FFA State Convention

On May 14-16^th of 2009 over two thousand FFA members from across the state gathered at the WSU campus in Pullman, WA for the 79^th Washington state FFA convention, including our own Wake Robin FFA chapter.

At this convention, students compete in various career development competitions.

Some of these include Prepared Public Speaking, Job Interview, Agricultural Communications, Parliamentary Procedure, and much more. From Wake Robin, Nathan Barton competed in the Prepared Public Speaking competition.

Other students can go and attend the many different workshops offered on the WSU campus. The workshops are about everything from DNA, to Veterinary Clinics to Landscape Design.

The duller, yet probably the most important, part of the state convention is the meeting of the different chapter delegates from around the state. These delegates decide on how the FFA in the state of Washington will be ran and vote for the next year’s state officers.

The delegate representing the Wake Robin chapter was Kianna Gonzales and the alternate delegate was Evan Seidl. During the days that the members are at the conference there are five large assemblies, or “General Sessions,” that allow the state officers to talk, as well as give honored guests time to speak. Also, some members have a chance to show off their talents.

However, the most anticipated part of these sessions is the award segment where individual and team awards are given out for the different state contests witch have occurred throughout the year.

Evan Seidl received a plaque for placing 5^th in the individual portion of the 2009 Washington State Forestry Contest, and 4^th in the individual portion of the 2009 Washington State Environmental Natural Resources Contest.

The Wake Robin Natural Resources team received a plaque for placing 8^th in the Washington State Environmental Resources contest. Members of this team that competed in the state contest consisted of Subrina Miller 11, Debbie Estes 10, Kianna Gonzales 11, Brian Jackson 11, and Evan Seidl 10.

The end of the conference is marked by the 5^th general session were the new state officers are announced, and the dance at the end of the day.