FFA chapters go camping to gain leadership skills
The Douglas, Buffalo and Sheridan FFA chapters united for their regional officer retreat. At this officer retreat, they met at Camp Roberts in the Big Horn Mountains above Buffalo. This is the second year that the chapters have met for this officer retreat and plan to do it for years to come.
At the retreat, they did scavenger hunts on kayaks and canoes, based around team-building skills that related to the Chapter Program of Activities and the Chapter Application. Members were able to build a sense of camaraderie while fishing in the pond that was stocked with 300 new fish and climbing a rock wall in their free time.
Trinity Lewis joined the group as a workshop presenter, focusing on the camp theme of Public Relations. She stated we should always, “Look sharp, act sharp and be sharp.” The entire group agrees that this motto is great for life, in addition to FFA.
She continued on to say the officers should always be appropriate on social media, it’s we well known the scope social media reaches is infinite. With this, officers made small videos to advocate for their chapters that each chapter plans on posting to their Facebook pages.
Another guest speaker that joined the officer groups at Camp Roberts was Chaney Peterson, a past Wyoming State FFA officer, who discussed communications and the importance of knowing what image you are portraying to others on social media. Both speakers talked about being safe on social media and how to run a chapter Facebook page effectively.
The groups also worked on setting personal S.M.A.R.T goals which stands are specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and timely goals.
The groups then did a workshop that showed them their leadership style and discussed how they can work together based on their different leading styles. This retreat not only helped them become better leaders but also gave them a chance to meet new people in our region and helped them communicate with other chapters.
Toward the end of the retreat, each chapter had time to meet together and discuss their goals for the year. They set four goals, which included a personal goal, chapter goal, officer team goal and a mission statement that students will check at the end of the year to decide if they have meet these goals.
When interviewing one of the officers, officers met with Grace Gardner from the Buffalo FFA.
She stated that her favorite part was “meeting all different types of people from around the state.”
Officers then met with Lauren Gates from the Douglas FFA.
She said her favorite part was “the amount of ideas that other members presented made me think about what we can use in our own chapter.”
When meeting with Lennon Dregoiw from the Sheridan FFA, she stated her favorite part of the whole experience was, “the scavenger hunt because it we were able to become closer to the members in our group. The clues that were presented exercised your mind and gave each member ideas to take back to each person’s chapter.”
Each officer that attended had positive feedback and looks forward to attending again next year.
Kylie Hoffer is the Douglas FFA Chapter Reporter. Abby Mueller if the Buffalo FFA Historian, and Betty Jerney is the John B. Kendrick FFA Reporter from Sheridan. The three chapters collaborated on this article. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.
