A new slate of officers was elected and a number of awards were presented at the 80th annual meeting of the Iowa FFA held April 14-15 at Hilton Coliseum in Ames. The two-day event, officially known as the 2008 State Leadership Conference, was attended by 5,064 people and at least 4,000 of them were FFA members from across the state.

The new state FFA president for 2008-09 is Dan Hansen of the Elkhorn-Kimballton FFA chapter. He is an agribusiness student at Des Moines Area Community College.

Other officers for 2008-09 are: Brent Doese, Wapsie Valley at Fairbank, reporter; Dakota Hoben, Louisa Muscatine, secretary; Ryan Augustine, North Mahaska, southeast vice president; Michael Dolch, Reno Smith at Villisca, southwest vice president; Megan Kregel, Tri-Star at Guttenberg, northeast vice president; Austin Willer, Akron-Westfield, northwest vice president; Betsy Pearson, Winterset, south central vice president; and Allyson Ladd, Boone A&M, north central vice president.

New officers will stay very busy

These newly-elected officers will lead the Iowa FFA Association throughout the next year. Each state officer will meet with top leaders in business, government and education, and visit many of the 230 FFA chapters across the state as well as conduct workshops and plan the 81st state FFA leadership conference. That event will be held at Veteran's Memorial Auditorium in Des Moines, April 16-17, 2009.

To be considered for the position of an Iowa state FFA officer, FFA members had to submit an officer application, complete an FFA knowledge exam, submit their Supervised Agricultural Experience record books, as well as go through three rounds of personal interviews with a 13-member nominating committee. Officer candidates were selected in the nomination committee report and those balloted were voted on by a delegation at the state leadership conference.

2008 Iowa FFA Stars Over Iowa

Named 2008 FFA Stars Over Iowa at this year's conference were: Matthew Price, North Linn at Troy Mills, Agricultural Placement; Brandon Wilson, West Central Valley at Stuart, Star in Agriscience; Travis Garlow, Tri-Star, Star in Agribusiness; Ryan Augustine, North Mahaska at New Sharon, Star in Agricultural Production.

The Iowa FFA Supreme National Chapter Award Program was won by East Sac FFA Chapter at Lake View. Second place went to Wapsie Valley at Fairbank.

The Iowa FFA Association has 230 local chapters and over 12,000 FFA members. FFA is a national organization of more than 490,000 members preparing for leadership and careers in science, business and technology of agriculture. Local, state and national programs provide opportunities for students to apply knowledge and skills learned in the classroom. FFA's mission is to make a positive difference in the lives of students by developing their potential for premier leadership, personal growth and career success through agricultural education.