B Y: TA M M Y C H R I S T I A N C H A I R M A N O F T H E T E X A S F FA A S S O C I AT I O N B O A R D O F D I R E C T O R S A N D P E N E L O P E H I G H S C H O O L A G R I C U LT U R E S C I E N C E T E A C H E R
THE TEXAS FFA ASSOCIATION BOARD OF DIRECTORS AND HOW IT OPERATES
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his year has certainly been a challenge for everyone. The Texas FFA Association Board of Directors is no exception, and has had to make some challenging and, at times, unpopular decisions. Knowing this, we felt it important to help everyone better understand how the board operates. Every year the Texas FFA Board of Directors works to review recommendations and proposals by the Board of Student Officers (the state FFA officer team) and programmatic advisory committee. The board makes decisions and updates policies to support our organization and follow our constitution/bylaws. As with most organizations, amendments to the Constitution and Bylaws may be submitted by Area Associations as well as the Board of Student Officers or the Board of Directors. Those must be submitted in writing 60 days prior to the next FFA Convention for review. Those proposed amendments must be submitted to local chapters 30 days prior to the FFA Convention by the State Executive Director for consideration by the delegates at the convention. Should anyone have items they want the board to address, they should submit those to Executive Director Austin Large. The board welcomes visitors to attend our board meetings, and guests are allowed an opportunity to address the board on items of concern. The board has 19 members consisting of agricultural educators, agriculture/ agribusiness industry representatives, school administrators, and permanent directorships. Five of the agriculture educators are the officers of the ATAT. Those positions are one year terms and may be re-elected each year. They serve no more than 5 terms. The past-past-President of ATAT serves for one year as the Chair of
the Texas FFA Board of Directors. The agriculture/agribusiness industry representatives include one teacher educator, one at large teacher position, and one school administrator. Those individuals serve 3 year terms and do not serve more than two consecutive terms. The permanent directors are the Executive Director of ATAT and the Executive Director of the Texas FFA Foundation. In addition, there are three Ex-Officio- By- Position seats filled by the Executive Director of Texas FFA, the President of the Texas FFA Alumni Association, and the Statewide CTE Coordinator of the Texas Education Agency. A full list of the current board members can be found on the Texas FFA website: www.texasffa.org > About > Organization > Board of Directors. The Texas FFA Association board meets quarterly. Three of those meetings are typically held in Austin at the Texas FFA Ford Leadership building. The fourth meeting is typically held during the Friday of the State Advanced Degree and Award check at that location. This year has, of course, been an exception, and to date all of our meetings have been held via Zoom. Minutes of past meetings are available on the Texas FFA website, following the same navigation path as stated above. We know these are challenging times for FFA members and agricultural science teachers across the state. We appreciate your patience and understanding as the board works to provide opportunities in accordance with the restrictions and guidelines in place for our students.. Should you have questions or concerns about board operations, please don’t hesitate to reach out. 19
