Hey y'all! I am deeply sorry for the lack of posts this summer. As you all may know, life gets so busy in the three free-est months of a persons life. For me, I am a swimming lessons instructor and I have a new part time job moving pipe, pipe that isn't either my dad's or grandfathers (it is really kind of a novel thing), and I just recently got over being really really sick (which is also novel because I hardly ever get sick). But I was pleasantly surprised by two things. 1) I have had 1101 pageviews! Wow people, that is freaking amazing. I would have never thought that my blog would ever reach that number in such a short period of time. I am truly thankful to all those people who check in and read my rants, you people are awesome. 2) People are upset that I haven't posted in a while. Matter of fact, as I sat at the Canyon County Fair at the Vallivue FFA booth, two members Maddi and Janey sat and told me how they have been waiting and waiting for a new post and have sat and read their favorite ones over and over because they love them so much. People that means so much to me, makes me feel like what I am writing about is actually helping y'all.
So now that I am full of greasy fair food and strawberry lemonade, I am ready to sit down and relax long enough to tap out a post. And I promise that once that school starts, my posts will become more regular and I won't let you people be hanging for such long periods of time.
Here we go.....
From the moment I got involved in FFA, my summers were littered with trainings and officer retreats and the occasional planning meeting. And as I got more involved and advanced in positions, these summer conferences and retreats filled up my summer months. When I started off I wasn't so sure that I wanted to spend prime summer time with people I just barely met and with other people I have maybe met at an FFA dance or recognize their names from when they were called when they walked across the stage at State CDE's. With time, I grew more and more fond of these little ventures. And like everything else I blog about, I have a few tips and suggestions that one should take into thought as you go out and experience either your first officer retreat or for your second, third, etc. that much better.
#1 tip: put away your cell phone. I am well aware that I love to be on my phone, seeing what others are doing with their summer vacation or using up my newly received lives on Two Dots. But as we travel into an age where technology is becoming more and more present, we have to be careful not to let our phones be the only window into the world. Live in the present with the people who are with us. And to top it all off, the people presenting get very discouraged when they look over the room and see all the faces in the room glanced down and have a soft glow cast upon their faces from their phones. Disconnect. Unplug. Interact.
Tip #2: Participate. This all kind of ties back into the put your phone down tip. A lot of these officer retreats or planning sessions contain just that, planning. The next year contains a lot of events, events that your members will be looking at you to not only pull off, but make it fun and success on all counts. Put in your ideas, dare to disagree with the ideas you aren't sure about (don't confuse this with what you don't want to do with what you don't think is right for that event), offer suggestions to make an idea better, put your two cents in when they are needed. Most of all, just take part in the process and be a part of the team.
Tip #3: Go all in. Insert yourself into it all. You are apart of a group of individuals who were chosen because of your strengths and weaknesses to become a team that would most effectively serve your chapter, district, etc. You will do great and your opinion and ideas matters. Just give it your all. These planning sessions are for you. When I was in State Office, we went to a week long training with Washington and Oregon FFA called NLCSO (National Leadership Conference for State Officers). There was several posters around the room with inspirational messages. My favorite one, and the one you will hear me use most often is, "It is about YOU now, so it can be about THEM later." Get to know your team and how you help and make your team better so that you can serve your members to the best of your abilities.
Tip #4: Don't show up with your own agenda or a bad attitude. You wouldn't think that those two wouldn't go hand in hand, but they do. If you walk into these things with an idea that you know what is best and you are not willing to compromise, then the work that needs to happen to make the year won't happen. Keep an open mind. As for attitude issues. Don't walk into the meeting thinking, "this is going to be boring" or "I don't like so and so" or "my advisor is so old school and wouldn't ever go for what I would like to do". I am guilty of thinking of things that are similar, but I do know that when I did come into a meeting with a negative attitude, those meetings became nothing more than an argumentative and unproductive gathering of individuals, not the productive gathering of a team.
So all in all people, go into these next meetings with your full heart and mind. I can promise you that it will be more worth it for not only you but for your members. But mainly for you :).
Well people, I have missed blogging and I cannot wait till my next post. Thank you to the two girls who sparked me back into blogging. Helps me realize that what I am saying really does help.
If there is anything that you would like to know if I have a tip or an idea about, shoot me an e-mail, and who knows! It could become a blog post! You aren't the only person who will have that question. Remember, y'all, I do this for you and if you need to know something, let me know. The training is buried in deep, all I learned and trained for is for my members. Even though I am a "has-been", I still like to serve my peeps! So until next time, and hopefully next time will be in a shorter period of time.
Peace, Love, and FFA
McKenzie
ffahacks@gmail.com
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