Membership

This was my seventh FCCLA State Leadership Conference and second as an advisor. The experience between student, alumni, and advisor is completely different and each comes with new challenges and opportunities for growth. I sometimes miss the days where I just show up and compete but I believe that I enjoy the experience as an advisor the most. I enjoy preparing my students for their events and watching their excitement and nervousness grow and finally bring them much success as they meet new people and experience new things that they never knew existed. I have seen that they are apprehensive on what the conference will bring when we arrive on Thursday and I love to catch their slight smiles and laughter at the opening session and keynote speaker as they start to allow themselves to have fun. The late night of preparing and calming the students for competition tomorrow maybe tedious but it is all a part of the experience. The next day I usually spend as a competitive event judge to see what students have accomplished and to gain a better understanding of what that event asks of students. It brightens my day after the long competitive event process to hear the enthusiasm of my students as they give me a play by play of how their competition went. At this point I am a proud advisor. The rest of the evening is special and I can see the transition from apprehension to full blown fun as they dine, dance, talk, and laugh; which was always my favorite part of the conference as a student. The next day brings success and lessons learned as the students receive their medals. There has been several times where student’s expectations do not match their performance and it is tough talking them back to being proud of their accomplishments. I have been fortunate to have had my Culinary Arts team win first place gold medal in the Culinary Arts event and that truly has been my highlight so far as an advisor. The stories the students share with their friends and families will last a lifetime and I am glad that I can help give that experience to my students. My recruitment idea is called FCCLA Logo Blitz. The event will last about two weeks and culminate in a social event/ meeting for current and prospective members. At the start of the event, large poster of just the FCCLA logo and the words “is coming” are hanged up around campus. Be sure to move posters every other day to keep the students interested. Also have announcements that say FCCLA is coming during the daily announcements. The next week you hang posters with the FCCLA logo and the date and time of the meeting and current members start spreading the word about the benefits of FCCLA to everyone they can. You also want to develop two 30 second voice commercial about the benefits of FCCLA that current members can perform on the daily announcements. The social event should have a fun activity for all students and food for all. Current members should share stories and show medals and projects. The meetings should just be a small introduction to FCCLA to get them excited and come back for a formal meeting to get involved.