The Bonners Ferry FFA Chapter has been growing rapidly within the last two years, getting students involved in agriculture and the community. Being a part of the FFA organization allows members to travel around the country learning important skills and knowledge. The National FFA Organization practices “premier leadership, personal growth, and career success,” while also putting into action the FFA motto: “Learning to Do, Doing to Learn, Earning to Live, Living to Serve.” In the agriculture department at the Bonners Ferry High School, enthusiastic FFA members are gearing up for the 212/360 leadership conference in Boise where they will put these newly-found skills to use.
Each year towards the end of January, the Bonners Ferry FFA Chapter travels down to Boise, Idaho for a leadership building conference called 212/360. This year the FFA chapter is leaving town on Sunday morning January 24, and will be returning on Tuesday night January 26. While they are away, students that are members of the FFA will be attending numerous events, activities, and training workshops.
As you may be wondering about the title of the trip, the numbers 212 and 360 each have different meanings behind them. The reason the FFA leadership conference is entitled 212/360 is for the levels of growth each member surpasses within their learning stages.
The number 212 is for the amount in degrees for the boiling temperature of water. The 212 workshops are for underclassmen such as freshmen and sophomores, and are supposed to spark their interests and give them a boiling sense for strength and honor. The National FFA Organization describes the themes for 212 using the words “virtues, growth, and collaboration.”
The number 360 is the degree mark for a complete circle. The 360 workshops are attended by FFA members, typically juniors and seniors, who in previous years went to the 212 workshops. Here they will be learning to combine everything they were taught to create a powerful and influential effect on others and their community. Students going to the 360 conference are taken through a full circle of chapter leadership development along the themes of “action and influence,” described by the words of the National FFA Organization.
There are multiple workshops going on at the 212/360 conference that consist of leadership building activities and games. The workshops are lead by FFA state officers working with different aspects of the organization: ‘premier leadership, personal growth, and career success,’ while also incorporating other unique lessons and morals.
Additionally, Bonners Ferry FFA members will not only get to attend these leadership workshops, but while down in Boise they will also take a tour of the capital building. The Bonners Ferry Chapter will be guests at a Boise capital lunch-in and have the opportunity to meet their elected officials. Our FFA chapter will be meeting Idaho legislators, senators, representatives, and Governor Butch Otter.
We all know what it is like to be nervous in a new place filled with strangers, and the easiest thing to do is to just hide in your shell, but at the various Idaho leadership conferences young FFA members start to blossom and build courage. They go meet new people that are FFA members coming from all across the state of Idaho, and make new friendships that last a long time. Students aren’t the only ones to ever get nervous; you must admit that many adults still get anxious in new places too. That is why it is so amazing that these students are getting out into the world and experiencing new things through the FFA!