National FFA Parliamentary Procedure Career Development Event Reflection

L-R Tyler Scheffer, Olivia Murphy-Sweet, and Doug Masser

I was fortunate enough to travel with Penn State to the 86^th Annual FFA National Convention in Louisville, Kentucky. There were over 62,000 FFA members in downtown Louisville for a week celebrating agriculture and FFA. This year, I had the honor to be a judge at the Novice Parliamentary Procedures Competition for the Society of Agricultural Education Parliamentarians, be an assistant with the Senior Parliamentary ProceduresCareer Development Event for national FFA and work at the Penn State booth to promote how amazing our school is. Now, this may sound hectic and busy, but I was able to be a part of a national conference and make an impact on the lives of the students that were there.

Students competing in the Final Rounds

During the Novice Parliamentary Competition, students have to demonstrate a knowledge in Roberts Rules of Order (the bible of Parliamentary Procedures), good debates that are prevalent to the motion at hand, make the motions that they were assigned to, which is on a card in front of them, and have 3 debates. Although there are more rules and regulations regarding the competition, the students have the opportunity to show us how well they work as a team to get a meeting completed in under 12 minutes. In addition, they also have a written test and oral questions after they presentation their meeting to the judges. The national winners this year were from the San Luis Obispo chapter from California. They blew the judges away with their presentation and their knowledge.

Another Penn State student, Tyler Schaeffer, a coach of the Cumberland Valley’s National Parliamentary Procedures team, has a tremendous respect for this competition. “I feel that the Parliamentary CDE is one of the best competitions that students can test themselves. It demonstrates teamwork, communication skills, makes them understand parliamentary knowledge, and develops leaders.” This is more than just a competition. It is preparing the world for future leaders who understand the proper way of how to run meetings and have reinforced better communication skills.  

View of the Parliamentary Procedure room

To learn more about starting on the path to having a career that makes a positive impact on the lives of students across the globe by becoming an agricultural educator, please contact the agricultural teacher education program at teachag@psu.edu. Follow us on Twitter at TeachAgPSU, on Facebook, or on our blog!

Olivia Murphy-Sweet
2016 Student Teacher 
@OSweetMurph