Members of the Grassland FFA recently competed in county and area competitions. The competitions were hosted at Garden Spot High School on Tuesday March 27th. The evening started with a demonstration by last year’s team which won the county and area competition and fell just shy of making it to the state championship round. Team members were: President- Cortney Martin, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary (early grad Alli Weller with Katelyn Byram filling in) Treasurer- Regina Sauder, Reporter- Kaitlin Zimmerman, Sentinel – Paul McFarland.
Jon Martin, Cortney Martin and Regina Sauder share a laugh during the questioning phase of the Parliamentary Procedure Competition.
This year’s team, the top team in Lancaster County, then competed against Octorara, the top team in Chester County. Both teams qualified for regional competition but the Grassland team will not be competing due to several scheduling issues.
Congratulations to the following team members for their first place effort: President- Paul McFarland, Vice-President- Jon Martin, Secretary- Katelyn Byram, Treasurer- RJ Davis, Reporter- Seth Yoder and Sentinel – Connor Bender.
2012 team members taking the written exam.
In an FFA parliamentary procedure competition contestants must take a written exam and an open book research quiz using Robert’s Rules of Order. They then walk into the contest site and have a card with a main motion and 5 other motions: 2 incidental, 2 subsidiary and 1 privileged at their seat. Each seat has one of the five motions highlighted. Contestants have one minute to individually gather their thoughts and must then conduct opening ceremonies and discuss and act upon the main motion. Each contestant is responsible for appropriately working the particular parliamentary motion highlighted on their card into the discussion. The competition brings out the best in team work and the ability to problem-solve and think quickly on your feet. These are skills FFA members can use throughout life.