State Officers Promote FFA to Indiana General Assembly
During FFA week, Indiana’s state officer team took the message of FFA to the Indiana General Assembly. On Monday, both the Indiana House and Senate passed resolutions in support of Indiana FFA. This gave state president Allie Abney the chance to stand before lawmakers and tell the story of the blue and gold. In an exclusive interview, she told HAT that it is important that lawmakers understand what FFA is all about, “For them to know who we are and what we do. To tell them as state officers we represent 10,113 members across the state and in every one of their districts.”
With Indiana FFA in need of continued strong state funding, Abney and her fellow officers are connecting with top state officials to make two important points, “That FFA is intercurricular, so that what we learn in the classroom correlates to what we do in our competition, and that our organization is student led.” She stressed that at both the state level and the local chapter level it is the students that run the organization.
On Monday, the team met with Lt. Governor Ellspermann and then met with key business and state agency leaders at a luncheon at the Indiana State Library. On Tuesday, they will serve breakfast to the Governor and his cabinet. Abney said new ISDA Director Ted McKinney is giving FFA some much needed visibility within state government, “Our new Director Ted McKinney has given a lot of extra push for FFA.” Rep. Don Lehe and Sen. Carlin Yoder were sponsors of the resolutions that were adopted by both chambers Monday afternoon.