Five Tyrone Area FFA Officers attended the Pennsylvania State Legislative Leadership Conference on March 26-28, 2023 in Harrisburg.

More than 650 FFA members and advisors attended the three-day event which immersed attendees in how the government works through bills, parliamentary procedure basics, debate skills, how to advocate for a purpose, and proper table etiquette.

The lessons learned by attendees Rayann Walls, Hailey Houck, Leo Veit, Maverick Fleck, and Nora Hoy were put into practice as members covered several different bills currently being addressed in Harrisburg.

“I had a really fun time learning lots of new information about bills and how people edit and make changes as they go through certain steps,” said Fleck.

Table etiquette came into play as members were part of the legislative breakfast on Tuesday morning where representatives of governmental parties were present and engaged with the throughout the morning session. There were more than 700 people at the breakfast.

Ag advocates were seen during one session where members were split into random groups and then collaborated to create a campaign to advocate for a specific ag cause.

“As a chapter reporter, I found it most interesting to learn about different non-profit foundations around the world,” said Hoy.

The conference sponsors were Farm Credit Mid-Atlantic, NAEF, Univest, Massers Potato Farms, Fulton Bank, Gary Swan, Darrell Curtis, Seneca Resources, PA Soybean Board, PA Farm Bureau, and PDA.