Imagine a social platform with the community of Facebook, the networking of LinkedIn, and every interaction about agriculture and FFA: That’s the Forever Blue Network, which launched in May 2020. “Our main goal is to broaden the FFA family,” says Joshua Rusk, executive director of alumni and supporters at the National FFA Organization. “Now members can utilize experiences all over the world for personal and professional success.”
Casting the Vision
The niche network grew out of a pilot mentoring program that Rusk and his team managed manually with a spreadsheet. In an effort to expand and automate, they discovered the potential for a website that could not only coordinate mentorships, but also reignite a lost FFA connection, spot subject matter experts, list agriculture jobs, find volunteers and judges, and provide chapter ideas all in one browser tab.
“A lot of [Forever Blue Network’s] success has been because people didn’t know where to find that information,” Rusk notes. “Now we have a central housing unit.”
Maximizing the Experience
Membership is open to all alumni and student members, starting with juniors in high school. Supporters may also join after specifying why they’d like access, such as an employer seeking a qualified FFA candidate. The responses are highly vetted to ensure the network remains aligned with its original vision: to connect the FFA and ag communities and meet shared needs.
Alumni members support local chapters through gifts of time, talent and resources.
Once approved, a detailed profile is the ticket to a personalized experience. Simply complete the registration questions, which include items like what state you’re from; which FFA leadership programs you attended; and whether you’re willing to be a speaker, judge or mentor. You can specify limits too: How many times do you want to be contacted? How many mentees are you willing to take? “This system allows individuals to determine how involved they want to be,” says Rusk.
Your responses may automatically plug you into specific groups like Washington Leadership Conference or Past State FFA Officer. These “mini Forever Blue Networks,” as Rusk calls them, are one of the platform’s key features, and you can browse and join any that fit your interests.
There are additional features not to miss.
- The feed is a consolidated current-conversations reel from your network. Rusk encourages taking a few minutes each visit to scroll: “Get ideas for new activities, post your questions so others can respond and browse existing questions to see if you can give feedback.”
- The job and internship board hosts postings from AgCareers.com, as well as posts from employers and fellow alum who specifically want to find FFA talent.
- The directory, or rather its search function, is the signature piece of the Forever Blue Network. Use the filter to find exactly what you’re looking for: Search by location to find a local resource, or by industry to find a person in a specific career. “One of the very first people to reach out was looking for an internship in marine biology, and they were able to filter to find someone in that field,” Rusk notes.
Profiles with a red flag signify people who specified they’re “willing to help,” and you can email, set up a meeting and call all within the secure system of the network.
Measuring Success
Still relatively new, Forever Blue Network’s long-term impact remains to be seen. But the day-to-day wins are clearly visible in the increasing number of site visitors who sign up each day and through “seeing people use it for exactly what it’s meant for,” says Rusk. “It’s success just to hear, ‘I never would have found them without the network.’”
The ultimate measure, perhaps, is the strengthening of the FFA community overall, the “core idea” from the beginning. In the first year, “more than 70% of users raised their hands to help,” Rusk notes — and that’s precisely the FFA way.
Register for the FFA Forever Blue Network at ForeverBlueNetwork.org.
