Ag Expo Question. Local management in your program??

[Daniel Miller]

This is a personal advice type question and not meant to be a complaint or comment .

 

How are you guys dealing with the cluster that is Ag Expo?

 

By cluster I’m talking not about anything from the AgExp organization or hosting.  I think it is done well and is a lot to do at all.  I’m talking about my end of it, the impact on my local chapter as we prepare for it.

Because it is such a great opportunity we want to offer it to all the members.  This is where the cluster starts.

The rooms are reserved 6 months ago, before we know how many kids want to go and before we really know well what our budget is going to be based on the number of kids. Once registration opens up we have kids that end up in all types of contests that don’t overlap with the local curriculum (we can’t all teach everything and therefore there are always good/valid contests that we aren’t teaching)  This results in “practices” that quickly become extracurricular time consumers.  (the cluster grows)

If a kids is allowed to only do a couple of contests then there is too much down time and we all know that “idle hands are the devil’s playthings” and the down time results in foolishness and stupidity that must be dealt with (the cluster gets bigger)  So we tell our kids you must be in ___ # of events.  (more growth to the cluster).

This leads to kids in contests that they know nothing about (great! trying new things and getting over fear of failure is a big part of Personal Growth and fits our mission well). But, it now adds to the cluster in that registration becomes complicated, schedule changes (which are just part of reality, no one’s fault) happen and now the conflicts of time/place/contest participation start in, (by now the cluster has become a consuming nightmare).

For as great as AgExpo is it has become a bane to my existence every fall.  It gets so consuming and distracting that it takes away from my actually doing my job (running the classroom and educating the students there, prep time goes away and gets taken up by all the details/changes/and cluster of preparing for Ag Expo). The perpetual problem of an Ag Teacher.

Here’s what I/our chapter does to try and deal with it.

     In the Sept meeting they vote on what hoops need to be jumped through to earn the priviledge of attending.  Typically this means a $50 fee, participation in at least 4 contests, and attendance at a minimum of 6-8 practices. We take no more than 24 members based on a perceived budget and the number of rooms reserved back in June.

What are you guys doing to keep the cluster at a reasonable size so that this is a great event and not the blob that ate your program every fall?

[Kellan Standley]

Hi Daniel et al.,

There's no question that Ag Expo involves a lot of spinning plates, expense, and craziness. That being said, I think it's still my kids' favorite FFA event each year.

To answer your question, here are a few things we do, intentionally or by happy accident, that help it typically run smoothly for us.

1. We are very clear about expectations for the event. As with other FFA events, I stress to kids that this is a "business trip"- we are not there to shop, watch volleyball, or play games, we're there to play FFA. Depending on the kid/team, I'm also upfront about what we're trying to accomplish- e.g. my older agronomy kids know we're there to see how we currently stack up, my junior sales team knows that how they place is less important than the opportunity for them to get some "live" experience. Some years kids know they're in an event just to try it out. This often helps kids self-cull.

2. Each kid has to sign up for 2 "real" events (i.e. not quiz bowl, it's a joke). I used to make them do 3, but I realized that having a kid sign up for a contest they are neither knowledgeable about or interested in is a waste of everyone's time and resources. Most kids have two events they want to do, and if not, 1 extra is more tolerable. This helps them to focus their effort on actually being prepared for their events, which I realize is a crazy concept.

3. I usually open the trip up to all HS members, and let them choose their own events. Our kids are very aware of what the trip consists of and what it entails for the chapter, so older members are very helpful in guiding decision-making at a chapter and individual level. I don't actively discourage them from pursuing events outside of our district/state ones, but that seems to happen naturally on its own. Our kids like to try to be competitive (whether or not they actually are), which leads to a lot of frank conversations about cause-and-effect. I'm upfront about the fact that if they want to do something like Quiz Bowl, I will sign them up and help set them up with resources, but we're not going to create a separate practice time for something that only exists in November, and that if they're wanting to do well at ATMS at districts/state, competing in that at Expo will probably help them get closer to that goal moreso than Kahoot trivia.

4. I make a schedule for each member. This sounds like a lot of work, but it's a pretty simple Google Sheets page- Each kid is a column, and there are rows for Thursday morning, Thursday afternoon, Friday morning, Friday afternoon, and Saturday morning. If they have an event during that time I put the name, location, and times in there so they know. Everyone gets a copy of this so they can help each other. For kids that have a lot of "down time", I will add things like the Ag-Ed lessons, or at state put the trade show, workshop, or tour so they know that they have something to do.

5. I don't eliminate downtime. Part of the fun of the trip is hanging out in the SUB. Having clear expectations (i.e. "Don't leave the building") cuts down on a lot of the issues from that, though not all. Too much free time leads to problems, but it can go too far the other direction as well. The more busy kids are, the more circus there is for me to manage, which means I'm less available to monitor behavior, so I try to find a balance that works for everyone.

6. I bring people that know what they're doing. Having knowledgeable chaperones and student leaders makes things easier for everyone. I make it clear to newer kids who to ask when they have questions. Each team has a "point person" who can help with logistics and explanations.

7. Our signup deadline is way before the JudgingCard deadline. While neither is ideal, it's easier to drop than add.

8. To your point of it taking away from my "real job", I and my program take the view that this is an extension of it, an opportunity for us to work on the things that we are already doing, rather than something new or different. While I allow kids to choose any events, we're only signed up for the things we're currently practicing, which I don't think is really a coincidence. That said, if I had a bunch of kids that signed up for poultry, I might also take that as a sign that there is interest and/or relevance that I should be including it in my curriculum/CDE schedule.

At the risk of getting on a political soapbox, we have cultivated a culture where students are fairly specialized and strive for quality over quantity. This is certainly not the only good possible approach. There are also programs that do this much better than us (having 9 practices in 5 days is not ideal, and we still don't get on stage much). That said, 95% of the time, when my students go to a competition, they more or less know what they're doing so there are no surprises and their scantron doesn't end up with bite marks. Placings aside, this makes it easier to get them to sign up to do it again.

Absolutely nothing groundbreaking there, but hopefully this is helpful to someone struggling with the tornado-in-a-trailer-park of most chapter's biggest trip of the year.

-Kellan

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[Meghan Bruner]

Kellan,

Can you share your spreadsheet for the kids schedule? I have a word doc that I use and I’ve been done tuning it but yours sounds more cohesive. 

Thanks in advance!

Meghan (Bruner) Low

Agriculture Education

Valier Public Schools

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[Kellan Standley]

This is the link to a version anyone can copy. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12pI_rzMiYHcyfL3f103AIA5YUrscQJRXvew4JYl-kXM/edit?usp=sharing

Let me know if that doesn't work, since it's on my school account.

I used to break it down by hour, color-code, etc. But that was way more work, more pages, harder to read if I print B/W, and this seems to do just as well for getting kids where they need to be on time.

-Kellan

[Kelly Alvstad]

Thanks Kellan!   I still handwrite it all out and it can be a disaster! 

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[Kellan Standley]

I realized that was the wrong link. That was the old version when I would just staple the Expo schedule on. This is the current year's, where I include times: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1txPQzAX1lh3_iuoa_LoQy84KQh_5RIK4N3jZAjR23-4/edit?usp=sharing