Happy Tuesday,
I recently took an excursion of about 1,000 miles round trip to Manhattan, KS for their State FFA Convention. Pete, Derek, Sydney and I started our road trip in Albert Lea, MN on Monday, May 26. We arrived in Kansas with much excitement and curiosity. We traveled to not only help with the "behind the scenes" work, but also to gather some new ideas for our very own State Convention. I know, the MN FFA Convention will not be until next April, but if you know me, you know that it is never too early to start planning.
Their convention actually started on Wednesday, so we had plenty of time to take a tour of Manhattan, KS with one of MN FFA's good friends, Sharita. Sharita along with Shawn took us to Manhattan Hill, Top of the World and even Pillsbury Crossing. I was surprised to hear that many people who went to Kansas State University and lived in Manhattan had never even been to these places! Thank you Sharita!
On Wednesday it was time to be serious. I helped video tape the Prepared Public Speaking CDE in the morning. During the afternoon I helped with the delegate workshops. In Kansas, their delegates vote on the state officer candidates. These workshops are available for delegates to attend in order to get to know the candidates better. Their state officer candidate process is very different from ours, so it was nice to see.
Another aspect of the KS Convention that was different was their CDE's. Here in Minnesota, we hold all state CDE contests at our convention, but KS holds most of their state CDE's one month before convention. This way, the first place team and first place individuals already know who they are and they are recognized on stage.
Thursday gave me the opportunity to attend three of their general sessions. I was able to listen to keynote addresses from national officers Becky Sullivan and Morgan Parker. Shawn Harper was an excellent speaker that spoke at the session that night. After the last session on Thursday night, we headed back to Minnesota.
Traveling to the Kansas FFA Convention and K-State was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I met some amazing FFA members and K-Staters. Kansas is a very welcoming state and it was great to see their convention in action. Thank you Kansas!
Stationed by the ear of corn,
Caitlin Kasper
