Bunkerville Hosts FFA Greenhands

By PAOLA TRUJILLO

The Progress

Virgin Valley hosted the FFA Southern Zone Greenhand Conference on Wednesday, Oct. 7 at the Bunkerville Gym. The conference was held for first-year Ag students to learn more about what FFA is and how they can build on their leadership skills.

There was also a Chapter Officer Leadership Training (COLT) conference held at the same place. The Southern Zone chapter officers could learn more about their duties and how to work on a team efficiently.

Virgin Valley’s Chapter had 30 greenhand students attend along with 13 officers. The Southern Zone chapters, such as Moapa Valley and West CTE Tech, all met at the gym around 7:30 a.m. to get their day started.

About 150 greenhand students were led inside the gym by Nevada’s FFA Vice President Gabriella Minoletti. She taught the conference alongside retired Nevada FFA Reporter Michael Kemp.

Each student was given a handbook with different sections to fill in. The first section taught them what FFA is and it coupled with a scavenger hunt of different parts of Ag like a car for Ag Mechanics and a shovel for soils/Environmental Natural Resources.

The greenhands learned the different things they can do for their Supervised Agricultural Experience (SAE) which is a way for students to apply what they learn in the classroom to real-life situations.

The COLT conference for chapter officers was held in the park next to the gym. About 40 officers in total were separated by their chapter. They were given a piece of paper with a backpack on it to fill in the things they learn are important to their chapter throughout the conference. The chapters were then separated by their office (presidents, vice presidents, reporters, etc.) to different workshops.

Nevada FFA President, Ryan Olsen, ran the workshop for the Presidents and Vice Presidents. They learned about the jobs they are responsible for and how to build a strong Program of Activities (POA), a document that holds all the events for the year. The group got to share ideas for activities that have worked really well in their chapter.

Sonny Lopez (reporter) ran the workshop for Historians and Reporters. They learned how to publicize FFA events and activities. The group went around practicing taking pictures of each office as they were being taught in their workshops.

The treasurers were led by Roland Norris and learned about the different duties in record keeping. They also talked about the different fundraisers they like to do at their school.
The chapters eventually came back together for a Parliamentary Procedures game.

After lunch, the chapters did team bonding exercises and talked about accountability plans to hold the team and themselves accountable.

The greenhand conference was a great experience for the first-year students to be welcomed and introduced to FFA. The chapter officers left with many new ideas that they will incorporate into their school’s program.

Besides gaining information, the conference brought together the Southern Zone to meet and make new friends.