Updated: 6/22/2020
COVID-19: State Convention and CDE/LDE Invitational
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2020 CDE/LDE Invitational Statement
*All activities and dates will be reviewed and updated
based on CDC, Local Heath, and Governmental Policies
June 22, 2020
As we continue to look for ways to limit the impact that COVID-19 has had on our students we have some important updates to share with all of you regarding some CDE/LDE learning experiences for students in 2020 and changes to CDE/LDE’s in 2021.
In lieu of facilitating official CDE/LDE competitions this year both New York FFA and National FFA have decided to offer multiple learning experiences relating to CDE/LDE’s throughout the end of summer and fall. We will be hosting individual learning experiences via several different virtual platforms that will provide information and practice materials for contests. Our contest coordinators along with some interested FFA Advisors will be organizing these opportunities which will be available approximately in August and September. No components of this will be officially competitive or impact who qualifies for state or national CDE/LDE’s next year, this will simply be activities that students can participate in to help them learn and prepare for future events. We will be providing more information about what this will look like and what CDE/LDE’s this will include as we continue to develop these materials and a schedule. We encourage schools and districts to host additional activities to continue engaging with students in the meantime if able to do so.
As you know, New York and National FFA have cancelled all CDE/LDE’s for 2020. Recently National FFA informed each state that for 2021 and ONLY for 2021, they will allow students who have aged out of a CDE/LDE this year to be eligible to compete in 2021 at the national level. For example, if you had a student in 9th grade who would have competed in Jr. Creed in 2020, then they are eligible to compete in Jr. Creed as a 10th grader in 2021.
The New York Association of FFA has decided to follow the lead set by National FFA and allow any student who would have aged out of a CDE/LDE in 2020 to be eligible to compete in 2021. This applies to State and National CDE/LDE’s. Each student must participate in the qualification process by submitting any materials necessary, advancing though districts, substates, states for LDE’s, and must be only one year older than the current rule in the handbooks. To clarify, any student who would have aged out of a CDE/LDE for the 2019-2020 membership year, may participate in a CDE/LDE for the 2020-2021 membership year. For example, if you had a vet science team made up of seniors in 2020, then they would be eligible to compete as freshman in college in 2021.
Q&A:
Q: What if my student placed at districts this year, does this mean they get to compete at sub-states in 2021?
A: None of the placings at districts in 2020 will affect the 2021 LDE competitions. All students interested in competing will start at the district level.
Q: Will students that are freshman in college need to be on my roster in order to compete in a CDE/LDE in 2021?
A: Yes. All students that want to compete must be on your roster.
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As of 5/21/2020, New York Agricultural Education and FFA have made additional difficult decisions to cancel all State Finals for Career and Leadership Development Events for the 2020 year.
We have based this decision on the following critical factors:
· Our prioritized concern for student and community health and safety
· The closing of New York’s K-12 public schools and Universities to in-person learning through the remainder of the school year
· Uncertainty as to when group gatherings can safely resume while adhering to social distancing guidelines
· The uncertainly of the status of the New York State Fair
· Equitable access to virtual events, contest integrity, and the execution of quality contests
· National FFA has canceled all LDE/CDE’s for the 2020 year
· The Big E will not be holding any in-person contests in 2020
While we understand that this cancellation is disruptive and disappointing, this decision was made in the best interest of everyone involved. This cancelation includes all Career and Leadership Development Events that are typically held at the New York State FFA Convention, Empire Farm Days, and the New York State Fair.
In an effort to still deliver on the promise of leadership development and career success opportunities to students, we are exploring ways to coordinate learning experiences and engage students with exhibition only activities throughout the summer. More information will be available as these options are discussed and developed.
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Updated: 5/7/2020
General
· Question: Would it be possible to send out a new, updated list of dates?
Answer: Yes, Proficiency finalists should create a new PDF after they make their judges recommended updates by May 15, 2020 and National Chapter finalist should create a new PDF after they make their judges recommended updates by May 22, 2020.
· Question: How are these events going virtual going to affect students award qualifications in future years? For example, meeting the 5 events above the chapter level for the Empire Degree. Will attending the virtual convention count and how will we ensure the validity in students putting that on a degree application?
Answer: Attending virtual events will count towards events above the chapter level. To validate these students, we will record participants in our tours, workshops, and delegate session. If your chapter wants to see who has participated with the online posts, it was suggested and we encourage that students like, comment, and share those posts to expand our virtual impact and promote more engagement with our members and supporters.
· Question: How have we been affected financially so far? Meaning losing deposits and such organization
Answer: On the chapter level, all chapters and individuals who had already registered for Convention prior to its cancellation were refunded in full. On the state organization level, all deposits have been moved to the 2021 State Convention that will also be held in Syracuse or returned.
· Question: Any indication from Nationals when they will make a decision about National Convention in the fall?
Answer: They have encouraged states to do at least the necessary things that are contained in our constitution virtually this year and have extended deadlines to provide more time for states to submit entries. Time will tell how the 2020 National FFA Convention will be impacted. We expect to have a clear picture about this event by the end of May beginning of June.
· Question: How will you handle things in the event that some of us won't be allowed to participate in any summer activities? ie. camp, officer trainings, EFD, fairs
Answer: Each event will be handled on an individual basis depending on state guidelines and ensuring the safety of our members and teachers. Activities that can be conducted effectively online will be considered as an alternative option so we can continue to have a positive influence on our members and allow them to advance to the national level if applicable.
Virtual Convention
General
· Question: What is the cost of the Virtual Convention?
Answer: All Virtual Convention activities will be free of charge to all participants. Registration is required to receive links for each tour, workshop, keynote, and the delegate business session.
· Question: Will students have to have Facebook in order to watch the videos?
Answer: All videos that we post on Facebook will also be posted to our YouTube channel so students will have an alternate way to view the content.
Registration
· Question: Can parents and guests sign up for State Convention? The sign in just says students but I had some community members and parents ask.
Answer: They can participate in our Facebook and YouTube posts.
· Question: The registration is for students. Can advisors access any of these tours/workshops, etc?
Answer: Yes, advisors are welcome to participate in most of the tours, workshops, and the keynote. We do ask, however, that advisors refrain from registering for the “To Do or To Be” workshop because the attendee number is limited and we would like those opportunities to go to students. Advisors registering themselves for tours, workshops, and the keynote can use the same form and simply skip the “Student Name” and “Student Email” sections.
· Question: Can you share the names of student participants with teachers from the virtual convention?
Answer: Yes, we will be able to share which students registered for each Virtual Convention activity and which students attended each activity.
· Question: Are any of the tours being recorded to be used later in our classrooms?
Answer: We will be recording each of the tours and workshops but they may not be posted for classroom use, depending on preferences of the presenter. We want to respect our tour host and workshop presenters by honoring their privacy and content-sharing wishes.
· Question: Is it easier for us to register all of our FFA members who want to attend the virtual convention? Or should we encourage our members to sign up themselves?
Answer: Members should be encouraged to register themselves for the Virtual Convention because of the way our form is set up. If an advisor wants to register their students, they can but it may be time consuming. If students register themselves, they should use an email that can receive messages from outside organizations.
· Question: Can you explain more about email? All of our students would use school email.
Answer: If your school email does not allow messages from outside organizations, students should use their personal email addresses to register for the Virtual Convention. Derek Hill (dhill@cornell.edu), Sarah Peavey (slp279@cornell.edu) and Jessica Currie (jc2582@cornell.edu) will need to send them messages containing the Zoom links and other important information. To ensure all Cornell emails are received, it was suggested to approve @cornell.edu.
Zoom
· Question: My school is directing us NOT to use Zoom with students. What should I do?
Answer: Please refer to our website (https://www.nysffa.org/new-page-71) for our guide to Zoom’s updated security measures. Please also feel free to send this information to your administrators and IT departments for their review. Also, the majority of the Virtual Convention will be hosted via Facebook and YouTube so schools without access to Zoom will still be able to participate. Only the tours, workshops, keynote, and delegate business session will be hosted via Zoom.
Comment: Erie I BOCES has secured an ED2 Law Compliant document from Zoom. Please refer to Shari Lighthall’s email from April 21, 2020 containing sample information about how Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES is allowing districts to opt-in to the Erie 2-Chautauqua-Cattaraugus BOCES (“E2CCB”) Education Law 2-D compliant Zoom agreement. This information may be useful for you to share with your school’s administration or IT department.
Using Convention Activities as Assignments
· Question: I want to use the Virtual Convention as an assignment for my students. What could I do?
Comment: “I made it an assignment for my students on Google Classroom. They have to submit the list of what they registered for by Fri. Then I’ll use that to make an assignment to give feedback on what they participated in.”
Comment: Have students comment on and interact with the posts.
District Meetings
· Question: Could you send out the delegate numbers again for District meeting?
Answer: Yes, they have been sent.
· Question: Can we use Google Forms when voting for District Presidents?
Answer: Each district will have a meeting hosted by the state staff. We will use the polling system in Zoom.
· Question: Are districts creating the zoom/google meeting for their virtual district meeting? Or is state staff doing that
Answer: The state staff is facilitating the district meetings, please make sure everyone is registered that is a delegate or wants to watch along.
· Question: Is the day/time for the DP virtual speeches and voting being set up at the state level? Meaning the whole district meeting?Answer: Yes
CDE/LDE Invitational
General
· Question: What is the cost of the invitational?
Answer: There will be a cost of $5 per participant.
Pre-Qualification and Eligibility
· Question: Ag Issues question for the invitational - forums are required for Ag issues but currently there are no meetings going on and people cannot be together. Based on the rules, one 2 virtual forums count in the minimum 5 required...is there any change in that on the national level or any waiver?
· Hopefully we could still do forums in the summer if this lifts...but that time frame is so up in the air that we weren't sure what to do.
Answer: It is encouraged to take advantage of virtual meetings to practice presenting using online formats. No final decision has been made on the state or national level at this time.
· Question: Will you allow newly elected state officers to compete at the invitational?
Answer: If they competed at the district level and are moving onto the invitational, yes. However, just like in prior years they will not be eligible to compete in other State Fair contests.
· Question: Will all contests have the pretest online beforehand? Even the ones that do not have lots of teams previously in the past
Answer: We will be coming out with a schedule for what contest components will be online.
· Question: When would the online tests be given for the invitational?
Answer: We expect to have the online test ready for the students to take at the end of June to provide time to figure out who qualifies and get them registered and plan for the invitational. All of this is subject to change depending on if there is a State Fair or not and if there is a National Convention or not.
Nationals
· Question: What will happen with contests that require entry to National by late May/June, I.e. Agriscience?
Answer: National FFA has moved back many deadlines for this year already and they will be coming out with a statement about contests toward the end of May.
NYS Fair Contests
· Question: Are we planning to run NYS Fair contests as normal if the Fair runs? For example, Dairy Handlers, Dairy Cattle Evaluation, Diesel Engines, etc. Will these contests be limited to one team/participant per school?
Answer: Yes, as of now all contests will run as normal. Livestock Judging has been moved to Sunday, August 30 due to scheduling conflicts to ensure all the species will be onsite for the time of the contest. The discussion has started with coordinates to consider putting portions of the contest online if we need to save time or are not able host in person.
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4/14/2020
It is with a heavy heart that we have made the decision to cancel the 2020 NYS FFA Convention. We understand the impact that this will have on our students and advisors and we did not come to this decision lightly. With this in mind, we are working to still give our students and advisors some of the same opportunities and recognition just in a different way. Below are the contingency plans for CDE/LDE’s that would have been conducted at the NYS FFA Convention:
Career and Leadership Development Events Contingency Plan: In place of holding the contests at sub-states and state convention, we will host the NY FFA CDE/LDE Invitational. We have determined that with the unknown length of school closures and the spread of COVID-19, at this time we will no longer host this event at the end of June. This event will take place the week of August 24th during the state fair. The location of this event will be at the state fair and/or a Syracuse area hotel depending on availability and space requirements. For logistical and resource constraints, we will only be conducting CDE/LDE’s that move on to national convention. Any LDE/CDE that does not move onto national convention could be held at the state fair on a case by case basis after consultation with the CDE/LDE committee and the contest coordinators of each contest. If the CDE/LDE Committee and/or the contest coordinator doesn’t think we can do the contest at the State Fair, then that contest will not be held this year.
The first and second place LDE winners (if a final ranking wasn’t given, the top individuals from each flight will move on. If there was more than 2 flights then there will be a virtual run off conducted by the district to determine the top 2 individuals.) from each district will be invited to compete in contests at the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational that move on to nationals. These contests are Agricultural Issues Forum, Conduct of Chapter Meetings, Employment Skills, Junior Creed Speaking (6th graders do not qualify), Parliamentary Procedure, Senior Extemporaneous Public Speaking, and Senior Prepared Public Speaking.
Students participating in contests that only occur at State Convention will have a pre-qualifying online exam that will take place in advance. We are working with the Contest Coordinators to develop these exams and anticipate scheduling the exams in June. The Top 50% of teams will be invited to participate in the NYS FFA CDE/LDE invitational. These contests are Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Sales, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems, Agriscience Fair, Farm & Agribusiness Management, Floriculture, Food Science & Technology, Forestry, Marketing Plan, Talent and Veterinary Science. Schools are limited to 1 team per event. Students are not allowed to compete in more than 2 contests (if for some reason we cannot accommodate this due to scheduling or facilities issues we will notify the advisor that the student will need to choose, for example Forestry CDE is an all-day contest). Please check your email for updates regarding the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational.
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March 30, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that we have made the decision to cancel the 2020 NYS FFA Convention. We understand the impact that this will have on our students and advisors and we did not come to this decision lightly. With this in mind, we are working to still give our students and advisors some of the same opportunities and recognition just in a different way. Below are the contingency plans for CDE/LDE’s that would have been conducted at the NYS FFA Convention:
Career and Leadership Development Events Contingency Plan: In place of holding the contests at sub-states and state convention, we will host the NY FFA CDE/LDE Invitational. This event will take place the week of June 29th unless we are still concerned for the health and safety of our participants. If this date doesn’t work, then our back up plan is to host the invitational during the state fair on August 24th and/or 25th. We will be making a decision on the date of the Invitational by April 17. The location of this event will be at the state fair and/or a Syracuse area hotel depending on availability and space requirements. For logistical and resource constraints, we will only be conducting CDE/LDE’s that move on to national convention. Any LDE/CDE that does not move onto national convention could be held at the state fair on a case by case basis after consultation with the CDE/LDE committee and the contest coordinators of each contest. If the CDE/LDE Committee and/or the contest coordinator doesn’t think we can do the contest at the State Fair, then that contest will not be held this year.
The first and second place LDE winners (if a final ranking wasn’t given, the top individuals from each flight will move on. If there was more than 2 flights then there will be a virtual run off conducted by the district to determine the top 2 individuals.) from each district will be invited to compete in contests at the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational that move on to nationals. These contests are Agricultural Issues Forum, Conduct of Chapter Meetings, Employment Skills, Junior Creed Speaking (6th graders do not qualify), Parliamentary Procedure, Senior Extemporaneous Public Speaking, and Senior Prepared Public Speaking.
Students participating in contests that only occur at State Convention will have a pre-qualifying online exam that will take place in advance. The Top 50% of teams will be invited to participate in the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational. These contests are Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Sales, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems, Agriscience Fair, Farm & Agribusiness Management, Floriculture, Food Science & Technology, Forestry, Marketing Plan, Talent and Veterinary Science. Schools are limited to 1 team per event. Students are not allowed to compete in more than 2 contests (if for some reason we cannot accommodate this due to scheduling or facilities issues we will notify the advisor that the student will need to choose, for example Forestry CDE is an all-day contest). Please check your email for updates regarding the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational.
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March 16, 2020
It is with a heavy heart that we have made the decision to cancel the 2020 NYS FFA Convention. We understand the impact that this will have on our students and advisors and we did not come to this decision lightly. With this in mind, we are working to still give our students and advisors some of the same opportunities and recognition just in a different way. Below is a list of contingency plans that we are going to be working on in the coming weeks to still provide enriching opportunities and well-deserved recognition for our students:
Career and Leadership Development Events Contingency Plan: In place of holding the contests at sub-states and state convention, we will host the NY FFA CDE/LDE Invitational. This event will take place the week of June 29th unless we are still concerned for the health and safety of our participants. If this date doesn’t work, then our back up plan is to host the invitational during the state fair on August 24th and 25th. The location of this event will be at the state fair and/or a Syracuse area hotel depending on availability and space requirements. For logistical and resource constraints, we will only be conducting CDE/LDE’s that move on to national convention. Any LDE/CDE that does not move onto national convention could be held at the state fair on a case by case basis after consultation with the CDE/LDE committee and the contest coordinators of each contest. If the CDE/LDE Committee and/or the contest coordinator doesn’t think we can do the contest at the State Fair, then that contest will not be held this year.
The first and second place LDE winners from each district will be invited to compete in contests at the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational that move on to nationals. These contests are Agricultural Issues Forum, Conduct of Chapter Meetings, Employment Skills, Junior Creed Speaking (6th graders do not qualify), Parliamentary Procedure, Senior Extemporaneous Public Speaking, and Senior Prepared Public Speaking.
Students participating in contests that only occur at State Convention will have a pre-qualifying online exam. The Top 50% of teams will be invited to participate in the NYS FFA CDE/LDE invitational. These contests are Agricultural Communications, Agricultural Sales, Agricultural Technology & Mechanical Systems, Agriscience Fair, Farm & Agribusiness Management, Floriculture, Food Science & Technology, Forestry, Marketing Plan, Talent and Veterinary Science. Schools are limited to 1 team per event. Students are not allowed to compete in more than 2 contests (if for some reason we cannot accommodate this due to scheduling or facilities issues we will notify the advisor that the student will need to choose, for example Forestry CDE is an all-day contest). Please check your email for updates regarding the NYS FFA CDE/LDE Invitational.
Business Session and District Meetings Contingency Plan: These are two pieces of the convention that we will still need to accomplish. We are developing a plan to offer these experiences through virtual means (zoom, go to meeting, etc.). We will plan to host the delegates from each chapter and their advisors on May 15. During this virtual meeting, delegates will hear committee reports, vote on the constitutional amendments, and the state officer slate. We will be utilizing an online voting system to accomplish this. Each District will have an opportunity to discuss a date that will work best for them before May 15 to hold their District meeting. State Staff will set up the platform and voting for each of these meetings as well. During this meeting is when delegates will be able to vote on their District President Candidates.
Awards, Applications and Recognition Contingency Plan: The State Staff will be working to provide some opportunities to recognize Proficiency Award Winners, National Chapter Award, State Star Award Winners, Empire Degree Recipients, Honorary Empire Degree Recipients, etc. through email, social media and website posts. This will be accomplished by posting a list of recipients along with the requirements for that recognition, with select highlights of award winners through digital means. We will be mailing out all awards by May 15th and encourage chapters to have a special presentation at their schools with their school community at the appropriate time.
Workshops, Tours, Keynote Speaker and State Officer Retiring Addresses Contingency Plan: We will be reaching out to select presenters and tour hosts to determine if there is a possibility to have them do virtual workshops and tours. We will also reach out to our Keynote Speaker, Chris Koch, and see if he will give his presentation live. We are still working out the details, but the State Officers will present their retiring addresses virtually for members to view.
Convention Payment Refund: We will be sending checks that we have received back to schools that have already submitted payment. If you have any questions regarding this process please reach out to Robin Waite by email: rwaite@oswegatchie.org.
Ag Incentive Grant Program: Please refer to the Ag Incentive Grant page for more information.
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