May 2015

NEWS A Texas Team Ag Ed Publication

May 2015

The Way I See It Jack Winterrowd, Cedar Park

“It had long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things.”

- Leonardo da Vinci The end of May marks the accomplishments of thousands of seniors all over America. It is a time they look forward to with anticipation and excitement. They are anxious to close the book on one part of their lives and excited to take the next big step into a new and different world. Graduation is a time when parents might have a slightly different viewpoint. For some, it is a time of sadness because the children they have so closely watched and raised are leaving the nest. For others, it is a joyful time because the kids are finally out of the house!

For my wife and me, graduations have been times for excitement.

Our college graduations marked the close of a successful chapter and a challenging new one as we began our lives together. Our daughter’s graduations held that same level of excitement because we knew our two girls were prepared to enter the world and face the challenges that life was going to send their way.

“You have brains in your head.

You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go...”

- Dr. Seuss

I am pleased to say that both of our daughters, Holly and Ashley, have taken Dr. Seuss’ challenge to heart and have gone in directions that make their parents very proud and thankful. Holly graduated from high school and college and worked until she became a mom and decided to stay home with her kids. She keeps busy these days running a suburban shuttle bus from school to soccer to t-ball to gymnastics to stock shows to whatever activity her three children are involved with. Ashley also graduated from high school and college and is working in education.

Yes, she is a double teacher’s kid who didn’t fall far from the apple tree.

I can recall attending their graduations and feeling a sense of accomplishment because their mother and I were able to instill a love of learning, a desire to succeed and a determination to complete something they started. That determination, sadly, is missing in so many of the students that I see on a daily basis.

For whatever reason, the drive to see something through to its endpoint is missing. The month of May can also be a time of disappointment for those students who choose to not accomplish those things they are very capable of doing.

That in itself is the most frustrating and annoying part of this job. A waste of potential is truly sad to see. It is something that all teachers face throughout the year but it is especially pronounced during this time of year.

I have a couple of senior students now who are not going to graduate because they have chosen to not complete their efforts. They haven’t done their work and haven’t come to school regularly since January. They haven’t chosen to play the school games that they all know how to play because they have played them for almost 13 years. And now the harsh reality of their choices is raining down on them with a vengeance. Now they are concerned when we can easily count the days to graduation.

Now they are concerned because their classmates are moving forward and they have no direction. Now they are concerned and are looking for some way to make it right again.

For some, there are still possibilities.

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VATAT News

The Way I See It

The Legislative Process

Continued

Barney McClure, VATAT Executive Director

For others, those possibilities are limited and sadly, for some, there are no more possibilities. Thankfully, those children are in the minority.

“I saw as a teacher how, if you take that spark of learning that those children have, and you ignite it, you can take a child from any background to a lifetime of creativity and accomplishment.” - Paul Wellstone One of my very favorite things is igniting that spark in a greenhand ag student. We have seen the spark in their eyes when they know that they have chosen the right path and that the success they have dreamed of is in their grasp. We have seen the joy on their face when their name is announced as the winner. We have seen the look of pride and accomplishment from a successful effort that was hard-fought and well deserved.

That look is one thing that has kept me in this profession. The knowledge that I was able to help make a difference in a child’s life, when they needed me to help.

The depth of understanding they get when it just feels good to succeed. Those are the feelings of accomplishment and joy that being a teacher can and will provide us. I daresay that is why we became teachers in the first place; especially ag teachers. For unlike other teachers, we are the ones who instruct and educate them for multiple years in the ways of real life. We learn about them and see them in ways that are a blessing to our professional lives.

“Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.” - Thomas Carlyle I truly love being blessed by God to see those successes and to watch them grow into the brave and outstanding young adults that our society so desperately needs. The blue ribbon agriculture mechanics project or branded show steer is simply the venue through which they become the successful adults we hope and pray they will become someday. Their accomplishments are like the height marks on the door facing in the pantry at our home where my wife is marking the growth of our grandchildren. They are the measurements of effort and success and goals accomplished. They are the stuff that dreams are made of.

I challenge you to be the person who ignites a spark in a greenhand to become a state officer. I challenge you to be the teacher who shows a teenager a glimpse of what her life can be when she graduates from veterinary school. I challenge you to be the strong shoulder that a young man needs when life is beating him down and his world is crashing around him because of unwise choices he has made. I challenge you to be a leader in your school and community and an advocate for agriculture education.

“It is through accomplishment that man makes his contribution and contribution is life’s greatest reward.”

- John Portman And that’s the way I see it…

Every day I read the Austin American-Statesman to help make sense of the political developments at the Capitol. Many times the headlines speak of the Texas House or Senate passing a bill. Other articles tell of bills passing out of committee. A casual reader might think that such actions mean the implementation of the law is right around the corner.

The process in which a bill becomes a law is often slow. It has to navigate more snags than the Brazos River. If it were easy to pass bills, we would have 10,000 of them passed every session. The process is the same for both the House and Senate. It begins when a member files a bill; it is then given a number. After that it is then assigned to the appropriate committee, where the chairman of that committee decides when and if a hearing will be held. Assuming it gets a hearing, it must be passed out of committee by majority vote. It is then sent to the Calendars Committee where it is slated for presentation to the full body. At that point, the full House or Senate takes up the process and they may pass any amendments they want.

Hopefully, at this point the other body has taken up a similar bill and it is almost always different from the other. A conference committee is appointed with some Senators and some Representatives who hammer out any differences in the two bills. After they agree on common language, it is sent back to the full House and Senate and it is up for a yes or no only vote. Only then is it sent to the Governor for his signature. After this final step the process finished.

As with any of us working on deadline, most of the hard work gets accomplished close to the deadline, which is the end of the 140 day session. By the time you read this, there will be less than 30 days to go. We have a number of bills we are watching and as they near resolution I will do my best to keep you informed on their progress.

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Are You Retiring This Year?

We would like to honor members who are retiring this year. Please contact Karen@vatat.org or call (512) 472-3128.

INSIDE THIS ISSUE

VATAT................................................................1 - 3 Texas FFA...........................................................5 Foundation....................................................6 Texas FFA Alumni...........................................8 Young Farmers...........................................10 - 11

VATAT News

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VATAT News

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VATAT News

UPDATE 2014-2015 Texas FFA Third Quarter Board Meeting Tom Maynard, Executive Director The Texas FFA Association’s Board of Directors tackled several significant issues at its third quarter meeting held last month.

Monday, March 30, 2015 the Texas FFA Board of Directors accomplished the following: • Approved a proposed constitutional amendment addressing the delegate business session: The proposal, supported by the Board of Student Officers and forwarded to the board by an ad hoc committee charged with re-visiting the topic, which was the subject of a proposed constitutional amendment in 2013, is similar to the previous proposal in that it bifurcates the delegate process into two voting delegate bodies, one that represents each chapter for the purpose of electing state officers and a smaller body, representing each area which conducts the business of the association. The potential voting delegate body size for 2015 is more than 2,700, which creates an extremely unwieldy process which does not allow for real deliberation or for an authentic hands-on leadership development experience. The proposed process creates a delegate committee process and allows area associations to develop their own application and selection procedures to identify and appoint business session delegates.

• Amended the student officer policy to include language which will facilitate to the awarding of a state officer scholarship or incentive award.

• Amended the scholarship policy to refine chairmanship terms to reflect current cycles.

• Approved state officer selection adult consultants submitted by the policy-mandated student committee, suspended the rules requiring the chair of the student nominating committee to be a state officer and approved Michaela Gardener of Lovelady to chair the committee and provided a board review of the student officer committee’s nominees for the nominating committee.

• Approved the report of the independent auditor, Glass and Company and approved the IRS-form 990 for FY 2013-14.

• Considered a discussion item concerning proposed operating policies related to board expenses.

• Considered a discussion item concerning the creation of a permanent staff position related to SAE and validation operations.

• Dr. Thomas Randle, Superintendent of Schools, Lamar Consolidated C.I.S.D, was re-elected to a second three-year term on the board. Dr. Edward Romero, Texas A&M University-Commerce and Latinos in Agriculture and Liz Bradford, Bradford Public Relations, who were serving one year of unexpired three-year terms were reelected to serve a full, three-year term.

• The Board amended the section 22 of the Texas FFA Policy Handbook, which addresses scholarship policies, to allow for a board-appointed vice chairman.

• The board elected Brent Lankford of Ponder to the chairmanship of the Texas FFA Scholarship Committee and Stephen Scitern of Anson as vice chair.

• Received committee reports concerning new quarterly audit procedures being implemented by the budget and finance committee, the budget process for FY 2015-16, an ongoing study regarding the purpose and function of the Collegiate FFA on a statewide basis, updates on speakers and entertainers and area realignment.

• Received updates concerning the competitive event revision cycle.

• Received the Executive Directors report for the second quarter (January-March).

• Received reports concerning Convention, Career Development Events, awards, student officer activities, leadership development continuum, membership, new chapters and Texas FFA News Online.

• Received reports from Texas FFA Foundation, VATAT and the Texas Education Agency.

Future Meetings The Texas FFA Board of Directors will convene in Waco for its fourth quarter meeting on Friday, June 12. All meetings are open to the public.

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VATAT News

UPDATE Congratulations You’ve Won a Scholarship….Now What?

Aaron Alejandro, Texas FFA Foundation Executive Director and Joanne Shelton, Scholarship Administrator Okay, you’ve won a scholarship and you’re preparing to next the step – college and a career. What should I do to ensure a have an incredible experience? On occasion I have a chance to visit with students and teachers about leadership, strategic planning and making dreams come true. My advice is generally pretty simple but chalked full of details that separate the ordinary from the extraordinary.

Step One – Do Your Job As simple as it seems, some of the hurdles and obstacles we may face in life are the result of not taking care of the little things or things we may take for granted.

With a scholarship, you’ll be required to say thank you, write reports, update contact information and correspond with the scholarship donor or administrator – do it. Don’t wait to be told what to do – know what is expected and meet / exceed expectations. The same applies when you get into a career – do your job completely and deliver exceptional service.

Step Two – Think Big! Thinking big allows you the spectrum to explore possibilities and tap into incredible networks. Big ideas have withstood poor economies, wars and fads. Thinking big also allows you to inspire those around you to think big – dream big, teach big, and empower others with the knowledge that we were created for greatness, with purpose and with time to be as BIG as God intended.

Remember, God does not make trash or sponsor flops – you were created to be incredible and do BIG things.

Managing a Scholarship Thanks to the generosity of numerous scholarship donors, the Texas FFA will award more than 135 scholarships to outstanding graduating seniors through its academic scholarship program. Applications are accepted once per year from seniors in high school who meet the minimum requirements. As one navigates the scholarship opportunities, they must also put a priority,

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and focus, on maintaining the requirements of the scholarship – DO YOUR JOB. Like the Texas FFA, scholarship donors want to give scholarships. However, critical requirements are in place to ensure the student performs up the expectation of the donor and organization.

As an example, recipients must maintain an approved degree plan leading to a 4-year degree at a Texas college or university and successfully complete a minimum of twelve hours with a minimum current and cumulative 2.5 GPA. Saying THANK YOU is a key component to the scholarship experience. If someone walked up to you and said, “Hey, I believe in your dreams” and wrote you a check for $20,000, $18,000, $10,000, $5,000 or $2,500 dollars would you say “thank you?” Maybe even write them a “thank you” note? Chances are you would. Why? Because we express our appreciation and gratitude to those who help make our dreams come true. One way to accomplish this is through corresponding each semester with scholarship sponsor to provide brief update on past semester progress.

Once you’ve received a Texas FFA scholarship, we hope you will pay close attention to the requirements of your donor. If you have questions, feel free to contact the Texas FFA staff or Ms. Joanne Shelton (joanne@texasffafoundation.org or (512) 480-8047) – Scholarship Administrator for the Texas FFA Foundation.

Congratulations to all of those who receive scholarships and THANK YOU for the generous sponsors who are providing the fuel to help make dreams come true.

Texas is a better place to live, work and raise our families because of the investment we’ve made in the future.

VATAT News

THANK YOU

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VATAT News

UPDATE Texas FFA Alumni Grants and Scholarships Kelly White, Texas FFA Alumni President Money is only a tool. It will take you wherever you money and what is the catch? All a FFA Chapter has to wish, but it will not replace you as the driver. - Ayn Rand do to be considered for the above mentioned awards is to have an active local FFA Alumni Affiliate (minimum of 10 members to pay their annual state & national dues The Money

by February 1st) and to fill out the applications and have

Each year the Texas FFA Alumni gives out the following them into the Texas FFA Alumni Association by the June monetary awards. These include: two $1000 scholarships; 1st deadline. Grants and scholarships have been denied ten $500 local grants; and lastly we graciously give money because they did not meet the requirements or missed the each to the Texas FFA, Texas Collegiate FFA, the VATAT, deadline. and sponsor the VATAT Family Night.. The money that Applications can be found on the Texas FFA Alumni we give is raised at our Annual Alumni Auction held in website (http://www.texasffaalumni.ffanow.org). You can conjunction with the Texas FFA Convention. Items such as read more about the auction in next month’s newsletter. scales, airline tickets, boots, retreats, FFA memorabilia, However, we are always seeking donations for the auction. outdoor items, and much more is bid on and goes home “Supporting Agricultural Education with the fortunate bidder. FFA Alumni Affiliates/Chapters also contribute to our auction by entering in the Alumni in Texas since 1974!

Basket Contest (rules for the contest can be found on the alumni website).

This year the money that we give to the Texas FFA will co-fund recognizing the retiring State FFA Officer team by securing their Lifetime FFA Alumni Membership. This time of year would be great to add your graduating FFA members to your Alumni Roster for the following year.

The new affiliation schedule allows you to this this with no added expense to your program.

The Catch What do you do to get grant money? How must it be used? Be prepared to answer the following questions.

What is your project? What do you want to accomplish?

What is your plan of action (who, what, when, where, why, how)? How will this project make an impact on your members and/or program and be prepared to have an estimate of what your project will cost. Grant money has been used to assist local FFA Chapter in purchasing t-shirts for their members. The money has been used to start a community garden. It has also been used in assisting the local FFA Chapter with purchasing new livestock equipment. How could you use it?

You are asking yourself about how to get free money

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“Living To Serve” - $100,000 Texas FFA Corporate Sponsor - $10,000 Annual VATAT Platinum Sponsor

- Over $5,000 a year in scholarships awarded to Ag Ed Student Teachers.

www.seitzfundraising.com 888.390.4332 - Fredericksburg, TX 78624

VATAT News

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VATAT News

UPDATE Notes From the Executive Secretary Don Beene, Texas Young Farmers Executive Secretary Another year of school is almost complete and summer is getting close. I hope you are making plans to attend the Texas FFA Convention and the VATAT Conference in July. Make sure you come by the Young Farmer Booth and check us out.

We received 29 scholarship applications this year. That is almost twice as many as we normally receive and they all appear to be well prepared. Next month we will hopefully feature the winners with a photo. However, this year we did not require a picture or their social security numbers. Now we only ask for digital photos and social security numbers from the winners.

It is always very difficult to judge the scholarship applications as all are extremely qualified. Everyone is in the top 25% of their class and have been very active in the FFA. As a point of interest to those that may apply next year, this is a Texas Young Farmer scholarship. Judges pick the winners most of the time by evaluating their work with their local Young Farmer Chapter

and the field of study the applicant will be perusing. Is it in the agriculture field?

The judges had a very difficult time selecting this year’s winners. Each judge asked if they could choose more than five. Of course, my answer was you may choose all you want but you will have to fund the ones after the first five winners. Again, I want to thank everyone for applying.

This month we are also featuring some more photos from our State Convention. This is a reminder to everyone that the funds used to provide scholarships are secured at the State Convention in the scholarship auction. The more people that attend and help us raise money in the auction, the more scholarships we can fund. See you at the Texas FFA Convention in Corpus Christi.

60th Annual Young Farmers of Texas State Convention

Dr. Bill Lazenby presented a workshop for our members about acquiring CEU points to renew their pesticide license. We hold these workshops every year at our convention.

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VATAT News

While visiting Brazos Glassworks tour participants were able to view an employee working with glass.

Rick Walterschield, Area IX Vice President, is observing the making of a hat at the Catalina Hat Factory in Bryan, Texas on our tour.

Everyone on the tour enjoyed viewing the various types of chocolate at The Chocolate Gallery in Bryan, Texas.

Rick Walterschield, showing a cross made from 20 penny nails made by Herb Casey of Teague Young Farmers. This cross was in the auction for our scholarship program. As previously mentioned, our auction at convention fund our scholarships

Our group also visited The Chocolate Gallery in Bryan, Texas on our tour. This photo show the counter were all the different types of chocolate are displayed. We each received a sample.

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VATAT News

VATAT

614 East 12th Street Austin, Texas 78701

ADDRESS SERVICE REQUESTED

Upcoming Events May

June

June Continued

1st Late Swine Tag Order Begins

1st State Public Speaking Entry Deadline

15th Agriscience Fair Entry Deadline

1st State CDEs, Sam Houston State

6th - 9th State Leadership Conference

21st - 24th NAAE Regional Conference, Rogers, AR

1st State CDEs, Texas A&M

10th - 12th State Degree Check

30th Last Day to Validate Swine

12th State Wildlife CDE, Nacogdoches

11th State Scholarship Selection 12th Texas FFA Board of Directors Meeting

YOUR PARTNERS IN PRINT HIGH QUALITY SALES CATALOGS Call Don Denny Today!

Office 806.794.7752 | Cell 806.789.7712 slategroup.com

Contact www.vatat.org

(512) 472-3128

vatat@vatat.org

Officers Jack Winterrowd, President

Ray Pieniazek, Vice President

Shane Crafton, Secretary/Treasurer

Staff Barney McClure, Executive Director

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Ashley Dunkerley, Communications

Karen Jones, Membership Services