Session Three: Essential Elements of a Successful FFA Chapter

Today we were visited by some pretty awesome guests; the Executive Secretary of the Pennsylvania FFA, Mr. Mike Brammer, and by the state President and Chaplin, Katie McLaughlin and Grant Carlton.  We were offered some great advice as future FFA advisers and had the opportunity to explore the 10 essential elements of a successful FFA chapter!

Ticket Out Responses for Session 3:

• What are we curious about?
• Has active membership increased since affiliate membership was implemented?
• Affiliate Membership is a new and developing concept for the National FFA Organization.  Check out these links from ffa.org about the .National FFA Affiliate Program

• How does a school district start an Ag Ed program?
• For schools wanting to start an FFA chapter, National FFA recommends taking these 11 steps toward receiving your charter.
• For schools without an Ag program, schools should contact the Pennsylvania Department of Education and Mr. Chris Weller, State FFA Adviser.  Also, it is important to work closely with the school board to learn about the policies for developing a new program that are unique to your district.

• Can a FFA adviser be an adviser to more than one chapter and/or school?
• According to the National FFA's Constitution and Bylaws, the FFA adviser should be the teacher in that particular school.  However, if there are enough members, a program can establish Subsidiary chapters that are modeled after and have the same adviser as the parent chapter, meaning that the adviser would have two chapters.

• What did we learn?
• 10 Essential Elements of a successful FFA chapter
• All of the full-time positions in PA are currently filled
• About the PA FFA Association

• What do we want to learn more about?
• Starting an Ag Ed program at a school that does not currently have one
• (see info above)
• Affiliate membership
• (see link above)
• How to become more involved with the FFA
• Check out this link about Penn State Collegiate FFA to see how you can become more involved while at Penn State!