Adam Torres and Mitchell Dale discuss Texas FFA.
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Show Notes:
Listen to coverage from the 96th Texas FFA State Convention in Houston, Texas. In this episode, Adam Torres interviews Mitchell M. Dale, McRee Ford. Explore how Ford supports FFA initiatives and Mitchell’s experience going to conventions.
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Full Unedited Transcript
Hey, I’d like to welcome you to another episode of mission matters. My name is Adam Torres. And today I am in Houston at the Texas FFA convention. And let me tell you, this is my third year coming out. I’ve been doing a whole series every year. It gets bigger every year. I have more fun. Today I’m welcoming back Mitchell Dale over with Ford Mitchell.
I just want to say, Hey, welcome. Welcome to the show. Good to see you. Well, thanks, Adam. Good to see you again. I’m just so proud to be here at this year’s convention. Off to a little bit of a, let’s say, windy start, but it looks like it’s, it’s going well. Yeah. So I like to get this kicked off by just saying, how did you originally get introduced to FFA in general, whether it’s Texas FFA or FFA in general, where’d that start for you?
So I wasn’t in FFA. They didn’t have it when I was in my town. They do now and they’re very active. I’m proud of that. So as being a Ford dealer and being involved with the Houston area Ford dealer advertising group My first exposure, real exposure. I knew what it was. My first real exposure was back in the late eighties when actually the convention was in Houston at the old Astro arena next to the Astrodome.
And I went there because my involvement with the four dealers and, and, you know, of course, Ford’s involvement with Texas FFA and FFA. But it just felt like a place I wanted to be. I was so inspired with the. The students and I just, we started getting involved with our, our dealership and it was involved.
And then actually in 2001, 2002, when Aaron Alejandro, the executive director of the foundation, Texas FFA foundation, I met him when he’s, he was, they were starting their capital campaign and and and Erin, I know you know him and you know he’s not afraid to ask. And he doesn’t like no. I know, I know.
But I met Erin, had the opportunity I was chairman of the FDF group at that time and, and, and He had come to meet me and they’d been trying to get involved with, I mean, Ford had been involved, but it’s like the capital campaign. So he presented the proposal. It was something that I could believe in went to our, our regional manager and he supported it.
We went to Detroit to a Ford truck division marketing and 1. 3 million later that was the largest donation ever at that time. So Texas Ford dealers and Ford trucks became partners with Texas FFA. And then actually the, the million dollars went towards the capital campaign and it’s the Ford.
leadership center in, in Austin’s where their headquarters are. And then we put the 300, 000 into an endowment for our program, which is the Ford leadership scholar program. So that’s how I got involved in, you know, then Aaron, a few years after 2002, I don’t remember, but you know, it’s probably, it’s just real bit involved with the foundation and very proud and honored to serve as the As a chairman of the board and everything we do with the foundation is to support the students and the teachers and everything.
Yeah. Great about FFA. Now, now you don’t know this Mitchell, but I’m a huge Ford fan. I’m from Detroit originally. So I grew up going to, I mean, Henry Ford, I was. Studying them in college. I’ve been to the Henry Ford. I’ve been Greenfield village, that whole, the whole area. Like I grew up like in Ford culture and Ford family, all that.
So, so when I saw Ford’s the lease, I’m like, Hey, of course. I was like, come on. That’s, that’s the hometown. Of course. I love it. Well, Ford, you know, four trucks are great in Texas. And when you think about FFA, first of all, the core values of Ford, Family. I’m proud to say I’m third generation, our son and daughter and son in law or fourth generation are one of our granddaughters and grandsons are actually interning this summer at our dealership.
Wow. And so that’s fifth generation, 77 years. My grandfather started on the assembly line in Houston. They had one here in Houston, had one in Dallas years ago, but back in the twenties, he started to work for Ford. And then who knew where that journey was going to take you. But. So Ford nationally has been involved for, you know, forever.
But Texas Ford dealers are, we’re all in and it’s a great organization. You know, when you can get partnered with an organization that you believe in and also is, A good mark, you know, we’re in the, we’re in the business. And by the way, the reason I bring that up too, is because of this for everybody watching at home, like one of my goals is, and I’ve been, if you’ve been watching the series, you know, and for you mentioned just to bring you up to speed as I want other individuals in corporate America that aren’t here to be here.
So you don’t have to. To be Ford, you don’t have to write. And I mean, if you want to write a 1. 3 million check, great. Like amazing. I mean, it’s going to the Texas FFA and the kids and they deserve it. Trust me. But the main thing is I want to inspire other business leaders out there, other brands to want to get on board and they didn’t ride this wagon because there’s, there’s these, this is our future.
These kids are our future. Absolutely. These, these kids are our future. When you think about all the opportunities that FFA provides them, the great thing that I like about FFA, there’s all kinds of organizations that are good. There’s all kinds of ways for businesses and corporations to just write a check, but when you get involved and you see the passion, And, and that these kids and the responsibility that they, they learn, if these are our future leaders of not only the great state of Texas, but of the United States and make an impact on the world.
So I would encourage any business person, corporation, individual, family owned business. It doesn’t matter. Find something that you believe in that you can support and get involved. Don’t just write the check. Get involved. And come experience if you, if you would come experience the Texas FFA convention, I promise you, you would.
You’re coming back. You’re coming back. And that’s how they got me. Like Aaron’s like just that was Aaron’s pitch to me. Aaron does not like, no, he’s the Adam. Just come see it. Come see it. Three years later, my favorite place to be every year. It’s already on there. As soon as we’re done here, we will block off all the same week, whatever the week is going to be next year.
We’ll block it off. That’s on my schedule. Like, and they, and they were for context, for somebody that’s maybe watching this for Far into the future. We’re going through a hurricane the last couple of days, like before this. And we didn’t have power in the convention center. My team wanted to cancel.
They’re like, are you going? Should you go? Should we book you somewhere else? Should we do something? I’m like, I’m good. If American airlines is flying me here and if they’re okay, I’m okay. That’s the way I see it. I’m not missing it. Well, you know, life lessons. I mean, these kids were, if they’re raising an animal, if they’re competing in other things, you know, there’s, there’s bumps on the road.
That’s just the way life is. And, but this, you know, the resiliency of, of, You the sponsors, the kids, the students certainly using the best judgment, but obviously things have cleared out the skies blue out there right now. And, you know, it would have been, it was, I’m telling you, I lost sleep thinking that they were going to have to cancel the same, same because these, these kids, it means so much to them and all the, the preparation, the preparation, the time and the work and years.
It’s a dream to be on stage and to do all these things. things and to grow those bonds. Like you don’t, you don’t get that, you know? And so it’s, it’s wonderful that we’re here and it’s, it’s great to, to be a part and so to support the students and, and don’t forget about the advisors. I’m telling you that absolutely teachers and advisors, their, their job is 24, seven, three 65, and they, You know, whether it’s animals or whether it’s competitive speech contests or just, there’s just so many different opportunities.
And they, you know, they’ve got a balance, a lot of balls there, but it’s, it’s good. Yeah. And one of the things you said that I kind of want to circle back to is when you talk about the kids and just the quality. And I want, I’m going to, I’m going to add to that, the quantity. So we’re talking, I’ve never been, and I personally, I’ve never been in another environment where there’s over 10, sometimes over 15, 000 members and the kids that are here together and you can stop and talk to anyone and like quality, respect, understanding, look you in the eye, talk directly.
Yes, sir. No, sir. Yes, ma’am. No, ma’am. It’s not the exception. It’s the, it’s everybody like to see if that quantity of quality is like, how would you, how would you characterize that? Because I’m, it’s a lot. So it’s, you’re exactly right. I mean, it’s just FFA has a place for everybody. Yes. It doesn’t matter if you’re the valedictorian at your school or whether you’re the, the The, the boy or girl that 2.
6 GPA like me, you know, searching, you know, for something when they zip up that blue and gold jacket, they become part of something. Yeah. And. The discipline, the respect that they have for one another you know, whether it be parliament or procedure, whether it be looking somebody in the eye, like you say, shaking hands, a good handshake, by the way, like I’m like amazed sometimes I’m not gonna lie.
It throws me off because in a good way, but I’ll, you’ll see some, you know, cute young lady who’s just a young lady and she, you’re excited. And I’m like, I’ve shook hands with some men that don’t have that good of a handshake. That’s part of their pride. I know and you see it and it comes through and it’s like assertive in a good way.
Like it’s, it’s pride. Yeah. No, it’s it just, you know Some people might say, well, they, they drink the Kool Aid or whatever, but they get so involved and it gets ingrained and they, they want to represent themselves. They learn to rep themselves. I mean, to speak, public speaking, a lot of things. So. The thing about ffa is just like our four leadership scholar program, which which is a great leadership program Ffa builds that foundation It strengthens the foundation, you know, you’ve got to Anticipate somewhere between 16 17 000 people jittos were expected here today I’m sure some of them didn’t make it because of the weather But you’ve got that many Young people coming together for the same purpose and the teacher is the same way.
I mean, it’s like a fraternity, you know, and you travel, I’ve traveled, had the opportunity over the years to travel with some friends that were teachers and stuff. And we might be in Denver or, you know, somewhere else, Atlanta and the airport. Oh, Hey, you know, how you doing? But it’s it’s inspiring. It’s invigorating to me.
And I just look forward to the convention every year. To see the smiles on their faces and to be able to, you know, to share that with them, talk more about the Ford leadership program, talk, talk a little bit more about that. You mentioned, so yeah, when, when the vision with with from Aaron and Tom Maynard, that was executive director of FFA.
At the time, yes, was to create, you know, this next level leadership program very much built on community service and servant leadership. So every year, this is a wolf, this is a 15th year. Wow. How does that feel? Hold on. First off, 15 years. We just, we just, our 15th class. So, So this is 15 years that we’ve had any student in Texas, their, their advisor can recommend them.
They make an application. There’s a process that goes through, they read a leadership book, there’s tested on that. There’s, there’s essays that they write. And then the committee We choose between anywhere from 20 to 24 students out of normally 55 to 60 end up through the whole application process and then we bring them in and do a face to face interview one on one with the six members of the, of the program.
But yeah, selection committee busted in the afternoon. Imagine that like being that age and to have that, like 17, 16, 17 year old kids, people may never have that experience in their life. And if they do, it’s probably not until they get to like their first executive position, not even lower management, not even entry level to have a board.
That’s going to make a decision on whether or not that’s CEO level. Absolutely. Training pressure, whatever you want to say, an experience that most of the time CEOs or C suite individuals are experiencing that and their experience that they’re experiencing that at this age, as a junior, as a junior in high school, and then during their senior year.
So we do the individual interviews. Then we do a group scenario, man, I’m sweating, thinking about it, man. And then, you know, it’s a tough day. Let me tell you, it’s so. It makes me proud. I actually got to thank you notes this year from students that were there for the interview. They did not get selected for the 10, but they were thankful for the opportunity that they had.
And just like you’re talking about the experience. So that’s how far. How far thinking is that for an individual, even to have that level of self awareness at that age or any age, right. To understand that that experience is going to be part of their, you know, they’ll be thinking about that foundation when they’re going for CEO of X, Y, Z company, they’re going to be remembering that and how they prepared.
Right. So it’s, you know, from that program, then we select the 10, then we have in July here in a couple of weeks, we have a week of intensive training. Leadership training. And then they will go back to their, here. They are seniors in the hospital this coming year. Not that they don’t have a lot going on already, but they’re, they go back and then they plan, develop fundraise and execute.
A community service project. Mm-Hmm. . So we, I I told you this is our 15th year, so and actually this year we have six of the 10 students in this coming 15 class are from chapters that have not had one before. Oh, wow. So if you look back, this, this, this year, last year’s class is 14 years. Mm-Hmm. . So that’s 140 students.
Mm-Hmm. , there’s been 97. chapters and 95 communities represented out of those 140 students. So you think about not only is it powerful for the students, but look at the impact we’re making across the state of Texas. Absolutely. When you’ve got 95 communities that has have had a Sustainable community service project and just the ripple effect, ripple effect of that building community in the conversations and goes far beyond FFA.
Like it’s just, even just the community of it, like them talking to their other friends that aren’t part of FFA or anything out there, their parents, what they’re doing at home, what are you doing? Like what they choose to like, it’s inspiring. Well, and the, you know, kind of a, A benefit that we really didn’t see when it started was the students went, you know, they, they go to all the other organizations in the school, you know, whether it be the football team or the drama team, whatever, and they get them involved.
And then, you know, they go out and they get the community involved in, you know, what makes sense because of their skillset. Exactly. So these are, when we say future leaders, we’re not throwing that term around, like, like, these are the leaders that who would have thought. Thought, I mean, if you just were going to categorize who would think that the leaders in the ag program got the football.
Team, hierarchical, whatever we want to say, they’re the ones helping out. That’s the leaders like that organize. Everybody doesn’t matter where they’re from, what they’re doing, they’re leading the charge and for good, it’s community service projects. Amazing service. And you know, the thing that we stress is you don’t have to be a Ford scholar to, to be a servant leader.
Yeah, but it, you know, it really builds their foundation and then they go out and, and the communities understand, you know, especially in the urban areas. I mean, like Houston, there’s tremendous amount of students in this area. They don’t live on a farm or whatever, but You know, it, it gets the people in the community.
If, if they’re not aware of what FFA has to offer, they see these young people, they go around and they, they question, they find out what this, what’s the need in my community. They all come to the training with kind of an idea of what. What they want to do, but then part of the training is to go back and see what your community needs.
Make sure your community, so then they, you know, they visit with the, the different leaders in the community, the the different Rotary clubs, you know, things like that, make their presentations. It’s, it’s just a terrific way to impact a number of, of communities. Okay. Mitchell. So. Last question here.
I know you got a lot of things going. I’m not going to keep you all day. Don’t worry. Last question. What is your, your personal, your personal favorite part about coming to convention every year? Cause you’ve been doing this a while. So, yeah, just the energy that you feel. Okay. It’s to see. the energy. I say it’s where I recharge my battery.
Oh my God. Every year I say that too. But you know, when you see the smile on their faces, when you experience the 10 o’clock news at night and you see all the things, the trouble things that are going on in our world today, and you come here and everybody you see, just like you said earlier, strong handshake.
They look you in the eye. They’re happy. They’re proud to be here. Yeah. And so that’s inspiring to me. The future looks, looks bright to me when I come in here every year, just recharges my battery. It’s amazing. Well, I lied because it’s not the last. Question. This is a, this one’s, this is a rhetorical one though.
So you don’t have to ask. So what you’re saying here. So what I’m learning here is that at the end, we need a Ford podcast truck. That’s what I think he said. Well, we’ll see what we can do about that. You know, speaking of the Ford truck, we need a podcast set up in the back next year, this set up tailgate of the Ford is happening.
We’ll see what we can do. I got to talk about it here again, how the four dealers please support FFA. Yes. The show, the President and the first vice president are the traveling team. They visit over 400, the state officers. There’s there’s 12 areas. There’s a state rep officer, vice president, but the traveling team travels in a Ford pickup and they, and they visit, they lay out a college a year and then they travel and, and, and visit around 400 or more man.
Different chapters throughout the state. Absolutely. Amazing. So I’ll tell you what we’ll get you, we’ll have you a Ford truck for broadcast next year. We’re going to have one. I’m in, I’m in. All right. All right. And speaking of Ford, if somebody wants to learn more, follow the Ford, the scholarship foundation or anything else, how do they do that?
Like throw, throw me a website where people can learn more and just figure things out. Well, I would say go to Texas FFA. Okay. Go to the org and it just. You know, look at on the homepage there, it’s got all the different opportunities. That’s the best way it talks about all the different scholarship opportunities, the different programs, the different leadership contests and opportunities.
So that’s what I would, I would do do that. And then just kind of play around with it and, and, and see what all. FFA has to offer. Perfect. And for everybody watching, just so you know, we’ll put the links in the show notes, all that good stuff. Mitchell really appreciate you taking time out for us today.
Thank you so much for coming on the show. Thank you. We’ll see you next year at that Ford. And for the audience, Hey, if this is your first time tuning in mission matters, this is a daily show where we’re bringing you thought leaders. We’re bringing you individuals to give you hopefully inspiration and vision in your walk and your journey as well.
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