Clyde going to state

CLYDE — This past week, the Clyde FFA's Parliamentary Procedure Team competed at districts — and, after taking home first-place honors, the squad will move on to the state competition. Cylde FFA is a chapter of the National FFA Organization. This is an organization for students, between the ages of 12 and 21, interested in agriculture and leadership. Those who participate in the organization learn skills they can put toward careers in the agriculture industry, trades and other areas requiring them to act as leaders. The letters FFA within its name reference its original name. In 1988, the organization changed its name from Future Farmers of America to the National FFA Organization to better represent the diverse careers its members can go into. The organization hosts events at the local, state and national levels. One of these events is the Parliamentary Procedure Leadership Development Event. Clyde's team has advanced through the subdistrict- and district-level competitions to reach the state level. "We would practice for an hour," team member McKenna Perry said. "And it was a lot of fun honestly." Ian Strausbaugh, another member of the team, said practices started at 6 a.m. He and the other students learned how to work as a team, performing the best they could. In this event, teams of six students show their knowledge of how a professional meeting should be run. Students do this by demonstrating a meeting and taking a test on Robert's Rules of Order. Robert's Rules of Order is a manual of codes on how a professional meeting should be conducted. During the mock meeting, students receive a list of motions that are discussed and will either pass or fail. Students will need to be orderly, professional and persuasive to influence the vote of the other members to be in their favor of the passing or failing of each motion. At the state level, there are more aspects to the competition that take place including questions on Robert's Rules of Order that are asked after the mock meeting. On Dec. 9, the team will travel to Delaware, Ohio, to compete against teams from across the state. Team members from Clyde shared why they decided to participate and what they hope to get out of the competition. "In the future, it will help with jobs that use preliminary procedures to run business meetings," Strausbaugh said. Perry hopes to move on to the national competition. But, if that does not happen, she is happy with the memories she has made by participating.