North Lake FFA: April 2010

Friday, April 23, 2010

Sectional Leadership Contest

On Monday March 1^stthe Central Oregon, Strawberry Mountain, and Mount Hood FFA Districts gathered in Bend, Oregon, for the Sectionals Leadership Contest. Avery Overton, Joe Carlon, Jon Sprague, Raven Waldron, Kori Worthington, Shayne Dinger, Conley Kittredge, Brad Libolt, Andrew Miles, Wyatt Smith, Josh Hand, and Trent Emery, attended sectionals. This contest is a follow up for all the members who placed in the top two at the district contest. The events our members competed in were Prepared Speaking, Extemporaneous Speaking, Parliamentary Procedure, Cooperative Quiz, and Chapter Books.

Raven Waldron competed in Beginning Public Speaking and her speech was intended to be three to five minutes long on an agriculture subject. She spoke about the issues pertaining to animal rights verses animal welfare. Raven did an outstanding job and handled the pressure very well. Raven placed 1^st bringing home a blue banner. She will be representing the chapter at state in Prepared Speaking.

Along with Raven, the Beginning Parliamentary Procedure team will be competing at State as well. This team of freshman, Raven Waldron, Conley Kittredge, Brad Libolt, Andrew Miles, Wyatt Smith, Josh Hand, and Trent Emery, did an impressive job at this contest placing 1^st. When it comes to debate on agriculture, this team knows what they’re talking about. This is the first year that the North Lake FFA chapter has sent a parliamentary procedure team to State! Congratulations to all of you.

Conley Kittredge competed in Extemporaneous Speaking. This contest is by far one of the most difficult. In Extemporaneous Speaking the member randomly draws topic to discuss, and has thirty minutes to prepare a speech relating to the subject. Conley drew the topic, Innovations in organic farming. Although Conley, a freshman, didn’t place, he did very well against his much older and more experienced competition.

Avery Overton, Joe Carlon, and Jon Sprague all took the Cooperative Quiz. This is a written quiz on agriculture business. The test involves multiple choice and true or false questions. An example of a true or false question would be: “Revolving capital financing is widely used by cooperatives and is particularly suited to their operations.” Avery Overton did very well in the competition. He placed 2^nd bringing home a red banner and will proceed to state. At State, Avery will have to take a written test, and participate in two rounds of interviews testing his knowledge of agriculture cooperatives. Joe Carlon also did well placing third, but will not be moving onto State.

We had many members in the Chapter Books contest. Cheyanne Strong entered a technology scrapbook which is a Power Point done on the computer of our FFA chapter, and its activity over the last year. Amanda Dark entered a Secretary Book which is a record of all our chapter meetings and committee reports. Kory Worthington entered the Treasurer’s Book and advanced portfolio. The Treasurer’s Book is a record of all the expenses and profit that the chapter has made. The Advanced Portfolio is a Power Point of all her FFA and school activities. She placed 1^st with her portfolio advancing to State. Shayne Dinger entered a Beginning Portfolio, and also placed 1^stmoving onto State. The Chapter Books as a whole placed 3^rd in the sectionals competition. The hard work of the North Lake chapter paid off in the end of this contest. Well done members.

The guys wait anxiously for their turn in Parli Pro.

The unstoppable Beginning Parli Pro Team!

A very successful year for North Lake!

Headed back to the bus after a day of hard work and a job well done.

State Soils- Champions at Playing in Dirt

Mud, dust, rain, wind─and a whole lot of dirt. That pretty well sums up the months of October and November for the North Lake FFA Chapter. Six weeks of collecting soil samples, poking around in soil pits after school, and dozens of hours of class time studying math formulas and scientific principles have prepared students to be competitive at demonstrating their knowledge and skills of soil science at both the District and the State level.

The North Lake FFA Soils teams dominated both the State and the District Career Development Events (CDE), outperforming the competition in both the advanced and beginning contests. The District Soils CDE was held on October 14^th in Sherman County near the Colmbia River.

“Thirty-four teams from the various 119 Oregon FFA Chapters qualified and attended the State contest which was held in Dallas, Oregon on November 7th. North Lake’s “A” team took top spot in the team competition led by second-place individual winner Avery Overton and his colleagues on the team -- Daniel Miles (fifth individual), Joe Carlon (sixth individual) and Kody Worthington (eighth individual) -- overwhelmed the other schools.

“North Lake’s “B”team not only grabbed the Beginning Soils Championship banner, but also outscored all other teams in the contest except for the North Lake “A” Team. The beginning team consisted of Raven Waldron, Andrew Miles, Conley Kittredge, Shayne Dinger and Brad Libolt.” (Excerpt from the Capital Press)

Freshmen Raven Waldron of the North Lake’s “B” team scored the most points on her three-horizon scorecard and was judged the individual winner of the contest, scoring an impressive 120 points out of possible 141. Andrew Miles also did exceptionally well and placed ninth individually.

As the individual winners of the 2009 Oregon State FFA Association Soils Career Development Event, Raven Waldron, and senior, Daniel Miles, who has finished in the top five at the state competition the last three years, were both offered a 2010 paid internship at any of the thirty Natural Resource Conservation offices around the state.