VERSAILLES – For the 24th consecutive year, the Versailles FFA held its annual State FFA Greenhand Conference.
The Conference was held at the Versailles High School on Sept. 8 for all of the Greenhands in the state of Ohio. Greenhands are first-year members in the FFA.
This year the conference had 424 members attend. The members came from all across the Ohio. Schools that participated in the conference included Diamond Oaks, Mechanicsburg, Coldwater, Talawanda-Butler Tech, Preble Shawnee, Arcadia, Anna, Greenon, Bradford, Fayette, Paulding, Evergreen, Versailles, Arlington, St. Marys, Ross Butler, Franklin Monroe, Covington, St. Henry, Botkins, Ansonia, Northridge, Fairlawn, Jackson Center, Delta, Miami Valley CTC, Bellefontaine, Twin Valley South, Arcanum, Greenville, Graham, Valley View, Miami East, Wauseon, Tri-County North MVCTC and Brookville MVCTC.
The theme of the conference was “First Down and Life to Go.” The goal of the conference was to make FFA members aware of opportunities within the FFA as well as develop their leadership skills and to get new members excited about the FFA.
The day started off with an official welcome and speech from Dan Schroer. He is a keynote speaker from Springboro and served as a state FFA officer as well as a national FFA officer.
Preceding the speech were various workshops such as opportunities in the FFA, teamwork, goal setting, and SAE and communication. The students then broke for lunch, which was donated by Papa John’s and Subway, and door prizes were awarded. To finish out the day the students participated in CDE roundtables presented by officers and other members to learn more about the career development events within the FFA.
The CDE’s exposed in the round tables included job interview, ag sales, public speaking, soils, tractor trouble shooting, wildlife, ag issues, parliamentary procedure, food science, dairy foods, Greenhand quiz, general livestock, horse, poultry and dairy. The FFA thanked Weaver Eggs for donating supplies to teach the poultry CDE roundtable.
Overall the day was a great success. Each Greenhand participant left with a Greenhand conference T-shirt designed by past Versailles FFA president Brent Stammen. FFA chapters had the opportunity to participate in a canned food drive. The winning school was Miami East, and Wauseon placed second.
The conference was conducted by the Versailles FFA officer team, Versailles FFA leadership committee, Versailles FFA assistant officers, Versailles FFA members, state FFA officers and Ohio national FFA officer candidate.
The Versailles FFA officers who made the conference possible were President Jacob Wuebker, Vice President Marcus Berger, Secretary Deanna Hesson, Treasurer Toby George, Reporter Courtney Batten, Sentinel Cole Luthman, Historian Grace McEldowney, Student Adviser Dallas Hess, Parliamentarian Caden Buschur, Assistant Secretary Elliot George, Assistant Treasurer Noah Barga, Assistant Historian Xavier Grilliot, Assistant Reporter Maddy Henry, Assistant Sentinel Luke Billenstein, Assistant Parliamentarian Dalton Hesson and Versailles FFA Advisors Dena Wuebker and Taylor Bergman.
Other members who helped were Melissa Gigandet, Kobe Epperly, Caitlyn Luthman, Darian Feltz, Cayla Batten, Isaac Gilmore, Anna Barlage, Austin Timmerman, Troy May, Sam Gilmore, Victoria Wuebker, Emma George, Gavin Lawrence, Alex Kaiser, Lauren Sherman, Breanna Nieport, Shelbie Schmitmeyer, Haley Mangen, Shiloh Hess, Franklin Shimp, Jon Gehret, Cory Timmerman and Paige Platfoot.
The state FFA officers who attended the conference were National FFA candidate Ryan Matthews, State President Kolesen McCoy, Vice President Holly McClay, Secretary Gretchen Lee, Treasurer Kalyn Strahley, Reporter Bailey Eberhart, Sentinel Mallary Caudill, Vice President At Large Grace Lach and Vice President At Large Tyler Zimpfer.
