Since 1946, DECA has been assisting in the preparation of students for the business world. Whether the student is interested in marketing, management, entrepreneurship or related fields, DECA can help them get where they want to go. DECA’s co-curricular programs bring the real world of business into the classroom with an approach that emphasizes leadership and making the most of a student’s talents and abilities.

Lets Get Started

We're delighted that you are about to join the powerful DECA team. You are in good company. We will do everything we can to smooth the process and give you continuing support as you develop your DECA chapter.

Here are the topics covered below:

Directions for registering a chapter

You will register your chapter into our online membership system, and we have lots of help for you. If you are starting a new chapter, you may begin to register the chapter with a group as small as 4 members. You have up to three years to grow the chapter to the normal minimum of 10 members.

In short, you set up a chapter file on our system and then add students' names as you get them. When you have your complete list, you officially submit the list and DECA sends you an invoice for dues. You are only registered when we receive the dues.

You can add members at any time, and once you are listed in our system as the chapter advisor, you will begin receiving

• our student member magazine (Dimensions)
• our helpful monthly chapter packets of materials (with the Advisor newsletter, classroom posters, scholarship booklets and more),
• a printed copy of the DECA Guide, and much more

You start the process at www.deca.org/membershipprocessing.html.

That page allows you to branch off to

• The complete instruction handbook
• Hints and Tips
• FAQs

Nice people in our Membership Department will also help you if need be.

Remember: Your new chapter will be chartered at the state association level. Please go to the information on state associations to make that state connection.

Connect to your state/provincial association

Your DECA chapter will operate on the local, state/provincial and international levels. You submit your members' names and send your dues to the national level.

Information about your state's/province's DECA association

DECA's state/provincial associations help you by:

• Chartering your local chapter
• Appointing a state/provincial advisor to
• organize state initiatives and training
• channel information from DECA, Inc. (the international level)
• arrange state/provincial conferences
• leadership training conferences in the summer and/or fall
• the state's competitive events conference in the spring where members compete to attend the International Career Development Conference (ICDC)
• Overseeing the state's delegation to the International Career Development Conference
• State/provincial event winners are eligible to attend the ICDC. But there are other activities at ICDC that you may participate in even if you don't have winners. You and your members may attend leadership academies or help with elections. All of this is arranged through your state advisor.
• Selecting and training a team of state/provincial officers (student members) who can be a resource for you
• Recognizing achievement of chapters and advisors

And more!

Reach your state association and learn more about it through the DECA Web site at www.deca.org/states/index.php.

Recruiting members

Membership DVD
We provide advisors with a DVD showing the activities and excitement of DECA. Many advisors show this DVD to classes or to parents at back–to–school night. The content describes the breadth of DECA programs, the advantages for student members, and the excitement of DECA's Competitive Events Program.

Recruit through Chapter Public Relations
The second week in October is DECA Week. During this week we encourage chapters to perform publicity activities for their chapters. For new advisors these can be as simple as bulletin boards, PA system announcements, or presentations on DECA to classes. Later these publicity activities can be more creative and teach the fundamentals of PR.

A helpful Public Relations Toolkit is posted on the Web site at www.deca.org/pdf/toolkit.pdf.

Membership Campaign
We offer a membership campaign to encourage chapters to recruit. To qualify for different levels of recognition, chapters either (1) register as new chapters, (2) recruit more members than last year, and/or (3) perform PR activities for the chapter.

An explanation of the campaign comes to you as a flyer in the chapter packet and with your membership materials. It can also be downloaded from the Web site. http://www.deca.org/pdf/MemCampFlyer.pdf

Advice on recruiting from experienced DECA advisors can be found at several places on the DECA Web site.

A wonderful article by veteran DECA advisor (now retired) Bill Lind is listed under recruitment at the Advisor Corner Resources area. (www.deca.org/advcornerresources.html or www.deca.org/pdf/recruitment.pdf) This article is a classic.

Lisa Siano gives good advice on motivating members that demonstrates the value of community activities for recruiting. www.deca.org/pdf/motivatesiano.pdf

The Roadmap Planner (a planner and handbook) contains advice on recruiting. All registered chapter advisors receive a copy of the planner. You can see the current year's advice on this and other topics at www.deca.org/pdf/calendar.pdf.

Choosing and Training Chapter Officers

Electing a team of chapter officers is more important than you might think. Chapter officers are not just organizational dressing, they are a functional necessity for a successful chapter.

Your officers, however you decide to choose them and whatever names you decide to give them, will help you conduct the activities of the chapter. As they do so, they will learn important lifelong skills. A well-trained, enthusiastic team of chapter officers is a key element in a successful DECA chapter.

Here are some resources for learning more:

A mini–handbook for chapter officers appears at the end of the DECA Roadmap Planner. Master teacher pages in the planner also give how–to's on electing and utilizing officers.

At the URL www.deca.org/advcornerresources.html several talented chapter advisors explain how they train and use chapter officers. These are great articles for understanding alternative approaches.

Also, the Chapter Management System has background material that will help you handle your officer team. (www.deca.org/pdf/DECAChapterManagement.pdf) See section VII.

Find training sessions (local, state/provincial, regional or national) to take advantage of. The DECA conferences in the fall provide leadership training, as do several academies at the International Career Development Conference. Keep your eyes open for any opportunities that come your way.

Creating a Program of Work (Activities for the Year)

Planning doesn't come easily to some people. There isn't enough time, or there are more important things to do. But it's a certainty that operating without a plan wastes time and resources. It also can leave you feeling that you aren't accomplishing much, when in fact you have done a lot. You need to structure and capture those successes, and measuring against your program of work helps.

A program of work is a planning document for your year, usually put together with the help of your officer team, allowing for input from the rest of the membership. Once you have such a plan, you will find it easier to move from year to year, building on the past and improving for the future. Advisor Debi Cline puts it this way: "If you don't put forth a program of work, you will never get past the first year."

You will find samples of widely different programs of work at www.deca.org/advcornerresources.html. This should encourage you to find the system that works best for you.

The Chapter Awards Program found at the end of the Chapter Management System offers an example of a program of work organized around the points of our DECA Diamond. The activities include the aspects of vocational understanding, community service, leadership development and social intelligence. www.deca.org/pdf/DECAChapterManagement.pdf

As you become more experienced in DECA, you will understand how all of the Diamond points relate to your classroom curriculum work. Then you will realize how important a program of work is as a teaching tool.

Using DECA's Competitive Events Program to teach and motivate

Our extensive program of competitive events is based on industry-approved standards for marketing education and business education. This means that what members learn in the process of preparing for competition parallels what you teach in your classroom.

Almost all of the events call on members to interact with judges from the business community, in itself a valuable learning experience.

Events include

• onsite role-plays addressing industry situations
• written projects based on marketing research, marketing plans, public relations and other topics
• entrepreneurship projects (business plans and business creation)
• online simulations (such as the Virtual Business Challenge)

Official guidelines are found in the DECA Guide and on our Web site at www.deca.org/celisting.html. Go to that site to see the complete list of events plus sample projects, sample comprehensive exams and the performance indicators (competencies) addressed by the events.

Advice on teaching through competitive events comes to you in many DECA publications throughout the year, on the Web site and also at the Advisor Academy at the International Career Development Conference.

Publications and resources from DECA

DECA Guide
Each year every registered DECA advisor receives a copy of the DECA Guide, the book that contains the latest guidelines for our Competitive Events Program. The guidelines portion of the publication is also online at www.deca.org/celisting.html.

The DECA Roadmap Calendar/Planner
This handy publication helps you plan your DECA year by pairing information about DECA with all of the dates and deadlines that occur throughout the year.

Advice from master teachers and a mini-handbook for chapter officers help to make the planner a concise chapter management tool. The planner also directs you toward other resources. It is both practical and motivational.

Chapter Management System
This Web resource provides background for many DECA activities and programs. You will find such things as suggested scripts for installation services and more. Access the CMS at www.deca.org/pdf/DECAChapterManagement.pdf

Chapter Leadership Packets
Seven times during the school year DECA Inc. sends a packet of materials to all chapters. The packet includes

The DECA Advisor, your Professional Division newsletter.

The newsletter

• keeps you informed about all relevant DECA information
• recognizes teacher achievements
• presents a Teaching Guide to DECA Dimensions, our student magazine
• offers advice from accomplished advisors on running a vital DECA chapter

Motivational posters from DECA's corporate supporters demonstrating their support for competitive events or employment initiatives

Brochures explaining DECA programs and specialty conferences

Information on potential fund-raisers, including DECA's Sales and Marketing Companies

Catalogs from DECA Images and its partner, Awards Unlimited

DECA Dimensions, the Student Magazine
The four issues of DECA Dimensions each year help you tune your members in to DECA while also learning supplemental marketing information. We are committed to seeing that the magazine's content is as interactive as we can make it to help you get your students involved with the material.

The magazine's contents include:

• Chapter Clips (for reporting on individual chapter activities)
• Articles on marketing topics that you can use in your classroom
• Tips on preparing for competitive events
• Articles that help your members grow through aspects of DECA such as leadership and career preparation
• The student perspective provided by national officer articles

DECA Images Supply Service
DECA Images, our supply service, offers spirit items, curricular resources, award and recognition items, and more. Their catalog comes as a stand-alone piece in a fall chapter packet and also is contained in the DECA Guide.

You can explore DECA Images at http://store.yahoo.com/decaimages. Since we are nonprofit, all earnings from Images help chapters through DECA programs. For best prices and service with the DECA touch, Images is an essential resource.

Textbooks
DECA has worked with the top publishers of high school marketing textbooks to feature DECA resources and approaches in their texts. We have also helped them develop books in specialty areas such as school-based enterprises, entrepreneurship and retailing.

Key DECA Web site URLs for advisors

For registering your chapter:

• www.deca.org/membershipprocessing.html
• This walks you through the online membership submission process and provides needed background information.
• www.deca.org/pdf/FAQs.pdf
• This provides answers to common registration questions.

For competitive events information:

• www.deca.org/celisting.html
• Complete, up-to-date event guidelines
• This includes a list of all of the competitive events and the guidelines for undertaking them.
• Sample exams (Only 10 questions to get the flavor of the exam. The actual exams have 100 questions.)
• Sample role-plays for each role-play event
• Abbreviated versions of winning written event manuals

For school-based enterprises (School stores, etc.):

• www.schoolbasedenterprises.org
• Certification, best practices and help

For advice from experienced advisors:

• www.deca.org/q&a.html
• Down-to-earth answers to your down-to-earth questions

For advice from your peers organized by topic:

• www.deca.org/advcornerresources.html

For an interactive index of topical information from DECA's calendar/planner:

• www.deca.org/pdf/calendar.pdf
• Click on a topic to go to that page of calendar material.

For the Chapter Management System:

• www.deca.org/pdf/DECAChapterManagement.pdf
• Here is basic background information for most aspects of running your chapter.

Get going with DECA conferences

DECA is a whole lot bigger than your classroom, campus or community. Traveling to conferences brings you and your members into the broader DECA community where you will all learn, network, compete and become energized.

DECA conferences fall into three broad categories:

Leadership training and skill development
Most fall conferences-local, state/provincial and regional-offer speakers, workshops, field trips, advice on running for office and interactive learning sessions that teach leadership skills. Some workshops provide useful competitive event preparation. In addition, attendees interact with business representatives and visit business sites to analyze corporate goals and marketing techniques. These conferences are networking gold mines for you and your members. www.deca.org/conferenceoverview.html

Specialty conferences
The New York Experience is a popular conference that brings chapter members to New York City to learn about fashion, finance and much more. For this coming year, three sessions of the New York Experience are planned in late November and early December.

DECA Inc. also offers a Sports and Entertainment Marketing Conference in Orlando in February. Great site-great activities. These two conferences are real winners.

Conferences for competition
Event competitions dominate the conference landscape toward the end of the year.

Local (district, regional) conferences can start as early as December, but usually take place in late January and early February. These are the first level of competition. Winners at the local level travel to state/provincial conferences to qualify for the International Career Development Conference (ICDC), and the year is crowned with international event finals, officer elections and leadership academies at the ICDC. www.deca.org/ncdc.html