FFA Conference valuable experience for members

By Emma Juchau,
BlueDevilHUB.com Staff–

Metallic strips of blue and gold confetti rained down from the sky, dancing in the air to celebrate the installation of the 2016-17 California FFA State Officers. FFA members came from all over California to participate in the 2016 California State FFA Leadership Conference where 2015-16 State Officers presented retiring addresses, keynote speakers presented speeches on leadership and new State Officers were elected.

Davis FFA was represented by 11 students, including the two voting delegates, juniors Andrea Juarez and Grant Aboytes. Every FFA chapter in California is granted two voting delegates who provide input and vote on constitutional amendments during the conference. These delegates are the only representatives who can vote in the State Officer elections.

“I was able to meet other delegates from other Chapters and Regions, and in doing so, I gained leadership skills and had lots of fun,” Juarez said.

Each of the six 2015-16 State Officers presented a retiring address during one of the sessions. For senior Macey Galloway, hearing these retiring addresses was the best part of attending State Conference.

“Bree’s [was my favorite] because she described her childhood and how it made an impact on her,” Galloway said.

For Juarez, however, 2015-16 California State Sentinel Tim Truax’s speech, entitled “Life is a Dash,” was the most meaningful.

Truax explained in his speech that in 2014, his father had passed away. In reading the obituary in the newspaper, Truax came to an important realization: “Life is a dash,” he said. At the top of the obituary were the birth and death years of his father but more importantly, in the middle, was a tiny, insignificant – or so it seemed – dash.

Truax emphasized the importance of that dash and all the things that had happened in between those two daunting numbers, asking the crowd of 6,000 FFA members and guests repeat after him, “My dash is important. My dash has meaning.”

“The theme of his retiring speech related to everyone; we all have a dash,” Juarez said.

Brad Montague, creator of “Kid President,” shared with California FFA the importance of overcoming fear in a special presentation during the Opening Session. According to him, in order to be a leader, people must overcome their fears and realize that when it comes down to it, “awesome is greater than fear.”

Juarez found this message to be incredibly meaningful to her. “Our fear limits what we can do. But by overcoming our fear, or not letting it dominate you, we can do amazing things,” she said.

Brooks Gibbs, a nationally acclaimed youth speaker, was a Keynote speaker at the California State Leadership Conference. Gibbs spoke on the importance of loving those who are mean.

Leaders, he said, will always be under scrutiny, and will constantly be targets of bullying. By brushing off the mean things people say, leaders can become better and avoid the pain that bullying causes.

Gibbs brought two students onstage to help him demonstrate his anti-bullying strategy. By having them sling insults at him, Gibbs proved that by responding with kind words and smiles, his abusers had a harder time hurting him.

On the second day of conference, non-delegate attendees rode busses to the Fresno State campus, where they attended various agriculture-related workshops. Sophomore Luis Villanova enjoyed these workshops the best. Villanova’s favorite workshop was about farm power.

“We were able to learn about tractors and we even were able to drive them, which was really fun,” Villanova said.

Fresno State workshops were taught by agriculture students from various California colleges including UC Davis, Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo and Pomona, Fresno State, and Chico State, as well as visiting State Officers from around the U.S. and two National Officers.

On April 25, the third day of the conference, there was the long-awaited concert. Opening band and California FFA Alumni Terra Bella got the entirety of California FFA pumped up for the main performers, country icon Thompson Square.

Galloway has been to the California State Leadership Conference for two years in a row, now, and enjoyed this year’s conference the most.

“I liked the [2016 Conference] because they took into consideration the ideas of the members to make this year’s conference more memorable and more enjoyable,” Galloway said.
As a Davis FFA delegate at the 2015 conference, Galloway was able to provide the Association with feedback and recommendations. Seeing that those recommendations had been taken into account at the 2016 conference made the experience extra special for her.