a lot of cooking to show how much we care. This time it was the Oregon FFA Alumni Council cooking for our ag teachers!

Strengthening ties and supporting ag advisors is a key component of the Oregon FFA Alumni’s mission:
“Ensure the future of agricultural, career and technical education through the support of students and advisors.”

This priority was affirmed when the Oregon Alumni Council members provided the main dinner for almost 100 Oregon ag advisors at their annual Summer Conference.

Oregon’s Council members have consciously put time and energy into maintaining a strong working relationship with the ag teachers in our great state. And it has paid off tremendously. The relationships and connections we are building are strong. Those ag programs that do not enjoy the benefits of having an Alumni are seeing first-hand how the programs with strong Alumni relationships are thriving. As they say “a picture (or real-life example) is worth a 1,000 words!”

For fun, the Council members challenged themselves to a pork rib cook-off. The judges – all the ag teachers – voted for the best ribs, not knowing who cooked what! It was close but, President-Elect Rod Cockeram’s secret sauce beat out President Neal Lucht’s private recipe. We had a little extra fun, sneaking in an entry of cold turkey dogs on behalf of Past President Mr. Bob Barton adding plenty of laughter to the evening.

It is a joy to spend time with the hardworking ag teachers and do what we can to ease their burden.
Oregon FFA Alumni Coucil!

How has FFA Impacted my Life?

Wow. What a loaded question!

Let me tell you a story about a shy girl who never really fit in. She joined FFA as an eighth grader because her dad was an FFA alumni. In her 9th grade journal she wrote "I need to find something that I'm passionate about. I need to find my purpose in life." Pretty weighty words for a 14-year-old!

When this girl was a sophomore in high school, she attended the National FFA Convention. It was a life-changing experience. Almost overnight the shy girl who didn't fit in had come out of her shell. She spearheaded a membership drive that doubled her chapter's membership in her junior year. She battled against the school board because of possible cuts to the Agriculture Education program in her senior year. She ran for state office (and was the runner-up!). She earned her State and American FFA degrees.
She went to college and double majored and threw herself into completely into her passion-- agriculture. She held leadership positions, she excelled, made friends and made a name for herself in her state's agriculture industry. She served as an industry role model for high school students, she worked for high-profile farmers, she did nearly everything that she aimed her sights on. This girl, who had moved off the farm early in her life, traveled over the United States and Canada to learn about her passions.

Today, this girl owns and operates a farm with her husband and son, as well as working with youth in FFA and another well-known youth organization, 4-H.
Much of what this girl has done was made possible by the experiences and skills that she had and honed through her involvement in FFA.
Thank you FFA,
Heather Moore

Joe Diffie (FFA Alumni Lifemember) Offers Acoustic Concert Fundraisers

You know Grammy-winning, Grand Ole Opry member, and country superstar Joe Diffie for his monster hits like John Deere Green, Pickup Man, Prop Me Up Beside the Jukebox, and many others.

Did you know that Joe is offering an exclusive opportunity to FFA chapters and affiliates to bring an intimate acoustic concert to your community as a fundraiser?

Joe appeared in Alumni Nation at the Career Show booth at this year’s National FFA Alumni convention in Indianapolis this past October. Joe signed autographs, and promoted the opportunity to bring Joe to your town! He also performed at the 40th Anniversary Celebration singing two of his classics, Third Rock from the Sun and Pickup Man; helping the FFA Alumni celebrate 40 years of Advocating, Educating and Believing in FFA and Ag Education.

At the celebration, Joe was presented with his National FFA Alumni Lifemembership, purchased for him by Johnny and Mona Jones of Lyons, GA. If you couldn't be at convention and want to find out how to bring the newest member of the FFA Alumni to your hometown, contact FFA Alumni or click here for more information: http://www.bigshowmusicco.com/Site/JD_FFA.html

FFA and FFA Alumni Changing Lives, Shout Out from a Proud Parent

Barbara Antecio - Rociada, NM
I am an FFA mom who is now a grandmother. All 3 of my sons Will, Aaron and Matt were in FFA at Robertson High School in Las Vegas New Mexico. After our sons graduated and left home they all married lovely country girls, 2 of which were also in FFA. One of the daughters is still active in coaching the forestry team.

My husband and I wanted to continue to support FFA so in 1997 we organized the "The Rociada Buyers Club" in order to purchase animals at our local county fair sale. Any animal we purchase is then donated to the Robertson FFA who then in turn have the meat processed and raffled off as a fund raiser. That money is then used for their trip to Nationals.

In June of 2010 our 100 year old barn was restored to better condition than it had been in all its existence! Thanks to the National FFA Alumni, three FFA chapters from Michigan, Wisconsin and New Mexico along with Campbell’s Soup Company and Valspar Paint Company, who made it all possible. I entered our Upper Peninsula of Michigan barn in a contest sponsored by Campbell’s Soup and FFA Alumni and the ten final barns were placed on line to be voted on by the whole world. Five were chosen to be renovated and ours was one of the five! Five FFA students from New Mexico, along with students from Michigan and Wisconsin along with family and friends all traveled to Bark River, Michigan to help restore our beloved barn. And you should see it now! I can't thank FFA enough for making a life long dream of preserving our barn come true. I think you can still see the restored barns on www.helpgrowyoursoup.com or on the FFA Alumni Facebook page.
THANK YOU FFA !!!!