THE NATIONAL FFA ORGANIZATION ------------ By Reporter Cheyanne Strong

The leaves have fallen and the water troughs are starting to freeze. What does this mean? Winter is in the air! Yes I said it, Winter is here whether you want it to be or not. The North Lake FFA chapter has been getting ready in the last month for the Sales Contest coming up soon, so I have had some time on my hands to come up with a new article. I thought that I spend so much time talking about what our FFA chapter does, that maybe some folks don’t really know what the FFA is all about.

The National FFA Organization is an American youth organization that has been around since 1928 when it was founded as The Future Farmers of America. The organization focuses on promoting and supporting agriculture education within middle and high school classes. There are more then 507,763 members in 7,439 chapters throughout all 50 states, Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Virgin Islands.

Some things you may not know are that women were not allowed to become members until 1969. The FFA acronym for Future Farmers of America was changed to The National FFA Organization in 1988 because they wanted to expand its membership beyond youth working in traditional “production agriculture.” The North Lake FFA chapter was started on March 21,1992. The first North Lake FFA President was Stephen Roth of Christmas Valley.

High School students compete in various events called Career Development Events (CDEs). Supervised Agriculture Experience (SAE) programs such as raising a fair animal, and Leadership Development Events (LDEs). All these programs are designed to broaden students abilities in different fields of agriculture. The basic levels are national level, serving all of the united states of America; the state level, serving an individual state; the district level serving a group of chapters in a geographical area; and the chapter level, serving at a particular school or set of schools. In each level a person holds an office. The officers elected are usually the President, Vice President, Secretary, Treasurer, Reporter, Sentinel and Historian. All of these officers have their own responsibilities and are needed to serve. We have several members of our chapter currently serving as officers at the district and state level. Allan Overton is the 2008-2009 Oregon State Secretary. Colleen Hunt is the Central Oregon District Vice President and Joe Carlon is the Central Oregon District Sentinel. Our 2008-2009 chapter officers are: Colleen Hunt as our President, Preston Fivecoat is our Vice President, Amanda Dark as our Secretary, Cheyanne Strong is our Reporter, our Treasurer is Kori Worthington, Joe Carlon is our Sentinel, and our Historian is Jon Sprague.

Every year each state has their annual State Convention. At this convention all the chapters within that state gather and compete in CDEs, SAEs, and public speaking events. If members do well here they can continue to the national level. This convention is currently held at the Indiana Convention Center in Indianapolis, Indiana, from 2006-2012.
The National FFA is an amazing organization that teaches students leadership skills they’ll need to succeed at school and future careers. It influences many great qualities that youth need in everyday life.

North Lake FFA Officer Team

Student FFA officers from the North Lake Chapter join the notorious Central Oregon FFA Polar Bear Club. Lft to Rt. Kori Worthington, Jon Sprague, Amanda Dark, Linda Robles, Beverly Henkel, Joe Carlon, Avery Overton, Colleen Hunt, Tyler Byrant

LEADERS AT ALL LEVELS
Allan Overton is currently serving as the Oregon State FFA Secretary, and Colleen Hunt is the Central Oregon District FFA Vice-President and the North Lake FFA Chapter President