2016 FALL SEMESTER

National Champions for the 2nd time!

MINARETS FFA

Minarets Agriculture Shirts for Sale! Information inside!

M INARETS FFA N EWSLETTER In October, some of our members and agricultural advisors attended the National FFA convention held in Indianapolis, Indiana. Here at this conference they attended sessions put on by our National FFA officers listened to their retiring addresses. We also were able to listen to keynote speakers such as Diana Nyad, a professional swimmer who worked to complete her life goal, and Jason Brown, a professional football player turned farmer. There were many other activities these students attended, such as the National FFA expo, which was celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Finally we were also able to support our National Teams, Forestry and Parliamentary procedure, our National Proficiency Finalist, Kailey lemon, and our American degree recipients, Tanner Lopez, Ashlynn Lemon, and Maribeth Villanueva. Overall it was a great experience for all those who attended the conference! We also had a few members, such as myself, who attended the California FFA Washington D.C. trip. This trip followed the convention trip, where many students from California FFA attended and toured the many different memorials and monuments. We also had one student, our President Jordyn Samper, serve the California FFA as a National Delegate. Here she was able to work with other delegate from other states and help make recommendations that could potentially affect FFA members nationally! Overall the trip was great and we look forward to it again in the upcoming years! While some of us were having fun and gaining leadership abilities at the National Convention’s sessions and workshops, others of our members were competing at a national level. These teams had beat out all other teams in the state, and were given the once in a lifetime chance to put what they know to the test and compete with teams from all across the country. Our Forestry team went on to place 11th in the country, and our very own Kailey Lemon was a nominee for the proficiency award in Natural Resources. And, our Parliamentary Procedure team reigned champions of the U.S after beating out every other team in the country. The members of our 2nd national championship team all received cash rewards, and are now certified parliamentarians. All of our teams worked hard to achieve their goals, and it certainly has paid off.

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2016 FALL SEMESTER

MINARETS FFA

Greenhand Officers Announced! At our November Meeting we announced our 2016-2017 Greenhand Officers. Your newly elected Greenhand officers are... Chaplain: Rhett Samper, Parliamentarian: Megan Redman, Historian: Ella Vermeulen Sentinel: Maddie Wristin, Reporter: Mackenzie Camacho , Treasurer: Garrett Bowe, Secretary: Payton Poore, 2nd Vice President: Kate Hough, 1st Vice President: Isaiah Gibson, and President: Mandy Villanueva. These individuals had to fill out an extensive application and be interviewed by a panel of judges and a cumulative score was used to place each person with their office. We would like to congratulate all of our new Greenhand officers and we can’t wait to see what they bring to our chapter not only this year but the next four years!

Winter Judging Teams Minarets FFA had one of its most successful Fall seasons, and plans on having the same for the winter season. For the fall team we had our cotton judging team. This was an entirely new team who came into the season not knowing much about cotton or the industry. They studied the material and ended up getting 7th at the state competition. In the cotton judging contest students are required to place a class of Lint, Boles, seeds, and even cotton plants. Immediately after judging students say a set of reasons justifying their placing. Along with the judging and reasons students are required to take a 50 question test worth 100 points on the cotton industry, pests, and cotton grades. Along with cotton judging Minarets FFA is currently participating in Citrus Judging and Natural resources. In citrus judging students are required to identify different types of citrus along with disease as well as judge many different types of fruits and say reasons justifying their placing’s. The citrus team’s first competition will be December 17th in Exeter. In Natural Resources students are required to present a presentation on a random topic in the Natural Resource industry along with identifying different types of plants. Along with this they pack a mule as a team. These competitions are being held in our winter months. Congratulations to Cotton team on a successful season and good luck to Citrus and Natural Resources!

Minarets FFA 2016-2017 Chapter Theme: Experience the Moment, Work for the Future 2

2016 FALL SEMESTER

MINARETS FFA

Chapter Officer Leadership Conference Follow Minarets FFA on Social Media! Follow the links or take a picture of the QR code below!

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COLC, or Chapter Officer Leadership Conference, was August 24. Some chapter officers and other very active executive committee members attend this conference. We traveled to Kingsburg, there we went to our separate officer stations and learned how to execute the office to the best of our abilities. I, Regan Fringer, went to the sentinel station with the East FresnoMadera FFA Sectional Sentinel. The officer taught us how to pass out and announce awards, and what the meaning is behind the opening and closing ceremonies. The sectional officers then held a meeting where we voted on important orders of business. It was a great time to mingle with the other chapter officers and to see a sectional meeting preformed. It was great to see the changes that the people who went brought back and implement them at the chapter level.

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Minarets FFA Point of Awards minaretsffa on:

Here at Minarets FFA we have many ways to highlight and reward our members for their involvement, which is where FFA point awards comes in. Our point of award system was developed to recognize those members who go above and beyond in our chapter with their continued support and participation. At the end of the year we award each member for their points by placing them on different levels: Level one is 50-150 points, Level two is 151-250 points, Level three is 251350 points, and Level 4 is 351-450 points. Then our highest level possible to be awarded is level 5 for those members who excelled throughout the year and earned 451 points and above. Members who achieved these levels are recognized at our end of the year spring awards banquet. FFA block awards are also given to the student who reach the following requirements; minimum point award achievement of level 3, possess a chapter degree, has no outstanding financial debts with the chapter, has a GPA of 2.5 or higher. On top of all these awards the top 10 underclassmen and top 10 upperclassmen are invited to our end of the year point award trip. In the past we have gone to places like San Francisco, and Santa Cruz. These trips are fun and a perfect way to reward our members.

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2016 FALL SEMESTER

MINARETS FFA

Fall 2016 Fundraisers We have had tremendous success with our fundraisers so far. There has been a lot of participation from the community and students. We braved nighttime temperatures and sold grilled peaches and ice cream at the home football games. We held our inaugural trap shoot at the Sun Mountain Gun Club in Coarsegold. Men, women, and children of all ages were able to show off their shooting skills and compete for prizes donated by the members of our FFA community. We held a drive thru BBQ where people were able to purchase individual meals, which included salad, rice, a roll and tri-tip and whole tri tips. Our Christmas spirit was shown through our poinsettia sale where we sold poinsettia plants to those who wanted to add to their Christmas decorations. Minarets FFA would like to thank all the students that helped and all the community members that have supported the members of Minarets FFA through these fundraisers.

Greenhand FFA Conference Greenhand Leadership Conference was held on September 15, 2016. When we first got there we sat with members from our FFA Chapter, and the facilitators that were running the event introduced themselves and told us interesting facts about themselves. Then, they explained what FFA was and what are some of the thing that we can do in FFA, going into detail from the teams we can join, and what other meetings and conferences that we can attend. There were bracelets on the table that were all different colors, and we each got one with a different color, which indicated what group you were in. The groups were called named after groups from movies, such as The Tributes from The Hunger Games. We went to station with our groups, and then proceeded to fill out a booklet that we received which had things for us to fill about FFA. We learned about different opportunities in the FFA and how we can become a leader in the organization. All 26 of us are having fun implementing what we learned at the Greenhand Conference at our chapter and in our lives.

Chapter Meetings! Every month, the Minarets FFA hold chapter meeting where members come together to conduct business, listen to announcements, and participate in many fun activities. We have had very fun meetings so far, such as slip n’ slide dodgeball, battleship, and even taking students down to Raisin’ Hell Ranch during Halloween. Our last meeting was November 15th and was our Friendsgiving meeting, where members came together for food, fun and reflection on the friendships they have built throughout high school and in the FFA organization. FFA meeting are a blast and we hope to see everyone there! 4

2016 FALL SEMESTER

MINARETS FFA

Madera County Fair Wrap Up The O’Neals Minarets FFA Chapter had a truly outstanding fair. We had multiple Market and Showmanship champions in all species. Our first event was the horse show which was two weeks before Madera fair started. We had many of our members take part in this horse event. Jordyn Samper won overall high point gymkhana, high point western, and won advanced FFA showmanship. Katie Linderholm won FFA intermediate showmanship. We also had members compete in the Dairy Goat Show which takes place the weekend before Fair. During this, Andrew Rezendes won showmanship and Samantha Waag was second. The next week consisted of hard working FFA members preparing their livestock for the show. After school members would come down to the fair to set up pens and tack, get the animals all weighed and make sure they were settled in for the week. Throughout the week members washed and clipped their animals and did last minute showmanship practice. Both Wednesday and Thursday were show days which made it a little chaotic. However by helping each other prepare animals and get to the ring on time, our chapter had great success Starting off in the pig barn, Maddy Beyer had the Reserve FFA Hampshire, Regan Fringer had the reserve FFA crossbred, Shelby Hershberger had the reserve FFA AOB, Kaitlynn Linderholm had the reserve FFA Yorkshire, and Michael Rezendes had the Champion AOB and the Reserve FFA champion market hog. Minarets also won chapter group for hogs and Michael Rezendes won intermediate FFA showmanship and Lauryn Martin won advanced FFA showmanship. In the goat ring, Dilan Basila won intermediate FFA showmanship and Supreme Breeding Doe, Andrew Rezendes had the reserve FFA champion goat, won advanced showmanship, and Minarets won chapter group as well. For the sheep show, Rhett Samper won intermediate FFA showmanship and Minarets won chapter group. In the steer show, Samantha Waag had champion FFA steer, Cody Jackson had reserve FFA steer, and Jessie Miles won advanced FFA showmanship. For intermediate FFA round robin, Rhett Samper placed 5th, Katie Linderholm placed 4th, Michael Rezendes placed 3rd, and Dilan Basila placed 2nd. In Advanced FFA showmanship, Lauryn Martin placed 6th, Jessie Miles placed 5th, Sam Waag placed 4th, Andrew Rezendes placed 3rd, and Jordyn Samper placed 2nd. Overall this ended as a great fair and all our members had a lot of fun!4th, Michael Rezendes placed 3rd, and Dilan Basila placed 2nd. In Advanced FFA showmanship, Lauryn Martin placed 6th, Jessie Miles placed 5th, Sam Waag placed 4th, Andrew Rezendes placed 3rd, and Jordyn Samper placed 2nd. Overall this ended as a great fair and all our members had a lot of fun!

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2016 FALL SEMESTER

MINARETS FFA

Officer Retreat Over the summer, our O’NealsMinarets FFA chapter officers had the opportunity to get together at central camp. We had 4 days together to plan out our year of service, bond through team building challenges, and became familiar with our fellow officers. Though in some areas we may have struggled figuring out a puzzle, the team was always able to put their heads together and overcome the obstacle. Though the days were long and tiresome, it was an amazing experience that I’m doubtful any of the officers will ever forget. This retreat was a wonderful and needed time to bond and plan a successful future year.

Business Members of the Month We would like to thank some businesses that have supported us this semester in a number of ways. First, we would like to thank Sun Mountain Gun Club for letting us hold our Inaugural Sporting Clay Shoot and donating to the event. The sporting clay shoot was wildly successfully and Sun Mountain and their support was key to that success. Secondly, we would like to thank Crop Production Services for their sponsorship and continued support throughout this semester. Without continued support from community members and business Minarets FFA could not continue to grow and offer the great experiences that the students deserve. Thank you so much Sun Mountain Gun Club and Crop Production Services!

Coarsegold Rodeo Grounds Clean Up The O’Neals Minarets FFA Community Service Committee is a committee formed to help out around our community. We do anything from grounds clean-up, to canned food drives. We are very excited to help out more in our community this school year and many years to come. We helped out on Monday, September 12th with the Coarsegold Rodeo clean-up. We helped the ground workers by pulling weeds, raking leaves, picking up trash, 6 moving gates, we collecting rocks that could affect horses walking in case of an accident, we also organized the VIP area for the rodeo. It was a very successful clean-up and we hope to do it again soon for the next rodeo.

2016 FALL SEMESTER

Chapter Officer Highlights

MINARETS FFA

Sarah Brown is our 2016-2017 chapter Secretary. She is a retired rodeo queen and moved here from Utah last year. She quickly took to FFA and became part of our family competing with us in Land Judging and Parliamentary Procedure. This year she plans on continuing with those teams to hopefully contribute to a repeat of our successes last year.

Kayleen Nelson is our chapter 2nd Vice President. After handing down her title of Mariposa Rodeo Princess she decided to take a short break from rodeoing to get ready for the National Soil and Land Evaluation contest after winning the 2016 California Land contest and placing 5th individually. She was also the 2015-2016 Parliamentarian.

Garrett Alford is the chapter Reporter and competes in Parli Pro, Marketing, Cotton, and Impromptu. Last year he competed in B.I.G. and the Novice Parli Pro contest. He enjoys hanging out with friends and is very active in the outdoors. He enjoys hiking and skiing and is also involved on the 2016-2017 Leadership team.

Sweatshirts- $25 Shirts- $15 Contact Ms. Hall for details [email protected]

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