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October 28 late afternoon: The 2006 Convention has been officially adjourned and the high light of the afternoon for Oklahoma was the retiring address by Travis Jett. If you want to hear Travis on stage in Indy- click here to listen to his final message as President of the National FFA.

The new national officer team did not include either of our hopefuls that had Oklahoma ties- neither Jarrod Johnson of Garber or Oklahoma State student Amy Czaja of Connecticut heard their name called in Indy Saturday afternoon. The new National Officer team will be led by Beau Williamson of California- you can see a picture of the new team by heading over to the National FFA web page by clicking here.

Also- I mentioned earlier in our blog about a truly amazing performance by a young man from the Caddo FFA, Alex Baker of our National Anthem. I thought you might enjoy hearing this young man masterfully play his violin on stage before a crowd of thousands Thursday evening.  Click here for Alex Baker as he honored America at the National FFA Convention this week!

October 28 1:30 pm: The final session of the 2006 Convention is now underway- with a highlight for Oklahoma FFA the retiring address of National FFA President Travis Jett from the Laverne FFA Chapter. AND- perhaps one of the most dominant performances of the entire convention was turned in by the Livestock Judging team from the Kingfisher FFA Chapter- they won, besting the second place California team by some 80 points!!! And Oklahoma had four of the top five individuals- led by Chelsea Clifton. Second was Logan Pritchett, fourth was Mark Pringnitz and fifth nationally from Kingfisher was Darin Annuschat WOW! By the way, Chelsea was slated to be the Extemperaneous Speaker from Oklahoma, but gave that up to be a part of this National Champion Livestock Judging team. She has another year to go in the speech competition and hopes to have another opportunity in 2007- if she can win back to back state championships in the Extemp SPeech area.

October 28 8:00 am- Good morning! This is the grand finale day for the 2006 National FFA Convention. One of the big highlights of the entire convention is the bestowing of the American Farmer Degree on FFA members. About 190  Oklahoma FFA members will receive the degree today at the ceremonies that get started at the RCA Dome in just minutes. To accommodate Moms and Dads and others who want to see this achievement, they have gone to the football stadium for this one session.

October 27: Oklahoma claimed three National Proficiency Awards in Indy earlier today. The three winners include Robert James Parrish of Pond Creek-Hunter in the Grain Production category; Kelsey Pfeiffer of Mulhall-Orlando in Beef Production- Placement and Chance Simpson of Timberlake in Ag Mechanics Repair and Maintenance-Placement. In addition, Sarah Davis  claimed fourth place in the national Prepared Public Speech contest.

October 27 8:00 am- I will be a little slower getting back to the computer today and updating this site- but will try to get a couple reports in as they are available. I didn’t mention last night but added in today’s email update about the incredible job done by Alex Baker of Caddo who helped kick off the general session last night as he played the National Anthem on his violin. Saying he played it does not do Alex justice.  That darned violin was SINGING the words I swear! It was an electric moment.  Later today- we will have the Proficiency Awards handed out and we will learn tonight how Sarah Davis of Guthrie did in the finals of the Prepared Speech Contest. I helped judge that last April in OKC at the state level- and she sure did a good job there and has already made us proud here in Indy!

October 26 10:00 pm: The Stars over America have been announced, and they include Andrew Bowman of Illinois for Star Farmer of America; Matthew Replinski of Wisconsin as Star in Ag Placement; Ryan Scholz of Oregon as Star in Agriscience and NeaL Ely of Nebraska.  While Oklahoma had three finalists, we came up a little short- but Brendon Lowe of Chickasha still is up for a couple of national honors after competing as Western Region Star in Agribusiness.  Brendon is a finalist for the H.O. Sargent Diversity award to be announced on Friday, as well as competing for a national proficiency award.  Best of luck to Brendon as well as Sarah Davis in Prepared Speaking- we will have the results from their competition later tomorrow. Good night!

October 26 8:30 pm: The Ford Motor Company has become the first million dollar annual sponsor for the National FFA Organization.  Ford plans on supporting FFA at the national level by sponsoring collegiate scholarships, the National FFA Agriscience Fair at the convention and the Washington Leadership Conference.  We talked with Ben Poore, Ford Truck Group marketing manager about this pledge and why Ford is willing to step up their level of FFA Support. Click here to listen to our conversation with Ben Poore of Ford.

October 26 8:00 pm: The evening session has started and the hopes are high for Oklahoma FFA as we have three finalists in the Stars Pagaent that will begin in a few minutes. Our Oklahoma delegation is also buzzing over Sarah Davis of Guthrie who was in the final four of the Prepared Speaking Contest earlier today- we will hear tomorrow how she placed. More later.

October 26 2:50 pm: We have made the junket over to the Career Show and back to take in a news conference with EPA Administrator Johnson and Ag Secretary Mike Johanns. We talked one on one with Secretary Johanns for just a few moments after the News Conference- squeezed three questions in- and you can click here to listen to the our comments with the Secretary. We talked with him about the FFA Convention festivities, Trade and farm policy and bone fragment issues with South Korea.

Back to the FFA- we also caught up with Dr. Ed Miller of OSU at their booth in the Career Show and you can click on his name for that conversation.

October 26 High Noon: It’s rainy and chilly here in Indy- but spirits are high among the thousands of FFA members that are moving back and forth between their hotels, the Conseco Fieldhouse where the General Sessions are and the Convention Center where the Career Show is being held. Secretary of Ag Mike Johanns is here in town- in fact, I caught a few minutes of his speech to a meeting that is being called The Grow America Project. No new revelations from the Secretary- he still wants to make major changes in the commodity title of the Farm Law and wants to be the most dominant Secretary when it comes to writing the next farm bill that we have had in recent memory. Johanns and Stephen Johnson of EPA will be holding a joint News Conference in just a few minutes in the Career Show touting some renewable energy initiatives. We just finished talking with a gentleman that we will introduce you to later this evening who has a million dollar announcement to make about supporting FFA! WOW!

October 26 8:00 am- Good morning from Indy! We are glad you stopped by.  We will have several updates today and our first audio interview that we wanted to share with you is our conversation with Glenn Stith, Chairman of the National FFA Foundation.  Click here to listen to our discussion as to why big agribusiness is happy to kick in millions to support this youth organization.

October 25 evening update: We still have an Oklahoma State student in the running for a National office for 2006-2207- Amy Czaja is originally from Connecticut  and is running as a representative from that state- she did make it into the SECOND Round! She’s been active in OSU’s Division of Agriculture as a member of the Ag Student Council and as a Student Ag Mentor.  More tomorrow from Indy!

October 25th!!! It’s officially opening day for the 2006 National FFA Convention and we have several interviews to share with you as we post on this Wednesday morning around 10:30 Eastern time- actually it’s Central Standard time as Indy does not go on daylight savings time- (no extra charge for that bit of trivia!).  There are already a lot of Oklahomans here- and have seen many more arriving already this morning. One group drove all night and arrived at about 9 am this morning. First thing this morning- we set down with two of the national officers from our part of the world- Stuart Joy of Artesia, New Mexico and Travis Jett of Slapout, Oklahoma- as you know- Travis is the national President of the organization.  We thought you would enjoy both interviews- so click on their names and you will hear our conversation with these two outstanding young men!

In addition, we had the chance to sit and visit for a few minutes with a gentleman that I have had the privilege of working with for the past twenty years- Kent Boggs, the Executive Secretary of the Oklahoma FFA. We also did a short audio interview with Kent about the importance of the national convention in the world of FFA- and about some of the exciting things that Oklahoma FFA members are involved with here in 2006. Click here to listen to our conversation with Kent Boggs.

October 24: It’s about 9 pm on this Tuesday evening and we are ready to report over the next few days from here in Indianapolis.  It was a fairly nice day here today- and Wednesday is slated to be great as well- but then it gets cooler and wetter the balance of the week. That will make the travel from Canseco Fieldhouse to the Convention Center down the street they have dubbed FFA Way a lot less pleasant.  I will not score the folks at Canseco very accommodating after I spent quite a while chasing my media badge this afternoon- but we finally got lined up.

We have high hopes for a lot of Oklahoma FFA members over the next three or four days- as we have 3 National Star Finalists, 19 National Proficiency Award Finalists and a H.O. Sargent Diversity Award Finalist(our Western Star Agribusinessman is also the Diversity finalist for our region- Brendon Lowe!) On a down note- Jarrod Johnson of Garber has been knocked out in the initial rounds for a place on the National Officer Team- so there will not be another Oklahoman to follow Travis Jett this on the next National Officer team.

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October 23: He’s already in Indianapolis-hoping to make it through the process and have a shot at the 2006-2007 National Officer Team.  The “He” I am referring to is Jarrod Johnson of Garber- and I had the chance to visit with him just before he left Stillwater for the national convention. Click here to listen to Ron and Jarrod talk about his candidacy.

October 22: Our third Oklahoman that is vying for a STAR here in 2006 is Brendon Lowe of the Chickasha FFA Chapter.  Brendon is the Western Star in Agri-Business, and we talked with him after a practice session for the Stars competition in Stillwater this past week. Click here to listen to Ron talk with Brendon.

October 20, 2006- We continue to spotlight the three Oklahoma FFA members who are pursuing the most prestigious honors that the National FFA offers- the Stars awards. Today, we want you to meet briefly Devin Miller of the Mooreland FFA Chapter who is the Western Region Star in Ag Placement. Click here to listen to Ron talk with Devin about his program that has brought him to this point.

October 19, 2006- We begin our pre-Convention coverage with interviews of the three Oklahoma FFA members that are finalists in the national STAR competition- first of all, please enjoy these comments from Ruth Bobbitt of the Lamont-Deer Creek FFA, who is the Western Region Star in Production Agriculture. She is vying for the honor of “Star Farmer of America” next week in Indianapolis. Click here to listen to Ron visit with Ruth Bobbitt.

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