Debating motions from every angle

LEWISTON — When the Lewiston-Altura FFA’s conduct of chapter meetings Leadership Development Event team finished participating in the state competition Dec. 15, 2025, they all thought they had done poorly. Later, onstage, the team found out they had won first place.

“We were all a little bit in shock,” said Ava Hooks, who was one of the team members. “Seriously, we walked out of the room and we were almost in tears because we thought we did so bad.”

The team from Winona County consisted of seventh, eighth and ninth grade students: Georgia Daley, the daughter of Ben and Sara Daley; Sarah Hennessy, the daughter of Joel and Jodi Hennessy; Ava Hooks, the daughter of Aaron and Tisha Hooks; Chloe Bronk, the daughter of Jeff and Jean Bronk, Violet Passow, the daughter of Jason and Marie Passow; Eva Bergler, the daughter of Andy and Courtnie Bergler; and Emily Burt, the daughter of Dan and Holly Burt.

The team spent two months preparing, doing one or two practices a week. The team’s FFA adviser is Kaleb Stoppelmoor, and their coach for the contest was Shelly Schell.

“(We) could not have made it without (Shelly),” Bronk said. “She did so much work that she didn’t have to do for us, and she really did care about us, and she was so proud of us. It’s just amazing that we got to be able to win it for her.”

It was Bronk and Passow’s idea to do the conduct of chapter meetings LDE.

“Conduct of chapter meetings was a team contest, and it sounded really fun,” Passow said.

Bronk said she had wanted to do an LDE but did not want to do an individual competition. From there, the girls recruited five more members for the team.

“They decided to rope all of us into it,” Daley said.

The conduct of chapter meetings LDE competition consists of a virtual exam plus conducting a mock, 13-minute FFA chapter meeting in which there are opening and closing ceremonies, four motions which must be dealt with, and often something that needs to be planned.

Each member of the team represented a different officer position. Daley was chair, Bronk was vice president, Hennessy was sentinel, Hooks was secretary, Bergler was the reporter, Burt was the treasurer and Passow was the FFA adviser.

Passow and Bronk had had a brief introduction to meeting organization and Robert’s Rules of Order in one of their agriculture classes, but for the rest of the team members, the topic was new.

After becoming comfortable together, the team said one of their biggest challenges was learning how and what to debate about.

Passow said their coach advised them that they were too focused on the exact details of the motion versus thinking more broadly. Hennessy said she learned how to open her thoughts, organize them and get across a lot of information in a short amount of time.

Bronk agreed.

“Now we have our who, what, where (and) when,” she said. “You cover all your different topics but still keep it short and sweet.”

Passow said they also had to learn to represent multiple perspectives.

“If everybody’s positive, then it’s not very interesting,” she said.

As the team considers what is next, they said they are hoping to compete in the parliamentary procedure LDE, which is similar to the contest they just won.

Overall, the team said the conduct of chapter meetings LDE competition and FFA have given them competencies they will use later.

“All these contests help develop our leadership skills,” Passow said. “(We learned) talking in front of people, being confident and how to say stuff so that … people listen, while also keeping it interesting.”