Chapter 3 Agriculture as a Career 111 Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. FFA Connection Profi ciency Awards One of the most common goals for SAE projects is to use them to compete and win a proficiency award. Proficiency awards are given to members that excel in their SAE programs. The list of official proficiency award areas changes on an annual basis. Ask your teacher or visit the FFA website for the most current listings. school year. Once you have created your mission statement, establish both short- and long-term goals and how your chapter is going to achieve these goals. Use an online calendar to provide all members access your chapter’s POA and the dates for its activities. SAE Recordkeeping An essential component of having a quality SAE is keeping records. Keeping accurate records will allow you to measure the scope of your SAE and see progress toward your goals. In order to have complete records, you should be recording both the experiences and fi nancial transactions that occur in your program. How to Know What to Record One of the biggest decisions you will be faced with over the course of your SAE is what to record in your recordbook. In a nutshell, the answer is “everything.” The specifi c types of records you will keep depend largely on the type of each of your SAE enterprises. • Exploratory SAEs will typically require you only to journal your experiences of activities and skills learned. In general, you will have no fi nancial records associated with this type of SAE. • Research SAEs will require you to journal the research methods, results, and conclusions. In addition, you should account for your time while conducting the project, and record any expenses you incurred while conducting research. • Placement SAEs require you to record the time, either paid or unpaid, that you spent working. You will also need to journal exactly what you did on the job each day and describe any new skills that you develop during your employment. If you are working in a paid placement area, you will also need to record the fi nancial income related to each paycheck. • Entrepreneurship SAEs typically require the most recordkeeping components. In addition to journaling what has been done with the enterprise, and the skills you have gained, you will need to track the inventory, income, and expenses related to the project. Journaling Experiences Every type of SAE requires that you keep an accurate journal of the time spent and experiences you have had with each enterprise. Keeping track of everything you are doing with your SAE is not an easy task, and is one that will likely require you to be diligent and timely in recording information. The