Highlight Reel: Chicago NLC!

Hey Blue Mountain Members! This is the favorite FBLA experience of Union’s Chapter President, Steven Crader.

My favorite FBLA experience was traveling to Chicago, IL and participating in the 2007 National Leadership Conference. This was the first time I had flown anywhere and been out of Oregon farther than the states surrounding Oregon (Washington, Idaho, California).

Although I did not qualify to compete at the NLC, nevertheless I chose to attend and compete in the open events. While in Chicago, I attended a Blue Man Group show, went on a cruise on Lake Michigan, attended a showing of the Broadway play “Wicked”, and toured around the city.

Before attending the National Leadership Conference I was involved with FBLA, but not as much as I was afterwards. While in Chicago, I was able to experience the final step of the FBLA process and found it exhilarating. I could not wait for the next FBLA conference so I could feel the energy and pride the members have for the FBLA organization.

Send me your favorite memories, adviser, member, and alumni spotlight for the rest of the “Highlight Reel”!

As always-keep in touch!

New Series Coming Soon!

Hey everyone!

Hope your RSC experience was fantastic!

This week, I’m just going to ask you for a favor. In the next couple of months (through the end of my term), I want to do a series of blogs focusing on advisers, members, alumni, and “highlights” of your FBLA year or experience. That being said, I’m going to need your help! Please nominate your adviser, alumni, or a member that deserves a spotlight! Also, please send me your highlights! This is the Blue Mountain Region Blog, and so you should be a huge part of it!

If you don’t have my email address, it’s: bluemountainvp@oregonfbla.org

As always-keep in touch!

RSC Recap!!

Well, congratulations Blue Mountain Region! You really “rocked the house” so to speak! You did so well in all of your competitions, and from the looks of the RSC Slideshow, you have been busy, busy, busy, working on community service and visibility projects!

 

It started with an early morning, and some meeting people from all over the region (hopefully!), and ended with an awards ceremony. The cool part about this year, was that everyone was able to make it! Don’t you love it when the weather cooperates!? Hopefully, whether you were in a speaking event, or a testing event, you were able to meet someone new from another chapter and get to know them a little better! That’s one of the great things about RSC, it’s not about the competition, per say, its about the networking!

 

At our Awards Ceremony, we watched a slideshow, a March Of Dimes video, and met the Presidents’ Council, It would have been awesome if the technology had caught up with our ceremony-but it just goes to show how ahead of our time we are!

 

So, Blue Mountain Region, if you qualified for SBLC on Thursday, congratulations, and see you there; and, if you didn’t, then there are many more opportunities to qualify, check with your adviser!

 

The Union chapter was good enough to provide us with some photos-if you’d like to see your chapter’s up here, send them my way! (bluemountainvp@oregonfbla.org)

 

I can’t wait to see all of you again at SBLC!

 

As always-keep in touch! 

RSC Preview!!!

Hello Again! This is the last time I’ll be coming to you in this form before RSC! Can you believe it’s only 8 days away? Yea, neither can I! Hopefully, you’ve been diligently studying for all of your competitions, but if you haven’t maybe it’s time to pull that all nighter…just think: coffee/energy drinks, four of your closest friends, junk food…..never mind. Maybe an all nighter isn’t such a good idea. J

So a little run down of the RSC events to come- we’re going to have the usual, you know events, etc…but at the closing session- you’ll hear from some awesome speakers, meet some of your Presidents Council, and see what other chapters in the coolest region of Oregon FBLA have been up to!

It’s going to be so fun, and it would take me pages to describe the awesomeness of it all, but that would ruin the surprise, and that would be no fun!

The weather should cooperate (but you know how Eastern Oregon can be!), so hopefully, we’ll actually get to see everyone this year!

Can’t wait to see all of you, and good luck in your competitions! Hopefully it’s YOUR name we’ll be calling!

As always-keep in touch!

Member Spotlight!

“The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers.”

                                                              --Ralph Nader

 

That’s Taylor Sarman’s favorite quote, and as a freshman-he’s already taken that to heart and is

 living it out! His resume is already impressive, serving as class president for three years, and being on the Student Council for three years! In FBLA, although this is his first year, he dove in head first and was appointed Apprentice to the Chapter President.

 

When Taylor’s not working on FBLA (which for an officer can be a full-time job!), he’s busy running, watching TV, and hanging out with his friends. When he’s done with high school, Taylor is looking forward to attending college to earn a degree in Political Science. (Future President, perhaps?)

 

Taylor would like to let us know: “I am so excited to get to work with such an extraordinary organization and look forward to getting even more involved!”

 

Taylor has a very bright future ahead of him, and we in Oregon FBLA are proud to be a part of it!

 

Congratulations Taylor- you’ve just been “Spotlighted”!

 

Know someone who deserves the Spotlight? Shoot me an email, and we’ll get started shining the spotlight on them!

 

As always-keep in touch! 

Bucks for Babies-Fundraiser Ideas!

Well, now that we’re officially in 2009, and the initial shock that SBLC is only a few months away is beginning to set in, and furthermore that we haven’t done enough fundraising to secure a “victory” of the Bucks For Babies challenge-we should probably look at that, and fix the little problem….

 

If you’re riding that train, then it’s probably time to start fundraising! Let’s put together that last push over the next few months!

 

Here are some super-awesome fundraiser ideas:

 

©      Pie in the face (works great when you pick teachers!)

©      All you can eat potato bar/ spaghetti feed

©      Date for lunch (auction off a boy and a girl and provide lunch!)

©      Bake Sale

©      Rent-A-Member (sell your skills to businesses or individuals)

©      Valagrams (great for Valentine’s day!)

©      Gift basket auction or raffle (this is great combined with potato bar/spaghetti feed)

©      Ice cream social (at lunch or after school works great!)

©      Best seat in the house (raffle off a couch, pizza, and soda at a home game)

 

These are just a few fun ones- but if you want more, just Google!

Its fun and you can put a crazy twist on just about anything- so what are you waiting for! We’ve only got 4 months!

See you at state when you’ve been victorious in your quest to help the March of Dimes!

As always-keep in touch!

 

New Year's Resolutions.....

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2009! It seems like forever….almost like a year has gone by since we’ve spoken! (I apologize for my weak attempt at humor). It seems this time of year the most popular thing to do is make some “New Year’s Resolutions” to help turn over a new leaf, or reach a goal that you’ve always had.

What about setting some FBLA New Year’s Resolutions? What would that look like? Well, we have 3 big conferences coming up…how about setting a goal to win at some of them? That’s always a goal, but maybe put “Spend ____amount of time each day on my competition so that I can secure a win at RSC, SBLC, NLC.”  The best ways to prep for those oh-so-important competitions can be found here: http://www.oregonfbla.org/PDF/Idea%20Hot%20Sheet-%20Competition%20Preparation.pdf 

Courtesy of the Presidents Council.

What bout becoming more involved in FBLA at a state level? “Run for a State Office” is also a very noble goal.  Here’s how to get started. First with the Recruitment Packet (it’s going to answer some of your more basic questions) http://www.oregonfbla.org/PDF/Recruitment%20Packet,%202008-2009.pdf

Then with the Candidate Handbook (It’s how you’re going to apply…) http://www.oregonfbla.org/cami.asp?page=7371

These are just some suggestions to give your FBLA year a little push. You never know, you may just wind up making 2009 the best year (FBLA or otherwise) the best year yet!

Questions? Email me at bluemountainvp@oregonfbla.org

As always-keep in touch!