Below is a sample Fall Chapter Meeting schedule. You may wish to have meetings in a different order or have more frequent meetings than listed below. This is to give an idea of what your chapter could cover this fall with your members. This schedule is based on having bi-weekly meetings.
Meeting 1
what is deca?
This is an informational meeting for potential new members. In this meeting you should go over the basics of DECA and why students at your school might be interested in joining your chapter. You may wish to make this a ‘Bring a Friend’ meeting. While you want this meeting to be informational, be sure you’re not overwhelming potential new members. Keep it simple while engaging. Be sure to include how they can join if they are interested at the end of the meeting! See the list below for ideas of what you might do at your first meeting. Follow the sample agenda or pick and choose items that best fit your chapter!
QUICK ICEBREAKER: Introduce yourself to as many people in the room as you can in 2 minutes; Rock, Paper, Scissors War; Ask a ‘would you rather question’ and go around the room having attendees rapid fire their answers one right after another;
Introduce Chapter Officers
What is DECA and how to get involved in our chapter activities presentation
Play an easy DECA 101 Kahoot! to get attendees involved and give away a small prize for the winner
Questions
Don’t forget to collect emails or a way to contact those who are interested in attending the next meeting and joining DECA!
Meeting 2
welcome back to deca! an introduction to the year
This meeting is for returning members as well as anyone interested in diving a little deeper into what they can be involved in after the previous meeting. In this meeting you can go over what your chapter has planned for this year, any dates that you already have scheduled, and what members must do to be involved in the different activities.
What is the deadline for paying chapter dues? Who do they need to be paid to? How do they need to be paid? How much are they?
Any scheduled events for the year and deadlines that are related to the events. Scheduled events may include: Chapter Socials, Chapter Field Trips, Future Meetings, Mock Competitions, District Competition, Testing Dates, Written Event Deadlines, State Competition, Community Service Activities, Fall Leadership Conference
Deadline to pick a competitive event. What must members do to pick their competitive event? Do they have required practice sessions for their competitive event? When must they complete their required practice session?
Show state officer welcome video - found in the Advisor Hub
Meeting 3
introduce competitive events
This meeting is meant to be an introduction to competitive events. This will ease new members into the idea of competing as well as refreshing returning members on the different competitive events. It’s important to have new and returning members at this meeting (if your chapter has both) so the returning members can give some perspective on what it’s like to compete. Check out the resources and ideas below for what you might want to cover in this meeting:
Have returning competitors talk about why they enjoy competing and what they got out of competing
Have returning competitors in each event type (individual series, team decision making, project management, entrepreneurship, operations research, integrated marketing, professional selling) briefly describe what it’s like to those events. (you could also make it more generalized and just do one person for role play events and one person for prepared events)
Have returning members perform a sample role play in front of meeting attendees
Have returning members do their presentation from the previous year in front of the meeting
Meeting 4
Choosing an event
At meeting 3, you described the different types of events. Now, you want to help members choose an event that would work best for them. This can be an interactive meeting where you ask questions and have students split up based on their preferences, it could be multiple small meetings where you meet with students in smaller groups, or you may have them split up with your officer team to discuss competitive events and what they are thinking about competing in. Some resources you may wish to use to help students pick a competitive event are listed below:
Have members take the DECA styles test (if they’ve not taken it before) prior to attending the meeting. The end of the test suggests events based on your leadership style.
Take a look at this poster to help make the decision
Use this interactive presentation for choosing a competitive event
Meeting 5
how to present yourself - a career development meeting
At this meeting, the advisor, chapter officers or a guest speaker will talk about giving presentations and give tips and tricks on the topic.
Meeting 6
parts of a role play - breaking down a role play
This meeting is specifically targeted to students who are competing in role play events or would like to learn a little more about them. You may wish to have a second meeting this week specifically for prepared presentation competitors. In this meeting, you could talk about
Performance Indicators: what are they, why are they important, where can you find them to practice
The scenario: how to break the scenario down into digestible pieces, what to pay attention to within the scenario
Ideation: how to come up with unique ideas to present to the judge
Notes: how to utilize your prep time and take meaningful notes
Visuals: what kind of visual graphics/charts can you easily make from the information given to present to the judge
Meeting 7
practice a role play
Now that you’ve learned how to break down your role play into digestible pieces and how to utilize your prep time, let’s practice it a couple of times! Have everyone in your meeting pair up. If you are able to have members who have competed in role play events before team up with new members, that would be a great way to create pairs. If not, that’s ok! You may shorten their prep time to 5 minutes rather than 10 so you can get more rounds in. This activity is to get them comfortable with presenting their ideas.
You may wish to have a separate room or meeting date for prepared event teams to work on their paper or practice their presentation.
Meeting 8
dress for success
What’s the difference in business casual and business professional? Let’s find out together! You may wish to lead this meeting, have your officers lead the meeting, or have a professional come in to lead the meeting (if you have a Men’s Wearhouse near, they might be interested in coming to give this presentation for your members). Whether members are competing or not, this is valuable information for them to have!
After the presentation has been given, be sure to pull up the Texas DECA dress code and talk about what can/can’t be worn on stage and in front of a judge at a DECA event.
Meeting 9
district details & what to expect at the conference
Your District Career Development Conference is quickly approaching! Share any details your members may need about the week leading up to and the day of DCDC.
When are permission forms due (if they haven’t been turned in yet)
Reminder of what to wear
What time to meet on the morning of the conference
What time are you planning to be home
An overview of the day
Any important contacts/information for the day of