Wisconsin DECA’s

State Conference in

Lake Geneva, WI

from March 13-15.

Missouri DECA’s

State Conference in

Lake Ozark, MO

from March 18-20.

March will be

busy month, but I am

ready to take it “head

on”!

If I can assist your

state or chapter, please

contact me. My email

address is decavpmicah@

gmail.com.

DECA Wishes,

Central Region VP

DECA, Inc.

Dear Central Region

DECA,

February was an

extremely exciting month

for me. On February

8th, I attended the Mis-

souri DECA District 4

Competition. I partici-

pated in this competition

all of year of high school,

and it felt great to come

back and help out.

On February

15th, I attended the Mis-

souri Association for Ca-

reer and Technical Edu-

cation (ACTE) Legisla-

tive Day in Jefferson

City, MO. At this event,

I met with several state

legislators and discussed

the importance of

DECA.

I attended a din-

ner with members of

Kansas DECA on Febru-

ary 19. It was great to

connect with DECA

members from my

neighboring state!

I will attend four

conferences in March.

ACTE’s National Pol-

icy Seminar in Wash-

ington, D.C. from

March 4-7.

Indiana DECA’s

State Conference in

Indianapolis, IN

from March 11-12.

A Word from Your CRVP

D E C A P R E P A R E S E M E R G I N G L E A D E R S A N D E N T E P R E N E U R S

March, 2012

Volume 1, Issue 7

Central Region DECA Special Points of

Interest

Be sure to join Mi-

cah Melling’s team

for the 5K at ICDC.

Important political

outreach resources

can be found on

DECA’s SlideShare

account.

The Movement is

coming to a close

for the school year,

but there is some

exciting news sur-

rounding this inno-

vative endeavor.

Inside the Issue:

5K Run/Walk at ICDC

2

Gaining Political Support

2

Hootsuite: a Social-Media Tool

2

Looking Ahead to Next Year

3

The State Officer Spotlight

3

An Update on The Movement

4

A Letter from the National President

4

It’s back! The

2nd annual DECA Dash

with the Diamonds 5K

Run/Walk will take place

on April 28 during

ICDC. Proceeds from

the 5K will go to MDA

and DECA’s scholarship

fund.

Each National

Officer will have a team

during the 5K. As a

member of the Central

Region, please support

CRVP Micah Melling by

joining his team!

To show that you

are part of Micah’s team,

wear something blue dur-

ing the race. Blue repre-

sents honesty and sincer-

ity, and it is one of

DECA’s official colors.

To see a promo-

tional flyer that Micah

has created for the 5K,

visit http://www. slide-

share.net/DECAInc/icdc

-5k-promotion.

More information

on the 5K can be found

on deca.org.

statuses with a common

message.

“By using Hoo-

tsuite, you will be able to

constantly post positive

statuses in order to create

a positive networking pro-

file for your future,” says

Hootsuite is an

automatic status genera-

tor for social-media sites

like Facebook and Twit-

ter.

National Officer

Team 66 uses Hootsuite

to uniformly schedule

Kendra Wrightson,

Southern Region Vice

President.

Learn more about

this valuable tool at

www.hootsuite.com.

DECA Dash With the Diamonds: a 5K for MDA

Hoot, Hoot, Hoot, Hootsuite!

Strengthening DECA’s Political Support tion (CTE), was cut by

$140. This reduction

dropped the appropria-

tion for the Perkins Act

from $1.27 billion to ap-

proximately $1.13 billion.

As DECA mem-

bers, we must understand

that reductions in fund-

ing for CTE impact or-

ganizations like DECA.

Important politi-

cal outreach resources can

be accessed on www.

slideshare.net/decainc.

The National Officers

strongly encourage you to

use these resources.

Reaching out to

both state and federal leg-

islators has never been

more important for

DECA members to do.

In Fiscal Year

2011, the Perkins Act,

which federally funds Ca-

reer and Technical Educa-

“To preserve a

bright future for

DECA, we must

become active in the

political scene.”

Micah Melling,

CRVP

Page 2

Central Region DECA

current State President of Kansas DECA. Although his first bid for state office wasn’t successful, Jaspreet has experienced many great triumphs during his DECA career.

In addition to being heavily involved with DECA, Jaspreet has had impressive success in busi-ness. He is the founder and CEO of Window View Mar-keting, a social-media con-sulting firm. Jaspreet is also in the process of starting a tennis racquet stringing company, named Stop That Racquet.

One of Jaspreet’s biggest accomplishments

was competing for a $250,000 investment from Google. Although he didn’t receive the investment, he was the youngest person in the competition.

But Jaspreet isn’t all about business. He also loves commercial aviation. In fact, during his freshman year, Jaspreet wrote a blog for Southwest Airlines about his experience at DECA’s International Ca-reer Development Confer-ence. He aspires to one day work for Southwest Airlines.

When Jaspreet is the CEO of a large com-pany, he can certainly attrib-ute his success to DECA.

Imagine standing on stage in front of 1,200 students. Imagine being a state officer candidate for DECA. Imagine knocking everything off the podium when giving your campaign speech. Imagine all of this happening during your freshman year of high school.

Well, this hap-pened to Japreet Singh, the

In two months,

the 2012 DECA Interna-

tional Career Develop-

ment Conference

(ICDC) will adjourn.

This will end the high

school DECA careers on

many, but many other

students will begin to

make plans for next

school year.

If you’re a senior,

seriously consider joining

Collegiate DECA. You

can join your former

chapter as an alumni

member, too. Also, see if

your former chapter advi-

sor needs help with any

projects and offer to be

an assistant. The oppor-

tunities for staying in-

volved with DECA are

endless!

If you still have

time left in high school

DECA, take the summer

to brainstorm ideas to

make the upcoming year

in DECA an unbeliev-

able experience. You can

research competitive

events, determine effec-

tive fundraising ideas,

and begin planning chap-

ter meetings.

Involvement in

DECA is ongoing. There

is always planning and

brainstorming to be

done. Take time to map

out your DECA future.

There is always a way to

get involved with this in-

credible organization.

Looking Ahead to Next Year...

The State Officer Spotlight is on Jaspreet Singh

“Get involved with

your chapter as

much as possible to

make the most of the

amazing

opportunities that

are available” -

Jaspreet Singh.

KS DECA

President

Page 3

Volume 1, Issue 7

The Movement is quickly coming to a close, and it has

been an extremely successful endeavor. Chapters, re-

member that your contribution reports are due by

March 31st. If they haven’t already, your State Officer

Team will be giving you instructions for submitting

your contribution report, which can be found in The

Movement Toolkit. If your chapter needs another copy

of the toolkit, please contact CRVP Micah Melling.

Micah will recognize participating chapters and states in

a number of ways during the month of April. To re-

ceive recognition for your chapter, you must submit a

contribution report by March 31.

ago, I had the honor of

speaking at Tennessee's

Youth and Government

Seminar for CTE.

CTSO student leaders

from all around the

state gathered to advo-

cate at Tennessee's capi-

tol for Career and Tech-

nical Education. What

amazed me the most

was that the legislators

in attendance took no-

tice, and by the end of

the seminar, said that

One of the many

responsibilities of an en-

gaged DECA student is

to advocate for Career

and Technical Education.

A couple of weeks

they had a whole new

perspective on what

CTE could do for stu-

dents.

How many of

you have advocated in

your own state for Ca-

reer and Technical Edu-

cation? If you have not

taken the step to reach

out to your legislators,

know that it is never too

late to start.

Set up a meeting

A Letter from Your National President

The Latest News about The Movement

www.ourmvmt.com

with a representative in

your district, go onto

DECA's SlideShare ac-

count and read Micah's

packet on CTE, and

MAKE A DIFFER-

ENCE! Advocating for

Career and Technical

Education is another

way to Aspire Higher

this year!

Best Wishes,

Claire Coker

National President

2011-2012

The Movement has recent launched

a website! Check out the link below

to see the resources this website pro-

vides. National Officer Team 66 is

thrilled to have a website for The

Movement, and they believe it can

be an innovative tool for chapters

and states to use in the future. If

you have questions about this web-

site, contact CRVP Micah Melling.