Missouri FFA News Releases

COLUMBIA, Mo., April 16, 2009 – Boonville FFA placed 17th 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. Boonville FFA Chapter advisors are Doug Henke, John Sponaugle and Deanna Thies.

The Boonville FFA student development activities encouraged member participation especially for first year members. Members were exposed early and throughout their FFA career to leadership activities, such as serving on officer teams and committees. Students attended motivational conferences and applied for junior office. Members also promoted their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) projects at county, area, district, state and national shows. An SAE of the month was chosen each month to reward students for exceptional work.

Chapter development activities are designed to promote excellence within the chapter. Boonville FFA Chapter celebrated National FFA Week with activities each day. Recruitment occurred throughout the year, as well as during FFA Week by conducting sophomore visits to sending schools. Members developed programs to recruit eighth graders from local K-8 schools and sophomores from three area schools that send students to the technical center.

Booneville’s community development included a preview show hosted at the local fairgrounds. The preview show was a steer and heifer show that many people from around the state attended. Exhibitors stayed at the fairgrounds overnight or at local hotels and generated money in the community.

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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