the Frequent Farmer The Alaska FFA Alumni Newsletter

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Roy Simpson
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2); it s that time of year when dues are due (pg. 1); Homer FFA has had a successful year and is this edition s featured chapter (pg. 3); you can meet this year s national officer candidate (pg.

Thanks again for all your support and we hope you enjoy this edition of The Frequent Farmer! Save the Date!

Take-Offs Fall-Spring 2012/2013 Coming to a chapter near you by our 2012-2013 state officer team. It s that time again!

1 F A L L the Frequent Farmer The Alaska FFA Alumni Newsletter In Dues Time Welcome to another edition of The Frequent Farmer, the newsletter for Alaska FFA Alumni and friends. In this installment, we re proud to bring you lots of exciting news. Alaska FFA Alumni is saying goodbye to its current coordinator and is looking for some new leadership (pg. 2); it s that time of year when dues are due (pg. 1); Homer FFA has had a successful year and is this edition s featured chapter (pg. 3); you can meet this year s national officer candidate (pg. 3); meet some of this year s Alaska FFA state officers (pg. 4); and finally, read some very exciting news about Alaska FFA s future and new funding (pg. 5)! Thanks again for all your support and we hope you enjoy this edition of The Frequent Farmer! Save the Date! Alaska FFA Teachers Training October 7th-9th Training for Alaska FFA Ag/Natural Resource Teachers in Anchorage, AK National FFA Convention October 24th-27th Held in Indianapolis, Indiana Chapter Take-Offs Fall-Spring 2012/2013 Coming to a chapter near you by our state officer team. It s that time again! Fall is the time Alaska FFA Alumni collects annual dues ($10) from all of our widespread FFA alumni. Your dues go toward supporting students across the state in competitions, scholarships, and other FFA opportunities. This past year, Alaska FFA Alumni was proud to sponsor five proficiency award winners at the Alaska FFA state convention in Palmer, AK. These awards qualified the receiving students for another $250 scholarship, totaling $300 in scholarship money per student. That s just a small example of how your $10 can add up to big benefits to our FFA student members. Please send your dues payments to: Alaska FFA Alumni P.O. Box Fairbanks, AK Annual dues: $10 Lifetime membership: $150 Cash, check, or money order.

THE LOREM IPSUMS Alaska FFA needs you! Our current Alumni coordinator is stepping down in spring of 2013.

This is strictly a volunteer position and is currently filled by volunteers without a formal selection process.

While there is lots of room for the right coordinator to grow the Alaska FFA Alumni, the position currently requires less than five hours per month.

We appreciate your dedication to seeing Alaska FFA Alumni and the Association grow and thrive.

2 THE LOREM IPSUMS Alaska FFA needs you! Our current Alumni coordinator is stepping down in spring of Will you be the next person to lead our alumni association? What does the coordinator do? Presently, our coordinator collects dues, manages the alumni accounts, writes several newsletters a year, and works closely with the Alaska FFA state staff to grow the alumni association and support our student members through scholarships, sponsorships, and other opportunities. This is strictly a volunteer position and is currently filled by volunteers without a formal selection process. The only requirements are that the coordinator must have been an FFA member or have at least three years working with FFA. While there is lots of room for the right coordinator to grow the Alaska FFA Alumni, the position currently requires less than five hours per month. I m interested how do I learn more? Do you think this position would be a good fit for you? Great! We appreciate your dedication to seeing Alaska FFA Alumni and the Association grow and thrive. If you would like to fill the alumni coordinator position, become part of a committee that works together to operate the alumni, or just want to learn more about the organization, please contact Hannah Harrison. You can find contact information at the end of this newsletter. Over the next year, we hope to work with the right candidate to transfer control of funds, rosters, and records over to the new alumni. By summer of 2013, we hope to have this transition complete and the new candidate able to take the reigns. Please consider this opportunity to be a leader in Alaska FFA! 2

THE LOREM IPSUMS Alaska FFA Feature Chapter: Homer FFA The Homer FFA Chapter has had a busy year. They started out with a chapter fundraiser held at Homer High School.

There whole chapter membership was able to participate in the fundraiser where students purchased roses in advance to be delivered to the person of their choice two weeks later during the actual

Homer FFA is particularly enthusiastic about the Canon National Envirothon, held each year around the United State and Canada.

Homer FFA has done very well at the state and national Envirothon events and is studying hard this winter to continue that tradition at the upcoming Alaska FFA State Convention in April of 2013.

3 THE LOREM IPSUMS Alaska FFA Feature Chapter: Homer FFA The Homer FFA Chapter has had a busy year. They started out with a chapter fundraiser held at Homer High School. In February, they hosted a very successful Valentine s Day rose event for the school. There whole chapter membership was able to participate in the fundraiser where students purchased roses in advance to be delivered to the person of their choice two weeks later during the actual holiday. Each Friday, the Homer FFA Chapter met for their regular weekly meeting. At these meetings, students had the opportunity to practice for state CDEs with their team members. Homer FFA is particularly enthusiastic about the Canon National Envirothon, held each year around the United State and Canada. The Envirothon is an environmental competition in which students are tested in their knowledge of soils, water, wildlife, current events, and forestry. Homer FFA has done very well at the state and national Envirothon events and is studying hard this winter to continue that tradition at the upcoming Alaska FFA State Convention in April of At last year s Envirothon competition, the Anchor Point Chapter took home the gold. Since then, Anchor Point and Homer FFA have joined forces to create one larger chapter. With all that talent and skill in one chapter, Homer FFA will be a force to be reckoned with next year! This past summer, Homer FFA hosted an informational booth for 4th of July. They also started a garden at the Anchor Point Greenhouse, owned by FFA supporter Al Poindexter. With school now underway, Homer FFA members are engaged in their natural resource class, taught by Homer teacher and FFA advisor Francie Roberts. Meet Alaska FFA s National Officer Candidate: Corinne Ogle! Corinne is a graduate of Homer High School and now attends Cornell University in Ithaca, NY. She is Alaska FFA s national officer candidate, and has spent the year preparing and studying for the strenuous national officer selection process. Corinne is an exceptional young woman, helping out the Alaska FFA state staff and mentoring the state officer team. We wish her the best of luck as she heads to FFA National Convention this month! 3

THE LOREM IPSUMS Meet Your State Officers Brittany Jones Homer FFA My name is Brittany Jones I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Homer High school, I currently am the Alaska FFA State Secretary.

I decided to run for State Office because I love this organization and I want to give something back.

I have been involved with FFA for three years now and love it. My SAE consists of fish processing in the summer and food service in the winter.

I am currently the state reporter for Alaska FFA.

4 THE LOREM IPSUMS Meet Your State Officers Brittany Jones Homer FFA My name is Brittany Jones I am 17 years old and I am a senior at Homer High school, I currently am the Alaska FFA State Secretary. I am the youngest of five children and I got introduced to the FFA program by my sister's example Wendy and Jessica. My SAE was raising chickens and selling the eggs at the local Farmers Market. I decided to run for State Office because I love this organization and I want to give something back. Traven Apiki Homer FFA My name is Traven Apiki and I am 18 years old and a freshman at UAA at Kachemak Bay Campus. Currently I am the Alaska FFA State Vice President. I have been involved with FFA for three years now and love it. My SAE consists of fish processing in the summer and food service in the winter. I'm extremely excited for the year to come as I finish serving as a state officer. Darien Cooke Palmer FFA My name is Darien Cooke, I am 18 years old and a freshman at the Mat-Su college in Wasilla. I am currently the state reporter for Alaska FFA. I have been in FFA for about three and a half years now and I am excited to be an alumnus, because then I can focus on the Palmer chapter and help advise. My SAE involved food handling but now I work in the soils department for the natural resource conservation services at the USDA in Palmer. Mya Schmitt North Pole FFA Mya Schmitt is 18 years old and current a freshman at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, studying fire sciences and paramedicine. My graduated from North Pole High school and her SAE is in wildland fire management and studies. Mya is currently the Alaska FFA State Sentinel and serves as a volunteer firefighter. 4

5 THE LOREM IPSUMS Alaska FFA now has funding! Alaska FFA has long relied on generous sponsors and individual donations to keep afloat our state and chapter programs. However, even with all that support, Alaska FFA has always been limited in its ability to grow as an association due to limited funding. Over the last couple of years, state co-adivsors Rayne Reynolds and Amy Harmon have, with the help of many other dedicated FFA supporters, worked tirelessly to find a more permanent funding structure for Alaska FFA. During this most recent session of the Alaska State Legislative Session (ending in April of 2012), the Alaska legislature allocated money for 4-H and FFA programs through Alaska Cooperative Extension. This funding is an annual allocation that will remain in the budget unless specifically removed by future legislative actions or budget cuts. Alaska FFA has been allocated a portion of the total funding to help support our state association. We want to extend our tremendous gratitude to everyone who worked hard to pass this funding into the final budget. Your support for agricultural and natural resource education in Alaska has never been so powerful! This fall, members of the State FFA Board of Directors met with the President of the Cooperative Extension Service to discuss theis new funding and how to best use it to serve our members. We are excited to announce that through CES, Alaska FFA will use some of these funds to hire a full time State Advisor. This will be a huge step forward in Alaska FFA s ability to bring quality, consistent programming and support to our state chapters, as well as build our state association. creating and listing a job posting, recruiting for a top-notch advisor to lead our state association. We hope to hire in the immediate future. The remainder of the state funding, after advisor salary and benefits, will be used to fund programs to help grow Alaska FFA. These programs include a teacher training conference, state officer leadership training, chapter visits and development, recruitment of new chapters, and our annual state convention (and many more!). Receiving this funding from the State of Alaska was not only vital to the survival of the state FFA association, but it also reflects the importance of homegrown agriculture and natural resource education to the continued success of our state. However, despite this huge victory for Alaska FFA, this funding is just a beginning. We still need to seek out sponsorships and partners to support critical programming and opportunities for our students. In addition, Alaska FFA and Alaska FFA Alumni are organized as two separate nonprofits. This state funding will not be applied toward alumni activities or accounts, so your dues are still very important to the success of alumni efforts! Nevertheless, we are very excited for this tremendous opportunity and grateful to all those who made it possible. FFA in Alaska has a bright future and we're excited for this year! Special thanks to Amy Harmon for her contributions to this article. Alaska FFA staff (which currently is almost entirely voluntary) is now in the process of

teaching current FFA members your skills and knowledge.

for information about how to get in touch with your local advisor.

6 Questions? Comments? We want to include you, our alumni, in the Alaska FFA Association as much as possible. Your dues are important, but we also want you in our classrooms and laboratories teaching current FFA members your skills and knowledge. If you d like to get involved in your local FFA chapter, contact Hannah Harrison for information about how to get in touch with your local advisor. Ideas on how to make the Frequent Farmer better? Please let us know. Send us an with your ideas for improvements, future features, or if you would like to contribute. The Frequent Farmer editor: Hannah Harrison P.O. Box Fairbanks, AK Ak.ffa.alum@gmail.com

Agricultural Proficiency Award Areas

Agricultural Proficiency Award Areas See The Agricultural Proficiency Award Program, www.ffa.org, handbook for explanation and suggestions for ways this program can be utilized as a supplement to individualized