Florida DECA! We are approaching the apex of the DECA year with competition and conferences!! With CDC right around the corner and ICDC following, now is the time to truly experience a large part of what this organization has to offer. Now is the time to join members from across the world in sharing your DECA story.

 I would also like to mention that February is advocacy month. This month you should work with your chapter to promote DECA in your school and community. I challenge you to reach out to local officials and get them on board with DECA and have your community supporting everything you do. There are a lot more people out there that would support DECA than you think. The majority of people I have spoken to are so impressed with what DECA provides its members, but they have just never been told about it. Now is your chance to spread the word!
 
I encourage you all to join the spirit and share your story about the organization you all love; proclaim I AM DECA!

Tamir Rabinovich

Florida DECA President

 

I hope everyone enjoyed their winter break and got a lot of rest!


At this point in the year, I want you to step back and reflect on your first semester as an officer. Have you been a great officer? Ask yourself, “Am I doing the best that I can? Am I a great leader?”

As we get to the peak months of DECA activities, now is the time that you are most important as an officer. It is up to YOU and your team of officers to carry your chapter to success and motivate everyone to be as involved as possible. With competition, chapter projects, community service events, and more in full swing, now is your opportunity to excite your members and share the passion you have for this organization.

 Promoting DECA to students/members who don't share the same passion as you do can be difficult. It is important that you make that personal connection with your members. Making every member feel welcomed and accepted in DECA is a crucial responsibility as an officer. Once you have the students supporting you, things will become much easier and you have made more friends that you can work with. With all that is going on, you can get everyone involved. Have non-competitors listen to presentations and role plays and act as judges. This way you are providing practice to your competing members and making the non-competitors feel like they are making an impact in your chapter (which they are).

I challenge you to take on second semester at 100% and be the best DECA officer that you can!

Now is the time to share the holiday spirit! As we celebrate the holidays, enjoy time with our friends and family, and end the 2014 year, keep those less fortunate in mind. With the time off we receive for the last two weeks of December, make your best effort to spend some time giving back to the community. Pick a charity or cause that has meaning to you, grab a couple of friends, and make a difference in someone’s life. You never know how far your act of kindness can go.

If you are unsure of where to spend your time volunteering, head on over to www.volunteermatch.org, where you will find out about local charities that serve the functions you most care about. Whatever the charity may be and however much time you spend, dedicate at least some time during this holiday season.

I hope you all enjoy the holidays and have a very happy new year!

Tamir Rabinovich

Florida DECA President

Three tips to DECA month

This month Zack Schaja, Former Florida DECA officer and current Executive President, offers all members some insight on the tips and tricks to celebrating DECA month. Zack says, “DECA Month is an amazing opportunity to get your new members involved and show a little appreciation for your returning members.”

3 tips to planning out DECA activities:

1.     Plan activities that will benefit current members and advisors - use this opportunity to show them your appreciation.

2.     Plan activities that will help you recruit new members - DECA month is an amazing recruitment tool as potential members see how much fun current members have.

3.     Plan activities that will get your community involved - DECA month is the perfect opportunity to advocate and the benefits can be enormous.

Throughout the month, be sure to use #DECAMonth to share photos of what your chapter is doing on social media. Also, there is a 30 day photo challenge that you can participate in as well!

If you would like to read the full blog, written by Zack, it can be found here: http://www.decadirect.org/September-2014/Tips-and-Tricks-for-Celebrating-DECA-Month/

The two topics I am covering this month will be DECA month and preparing for competition.

DECA Month

Participating in DECA month is a great way to unify your chapter, get the members involved, promote DECA within your school and community, and raise excitement for everything that follows during the year.

There are two ways to get involved:

1.  Within Florida DECA, your chapter can check off an activity by participating in three DECA month activities that you will later report to Florida DECA as part of the Annual Business Plan.

2.  Within DECA Inc., there are the DECA Campaigns. Participating can give your chapter rewards as far as allocations to attend the Thrive Academy at ICDC! More information can be found at http://bit.ly/DECAcampaigns.

 

Competition

Competition is right around the corner and now is the time to get started! Whether your a new member or a veteran, I highly recommend you compete. Attending CDC and ICDC are always the highlight of my DECA year as well as everyone else’s. Competition is a great opportunity to network and meet other members, travel, and gain real-world experience. Competition is the pinnacle event for DECA and I am confident that you will feel the same way.

Share your successes with me on twitter through “@Tamir_DECA”! 

To me, this year’s theme is so perfect. As my involvement in DECA escalated beginning my freshman year, so did my connection to it. It got so prominent that kids in school began to refer to me as “DECA” and then even my family started calling me “DECA” instead of Tamir! (true story)

Last year’s theme was “Make It Count” and it transitions so well into this year’s theme. In the last year, we have all made it count and reached new heights within this organization. There is no better time, than right now, to make it known that “I AM DECA!”

No matter what your involvement - how little or how much you do in this organization - you become a part of the DECA family. DECA has an everlasting impact on you, giving you the real life skills, confidence, and networks you need to succeed in life. DECA gives you a place to be accepted in school and around the world. DECA becomes a part of you. This year’s theme applies to all members and that is why I love it so much. Show your pride for this wonderful organization this year by proclaiming “I AM DECA!”

Florida DECA! It is that time of the year again! As the days until school starts getting smaller - but more importantly the days until DECA starts gets closer - it is time to prepare the road to success. As a chapter officer, it is up to you and your team to work as an effective and cohesive unit in order to have the best year your chapter has had yet. You have been put in this position for a reason and it is time to make history!

As a fourth year DECA member and a Florida DECA officer, I offer a few tips I have picked up along the way that will help achieve the success you aspire for:

•   Delegate- One piece of advice I always give to people is to delegate work to others. As a person who experienced this personally, it is not possible to do everything yourself! Delegating to others is the sign of a true leader and it gives others experience for the future. Not only will it reduce your stress, but greater quality work will result from it.

•   Plan in advance- Once you have planned everything, you are halfway there! Having a plan provides structure and organization to any task your team is given. As things can happen that are unexpected, also have a back-up plan just in case. Being organized in advance will make everything smoother in the implementation stage.

•   Think back- Remember when you were a general member rather than an officer? Don’t forget your peers and those that put you in your position. Keep in mind that all the events you plan and decisions you make will impact their experience as well.

•   Most importantly... HAVE FUN! This is your year... Your term as an officer and your year to proclaim I AM DECA. It is a great honor to have been put in an officer position, enjoy it and congratulations!

Having a Successful Social Media Presence

Day 2 of the Emerging Leaders Summit was a blast and full of brand new and more insightful information. For today, the most valuable information and the topic that stuck out to me was using social media for effective communication. Every attendee was given a social media guide and Ms. Scudder, the social media director for DECA Inc., spoke to us and gave many tips to accomplish this effective communication. The lesson began with the three keys to creating a consistent and successful social media presence: create content, share content, and drive engagement. It is recommended that you post consistently so that members and followers know where to look for information.

Social media also includes publishing to DECA Direct and getting your voice heard. This is a great way for members to contribute their voice and for leaders of all sorts to be able to brag about what their groups have accomplished and share with the rest of the organization.

We were provided with the top ten social media support resources - all of which are free - that will aid in your DECA strategic communications plan. The best app that I will share with you is Hootsuite, which will allow you to schedule content across many social media platforms. Finally, it was strongly recommended to use hashtags, both DECA’s and some of your own, to further establish consistency and a location to find specific information. Overall, this conference has been great and I look forward to the final day of the conference. 

The valuable lesson of my first day at ELS

The opening day of ELS was an amazing opportunity for networking with other Chartered Association Officers and becoming more experienced leaders. Among the many things I learned, the eight keys to great facilitation of activities was very valuable to me. From one leader to another, we were told and reminded, “set the tone, or somebody else will.” With the eight keys provided, you will be able to control the time and space in the room.

The eight keys are:

•  Identify a power word

•  Speak slow and clearly

•  Provide examples for your instructions

•  Repeat your instructions

•  Remind the audience about safety

•  Pause to answer questions

•  Ride the wave and finish activities while the audience is still interested

These eight keys are very helpful to a leader in any situation in which they are in front of an audience of any sort. With these eight tools, your responsibility to ensure that everyone has a great experience will be that much easier. 

        I can’t believe its already summer! This past year has been so great and full of accomplishments for Florida DECA. It seems as if when you are having fun and enjoying everything, time flies by. As we quickly approach summer again, don’t forget about your school activities! A graduation requirement for all high school students is to obtain at least 40 service hours in their 4 years. Over the summer, take advantage of some of your free time and help out in the community! Not only will you feel great about what you are doing, but you will also be knocking out one of your requirements (win-win!). Your community is always providing support to you and now is the time to give back. Whether it is an hour, ten hours, or your summer, try to dedicate some time to help out those that need it.

          If you don’t know of a place to volunteer at, a great website I was once shown is http://www.volunteermatch.org. At this website you can input what you care about and your location and it will give you a list of places that you can volunteer your time, make a difference, and get some hours while your doing so. Whatever you decide to do this summer, I hope you all enjoy it! You all have worked hard through out the year and deserve this. But remember, its never too early to start preparing for next year! Enjoy your summer and be safe!