It’s an exciting and historical time to be a member of the Seymour FFA chapter.

The organization’s parliamentary procedure team found out last week that it had advanced to the state competition for the first time in school history.

The team is comprised of 12 girls led by Jeanna Eppley, the school’s agriculture teacher and chapter adviser.

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It’s also the first time Eppley has coached a team to the state competition.

The team will compete against eight other chapters Feb. 9 in Indianapolis. The one with the best score will then advance to the national competition during the National FFA Convention in October in Indianapolis.

The competition is complex, testing the team’s knowledge of how to conduct a formal business meeting using Robert’s Rules of Order.

Team members include a president, vice president, secretary, treasurer, reporter, historian, sentinel and student adviser. The rest of the team is made up of those who attend the meeting.

Each member is given a card with instructions when they enter a room. They’re given a minute to review it but are not allowed to discuss it before the meeting begins.

The president and other members have to know when to take action based off of their card and maintain order. The judges also will attempt to make a motion or other actions, and the president has to know whether it’s proper and address it.

The team often gets a main motion and applies subsidiary motions and incidental motions, amends it or refers to committee or postpones it to a certain meeting.

The team participated in the district contest at Brownstown Central High School in November and then the section contest Jan. 23 at Columbus East High School.

Eppley said the group was amending a main motion when a judge tried to postpone it indefinitely during the section contest. The team had to know that action was out of order and make that adjustment.

That contest also included a written test, where the average of the team’s highest scores was taken into account to advance.

“They will give you five or six things, and they had to put them in a priority rank,” Eppley said of the test. “They even have to know motions we didn’t have in the contest.”

That’s what makes the contest one of the more difficult ones the team competes in each year.

Students make the team through a tryout process, and they have to be committed to practicing and learning, Eppley said. The team has practiced since September, and Eppley’s rule is that each member has to participate in at least five practices before they quit.

Eppley has tried to make the practices more fun, holding them at different places and even having a Parli Pitch-in where students brought foods that started with the letter P.

“We had pie, pigs in a blanket and persimmon pudding,” she said.

They also had a pajama party over Christmas break.

All of the practice and fun lead to a student’s interest in the contest and they want to know more, Eppley said.

The group has fun together, but once Maggie Newkirk, the team’s president, grabs the gavel, it all turns business with each member knowing their role and smoothly delivering their opening comments.

Newkirk, a junior, said the president runs the meeting in order and has to know many of the rules so the meeting will be in order.

“It’s really fun to lead the team, and I like the order and business part of it,” she said before a practice earlier this week. “You do have to know the technical rules of the meeting.”

Newkirk said she enjoys leading her team, and the meeting helps shape important skills.

Sydney Wiesehan, a junior who serves as sentinel, said she enters the competition room ahead of her teammates and has to prepare the room.

She greets the judges, sets up the room, places the correct plaques in front of officeholders’ seats and makes sure the secretary has all of the paperwork, and she escorts the team in and out of the meeting before clearing the room when the meeting is over.

“Before I bring them in, I get to tell them the layout of the room,” she said. “I always let them know the number of judges and prep the team before we go in.”

She has a lot of personal contact with the judges by shaking hands, talking with them and finding out if there will be any special instructions.

“There is a lot of responsibility to get it right the first time because you really can’t fix it once they come in the room,” she said.

Lyra Claycamp, a junior who serves as vice president, assists Newkirk with the meeting to maintain order and help the president.

She said she was pleasantly surprised when she found out the team had made it to state.

“I was kind of shocked at first because we have worked very hard to get where we are, and I was proud of all of us because we were able to make history for Seymour FFA,” she said. “I’m pretty proud of us to be able to present ourselves well enough to move on.”

Newkirk said the team has been together for three years during high school, which has contributed to their success.

“It was a lot of hard work because we have had a lot of practices and completed a lot of practice tests,” she said.

Wiesehan said she also was not expecting the team to advance but was proud of what they accomplished and excited for what lies ahead.

“I’m super-excited because I was not expecting it because a lot of us have been working on this for several years, and it’s exciting that we get to advance,” she said.

The team also has an adviser beaming with pride, leading and cheering them on during each competition.

“I’m just really proud of what they’ve been able to do,” Eppley said.