S.O.F.T.

Post made by Paryce Bradlly, State FFA Reporter

Last weekend the Virginia FFA officer team came together at Virginia Tech for what is called SOFT (State Officer Facilitation Training). SOFT is where we learn how to facilitate a workshop effectively and in the best way possible to get our message across to the members. I’m not going to lie, going into this conference I was so scared about having to present my workshop in front of my fellow officers because almost everyone had already presented a workshop the week before SOFT so they had some practice, but those thoughts quickly left my mind as the first day began.

My day began rather early… 3 AM early, since it is a super long drive for me to Virginia Tech I was up and out of the door by 4 AM. Making many coffee stops along the way, I managed to make it on time and was ready to begin learning how to give the best workshop I can. This conference is probably one of the most important ones throughout this year because it helps us as officers set the basis for all of our workshops that we will be giving all year.

Here we are working as a team to unscramble a facilitation puzzle!

 

The day began very simple: instead of jumping into presenting our workshops, we broke up our workshops that we developed in the past few weeks into chunks. We learned the best techniques to giving great directions, which is a great tool to have not only for giving workshops but for the future jobs and careers we each will take after our year as a state officer.

We were ready to take notes and apply what we learned to our own workshops we designed.

 

After a day filled with dissecting many parts of our workshops and analyzing those parts to realize where we could improve, we put them to the test the very next morning to see how well we deliver the new tips and tricks we learned. My perspective surely changed from how I felt coming into the conference to how I felt going home from it. I have gained more than I thought was possible. There so many skills that I learned that  I will never forget all thanks to the wonderful facilitators we were given the chance to work with.

National Leadership Conference for State Officers: A Week to Remember

Post made by Paryce Bradlly, State FFA Reporter

On July 29th, following the Young Farmer’s Summer Expo, our team reunited with Dustin and Addie (who were on their way back from the State President’s Conference) and departed from Lynchburg to New Jersey for NLCSO (National Leadership Conference for State Officers).

Going into this leadership conference I wanted to be excited, but I was also sad for being away from my home for such a long time. Then I found myself almost in tears (don’t worry, good ones) when it was all over on August 2^nd , as we all stuffed ourselves back into the van to head home. We were all told by past officers that NLCSO is when your team really develops.  I could not grasp the concept of things changing all that much in only a week, but boy was I wrong.

On the ride to New Jersey for NLCSO we turned a boring six hour drive into one to remember, as we would sneak pictures of the ones who fell asleep or taking goofy pictures when we were awake. We were never bored, and it seemed as though that six hour drive turned into three. The bonding began and reached a higher magnitude as the week went on, from being reunited with other state’s officers that we had met at other conferences to meeting new people for the first time. We were provided with the amazing opportunity to share this conference with the state officers from West Virginia, Delaware, New Jersey, Maryland, and Puerto Rico. As the bonds built in good ways, we also realized the values of communication and that the process of reaching decisions was not always going to be rainbows and unicorns. But from learning that lesson, we only grew closer as a team and shared many heartfelt stories as to what our FFA jacket means to us during National Eastern Region Vice President Alicia Hodnik’s reflection on the first night.

The rest of the week was a week full of long nights and not much sleep, but all officers managed to be filled with excitement, each eager and ready to learn, because no matter how tired we were, we all knew we didn’t want to miss a second of this conference. The long lasting relationships built that week were more than I was expecting, and one of the things I am most thankful for. The number one thing I am most thankful for during that week would have to be the things we learned from our two most amazing facilitators; they really know how to have fun while teaching things you will never forget.

On the last night there, we experienced something completely new to me: a dinner cruise. We drove from the hotel we were staying at in New Jersey to New York City on a very event filled bus ride. Many of us saw buildings that stood so tall we wondered if the people inside them  were afraid of heights, while others of us thought we knew what  “city traffic” was until an hour bus ride turned into much longer. Experiencing those things made me realize how different life in other places can be, even if they are just a few states away. On the dinner cruise, we saw so many beautiful and some sad landmarks like the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge, and the exact spot where the twin towers used to stand. What really reached my heart that night was learning that the church directly across from the world trade center was the only building that went untouched that day the world stood still.

My year as a state officer has barely begun and I have already learned more than I could have thought up in my most awesome FFA dreams. Knowing that makes me all the more eager to see what the rest of the year has to offer for me to better serve this amazing association.