Nevada Farm Bureau YF&R Discussion Meet 2012

This year was the largest Discussion Meet that we have had since I first attended the Nevada Farm Bureau's Annual Meeting 6 years ago in Tonopah.  I competed that day and was one of only two people that had come to the meeting to do so.  We convinced three others to join so that we would actually be able to have a 'group' discussion.  The last two years we have had nine people.  This year (drumroll, please) we had TEN!  Okay, that may not seem so big to you, but there were a few others there that we could have begged and pleaded with to join, and that is my whole point--there were ten competing YF&R members, and and about ten others attending that day that were not competing.  That is a big deal from six years ago.  All of the other states that I have visited with through YF&R activities and meetings have told me "Don't give up and Don't get discouraged, it takes time to build the YF&R program."  So, that is what I keep in mind when it seems slow.  But at least it seems steady, also.  Clark County has a full program now working.  Elko has a YF&R Chair that attended their first annual meeting and was excited about being involved.  And we have in the works a great plan to build the program in 2013 to each active county!  But, enough about that--here is a re-cap of our Discussion Meet this year:

In the first round of discussion we had Dan B. from Clark, Kaley S. from Clark, our past year's DM Winner, Irene B. from Clark, who helped as our Moderator.

Also competing in the first round were Jon D. from Elko, Candace S. from Elko, and Dann M. of Lincoln.

Competitors are introduced to the room and to the topic, they are then given the opportunity to give a 30 second opening statement on the topic before the discussion begins.  They are judged on time, presentation, cooperation, knowledge of the topic, etc.  Their topic was:  How can Farm Bureau play a role to ensure the viability of quality agricultural education programs within our schools? 

Out in the foyer we were prepping future YF&R members for the Discussion Meet.

Dann gets his final point in before the round ends.

Round two brought five more competitors to the table--Lacey T. from Clark.

Cory S. from Elko and Ashley W. from Churchill, were both attentive to the discussion at hand, the topic of this round was:  Certain sectors of agriculture are labor intensive and rely heavily on immigrant workers. What is a fair and balanced immigration policy?

Cody M. is another of our collegiate competitors from Elko County.

And the final contestant in this round is NV FFA President, Margaret W.

The round closes and the competitors have a one minute period of quiet time to compose their thoughts in order to give their one minute closing statements. After that the judges head out to tally the scores and choose the final four competitors for the final round of Discussion!!