2015 CAFCS Conference

I attended the CAFCS Conference on Saturday; April 24 2015 at the Ranch complex in Loveland, CO. The theme was Trends in Education. Breakfast was served to allow for networking of CAFCS professional. This is one of my favorite things about being a member of AAFCS since 1982. I love the networking opportunities at AAFCS/CAFCS conferences that allows me to dive deeper into the FACS content.

Following the breakfast, conference attendees were treated to a presentation by Katy Blatnick-Gagne' on Technology Trends. Katy is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in educational technology and had a wealth of information for us. I learned new concepts and had other concepts reinforced. It was a terrific learning opportunity!

Some Colorado State University students presented their Colorado legistative action boards. This opportunity is also very valuable. I appreciated the time that the students spent on researching, developing an engaging board, and educating us on the current legislative bills.

The new officer team was installed and I will be serving as the President-elect. I am excited to have this opportunity to give back to the profession that I have loved being a part of the past 30 years.

2015 FCCLA State Conference

I attended the 2015 FCCLA State Leadership Conference on Thursday; April 9 through Saturday; April 11. Our school district had five FCCLA members attend and two advisors. Four of the five members competed in a STAR Event. Those events include:  Job Interview, Career Investigation, and Fashion Stylist. They learned so much. I was a co-chair of the Career Investigation STAR Event and had a great time helping with the coordination of that event. I learn so much when I do this. It was a long day as we had many participants. I enjoyed interacting with the judges a little bit and also was able to catch up with the other co-chair.

We enjoyed the multi-media presentation and the opening session. Great, inspirational stories were brought back to my classroom. The banquet was delicious. We were unable to view the session during the banquet as we were in a room with no audio. That was frustrating as we missed out on the announcement of the 2015-2016 State Officer Team, something that I look forward to every year.

The dance and movie were attended by our members and they thoroughly enjoyed their time that evening. The passing along of this information is crucial to recruiting new members, in addition to the success that members had in their participation of a STAR Event. It is amazing to me how word of mouth and photos from previous years encourage students to get involved in FCCLA.

It was a great experience, once again and I can't wait to bring students next year. Our goal is to have more students attend!