Blackwell FFA attends leadership convention

by Charles Gerian

Officers of the Blackwell FFA chapter participated in the 2021 Oklahoma FFA Chapter Officer Leadership Training Conference on Sept. 28 at the Enid Event Center.

The eight state FFA officers planned and conducted this year’s conference based on the theme “Lead Up.” Elected officers from each of the 62-high school FFA chapters in the northwest area attended the conference, “which equipped each student with leadership tools that focused on specific officer duties and leading when one is unsure what to do,” members said in a news release. Rhett Laubach of Edmond was the keynote speaker for the conference.

He is a professional speaker and leadership coach who served as state FFA president from 1992 to 1993.

“Oklahoma FFA is such an incredible organization because of the natural leadership that is found in our membership,” said Dalton Rogers, the state FFA president. “As an association, we want to make sure that those officers elected to serve on the local level are prepared to ‘lead up’ within their chapters, expressing to the best of their abilities the lead ership that our association is best known for.”

Officers attending from the Blackwell chapter were: President Austin Grossardt, Vice President Colton Tripp, Secretary Chandler Peetoom, Treasurer Tucker Jeffries, Reporter James Tripp, Sentinel Jake Smith and Adviser Cheyenne Bergman The conference is sponsored by the Public Service Company of Oklahoma as a special project of the Oklahoma FFA Foundation. FFA is part of the agricultural education division of the Oklahoma Department of CareerTech Education.

There are 24,269 Oklahoma FFA members in 365 high schools statewide.