Imperial FFA’s parli pro team ranks No. 2 in country

    Imperial FFA has added another item to its list of bragging rights.
    At last week’s National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, the chapter’s senior parliamentary procedure team was named second best in the nation.
    Team members Kade Anderson, Maddie Hanes, Morel Jurado, Carter Leibbrandt, Colin O’Neil and Elizabeth Reeves, who were coached by Jeremy Vlasin, brought home the runner-up plaque.
    California took this year’s parli pro title. Ohio was third and Missouri, fourth.
    Two team members and Vlasin visited about the national competition, and what an intense contest parli pro is—something all of them said others not involved probably can’t grasp.
    “It’s hard for their peers to understand why they do this, why they carry those binders around all the time,” Vlasin said.
    Their “product” isn’t on display each week on the field or court.
    “All their peers know is that they show up at 6:40 at school for practice, or see them studying” from the binder before a game, Vlasin said.
    “After awhile, the team starts doing this for each other. It bonds the team as a family,” he said.
    After winning the state title last spring, sending them to nationals, Vlasin said their preparation intensified over the summer, especially this year.
    With some COVID precautions still in place for nationals this year, some of the early rounds in the competition were actually held in August.
    That meant more study over the summer than in a normal year, when all state winners advance to nationals.
    This year, only 12 advanced in person to Indianapolis. Opening rounds were held via Zoom in August, which meant teams had to be ready for competition two months early.
    Vlasin said in 2019, when Imperial won the national FFA parli pro title, his team members were studying two motions a week.
    Because of the earlier rounds, the team was working on three motions every week leading up to the Zoom demo in August.
    In all, team members have to be ready to act on one of 24 possible motions given them during the meeting portion of the competition.
    When they are presented those motions, the team has one minute to read them over and prepare how they’ll be introduced during the 11-minute meeting demonstration.
    That’s in addition to the main motion, which at last week’s nationals was: “Should the chapter allocate $7,500 to send members to the national convention in 2022?”
    Following the meeting demo, the judges follow with questions both on parliamentary procedure in general, or on specific situations from their meeting demo.
    Both Anderson and O’Neil said they felt their meeting demo went well, but also said it wasn’t one of their best.
    “I’m happy with how it went,” said Anderson, who was the chapter president during the demo.
    Vlasin said the questions afterwards are also important, and worth 100 points. Four of the questions answered were partially correct, Vlasin said, and two answered 100% correctly.
    Anderson and O’Neil said competing at nationals in front of an estimated 1,500 in the finals was an experience they won’t forget, especially knowing they can’t return to the national stage on a parli pro team.
    Nebraska rules say once a team has won the state parli pro title, they cannot compete again in that event.
    “It was a lot of fun to be able to be in the moment and make the best of it,” Anderson said.
    O’Neil echoed his comments.
    “It was really cool. I realized it was the last time I would get to do this,” O’Neil said.
    It’s no secret the team wanted to be national champs.
    “I’ve been telling people all week that it’s pretty crazy to know we are second place in the nation,” Vlasin said.
    “But, I also tell them that it’s not what they wanted.”
    The longtime parli pro coach said this is the type of team he wants to work with.
    “I’d rather work with a team that’s upset at not reaching where they wanted to be than one that shrugs their shoulders and is satisfied,” Vlasin said.
    “I wish they had been first, but I also love the fact they are not okay with it,” he added.
    “I’d go to battle with that team any day.”
    Knowing that some of the teams they competed against have FFA chapters with 600 members (the same size at Chase County Schools’ entire K-12 student body), Vlasin is proud of his team.
    And the bond they have formed isn’t only something they see in themselves.
    Vlasin received a tweet after the contest from one of the members on California’s first place team.
    “He said it was an honor to compete with our team and mentioned how ‘they’re a family,’” Vlasin said.
    “It was cool he recognized that. It was a moment that made me smile.”
    Another senior parli pro team is already formed for 2021-2022 competition. Districts, the first round of competitions, isn’t far off in mid-December.
Marketing plan team
    Imperial FFA had another team compete at nationals in the marketing plan event. Team members were Kambree Meeske, Nick Rau and Morayah Cupp.
    While they did not advance to the finals last week, they were one of just 18 state winners to make the cut for nationals.
    Their plan involved a marketing scheme to sell grass-fed boxed beef as a sideline business for Wine Glass Ranch.
    Vlasin, who also coached that team, said the trio prepared hard.
    “They prepared well to be down there and we all felt they had a good shot,” Vlasin said.
    “We felt they had every chance to be top in the nation. They prepared like they needed to,” he said.
    Like parli pro, the marketing plan team also had to perform in preliminaries in August, from which the 18 were decided for nationals.
    Besides those on the two teams, 13 other Imperial FFA members traveled to nationals with Advisor Jason Speck and other sponsors.