Team Agriculture

Iowa was the destination this past week for the state officers as they attended the National Leadership Conference for State Officers (NLCSO.) The state officers were in attendance along with four other state officer teams representing Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, and South Dakota. The conference consisted of team development coving topics such as commitment, accountability, conflict, trust, and agriculture. During the conference, we had the pleasure of listening to Rodd Whitney of Monsanto and his thoughts pertaining to the growing world population and agriculture. It then hit me that the team development things we learned this past week will also be needed for the future of agriculture.





Commitment- as agricultural ethusiasts, we must be fully committed by sharing a purpose that supports a common goal for agriculture: produce enough food and resources efficiently for the growing population.

Accountability- we as a team of agriculturalist must be not only accountable for us, but for everyone else's as well ensuring everyone is disciplined to perform their best.

Conflict- as in anything, conflict will arise in the world of agriculture through differences in needs, wants, and interests. It is how the conflict will be handled that determines the result with a win-win solution.

Trust- if people fail to have mutual trust in one another while working towards feeding a growing world, dysfunction will occur. Instead we need to have trust in one another showing acceptance and support.

Now let's flash-forward to the year 2050 and join the other nine billion people on this earth. That's right, nine billion! Much like our state officer team, team agriculture has to develop these four components of a team. Team agriculture includes a wide variety of people including farmers, agribusiness people, researchers, advocates, and other supporters of agriculture. We have a goal to feed those nine billion people and together we can make it happen. So, will you be a part of the team?

Stationed by the emblem of Washington,

Tyler Warren

Mission: Activate Brainstorming

This week the state officers spent time at Deep Portage Conservation Reserve in Hackensack, Minnesota planning the State Greenhand Leadership Conference. Some words that kept popping up were stellar, intense, awesome, real, and superhero.

1. Stellar-a favorite word for one of the officers. Activities were incorporated into curriculum and when the activities demonstrated the messages perfectly all we could say was stellar. Another stellar experience: our consumption of cookies of every kind. Oreos, chocolate chip cookies, and "skunk" cookies filled our bellies during break time. Stellar.


2. Intense-our brainstorming this week. We planned sessions for State Greenhand Leadership Conference and it was intense thinking for our brains every day. It completely paid off. We are ready to "Activate Your Power" at camp through knowledgeable, fun sessions. Intense.


3. Awesome-using our strengths together as a team. Each of us on the team has different strengths and we brought all of those together to maximize our productivity and brainstorming for camp. Some of us throw out ideas and some of us think them through to make sure they will be effective. Teamwork is essential to success. Awesome.


4. Real-keeping this year this way. We are driven as a team to keep our experiences real this year. We are six real individuals with friends, goals, and weaknesses. We all have passions, such as running, baseball, horses, and education, that we pursue outside of FFA. Real.


5. Superhero-the theme of State Greenhand Leadership Conference. Our theme for camp is "Activate Your Power"-based on superheroes. We know everyday superheroes who serve others. Minnesota FFA members have goals that tap into their personal "super powers." We all have strengths that make us extraordinary. Superhero.

The officer team sitting on top of an overlook tower.

We are excited to serve the Minnesota FFA members at the State Greenhand Leadership Conference. I am pumped to meet FFA members who are the future of agriculture. Get ready for a stellar, intense, awesome, real, and superhero-style State Greenhand Leadership Conference.

Stationed beneath the rising sun,

Hillary Kletscher