As 2009 comes to an end, the Blanco FFA Chapter has claimed a second state championship as the Greenhand Chapter Conducting Team returned home from the State FFA Leadership Development Events having won first place in one of the most competitive events. The State FFA LDE’s are hosted annually by Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, TX and are sponsored in part by the Texas FFA and the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. Only the top 20 teams from across the state advance to this level. When the year began, there were almost 300 teams in the state from all schools 1A to 5A. Team members Callie Culton, Sam Isenberg, Ryan Wagner, Kellam Nabers, Tyler Hardin, James Leachman, Will Byler, Ed Alvarado, and Mackenzie Johnson advanced to the state competition after winning first place at both the Hill District and Area VII LDE’s.

The chapter conducting event itself focuses on the rules of parliamentary procedure. Each team is given a problem which they have five minutes to study before conducting a meeting in which they must demonstrate proper parliamentary procedure in completing and solving the problem within 20 minutes. Afterwards, the team is asked a series of questions pertaining to parliamentary procedure which are scored by the judges. After making it through their semifinal heat on Friday, Blanco was the only team on Saturday to complete the finals’ problem correctly, while also posting the highest score on questions for both days.

While this is the chapter’s second state title, it is the first ever state championship for a leadership team from the Blanco FFA. Blanco’s first title came this past spring in the livestock judging career development event. Overall, the Blanco FFA has advanced to the State FFA LDE’s three other times, competing in Public Relations, Jr. Creed Speaking and Radio Broadcasting.

Advisors for the Blanco FFA are Felice and Jason Marek.