Jim Ertl see his role as resume builder for FFA'ers
By Janet Kubat Willette
jkubat@agrinews.com
Date Modified: 04/29/2010 10:43 AM
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ROSEVILLE, Minn. — Jim Ertl's roots in FFA go back to Waconia High School where he served as the chapter president in 1967.
After graduation, he served four years in the U.S. Army Security Agency as a morse code intercept operator or ditty bopper. Ditty boppers had top security clearance. Ertl spent three years in Germany. For one year, he listened to the Czechoslovakian tank division during the Czechoslovakia Uprising.
Upon his discharge, Ertl returned to agriculture. He earned a dairy production degree at the University of Minnesota in Crookston and then an agricultural education degree at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls.
He taught at Cannon Falls, St. Francis and Kasson-Mantorville.
In 1981, Paul Day asked him to manage the Children's Barnyard at the Minnesota State Fair. After the fair ended, he applied to be the Minnesota FFA executive secretary. He's held that job since.
The title hasn't changed and the duties have evolved with the use of technology from lead pencils to Skype, Ertl said.
FFA has changed too.
"This is not the ag program … the saying was "this isn't the same ag your dad went through or your parents grew up with," Ertl said.
There's an FFA Star in Agriscience and more career development events that are focused on science and economics. The demography of FFA has changed from a program for farm boys run by farm boys to a leadership program for rural, urban and suburban men and women.
Historically, FFA membership peaked from 1976 to 1979, Ertl said. There were close to 18,000 members and 280 programs in Minnesota. For the last decade, there have been between 8,500 and 9,500 FFA members in Minnesota. There are 185 agricultural education programs.
The constants are a need to figure out where FFA members are and train them for where they need to be. There's an expectation of learning the basics and moving on in high gear, Ertl said. The partners who support the organization through the Minnesota FFA Foundation, Minnesota FFA Alumni, schools boards and advisory councils are another constant. It's those partners and parents who keep FFA growing and strong.
Ertl sees his role as that of a resume builder for FFA members. He provides opportunities, maintains programs and encourages members to do their very best. He encourages state officers to encourage their peers and he works with support staff to keep everyone moving forward.
In their nomination of Ertl for the Minnesota FFA Hall of Fame, the 2008-09 state officer team wrote "…he has constantly dedicated himself to bettering agricultural education and the FFA in our state. In terms of his contributions, it's difficult to identify an area on which he hasn't had a profound impact."
Ertl recently finished interviewing Star candidates, one of his favorite parts of the job. Another favorite, the state FFA convention is just around the corner. He'll have to wait for August for the other favorite, the Minnesota State Fair.
"I spend three weeks there," Ertl said.
He putts around there on weekends before the fair and on the Monday before the Thursday opening it's full speed ahead at the CHS Miracle of Birth Center and the FFA Chapter House. Animals come in and volunteers arrive. Everyone has a job to do in order to make the visit to the Miracle of Birth Center a good one for fairgoers.
On Labor Day, the animals are dismissed at 3 p.m. and it's a scramble to clean as much as possible before school begins the next day at schools across the state and the University of Minnesota.
"There's no time to spare, it's got to get done," Ertl said.
He'll spend a couple, three days after the fair cleaning up, taking pens down and putting them in storage and getting everything set so it's ready for the next year.
If he ever retires, Ertl said he'd like to do morse code. It's now mainly used by amateur radio operators.
He and his wife, Jane, live in Rosemount and have two sons, Jon and Jason, both alumni of Randolph FFA.