Connecticut
Future Business Leaders of America

Theresa LeBrun

State Advisor /

Lee Marcoux

State Director

TO: FBLA Local Chapter Advisors and Members

FROM: Theresa LeBrun and Lee Marcoux

DATE: January 4, 2016

SUBJECT: 2016 FBLA State Leadership Conference

This memo contains information that your chapter will need for the 2016 State Leadership Conference. Please share this communication with your students. Information that is not in this memo can be found on www.ctfbla.com and at www.fbla-pbl.org under Competitive Events section of the 2015-2016 edition of the FBLA-PBL Chapter Management handbook. We are not running all the competitive events in the handbook. Please read this memo very carefully and use it as a resource guide for the 2016 Connecticut State Leadership Conference.

Please adhere to all regulations and deadlines.

DUES:

We have direct membership with National FBLA; so they will then send us the State dues portion of $6.00 per member. Your dues must be at national by February 1, 2016 for students to compete at this conference. Combined dues of $12.00 (National and State) per member should be sent directly to:

National Membership Dues

FBLA-PBL, Inc.

P.O. Box 79063

Baltimore, MD 21179-0063

You can also send in your membership list by logging on the National website: www.fbla-pbl.org. If your membership dues are not paid, you will not be able to register for the Connecticut State Leadership Conference.

DATE AND LOCATION:

The Connecticut FBLA State Leadership Conference will be held on Monday, April 4, 2016 at the Crowne Plaza Hotel and Resorts, Cromwell. Directions can be found at www.crowneplaza.com/cromwellct . The conference will begin promptly at 8:30 a.m. Registration will begin at 7:30 a.m. with a continental breakfast being served until 8:15 a.m., a buffet luncheon, and the conference will conclude at approximately 3:30 p.m.

CONFERENCE FEE AND REGISTRATION INFORMATION:

The fee charged for each conference attendee will be $55.00. Deadline for receipt of registration and fee is

February 6, 2016. Registration information and directions will be sent in a separate email shortly.

COMPETITIVE EVENT ENTRY RESTRICTIONS:

We will continue with the same procedure as last year as follows:

·  Each chapter will be allowed to send two (2) members per event to compete in individual participatory events.

·  Each chapter will be allowed three (3) members per event to compete in individual on-line objective events.

·  Each chapter will be allowed to send one (1) team per event to compete in team events.

If you have more than 2 to 3 members interested in each event, you can conduct a local chapter “test-off.” Local chapter will be responsible for selecting/testing students to qualify for this conference. This procedure will allow the most qualified and serious FBLA members to attend our conference.

National Qualifications: We are allowed to send three (3) individuals to the NLC objective tests events and three (3) individuals or teams in all performance or interview events.

GENERAL INFORMATION REGARDING ELIGIBILITY:

In order to participate at the State Leadership Conference, students must meet the official membership eligibility requirements and be on record as dues-paid member on or before February 1, 2016. Membership in FBLA is unified on local, state, and national levels and is not available separately. Please check your membership rosters carefully to avoid problems registering students for the conference. Once your chapter registers, you are responsible to pay the registration fees.

The basic guidelines approved by the national Board of Directors and our State Executive Board are:

1.  A member may enter only ONE individual or team competitive event with the following exceptions:

·  A member nominated for Who’s Who in FBLA, which is a recognition event, can complete in an individual or team competitive event; and

·  Members representing their chapters in the preparation and/or presentation of chapter written events (Annual Business Report and Community Service Project).

2.  A member cannot enter an event that they previously entered at a State Leadership Conference, with the exception of the following events:

·  Business Ethics

·  Banking & Financial Systems

·  Business Financial Plan

·  Business Plan

·  Digital Video Productions

·  E-Business

·  Emerging Business Issues

·  Entrepreneurship

·  Web Site Design

3.  The following events are considered to be linked in a series. Once a member has competed at the SLC in the second or advanced event in the series, he/she may not subsequently compete in the first, or introductory, event. Event series impacted by this regulation include:

·  Accounting I and Accounting II

·  Business Communication

·  Public Speaking I and Public Speaking II

VOTING DELEGATE INFORMATION:

Each chapter is entitled to send members to this conference to serve as voting delegates for their chapters. We will hold State Officer Elections at this conference. It will be your chapter’s voting delegates’ responsibility to question the candidates and vote for the 2015-2016 State Officer Team. This is a very important task and crucial to the future of Connecticut State FBLA. We will follow National FBLA Bylaws to determine the number of voting delegates each chapter will have. The number of chapter voting delegates will be determined by the following breakdown:

·  Less than 50 paid members – 2 voting delegates

·  50-100 paid members – 3 voting delegates

·  More than 100 paid member – 4 voting delegates

It is suggested that the members you choose to serve as voting delegates for your chapter either not participate in a competitive event or participate in one of the school-site skill events. This is a suggestion, not a requirement. There will be a State Officer Candidate Caucus Session immediately following the Opening Session. Only registered voting delegates will be allowed to attend. They will be given the opportunity to question each Officer Candidate at this session. Voting for State Officer Candidates will take place later in the day. Please register your voting delegates on-line on the competitive event registration form. You must pre-register voting delegates for voting privileges.

ON-LINE TESTING

Details about the on-line testing will be emailed to you shortly.

PROCTORING ASSIGNMENTS:

All advisors will be given a proctoring assignment at this conference. If you would prefer a certain assignment, please fill out the proctoring assignment form on-line.

STUDENT ACTIVITIES:

This year we will have several workshops and an open events option. Students will have an opportunity to sign-up for: Hospitality Management, Management Information Systems, and Parliamentary Procedure the morning of the conference and it will be on a first come first serve basis. We also will have vendor tables for students and advisors. Students can get their “passports” signed and when they participate in four events they can enter a drawing for a prize.

SPEAKING EVENTS:

Impromptu Speaking, Public Speaking I & II will be open to the public. All performances are open to conference attendees, EXCEPT participants in these events. Participants will be sequestered until their performance time. NO AUDIO OR VIDEO recording will be allowed!!

ADVISORS’ HOSPITALITY ROOM:

We have also added an advisors’ hospitality room so that advisors can have breakfast and lunch with other advisors that would give them a chance to network and share ideas. Advisors are welcome to visit the hospitality room any time during the conference, but we ask that students are not encouraged to enter this room. Reminder: Advisors must supervise their students while attending the conference. Please encourage your students to attend as many workshops as possible.

DRESS CODE:

You will find the dress code specification on our website. Please review it with your students, since they can be disqualified and/ or lose competition points for not following the dress code requirements.

BACKPACKS:

Please ask your students to leave their backpacks at home.

GUM:

The hotel has asked us to please tell our students not to chew gum on their property. We ask all advisors to inform your students of this policy. Thank you for your cooperation.

HOW CAN YOU PREPARE YOUR STUDENTS?

Copy or use National’s website for the Competitive Events section of the 2015-2016 edition of the FBLA-PBL Chapter Management Handbook and give your student competitors a copy. Suggestion: use the Connecticut Business and Finance Technology Frameworks at http://www.state.ct.us/sde/deps/Career/Business/index.htm

and go http://www/swlearning.com to view competitive test prep.

DATES TO REMEMBER

·  State Officer Applications Deadline (form can be found www.ctfbla.com.): Friday, February 12, 2016 Please send to:

Lee C. Marcoux

Connecticut FBLA

165 Capitol Avenue, Room 215

Hartford, CT 06106

·  State Officer Candidate Interviews: February 24, 2016, 3:30 pm. at Cheshire High School. This is mandatory.

·  Conference On-Line Registration Deadline: February 12, 2016

·  Chapter Recognition Program form due February 24, 2016

·  State Leadership conference: Monday, April 4, 2016 Crowne Plaza Hotel, Cromwell, Connecticut

The following are due by February 24, 2016:

Skill Tests:

·  Computer Applications

·  Word Processing

Reports and Digital Entries:

·  Business Plan

·  Community Service Project

·  Digital Video Productions

·  E-Business

·  Mobile Application Development

·  Local Chapter Annual Business Report

·  Web Site Design

Skill events tests must now be submitted in advance. They are due by February 24, 2016 and must be submitted by mail to: Lee C. Marcoux, Director, Connecticut State Department of Education, 165 Capitol Avenue, Room #215, Hartford, CT 06106. Event entries must be properly labeled (participant's name, event name, school name) Events received after February 24, 2016 will be disqualified.

You should receive your skill tests by email within 72 hours of your registering for the test. If you do not receive your tests within that time please email Theresa LeBrun at .

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