Paige's April Blog

2011-04-07

As I am sitting in my dorm room writing my last blog entry to all of you DECA members I have really been reflecting on all of the things that have gone on during the past year.

I started out my term in Louisville Kentucky the day after the 2010 International Career Development Conference ended. As the newly elected Team 65, we had the opportunity to ask questions to Team 64, and we got to hear about all of the things that they went through during their terms as National Officers. Each one of us had the opportunity to sit down individually with our counterpart and talk about some of the specific things within our regions that go on.

After that Team 64 left and we had our first interactions with each other as Team 65. This was an exciting and scary because we were getting to know the people that we would be sharing the next year with as National Officers. After that day, we all returned home and I personally tried to get back into the swing of things, but it definitely took time to get adjusted to the new shock of everything.

Then the end of the school year and graduation came along and the summer started to fly by. We had our National Officer Training at DECA headquarters in Reston, VA. This was 9 days of intensive goal setting, public speaking training, lobbying in Washington DC for CTSO’s and also the Summer Officer Leadership Training. This conference was our first appearance as National Officers so it was really the initial point where we got to interact with members. After that the fall came around and we all had different Fall Leadership Conferences to go to and we had many months of traveling to leadership conferences within our respective regions. Than December rolled around and there was the Central Region Leadership Conference! This was truly the highlight of my year (so far). It was the best opportunity to interact with members from throughout my region, and I got to showcase the public speaking skill that I had been working on. This conference was in the beautiful city of Chicago and I am very lucky to have had the opportunity to help conduct that conference with the Illinois State Association.

After that came our mid-year meeting as a National Officer Team, in the city of Orlando, so that we could see the conference site before ICDC. This was the first time since our training over the summer that we had been all together as a team, so it was very exciting for all of us. We tried to accomplish the last of our goals and we also worked on the things that we needed to get done before ICDC. And of course we got to have fun and reminisce about all of the things that we had gone through as officers by this point.

After our mid-year meeting we had about a month break before all of the demands of State Conferences came along. I personally had the pleasure of attending three different State Conferences. I went to the Minnesota State Conference, the Missouri State Conference and the Nebraska State Conference. I had so much fun at each of these conferences, and each association had something different to offer. There were speeches to give, workshops to present, and so many members to interact with. It was such an exciting time in my term and I will remember these State Conferences as a great part of my time as a National Officer.

And now I am here! Sitting in my dorm room just waiting for ICDC to come around. I am so very excited for everything that this last conference has to offer. I will miss my time with the organization and my time as an officer, but I will always have my memories from this past year and I will never be able to forget them. The members and all of the experiences that I have had over that past year have been truly amazing and I want to say thank you to everyone who has made it possible! Can’t wait to see all of you at ICDC!

Thanks, Paige Dorman