Wisconsin state FFA officers minus three

The Wisconsin state FFA officer team is without a treasurer, a sentinel and a vice president after a special closed session meeting of the state FFA executive board in Mauston Wednesday. The board dismissed two of the state officers, and a third resigned.

During a special closed session, the state FFA executive board dismissed sentinel Jake Cramer of Johnson Creek and vice president Kristian Schmalzer of Mazomanie from the team of officers. The state FFA executive board consists of the officers, their home advisors along with ex-officio members Cheryl Zimmerman, executive director of the FFA center in Spencer, and Dean Gagnon ag education consultant with the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.

Immediately after the meeting treasurer Josh Duley of Merrill resigned.

The state FFA officer team is made up of FFA members, most of whom are sophomores and juniors in college, who often take off a year from school to serve at the state level. They are duly elected by members of their section, one of the ten geographical divisions in the Wisconsin FFA organization. The organization has more than 16,000 members statwide.

The special meeting was called after Cramer and Schmalzer were accused of drinking at a private function near the University of Wisconsin River Falls in mid October. State officers are required to sign acknowledgement of a policy for state officers that disallows alcohol use during their year as state officers.

The policy signed by each state officer lists reasons for dismissal. One of them states:

Any use of alcohol, and/or supply of alcohol to members or others. State FFA officerswill forego all alcohol while involved in official or unofficial FFA activities from the day the officer is elected until he/she installs a new state officer. This means 24 hours a day,
7 days a week for 365 days. This means anywhere within the United States and any International travel.

The policy does not differentiate between 'unofficial FFA activities' and non-FFA activities.

Later in October, the afternoon before the Wisconsin FFA officer team was to travel to the national FFA convention in Lousiville, KY, Zimmerman called Cramer and Schmalzer to inform them she had learned of the infraction. Zimmerman notified the two that they were on suspension, preventing them from accompanying their fellow officers to the convention. She also instructed Cramer and Schmalzer to email a letter explaining why they weren't a part of the trip, and gave them explicit instructions not to send the message to their colleagues. The FFA officer team was notified of the reason for their absence after their arrival in Louisville.

Shortly after their letters arrived Gagnon supported the decisions of the two officers in question by communicating via a return email and concluding:

I am very pleased that you admitted your misjudgment and did not attempt to deny your actions. That is a sign of a strong character.

After returning from the convention Zimmerman communicated with Cramer and Schmalzer informing them she had made appointments for them each to meet separately with Gagnon at the DPI office on November 4.

Zimmerman did not notify the officers of the nature of the appointment. She too was present at the meetings. Upon their arrival on November 4, Cramer and Schmalzer were asked to sign pre-written resignations.

Both Cramer and Schmalzer refused to sign the resignations, and their decisions were supported by their home advisors Ed Bielinski, FFA advisor and ag instructor at Johnson Creek Schools, and Kim Houser, FFA Advisor and ag instructor at Wisconsin Heights High School.

Cramer cited lack of due process as his reason for refusing to sign. Additionally, both Cramer and Schmalzer noted that they were caught off-guard by the resignation requests. Neither of them, however denied the policy infraction, and remained apologetic for the lapse in judgment.

Looking into the state officer policy, directly after the behavior stipulations the language states:

If any of the above violations occur, the state officer or officers will be asked to appear before the entireState FFA Executive Board to give a complete explanation of the incident which occurred. The StateFFA Executive Board will then rule on a dismissal of the officer or officers involved.

While allowed to restate their admission, Cramer and Schmalzer were not allowed to hear or be part of debate on the matter.

"We were told to stay out in the hallway," Cramer said, explaining that it was all in closed session and that they were excluded.

A communique setting the time for the special executive board meeting noted that Roberts Rules would be the parliamentary authority, but many attending maintain that the rules weren't adhered to. Again, members of the team were instructed not to communicate with each other about the matter, even though administrative personnel maintained communication.

Bielinski noted procedure barely followed a form of order pointing out more than one discrepency. The Johnson Creek Agriculture instuctor has coached parliamentary procedure teams, many to the state level competition. He stated that advisors who couldn't attend the special meeting were called and asked to vote even though they weren't present for debate. Additionally the vote count was not disclosed to those in attendance except to reveal that the two members had been dimissed.

Discouraged with the outcome, and previously supportive of his colleagues, Josh Duley of Merrill resigned his office.

In an earlier communication Duley made a several pleas on behalf of Cramer and Schmalzer.

"You likened your choice to not let them attend the National Convention off of the WIAA sports book. When an athlete breaks the code of conduct they are asked to miss the next game," he wrote to Zimmerman and Gagnon. "I urge you to look at Jake and Kristi's passion and and dedication to the organization."

Duley noted that it should be a time to celebrate, because the National FFA President is from Wisconsin.

"Firing two FFA state officers will definitely not add to the positive image of the FFA," Duley added.

Currently, plans are for the remaining eight officers to finish the year. The state FFA geographically divides the state of Wisconsin into 10 sections, with each officer representing their section and holding state office. The president is elected from the previous year's team of officers. Each officer is elected through an interview process, then elected by FFA members from their section.

Advisors from each officer's home chapter host and arrange for section workshops and training sessions. Their responsibilities in light of the current situation is not defined.

According to Zimmerman, in the 70 plus year history of the state FFA organization, this is the first time state officers have been caught or admitted to this level offense.
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(NOTE:Contacts - feel free to verify.)

Dean Gagnon - DPI - 608.267.9255

Cheryl Zimmerman - FFA Center - 715.659.4807

Ed Bielinski -
FFA advisor Johnson Creek Schools - 920.699.3481school

Kim Houser -FFA advisor Wisconsin Heights High School -608.767.2586

Jake Cramer - cell 920.219.1272

Kristian Schmalzer - 608.795.9869