Missouri FFA News Releases

COLUMBIA , Mo. , April 16, 2009 – Miller FFA placed second out of 317 chapters in the state, earning a Top Chapter Award at the 81^st Missouri FFA Convention. Only 10 percent of state chapters receive the Top Chapter Award each year.

Chapter activity awards, sponsored by FCS Financial, are given to chapters achieving excellence in student, chapter and community development. Miller FFA Chapter advisors are Jay Shepherd and Lyle Whittaker.

Miller’s FFA student development activities involved FFA members developing their leadership skills by attending various leadership conferences. They attended the area greenhand conference, district greenhand motivational conference, area chapter officer training, state and national FFA conventions, and the Washington Leadership Conference. The Miller FFA Chapter encouraged chapter members by offering a member of the month award. This award was given to members who exhibit good character. They also promoted a wholesome lifestyle by inviting members to attend a church service during National FFA Week.

Chapter development activities are designed to promote excellence within the chapter. Miller’s FFA members designed a program to recruit students called FFA Fun. The overall goal was to offer activities for students that spark an interest in FFA and motivate them to become a member of FFA. Activities included conventions, greenhand initiation, barnwarming and conferences. They conducted numerous financial activities promoting fiscal earning and monetary management skills. They worked the football concession stand, selling Cardinal Pride Meats. At the Miller Fall Festival, students sold fruit, cookie dough, and operated a firework tent.

Community development allows members to help improve community economic, environmental and human resources. The Miller FFA cooperated with the Miller Lions Club to help produce the Miller Fall Festival. It was a three-day event that drew thousands of people to the community. Most of the money raised was donated back into the community. They also worked with the Natural Resource Conservation District and a local poultry farmer to plant an odor break of various types of trees around poultry houses. Twenty-five members were involved in the project. They planted, installed landscape fabric and mulched 125 trees in 6 hours.

The top chapters are submitted to the National FFA Organization where they compete for the National FFA Chapter Award. The competition will be this fall at the National FFA convention in Indianapolis, Ind.

The Missouri FFA has 24,410 members representing 317 chapters. The national organization has over 507,000 members representing 7,439 local chapters in 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands .

The FFA Mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.

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