The Blanchester 2020-2021 officer team went on their annual officer retreat that all Blanchester FFA officers attend. The nine newly elected officers left early Tuesday morning on Aug. 4 to YMCA Camp Kern where they spent the next few days learning leadership skills, planning FFA events, and getting to know each other better.

Dow Tippett was the first person to greet everyone when getting off the bus. The author of a book called “The 7 Daily Choices”, Dow gave an interactive speech teaching the officers personal growth and self-development throughout their life. He helped all of our officers learn more about each other and how we can all work as a team even though we are all different in some way or another.

During the officer retreat, it helped our officers get a better understanding of how this year and events are going to be planned following COVID guidelines. This trip allowed our officers to plan and make alterations to our FFA events in a way where our FFA members and community will still be safe during the pandemic.

Our officers learned more about each other and started learning how it is to work with each other as a team. The officers participated in bonding activities and went on hikes to allow themselves to open up to one another and become more of a team.

From planning events for this school year to learning leadership skills with Dow Tippett, our officer team accomplished a lot during this two-day trip. Overall the 2020 officer retreat was very successful for our newly elected officers.