Miriam Hoffman – Progress Born of Tradition

This is Miriam Hoffman's 2021 retiring address as 2020-21 National FFA Eastern Region Vice President, titled "Progress Born of Tradition." Using a story about packing a cattle trailer and misplacing the spare tire, she argues that change which overlooks tradition is not true progress, and that members should ask why things have a traditional place before changing them. She illustrates the balance between tradition and change through her family farm, her friend Lane's path to trade school, and the 1990 delegates who made small revisions to the FFA creed rather than replacing it entirely.