The weekend of Jan. 27 and Jan. 28, a select group of Newport FFA students went to the ACE’s conference held at the Harrisburg Hershey Sheraton. Seniors Natalie McNaughton, Lillian Plank, and Lillee Shull, juniors Josalyn Cook, Evan Fleisher, Emmaly Plank, Gracyn Shutt, and Joey Turner, sophomores Taylor Barr, and Korimae Reisinger, and freshman Maryanna Aldrich, Case Barkley, Kaylee Bell, and Lizzie Hoover were all the members that attended this year’s ACE’s Conference.
There, they participated in movie-themed breakout rooms, breakfasts, dinners, celebrations, fun games, and discussions. Some of the students stayed together for the activities while others were split apart. Shutt commented, “It is always fun going every year and being able to meet new people and seeing some from the previous year.”
Newport FFA will be taking their new Parliamentary procedure team to competitions this year. This new team is composed of Shull, juniors Megan Foltz, Barr, Reisinger, and Selena Yohn, and freshmen Elexus Dishman and Hoover. The only returning member of last year’s team is Shull.
The competition is split into five parts. There is a test on parliamentary law, a minute practicum, a quote-finding contest from a book on parliamentary procedure, a group activity, and a debate. All of these scores are compiled into a single group score. The team will attend their first competition on Mar. 19.
Last year’s team consisted of seniors McNaughton, Plank, and Shull, and juniors Adison Geer, Shutt, and Plank. This team competed for two years and achieved 2nd place at the State Convention consecutively in each of those two years. The first year with the last team, they competed in the Big E competition in Massachusetts, where they placed first. Last year, they had high hopes of placing first at states but came a few points shy of pulling the win.
The new team practices every Wednesday and Friday at 7 a.m. before school. Shull, the new chair for the team, commented, “It is most definitely a little different this year with having new members on the team. I have a huge change in roles going from a member to the chair. I think that we have the potential to do well; we just need to work hard for it.”
