By JP JEWELL | Texas deca vice president
Glenda Dawson High School
Dawson DECA’s summer is spent preparing for an amazing year ahead. From in person officer meetings to our annual bootcamp we’re constantly working to be ready to implement an engaging year for all of our members. Read below to find out the steps we take to become the one!
CLEARLY DEFINING OUR ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES - At the end of each school year, a group of officers is selected to operate the Dawson DECA chapter. Each officer receives a title they will carry throughout the next school year that entails different responsibilities. In order to ensure that all officers understand their role, each officer is given a description of their duties and a list of key deliverables to complete throughout the year in our Dawson DECA Officer Handbook. It is then up to that officer not only to complete those duties and fulfill their deliverables but also to go above and beyond towards improving the chapter.
ESTABLISHING CLEAR COMMUNICATION - With over 30 officers at Dawson DECA, it can be difficult for us to quickly share important information unless we have a clear line of communication. At the start of the summer, our officer team sets up a large message group with specified sub-channels on platforms such as Slack or Discord to use throughout the year. Additionally, our smaller groups set up text group chats such as our Executive team and VPs, or our VPs and their groups of directors.
ENSURING THAT EVERY OFFICER HAS AN ADEQUATE UNDERSTANDING OF DECA AND CHAPTER OPERATIONS - As a chapter officer, you become an essential point of contact for members to ask you questions, get information, and receive help throughout the year. In order to make sure that every chapter officer can do this, our chapter holds a “DECA 101” course at our officer boot camp. This course covers all parts of DECA’s comprehensive learning program from conferences throughout the year to corporate challenges. Every officer leaves our boot camp with the knowledge to answer almost every question they could be asked by current or potential members.
WORKING IN SMALLER GROUPS TO SET SPECIFIC GOALS AND CREATE PLANS - As we look to work on planning for the year or brainstorming ideas to implement, we usually have a wide variety of goals we are trying to accomplish or events we are trying to execute. Instead of doing this planning as a large group all at once, we assign different groups based on roles to plan out different aspects of our chapter. During July for example, The hospitality team worked on planning out our recruitment tactics for the beginning of the year while our outreach team brainstormed different community service ideas. By working in these smaller groups throughout the summer, our officer sub-teams are able to efficiently pave the way for a successful year ahead.
CONSTANT COLLABORATION AND IDEA SHARING - Following our small group meetings, each officer team ends up with a document or list full of ideas and plans for the year ahead. At our annual officer boot camp event, officer teams present their ideas to the group and hold discussions to review each idea. All 20+ people in attendance participate in refining and evaluating each idea to maximize its potential impact later in the year. Throughout this process each officer gains an understanding of what the chapter has lined up for the year and has the ability to impact the chapter at a large scale.
Overall, the summer and beginning of the school year is when our chapter officers truly create the difference that helps our chapter to be the one throughout the school year. The brainstorming, planning, and outlining that happens during that time creates a powerful framework that is then carefully implemented throughout the year in order to keep a large chapter moving that works to enable every member to BE THE ONE!
Check below to see what our boot camp schedule looked liked and a copy of our officer handbook.