The Litchfield High School FFA parliamentary procedure team took second place at the FFA state convention, April 27-29 in St. Paul.

Parliamentary procedure is the set of rules used to order governing meetings.

The team competed in the novice division. In that division, students must demonstrate at least nine parliamentary procedure abilities before a set of judges and create motions as in a regular meeting.

The team presented a video demonstration of their skills at Monday’s Litchfield School Board Meeting. The seven team members began practicing in November and competed at the career development and regional levels before advancing to state.

Since all the students were new to the competition, sophomore Nick Maahs said the team didn’t know what to expect at state when it competed against six other novice teams.

“We did not expect the crowd of people in there watching us,” he said. “It kind of played on our nerves.”

Next year, the team will compete in the regular parliamentary level. Advisor Rob Cole said parliamentary procedure is his favorite FFA competition because it requires the most preparation, and the skills can be used in real life meetings. However, it does require a big time commitment from students who practice before school one morning every week.