Board of Directors Records, , consist of the newsletter, Board Issues , board minutes and index, and correspondence. It discusses issues from the meetings that directly affect the national organization. For Board minutes prior to there is an index available arranged by topic. For more in depth information there are scattered committee reports located within this series. Further information about the board and the decisions made by the student membership can be found in the National FFA Convention proceedings located in the National Convention records.
National Officer Records, , consist of correspondence, biographies, and press releases. These records document the activities of the six national officers elected annually. The early files, , contain correspondence to and from the officers and fully document their activities during their terms.
Biographical information for these years can be found in press releases about the new officers and their outstanding accomplishments. Later files contain less correspondence and more direct biographical information. The Goodwill Tour Booklets are a mostly complete set, , of biographical information about each of the national officers.
The Goodwill Tour is a nation-wide trip by the national officers to thank supporters of the organization. Administration Records, , contain correspondence, articles, publications, audits, and reports. The administration files are divided into two main groups: administrative officers and office files. The administrative officer files are the records of the National Advisors, Executive Secretaries, and other important officials who serve the National FFA Organization.
These files contain information about trips, responsibilities, and problems occurring during their tenure. The records in this series can also be used to find information regarding important people, events, and programs within the national organization.
The records of only two of the Executive Secretaries, William A. Ross and William Paul Gray, are found in this collection. A combination of the Executive Secretary, National Advisor, and other officers' records gives the researcher an overview of all major developments of the organization. The most extensive documentation is found in the files of E.
Johnson, a program officer during the ss, and William Paul Gray. Executive Secretary William Arthur Ross's files contain important information regarding the early organization and how its programs developed. An important section to review is the memos written by Ross to his supervisor reporting on his activities.
This ten year run of records, , contains an index organized by date and title. The second group of records is the office files. These records deal with how the whole organization operates rather than just the officers. Contained in this series are the most complete financial and policy records as well as important legal battles that affected the way the FFA operates.
State Association Records, , consist of newsletters, correspondence, annual reports, written histories, state charters, and articles about the activities of the state FFA associations. The records are arranged alphabetically by state. The strength of these records are the information about state organizations and activities prior to Another important state activity was the creation of scrapbooks.
The scrapbooks were submitted to the national organization by each state as a part of a national contest between the states and accurately demonstrate the activities of the chapters within the state associations. The scrapbooks of Illinois and Nebraska are retained as a representative sampling. The annual reports submitted in are individual reports collected from each state.
The reports prior to are based on individual state reports, but are compiled into one large, national report on the states. These records do not fully document the histories of the state organizations, but provide insights into how the national and state organizations interacted and how early state associations operated.
History Records, , contain biographies, histories, news clippings, and press releases important to the history of the national organization. These records are organized by subject and name and arranged alphabetically. These records are a quick source for biographical data on important leaders and background information on the traditions and movements of the organization.
The series offers a large variety of both current and historical names and events associated with the organization. Information about national officers is not located in these records, but is found in the National Officer Records series.
National Convention Records, , consist of correspondence, programs, proceedings, press releases, and other materials related to the National FFA Conventions. The Agricultural Career Show records are also included. The Career Show, similar to a job fair, is held annually in conjunction with the National Convention. The records consist mainly of informational packets about the Career Show each year. Each convention produces similar types of records that are organized under three main headings: clippings, printed materials, and scrapbooks.
The clippings section contains newspaper and magazine articles mainly from the Kansas City, Missouri area related to the events at the conventions. The printed materials section contains all of the programs, proceedings, and booklets that are produced for the convention. This collection contains a complete set of convention proceedings that are informative because they document every important event at the convention.
Retiring officer addresses, minutes of the business sessions, awards information, and, in the early years, the four public speeches were all printed in the proceedings. The final section is the scrapbooks that contains press releases, correspondence, and informational hand-outs. The scrapbooks also contain information about awards, general information such as convention summaries and highlights, scripts, and speeches.
Other information about the awards given at the convention can be found in the Foundation Series under awards, in the State Records, and in the Awards Series. Award Records, , consist of handbooks, award books, award entries, and correspondence. These records deal largely with contest descriptions, proposals, correspondence related to the founding of a contest, and published materials about the awards.
The best place to find a list of award winners is at the end of this series under Winners-Compiled List for the years up to Some information about specific winners can be found in the winner booklets, but complete lists of winners from every contest is published in the proceedings of the National Convention each year and in the Convention news releases, located in the National Convention Records.
Further information can also be found with the National Foundation Records. These records include yearly lists of foundation award winners in the foundation annual reports, booklets about the award given by the foundation, and award allotments books. This series is arranged alphabetically by the name of the award. In many cases, names of awards have changed and the records are generally filed under the current name with a notation of the earlier name.
Program Records, , consist of correspondence, newsletters, brochures, radio scripts, other public relations material, and publications. This section contains the records for the programs initiated by the National FFA Organization at the chapter, state, national, and international level.
Important features of this series include international files, the Building Our American Communities BOAC files, leadership files, and the public relations records. The international files include the organization's correspondence with foreign countries relating to agricultural exchange programs for FFA members and relating to the formation of foreign future farmer organizations such as the Future Farmers of Japan and the Future Farmers of the Philippines.
National winners were recognized and awarded at the National Convention. The BOAC files include information about the program as well as the winners of the awards. These records contain phenomenal information about the programs the FFA uses, past and present, to foster public awareness. Other items in this series include World War II programs that were designed to help win the war on the home front, career recruitment, FFA recruitment, and other programs designed to involve the community and elementary-aged children with the activities of the FFA.
Publications, , consist of handbooks, manuals, newsletters, articles, books, theses and research studies published by and about the FFA. F97 and located in Special Collections and Archives. There are two different types of newsletters in this series: advisor and general. Prior to this newsletter was called Between Issues. It contained information about important events and activities.
The newsletter gradually evolved into an advisor's newsletter containing ideas and teaching tools. The general newsletter, called Update , is a monthly informational newsletter about the FFA sent to members, advisors, government officials, and anyone involved or interested in the events and activities of the organization.
Today, the National FFA Organization is committed to the individual student, providing a path to achievement in premier leadership, personal growth, and career success through agricultural, food, and natural resources education. FFA continues to help the next generation rise up to meet those challenges by helping its members develop their own unique talents and explore their interests in a broad range of agricultural, food, and natural resources career pathways. Members are future chemists, veterinarians, government officials, entrepreneurs, bankers, international business leaders, teachers, and premier professionals in many career fields.
Josey Schmidt. November 1. Words have Power. Lydia Watanabe. October Jocelyn Dvorak. Department of Education as a service to state and local agricultural education agencies. FFA programs are funded through sponsorships and individual donations at the local, state and national levels. Jessica Mozo T Lauren Denton T Read on for five emerging careers that combine science, technology, engineering, art, math and agriculture.
About FFA. What is FFA.