Member Spotlight!

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do, than by the ones you did do. Explore….Dream….Discover”-Mark Twain

Steven Crader lives by that mantra. Twenty years from now, having regrets about the things he didn’t do most likely won’t be his problem. As a 17 year old senior at Union High School, Steven keeps himself rather busy. His schedule is crammed full of activities due to his involvement with Future Business Leaders of America, National Honor Society, Youth Leadership Council Representative from Oregon on the National Rural Electric Cooperatives Association, 4-H, and as a statistician for baseball, and basketball.

His involvement with FBLA has included two different club offices. During the 2006-2007 school year, Steven served as the Union FBLA Secretary/Treasurer. For the past two years, Steven has answered the call of leadership by assuming the office of Chapter President.

He has helped out with FBLA on a state level as well. He helped plan the Blue Mountain Regional Skills Conference one year, and planned it the following year as well. His duties included working with representatives from EOU, as well as region advisers, organizing tests, planning the awards ceremony, and managing the accounting.

Steven isn’t done just yet. After graduation, he’s planning to go to college to pursue degrees in computer engineering and business management. He is looking at a few great colleges, and a few to make the cut are: Johnson and Whales in Providence, Oregon Institute of Technology, and the University of Idaho.

When he’s not out changing the world-or that crazy thing that we’ve only heard of but never experienced-sleeping, he enjoys hunting, camping and snowmobiling. He enjoys working with computers and helping others. He also is a fan of all different kinds of music.

Steven is a goal oriented, ambitious, young gent, and we’re excited to see what he does in the future.

Steven Crader- you’ve just been “Spotlighted”! Congratulations!



Do you know someone who you thing deserves to be “Spotlighted”? Send me an email, and we can get to work shining the spotlight on them!

As always- Keep in touch!

Oregon Leadership Institute '08-Get the Edge!

Hello again! As many of you know, the state officer team just finished our first ‘conference’: CLT! Just as CLT was winding to a close, we were gearing up for the next one- the Oregon Leadership Institute, or OLI!

OLI is a conference that we host for Oregon FBLA each year (except for last year, where we hosted NFLC in lieu of OLI). OLI will take place in the great city of Eugene. (Go Ducks!) It will kick off on Sunday, November 2, and will conclude on Monday, November 3.

The Oregon Leadership Institute isn’t just a conference. Its two days jam packed with workshops on getting to the next level, as well as some college admissions things from our Oregon Universities (UO and OSU)! Tri Leadership trainers will also be teaching workshops at this great conference; and if you’ve ever attended a Tri workshop, you know exactly how awesome they really are!

Workshops aren’t the only thing that OLI has to offer. If you’ve been there before, you know what comes next. The Etiquette Dinner. This is a great learning tool (and a fun one at that), where we’ll learn important etiquette dining skills, all in a fun atmosphere-and a major plus: you get to get all “spiffed up” in a formal!

We’ll conclude that evening with a great dance with both Oregon FBLA and DECA. The next morning, we’ll have another powerful energizer session, and a Leadership Adventure session….sound intriguing? Then we’ll close it off with Amy Gallimore, (who is fabulous!).

All this wouldn’t be as great without a little ‘friendly competition’ right? Well, to quench your thirst for FBLA domination, the state officer teams of FBLA and DECA have devised a little competition to be held at OLI. Here’s how it works: both state officer teams will be carrying around themed buckets for our charities (for us, that’s March of Dimes). In order for us to win this challenge, we must put money in the FBLA buckets. Whoever raises the most money at the end of OLI doesn’t have to do something completely and utterly humiliating for the other club to gawk, laugh, and make fun of. Who will win in the ultimate showdown of FBLA vs. DECA? Isn’t the answer obvious?

It’s going to be a great conference, and I can’t wait to see you all there! Oregon OLI, is only a week away, and if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me!

As always- Keep in touch!

It was great to see you all!

Hello again! It’s been a while. Well, a while- being one week while we were all at CLT. It was quite a tour, and the first-and possibly my favorite was Union High School! It was so great to meet you all. It was great to be able to start our first CLT in such the great, friendly, Eastern Oregon.

The state officer team had a great time getting to meet you-(and for some of them getting to be in Eastern Oregon for the very first time)!

After our stop meeting all of you, we traveled on to Portland where our next stop would be Canby, High School Tuesday morning. The next two stops happened that day; we went to Canby, and then straight on to Stayton. Those two stops were great, and then we were off for Grants Pass to bring our tour to a great finish with Rouge River High School!
When all was said and done, the 2008 CLT had a great attendance. After tallying up our mileage, we drove something like 1700 miles. No, I didn’t press the zero key too many times. Seventeen HUNDRED miles.

Four days, seventeen hundred miles, and massive amounts of caffeine later, we realized how great Oregon FBLA is, and how important each person is to our great organization. It’s shaping up to be quite a year, so as always- keep in touch!

March Of Dimes- Bucks For Babies Challenge!

Hello Blue Mountain Region! This is the last time I’ll be coming to you on the Blue Mountain Region blog before we meet in person at CLT next week at Union High School! This week, we’re going to discuss a project that’s very dear to our hearts as both an organization- and as people. In the past few years, Oregon FBLA has participated in the March Of Dimes challenge put out by the national chapter as well as another fundraiser that we select as a state.

This year, the State Officer team, along with the Board of Advisers and the Board of Trustees, decided to focus solely on the March of Dimes for the state-wide fundraiser. As you all know, it’s a great cause, and the more support we can give, the better!

Now for the logistics of this year’s challenge. As a chapter your goal is to raise as much money for the March of Dimes as possible. There is no set way you have to do it. It’s completely up to you. The winner(s) will be determined on a per-capita basis. In short- raise the most money per person, and you win!

We haven’t determined what the prize will be; but the warm and fuzzy feeling you get inside will be well worth it, I’m sure!

It’s a great cause-as you already know, and I strongly encourage 1,000,000,000,000% participation! One last thought before I go- Albert Einstein said it best when he said: “Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile.”

As always- Keep in touch!