If you're used to the Monday might through Wednesday routine recently established for the Indiana FFA state convention, here's hoping you're not too attached to it. This year the actual convention will run Tuesday evening through Thursday afternoon, June 18-20, at Purdue University
The main reason for the change, notes Steve Hickey, executive director of the Indiana FFA Association, is so that they can hold a variety of team events on Monday, June 17, that were held during the year in the past. Coordinating them and finding time to fit them all in at central locations proved to be a nightmare.
One of the contests this year is Ag Sales, a team event where students work together to prepare a plan of how to sell a common item to a team of judges. The contestants also must sell individual items on their own, then take a written quiz over sales and sales concepts.
This is a national contest. This year the National FFA Convention and the national contest for this event will be in Louisville, Ky., in October.
Other contests, including ag mechanics, will also run on Monday. Tuesday is reserved primarily for many of the traditional leadership contests that were typically held on Monday over the past decades. The coveted parliamentary procedure competition, featuring the best eight senior teams and best eight novice teams from around the state, will be held on Wednesday, while the regular convention is also underway.
Hickey hopes planters keep rolling now so there won't be a conflict with farm kids and the convention. A large number of FFA members no longer live on farms, but those that do still make up an important segment in the organization. Some 3,000 people are expected to attend all or part of the convention this year at Purdue.