State Degree Check Committee Report
Report provided by Committee Chair: Travis Lange
Area Concerns:
Area I- No concerns
Area II- No Concerns
Area III- Star interviews are overlapping with Agriscience Fair at State Convention
Area IV- The Lonestar process
Area V- Having more in person check at Degree Check and Golden Horizon Scores
Area VI- No Concerns
Area VII- Releasing Star Interview Critique sheets and Defining Categories on Golden Horizon
Area VIII- The overlap at State Convention
Area IX- John Justin and Ryan Mott selection at Area level
Area X- No Concerns
Area XI- More time to judge National Chapter Awards, Star Interview scores released, Golden Horizons released
Area XII- Judge Proficiencies in person, wanting to count shooting sports and BBQ team as FFA activities.
One of the biggest issues that came up during the meeting was that there needs to be degree checks at the district level and chapter level. The suggestion to the committee was that if it doesn’t get checked at district, then it won’t be checked at area.
The Lonestar degree process must have integrity. We have to stop all the shortcuts at district and area check.
39% of all Lonestars this year had no entries before 2023.
There were 350,000 journal entry hours in this year’s Lonestars, and the average backdating was more than a year.
There will be an instructional Zoom meeting in January for all degree check members on how to best check apps
Ryan Mott & John Justin- Tammy said the dollar value of those awards doesn’t justify a trip to Stephenville, so that may change.
There was a motion to have Star and Proficiency apps scored in person at Degree Check. It was seconded and passed. It will go to the board for approval. So no more virtual scoring at the state level, judges will have to go to Stephenville.
There is a change to the National Proficiency Application. It is changes to the narratives.
American concerns: correctly adding outside of class hours on shop projects.
State Degree Check will be June 3-7, 2024 in Stephenville. Scholarship Interviews will be June 3rd.
Deadline to get Applications to state will be May 20, 2024.