Summer SAE Field Trips

FFA members! Summer SAE Field trips have been finalized! There was a mass email sent out to FFA members containing all of the information necessary for the two field trips. If you did not receive this information and would like to via email, please email us at warsawffachapter1977@gmail.com

The first field trip will be taking place on Monday, July 26th. It is at Clunette Elevator where we will get a behind-the-scenes look at how an elevator operates. We will be meeting at Clunette Elevator in Leesburg at 10:00 AM. FFA members needing a ride to the elevator will have to meet the advisors in the WCHS parking lot at 9:30AM. (Please contact an advisor if you are in need of a ride). The tour is expected to end at 11:30A.M.

The other field trip will be taking place on August 5th. We will be going down to the Indiana State Fairgrounds to assist in setting up the FFA Pavilion for the District II State Fair Workday! We will be meeting at the Warsaw Walmart parking lot at 6:00AM and taking a Whitko bus down to the fairgrounds. It is advised that you wear clothes you don't mind getting dirty as we will most likely be finishing up the landscaping in the pavilion. We will return from from the field trip at approximately 6:00PM. Lunch will be provided by the district.

If you have any questions about the field trips or Summer SAE class, please contact Mrs. Markley or Mrs. Jarrett.

Remember! In order to get an "A" in the class, you MUST attend one out of the two field trips! Also, FFA members NOT in Summer SAE can still join us!

Young McDonald's Barn

Every year, our chapter prepares and runs the Young McDonald's Barn during the Kosciusko County fair. During this week, we have the barn filled with baby animals including calves, bunnies, kids (both goats and humans), chicks, and ducklings. We have hundreds of visitors pass through the barn throughout the week to see the baby animals. During the day, we have FFA members work in barn to make sure everything runs smoothly and to interact with the public.

Earlier today an email was sent out to each FFA member (who's email address we have) that contained the shift schedule for the barn. If you did NOT receive this email because you are NOT on our emailing list, shoot us an email at warsawffachapter1977@gmail.com Be sure to include your name and we'll start sending you updates via email.

The shift schedule that was sent out included the names of everybody who has already scheduled their shift for the barn. Each shift is two hours long. During each shift, FFA members will be responsible for interacting with visitors by teaching them about the animals that are in the barn as well as agriculture and our FFA chapter. This is a great public relation opportunity! When working in the barn, it is required that every FFA act maturely. There will be a list of expectations that each member must follow. The Young McDonald's Barn is not the place for members to fool around. Please remember this when you are working your shift(s).

We ask that every member sign up for at least one shift. To schedule your shift, contact Lauryn Steffe, Devan Ostrom, or Mallarie Stookey. Their numbers can be found on the shift schedule. You can also email us at warsawffachapter1977@gmail.com.

During fair week, the Young McDonald's Barn will be open from 2-5p.m. on Sunday, 9a.m.-8p.m. Monday-Wednesday, and 9a.m.-5p.m. on Thursday.

If you have any questions, please contact any of the officers! We hope to see you there!

Warsaw FFA Members Celebrate at 81st Indiana FFA State Convention

16 Warsaw FFA members traveled to Purdue University for the 81st Indiana FFA State Convention taking place June 14th-16th. The theme for the convention was "Driven by the Blue. Guided by the Gold." Over 2,500 members, advisors, and guests from across the state were in attendance.

On June 14th, twelve members from the Warsaw FFA Chapter competed in various contests at the Indiana FFA State Leadership Contest. Several members walked away with high placings: Kristin Quick, Ashley Byrer, Bryce Sands, and Carrie Hawley - 1st place Quiz Bowl, Kyle Quick - 3rd place Plant and Soil Science Demonstration, and Alexis Ostrom - 4th place Discovery Degree Public Speaking. Other members competing in contests were: Kaila Grimm - Job Interview; Devan Ostrom - Agriculture and Farm Business Management Demonstration; Lauryn Steffe, Mallarie Stookey, Devan Ostrom, and Brooke Kline - Agricultural Issues Forum; Gianna Hartman - Multimedia Scrapbook and Female Leadership Ambassador.

Warsaw FFA also had three individuals qualify as proficiency finalist. They were: Mallarie Stookey - 4th place Dairy Production Entrepreneurship; Gianna Hartman - 3rd place Agricultural Communications; and Matthew Boggs - 1st place Agricultural Mechanics Repair and Maintenance Entrepreneurship. Matthew Boggs will now submit his proficiency to be judged at the national level.

On June 16th, Kyle Quick was elected the District II Treasurer and Gianna Hartman was elected as Section I Director. Being elected into these positions will require each of them to serve the Indiana FFA above the chapter level.

Throughout their time at convention, members participated in workshops to further develop their leadership skills, listened to the state officers deliver their retiring addresses, and watched keynote speakers as they inspired and motivated the crowd. At the conclusion of convention, the 2010-2011 Indiana FFA State Officer team was installed to lead our state through another successful year.

PALS

The next PALS dates will be on May 4th and May 11th. Please note that both dates are right after each other! Because this is the end of the school year, we wanted to be sure to fit in at least two more PALS dates and this was the only way to do so. Kelsey Sponseller will be planning the date on the 4th. The new officer team will be planing our end of the year "party" on the 11th. If you are planning on attending any of those dates, please sign-up in Mrs. Markley's room!

April FFA Meeting

Attention all FFA members! The next FFA Meeting will be on Wednesday, April 28th! There will be a social/recreation hour starting at 5:30p.m. followed by the FFA meeting at 6:30p.m. This will be the first meeting with our new officer team so please be sure to attend! We look forward to seeing everybody there!

Spring Banquet Awards

Congratulations to all of the members recognized last Friday at our Annual Spring Banquet! It was an exciting time for our chapter! The following individuals were recognized for our top awards: Scholarship Awards - Freshman: Kristin Quick - Sophomore: Brooke Kline - Junior: Lauryn Steffe - Senior: Jennifer See Chapter Star Farmer: Devan Ostrom Chapter Star Agriculture Placement: Matthew Boggs Chapter Star Greenhand: Bryce Sands Congratulations to each member for their achievement in FFA! We also recognzed two oustanding individuals who have assisted our FFA chapter for multiple years. These individuals were our Honory Chapter Degree recipients: - Loni O'Hara - Brent Markley Without their support and help, our chapter would not be as successful! We appreciate each of them so much! Also taking place at Spring Banquet was the installation of the 2010-2011 officer team! We wish them the best of luck as they lead our chapter into a new school year!

Spring Banquet

The Annual Warsaw FFA Chapter Spring Banquet will be held on Friday, April 23rd. The evening will begin at 6:00p.m. in the WCHS Cafeteria with a carry-in meal followed by the awards ceremony taking place in the Performing Arts Center. Our Spring Banquet is a time for our chapter to recognize our members for their successes over this past year. Each member should bring a dish to share for the carry-in meal that feeds a minimum of 8-10 people. We ask that each person bring in a specific dish according to their grade:

Seniors and Freshmen: Desserts and/or Hot Dishes

Sophomores and Juniors: Hot Dishes and/or Salads

Junior High: Salads and/or Appetizer Items

Members should have received a letter in the mail with details on Spring Banquet as well as an RSVP slip. PLEASE be certain to turn in that slip by April 19th! It is important that this is turned in so we can plan accordingly.

Senors: Please be sure to fill out in the information sheet and turn in your pictures for our Senior Slide Show! That information must be turned in to Devan ASAP.

Remember: Each member must be in official dress!

If you have any questions about our Spring Banquet, please ask one of the officers!

2010-2011 Chapter Officer Team

On March 31st, the Warsaw FFA Chapter had chapter officer elections. There were 12 well-qualified candidates who ran this year. Following is the 2010-2011 Officer Team:

President: Lauryn Steffe

Vice-President: Devan Ostrom

Secretary: Mallarie Stookey

Student Advisor: Jesse O'Hara

Treasurer: Brooke Kline

Reporter: Kristin Quick

Sentinel: Taylor Hartman

Co-Sentinel: Kyle Quick

Historian: Kelsey Sponseller

Congratulations to each officer! We hope to see another successful year!

FFA Week Update

Here's an update on what's going on during FFA Week: Cornhole Tournaments: We will be having a cornhole tournament taking place during each lunch shift! If you're interested in participating in this tournament, find a partner and sign-up in Mrs. Markley's or Mrs. Jarrett's room. Your partner must be in the same lunch shift as you! If you can't find a partner, sign-up and we'll get one for you! Lunch will be provided to all FFA members participating in the tournament! Bulletin Board Activities: Each day we will have a different activity taking place on the bulletin board in the back of Mrs. Markley's room. Be sure to check out the bulletin board! Each day, we will select a winner and they will recieve a prize! FFA Meeting: We have rescheduled our next FFA meeting for Thursday, February 25th. it will be starting at 4:00p.m. (after hte breakfast set up) and go until 5:00p.m. After the meeting, we will be having subs for everybody! This is an important meeting, so be sure to attend!

FFA Week

FFA Week is almost here! We hope you guys are looking forward to it and plan in participating in all of our activities! Listed below are the activities: FFA Family Bowling: We are going to be having a family bowling day on Sunday, February 21st. It will be from 3-5:00p.m. at North Side Lanes (located on State Road 15). The FFA Chapter will be paying for all FFA members attending, but any family members will cost $5.00 each. There is a sign-up sheet in Mrs. Markley's and Mrs. Jarrett's room if you are planning on attending. You will have to write down the number of people (including yourself) attending. All money MUST be turned in by Wednesday, February 17th. Please remember, this even is for FAMILY MEMBERS only. This includes syblings, aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins, etc., but please do not bring any friends! If you have any questions, please stop in Y-189 or Y-187. Staff Appreciation Breakfast: The Staff Appreciation Breakfast will be on Friday, February 26th in Mrs. Markley's room (Y-189). Officers and Seniors are to arrive at 6:00a.m. and FFA Members are to arrive at 6:15a.m. During the breakfast, FFA members will be cooking sausage, eggs, and bacon as well as serving drinks and food. There is a sign-up sheet in the Ag. Department for FFA members to bring in the items required for the breakfast. On this sign-up sheet are: Eggs, Bacon, Maple Syrup, Orange Juice, Milk, Butter, and Homemade muffins. We ask that all FFA members sign-up for a minimum of 2 items each. We will also be needing parent help! There are two shifts in which parents can help. 6-7:00a.m. and also 7:00-8:15a.m. If you are a parent and would like to help, please contact the Ag. Department at (574) 371-5088 ext. 2030. On Thursday prior to the breakfast, we will be getting everything set up. If any FFA member is interested in staying aftwards to help, it would be grately apprecated! It is extremely important that all FFA members participate in the breakfast to make it a success! Don't forget: all members will be required to wear Official Dress during the breakfast! Theme Days: Throughout the week, we will be having different themes for FFA members to wear. They are as follows:

• Monday, February 22nd: College Sweatshirt/T-Shirt day
• Wednesday, February 24th: FFA Shirt Day
• Friday, February 26th: Offical Dress Day

Bulletin Boards: On the bulletinboard in the back of Mrs. Markley's room, there will be different activities each day. Please check the bulletinboard daily! The winner of each activity will recieve a prize the follwing day.

Other Important Information: We will not be having our Greenhand Banquet due to the fact that there is a basketball game that evening. Instead, all of our qualifying new members will recieve their Greenhand Degree at our Spring Banquet in April. We also will NOT being having our FFA meeting this day due to the basketball game.

January Updates

Welcome FFA members to one of the busiest times in FFA! Proficiencies, State Degrees, Leadership Contest, Chapter Meeting Contest, FFA Week, and so much more is on the horizon for us! Please be listening to the school announcements and checking your FFA calendars so you are aware of everything we have going on!

PALS - Some of you may have noticed that PALS has been cut down to only once a month now. Because of our members' schedules, we felt it was best to stop doing PALS every 2 weeks. Towards the end of the school year, we may start doing PALS twice a month again depending on the involvement from our members. Our January PALS date is Tuesday, January 12th.

January FFA Meeting - Our January FFA Meeting will be taking place on Wednesday, January 20th. Please be sure to attend! With us not having a December meeting, we need to be sure that our members are aware of what's going on! We have a ton of items on the agenda for the evening so please make this a priority. To make up for our December meeting, we will be having a White Elephant gift exchange as well as our carry in meal. The meal will start at 6:00p.m. followed by the meeting. After the meeting is adjourned, we will have our White Elephant Gift Exchange. Please see the December Meeting post below for details.

Dairy Foods - Dairy Foods practices have started and we're hoping for another successful year! We have 16 members who will be competing at the Indiana State Dairy Foods Contest on Saturday, January 30th located at Purdue University. During this contest, members will be identifying cheeses, detecting defects in milk, examining problems in milker unit parts, identifying non-dairy products from real dairy products, and taking a written test over milk marketing and production.

Chapter Meeting Contest - This year, our chapter is hoping to compete in the Chapter Meeting Contest! The concept of this contest is to become familiar with using correct parliamentary procedure by conducting a "fake" FFA meeting. This is an extremely intense contest and requires that you attend 100% of the practices. If you are planning on running for a chapter office sometime during your FFA career, this will be a great way for you to become familiar with running a meeting! The call-out will be on Monday, January 25th from 3-4:00p.m. with practices starting in February. Please sign-up in Mrs. Markley's room if you are planning on attending this call out.

Proficiencies and State Degrees - There have been two dates set aside for members filling out their proficiencies and/or state degrees: Monday, January 11th 3-3:34p.m. and Tuesday, January 19th 3-3:45p.m. These applications will be due on Friday, January 29th to Mrs. Markley or Mrs. Jarrett. If you have questions, please see either of the advisors.

Leadership Development Workshop - Gianna Hartman, Jesse O'Hara, Taylor Hartman, and Kyle Quick will be heading to Trafalgar, IN for Leadership Development Workshop (LDW) on Friday, January 15th to participate in a weekend-long leadership conference. During this conference, these chapter officers will be learning how to better their leaderships skills and focus on teamwork.

Please check back within the next week for further information on FFA Week! This is one of the most exciting weeks in FFA and we want all of our members to participate in our activities! If you have questions about any of the information provided on this blog, please see Gianna Hartman.