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Florida DECA! Thank you so much for being involved with the DLC web meetings this year. We hope that you enjoyed the changes our team initiated. Please get into your officer teams, and talk to your advisors because we WANT your feedback! We worked really hard this year and we want to give Team 61 the same opportunity. All feedback is accepted! Email your assigned state officer or me at chad@fldeca.org Thank you!
Hey Florida DECA! Looking for a great activity in the Community Service section of the Annual Business Plan? Look no further. You should nominate a charity for Team 61 Helping Hands. All you have to do is hover over the “About Us” tab on the Florida DECA website (fldeca.org). After that, hover over “Helping Hands” and click on “Nominate your charity for Helping Hands”. This will direct you to our online form that you can quickly fill in with basic information about your chapter and the charity you’ve selected. Spend time picking a charity that you are truly passionate about. Do not just go for an easy credit. Florida DECA can have a huge impact on a charity, so we want to make sure we pick a charity that needs it. Do some research; involve your members by doing a vote or a poll, and get final confirmation from your advisor(s). Together we can make a big difference. Thank you!
Hey Florida DECA! The annual business plan will be here before you know it, so here are a few tips to help you ensure success. First, create a central location to store all pictures for the ABP. This will help when it comes time to create your document. You won’t have to chase down individuals to get pictures you need. I would also encourage you to start all of your written descriptions now, as these take a great amount of time and require extensive detail. Create a chapter checklist that informs members and officers about the progress of the annual business plan. Check off things as you complete them so you are up to speed on what needs to get done. Get in touch with business professionals sooner than later as this is a courtesy to them. Don’t wait to make contact as they may not be able to come out in the time frame given. And finally, do not procrastinate. The annual business plan is a very involved process and takes much time to complete. I would recommend starting it now! Good luck, and reach out with any questions – chad@fldeca.org
Hey Florida DECA! This month I did a chapter spotlight on Steinbrenner High School. They are located in Tampa, Florida and they are a part of District 6 DECA. They are a sports marketing chapter and they do some really great activities with a sports focus. I will highlight a few of my favorite activities. At the beginning of the school year they host a DECA signing day which mimics a sports star signing to a sports team. They even set out hats that say “Role Play” and “Written Event”. Members make their choice and sign to a category. They have a program where their students get to work for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. They host a camp at their local elementary school called MAAC. They put on a DECA Dodgeball tournament in their school. They did community service with Blue Jays outfielder, Jose Bautista. And finally, they put on a mock sports press conference. I got the chance to visit Steinbrenner and I was happy to see that competition is a big focus for them. They have competed at the District, State, and International Level and their members are ready to take home the glass from Atlanta. They have a very active Twitter page and they post great pictures from their events so I would encourage you to give them a follow - @gshsDECA. Thank you Steinbrenner DECA!
Hello Florida DECA!
With competition rolling in, I am very excited to review some of my favorite competition tips. Tip #1 – Remain flexible. Be prepared to walk into competition and be stunned by your judge. Remember, every judge is different so you have to be prepared to make adjustments depending on the way things go. I recommend practicing with many different people to get the hang of it. Tip #2 – Creativity is key. You have to stand out among your competition. One of the best ways is to be creative. Consider adding some visual elements to your presentation to spice things up. Tip #3 – OWN IT! No matter what, you have to always have confidence, even when you feel wrong. The judges like to see your passion for the role and the project. Tip #4 – Celebrate Success. After every role play, be proud of your accomplishment. You and your friends in DECA will continue to grow if you make the most out of competing. Just have fun with it! Hello Florida DECA! This month is focused around forming professional relationships in a professionally responsible manner. In my video blog I will provide you with some handy tips that you can include in your attempt to make professional connections. The key to forming and maintaining a relationship is being passionate and involved in the process. It is difficult to do too much for someone, so give it your best shot when you look to form a relationship. Always go the extra mile for people you want to connect with! I challenge you to look for ways to connect with people and go after it this month. After you start your quest, it only gets easier. Remember to connect with me through email – chad@fldeca.org. Can’t wait to hear from all of you!
Increasing self-confidence to become a more experienced leader
Yeah yeah, I know what you're thinking. Self-confidence is a really cliché topic for a blog, but in my opinion it is the most important skill to craft to become a more experienced leader, so how I could I skip it. I hope by the end of this blog you're inspired to improve your confidence and get involved on your journey to being an experienced leader. So come along! The first thing you have to do is identify your comfort zones. All of us have unique fears that make our palms sweat. These are the triggers that threaten our self-confidence. So start by creating a list of all your biggest fears. Once you have a list, you are ready to start improving. First, recognize that the only way to improve is to get comfortable being uncomfortable. This is crucial, but what makes this so difficult is that many people have trouble easing their way into fear. For example, if public speaking scares you, then begin with a very small speaking engagement. As you begin to feel more comfortable in a small speaking engagement then you should quickly move into larger crowds. And with time, your fear of crowds will decrease and you will be able to speak to much larger groups of people. The key is that you must always have a sense of being uncomfortable because this means you’re improving. The next thing you can do to improve your confidence is to use the "buddy system". I have found that having someone close to you, accompany you while you are attacking a fear is a great way to improve. They seem to make those awkward situations more pleasant. For example, when I first got into high school, I had a huge fear of networking, but I knew in order to become an experienced leader, I had to get over this. So I made sure to drag a friend along for any networking experience. We would tag team conversations and it made the conversations much smoother. This soon led to me being able to have smooth conversations with new people on my own. It's an incredible way to get acclimated to a fear. Maintaining good posture is a must have for confidence. People instantly formulate opinions on your confidence solely on the way you act. Maintain a professional demeanor in the way you sit, stand, and walk. When engaging in conversation, always begin with a powerful handshake and a clear introduction which will establish your dominance. From that point forward remember to use hands for emphasis only when it's needed to show a focus on subject matter. I believe that the most awkward yet important part is eye contact. Do not break eye contact when you speak and never look down during conversation. It conveys a sense of insecurity. Always reflect on what makes you different as a leader. Every person has unique talents, good grades, leadership positions, and many other personal accomplishments yet some people fail to celebrate their own successes. When you spend time reminiscing on all you've accomplished and what you plan to accomplish you will naturally see an impact on your self-confidence. Share this with friends, family, and the people you meet. So I hope that all of you are inspired to tackle your self-confidence and become experienced leaders. Always remember, be comfortable being uncomfortable, stay LIMITLESS Florida DECA! Florida DECA,
The DECA Inc. Promotional campaign is such a great opportunity to improve your chapter. It’s all about marketing and promotion within and outside of your school. This video gives 4-5 ideas for each section. Remember, you only have to do two categories for each Campaign. School outreach is outreach within your school. I picked some of the ways my chapter conducts our outreach. My ideas were posters, announcements, flyers, and luncheons. These are simple ways to promote DECA within your school. Gathering 3 alumni success stories can be very easy under most circumstances. Most chapters have at least 3 alumni members who would be willing to draft up their DECA story. If your chapter has no alumni, make sure to connect with a bigger chapter who does. When engaging alumni, remember to be genuine and excited for better chances of getting responses. The third tier to the Promotional Campaign is to conduct 3 community outreach activities. This is a great way to do some advocating and engage your membership. My ideas were social media, contact a public policy maker, attend events, volunteer for a cause, and connect with businesses. Most importantly, BE LIMITLESS! This week I had the opportunity to visit Jefferson High School DECA! I got an insider perspective on some of the things that go on in their chapter. After speaking with the members, I quickly realized that the involvement was exceptional. Nearly every member seemed to have a place in their wide array of activities.
They have a brand new student run enterprise called DECA’fe. This gives the members opportunity for real world experience, operating a business, implementing accounting procedures, etc. Jefferson also offers a class called VEI. This gives the members a chance to start a company, create a business plan, and assign job roles to participating students. Jefferson is also very involved in competition. After speaking with Jack Filali, VP of Competition, we get a better glimpse as to how they prepare their members for competition. Jefferson DECA is definitely a chapter to look out for. With all the real world experience and competition preparation, they are surely providing great opportunities for their members. We can’t wait to see what Jefferson DECA has in store in the upcoming year! |
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