Don’t Copy What the Premier Chapter Does

In the sprawling landscape of FFA chapters and organizations, it’s easy to feel tempted to mirror the success stories of others, especially those named “Premier Chapters”. 

I mean, if something works brilliantly for one chapter it will work perfectly for mine too, right?

But let’s take a step back. What does “Premier Chapter” even mean? 

On the national level, it means recognizing the top chapters with innovative activities in each of the three divisions: growing leaders, building communities, and strengthening agriculture. 

The top ten chapters in each division get a crystal glass table top National FFA Premier Chapter Award, and among those, one top premier chapter is chosen. Only 3-star chapters are eligible for these premier chapter awards.

Now, what about the chapters that don’t apply for this award? Does that mean they aren’t hitting these high notes? Maybe, maybe not. 

Here’s the kicker: an award doesn’t determine your worth as an agriculture teacher or the success of your program.

Enter Nikki Fideldy-Doll. Nikki was a one-woman department in rural North Dakota, and if you know her, you know she’s a powerhouse of wild, awesome ideas! Take this one, for example: she got her students to design stickers for the local fire department. The students printed these stickers and sold them to the community, with profits going right back to the fire department. How cool is that?

Now, imagine implementing this idea in your own chapter. How would it pan out? Think about Jason Ferriera’s chapter with over 900 FFA members. The sheer number of sticker designs could be overwhelming. How would they even pick which designs to sell? And who would do the selling? And what if they don’t even have a relationship with that fire department or the fire department doesn’t need donations? That isn’t going to have the same results. 

The point is, it’s not about the number of designs. It’s about the impact this event had on the fire department in her community. This chapter decided to find a need in THEIR community and find a solution to serve them.

Instead of chasing huge numbers or copying and pasting what you see on social media, try focusing on impact for YOUR audience (chapter members, community or the agriculture industry. The more successful chapter isn't the one with the most stickers, fruit sold; it's the one that makes an impact in their community.

Here is another example, let’s talk about Sarah Nerswick’s story—it’s short and sweet. They held a chapter telethon event with only 11 FFA members helping. Those members called and left messages of encouragement to every FFA member in the chapter.

While looking from outside of this event you might be thinking that the number of members might seem small and insignificant. It is more about the impact those 11 members provided the chapter that played a part in getting named a Premier Chapter for Growing Leaders at the national level. A 20-member community service event that shows the power of collaboration can surely be an impactful event. This isn’t about individual efforts but the strength of the group.

If you’re nodding along but wondering, “Cool, but we want to win a National Chapter award but need some good ideas for activities that work for our chapter”, we’ve got just the activity for you to try with your officer team. 

Our friend Nikki whipped up this workshop in 2022 and it was a huge hit. This activity helps you brainstorm ideas that can make a big impact in your chapter and community—aka, a recipe for success!

Remember, the National Chapter award focuses on three divisions: growing leaders, strengthening agriculture, and building communities. Each division has quality standards for your chapter to focus on when designing an activity.

Nikki has broken down each standard into its own slide, so you can focus on one activity at a time. Each standard comes with a prompting idea, like a statistic or mystery item, to get those creative juices flowing.

For example, one group used rubber ducks as their mystery item and ended up planning a boat launch cleanup with a “duck pond prize” to incorporate the ducks! Creative, right?

We’ve found this activity works best with a small group for brainstorming. We aren’t saying you need to utilize balloons, rubber ducks or cowboy hats in your events. This is just a strategy to shake things up and get creative thinking outside the box.

Try it with your chapter officers and see what awesome ideas you come up with to help your chapter or community. We’ve provided two versions for you to try—your challenge is to actually incorporate one of these activities into your chapter’s Program of Activities (POA) this year!

Here’s the link to the activity slides!

One thing is clear: there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for success in chapters. 

What works for one might not work for another—and that’s totally okay.

Instead of copying the premier chapters, let’s celebrate the uniqueness of our own chapters. By staying true to ourselves, focusing on impact over numbers, and rallying together as a community, we can carve out our own paths to success. So go ahead, you do you, boo boo!