By Rudy Sathish
Heritage High School
Howdy Texas DECA! As school is starting for many of us, chapter meetings and recruitment activities will soon begin, and updated information will be provided for DECA members. To ensure everyone is able to ‘Be the One’, here are some meeting ideas that would be beneficial to your chapter:
INTRODUCTORY MEETING
At the beginning of the year, a primary goal is recruitment to allow as many people as possible to experience and compete in DECA. Whether you have a chapter of over 300 members or a chapter with just 10 members, you need to welcome members in some way. At an introductory meeting, it is necessary to explain DECA to existing and prospective members to effectively market your chapter, ensure member retention, and boost membership for the upcoming year. Chapter officers should also save some time at the end to answer any questions members may have.
WELCOME SOCIAL
Incorporating a welcome social could further entice joining a local chapter. In the Texas heat, allowing members to cool down with a cold treat such as popsicles or ice cream could make members connect with each other in a more inviting environment (and who doesn’t love free food!). If this isn’t allowed, just allowing members to network through icebreakers could be beneficial as new members could make new friends in DECA and form a bond early on in the year.
COMPETITION SELECTION
Officers and other experienced DECA members can assist new members in helping choose a competition for the year. Since members are only allowed to compete in one competition a year, it is of the utmost importance that they choose something aligned with their interests that they will want to stick to for the academic year. Chapter officers should emphasize that an event should not be chosen simply on how difficult the event is (no DECA event is easy!), but rather how much the student will enjoy competing in it and the success they could find in it. Speaking from personal experience, an event that you thoroughly enjoy doing will reap more rewards than something uninteresting that you do not enjoy. If your chapter has DECA+, encourage members to view sample events there to see something that catches their eye.
MOCK COMPETITIONS
After members choose their events, competition season is in full swing! Members are busy completing market research, coming up with business ideas, practicing performance indicators, studying for tests, and so much more. To allow members to become more comfortable with competing and help relieve nerves before the real day - whether it's District CDC, State CDC, or ICDC- mock competitions can be offered to all members to give them experience prior to actual competition day. Whether it's allowing students to take a practice test in a timed environment, preparing a role-play to present to other members/officers, or allowing members to present their project, mock competitions are very helpful and will give members the opportunity to improve prior to CDCs--leading to further success.
END OF YEAR BANQUET
You made it; It’s the end of the year! After a long, tedious season of competition, you have made it to the end and members and advisors deserve recognition, appreciation, and celebration. Having an end-of-year banquet, while not informative like the other meetings, Serves as a way to highlight your chapter and member accomplishments from the year, allows your chapter to be together for one last time after ICDC, and can provide an opportunity to formally announce the following school year's officer team. A banquet can be an extremely fun celebration showing the incredible things your chapter has accomplished throughout the year and having people show their appreciation for DECA. What a great way to end the year!
Texas DECA members, I hope you have an amazing year in DECA in competition, service, and all of your other endeavors! I hope these meeting ideas were useful and that you all have a successful year and bring home some glass! Good luck to all this year!