MT BPA NEWS

2015 Winter Newsletter

WINTER EDITION 2015

F L C

“I am so thankful I had the

opportunity to attend the

Fall Leadership Conference. I

met so many wonderful

people and had a blast. I was

able to take the things I

learned from the conference

to help make our local

chapter more involved

within the school and

community.”

Michaela Larson, Roundup

“FLC was a place where I got to

meet new people and make new

friendships. A couple things we

talked about were some

community service ideas and

how to raise money for my

chapter. I really enjoyed this

conference and would

recommend it to everyone!”

Megan Martin, Twin Bridges

On October 11th and 12th, over 200 students and

advisors attended the first annual Montana BPA Fall

Leadership Conference at Fairmont Hot Springs. The

state officers were excited to present important BPA

topics as well as involve chapter members in leadership

activities. State officers prepared activities Saturday

evening and Sunday morning to ensure that everyone

would have a great time and come away with new ideas!

When chapters arrived on Sunday, October 11th,

it was a new experience for everyone. Advisors and stu-

dents were welcomed in the afternoon by Lisa Parker,

our State Director, and Drew Mammel, our State Presi-

dent. After kicking off the conference, advisors met with

our State Director, while the student chapter members

remained with the state officers for some fun leadership

activities. Students actively participated in a name game,

nonverbal cues, balloon towers, personality traits, and

many more fun leadership games and icebreakers. After

leadership training, there was a dinner followed by a

pool party. BPA Members enjoyed the free time they

had by enjoying the pool, slide, and hot tub.

Monday morning, October 12th, students and ad-

visors participated in workshops to help better BPA and

improve their chapters. Student members learned about

what they could do through the BPA Cares program,

TORCH Awards program, and fundraising ideas for

their chapter. Many members seemed excited to take

these ideas to their chapter! The last event of the day

was the Biz Bowl, a quiz bowl with buzzers. Teams got

to compete and answer BPA and other trivia questions

for a chance to win a bracket and the Biz Bowl. All

teams did great and enjoyed getting a moment of glory,

buzzing in correct answers, especially the winning team,

Twin Bridges.

Overall, we heard positive feedback about the

conference and are hopefully planning on continuing it

every year. It was a great learning experience for stu-

dents and advisors, especially those new to BPA. The

state officers had a great time and hope everyone attend-

ing did too!

Fall Leadership Conference

Carrie Cota

Carrie Cota

Secretary

At the recent Fall Leadership Confer-

ence, Business Professionals of America

Members from around the state came togeth-

er to kick off another great year of BPA. At

the conference, we developed skills, learned

about leadership, and shared a variety of val-

uable ideas. Kasey and I lead a membership/

fundraising idea sharing workshop. During

the session, members from schools big and

small shared ideas on how to increase both

fundraising and membership. When it

comes to growing and retaining membership,

Montana BPA gets pretty creative. Of

course, the few classic strategies never seem

to fail in attracting potential members.

These timeless and effective methods men-

tioned include: offering free food at meet-

ings, asking business teachers in school to

promote BPA, and advertising meeting times

on the announcements. Along with these

strategies, some schools employ rather crea-

tive techniques in attracting members and

promoting awareness of BPA. For example,

Roundup annually serves spaghetti to stu-

dents at lunch time and talks to them about

BPA. Another out-of-the-box strategy men-

tioned was creating promotional videos

about BPA that include pictures from nation-

al competitions, information about the or-

ganization, and the various benefits of hav-

ing BPA on a resume. Other membership

strategies mentioned include: hosting ice

cream socials; creating a chapter or city-

wide social media page for BPA on Face-

book, Twitter, or Instagram; and going to

local middle schools to recruit and inform

young, potential members. In addition to

membership growth, many chapters also fo-

cus on membership retainment. In order to

retain members and enhance the membership

experience, chapters use various strategies

such as: hosting a dinner for members at the

school or a member’s house, getting together

with other chapters to meet new people, and

going on chapter exploration trips to local

businesses. Many recruiting strategies can

also serve as fundraising activities! For ex-

ample, some chapters in Montana host a

sports tournament (like golf or dodgeball) to

both raise money, attract potential members,

and promote awareness of BPA. Hopefully,

these ideas can spark your imagination in

finding and keeping members. While mem-

bership strategies may vary based upon the

size and ability of your chapter, don’t be

afraid to reach out to other chapters to find

ideas and techniques that you can use.

Drew Mammel

Membership Ideas Membership Ideas

Drew Mammel

President

One of the workshops at the Fall Leadership

Conference in Fairmont was about BPA

Cares. We tried to cover the basics of it for

those of you who attended the Fall Leader-

ship Conference, but it is a lot of information

to take in. If you didn’t go to the Fall Leader-

ship Conference, or you need a refresher,

then this article is for you! BPA Cares is es-

sentially a program that allows your chapter

to receive recognition for things that you al-

ready do. For the majority of these awards,

all you have to do is fill out an application

form and document what you have done to

count towards this award.

Interested in participating in BPA Cares this

year? Visit http://www.bpa.org/service/

bpacares, and you will find every available

award, necessary qualifications, applications,

and how you or your chapter could be recog-

nized (which is often on stage at the National

Leadership Conference)! The BPA Cares

Handbook is also available, which has all of

the information in detail, and is a great place

to start. If you have any questions, feel free

to contact me at anmartens@rangeweb.net or

Carrie at cotaca@roundup.k12.mt.us, and

we’ll do our best to help!

BPA Cares Aeriel Martens

ADVISOR OF THE YEAR DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1ST, ADVISOR OF THE YEAR DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1ST, ADVISOR OF THE YEAR DEADLINE FEBRUARY 1ST,

2016! For more information visit bpa.org. 2016! For more information visit bpa.org. 2016! For more information visit bpa.org.

Aeriel Martens

Communications

Director

Hello BPA members! On behalf of

the state officer team, we hope that

everyone who attended the first

Fall Leadership Conference found

it very beneficial and fun. For those

that were unable to attend the con-

ference, here are some key points

when doing Torch Awards.

One key point to remember while

filling out your Torch Award re-

sume is to make sure you have 50

points in each of the seven catego-

ries. Having more points in each

category is fine and encouraged;

however, not having enough points

in each category will result in the

resume being rejected. Another

point to remember is if your re-

sume happens to be rejected, it will

be sent back and is able to be re-

submitted before the deadline of

February 5, 2016.

There are also some easy tips and

tricks to remember that will make

filling out your Torch Award re-

sume easier. One of which is to

start early. Do not procrastinate be-

cause rushing to fill out your re-

sume will have a poor end result.

Another tip to remember is to have

the chapter secretary record all the

chapter activities including chapter

meetings, local social events, fund-

raising activities, etc. Also remem-

ber to never abbreviate (Incorrect:

NHS Correct: National Honors So-

ciety), and start each entry with a

verb (no “I’s”).

If you have any questions regarding

Torch Awards please contact Brock

Peterson, the State Vice President,

at brock22p@yahoo.com.

Brock Peterson

Vice President

Torch Awards Review

Fundraising Ideas Sell Plants (Aloe plants)

Male Beauty Pageant

Advertising

Sell Breakfast to students

Dodge Ball Tournament

50/50 Raffles

Haunted House

Zombie Runs

Sell Meals at Sport Events

Sell Candy or Jerky

Sell Sport Appeal

A Classic Back Sale

Sport Posters for Gyms

Use teacher humiliation

Make ready to go Pizzas

for the Super Bowl!!

Make and Sell Calendars

with your own designs.

Making money may

seem like an easy thing to do, if

that person is making money for

themselves. Although, making

money for a club is a little more

complicated. If a person holds a

job somewhere, their paycheck

is their paycheck. For a club, a

group of members share the

workload so the money stays

within the club. This amazing

thing is called fundraising.

Though it can be hard

fundraising, having the right

fundraiser can make all the dif-

ference. For example, at the Fall

Leadership Conference Drew

Mammel and I had a workshop

about fundraising. During this

session, we talked about what

fundraising techniques work

well rural and urban area. At eh

end of the session, we had eve-

rybody brainstorm their

thoughts and share their differ-

ent fundraisers with everybody.

A lasting comment from the

session, “have diversity in fund-

raisers to mix things up”.

Here are a few fundrais-

ing ideas, Sidney High School

BPA hosts a children’s carnival

a couple times throughout the

year. They’re pretty easy if you

ask me! Logistics of our carni-

val: children pay a set fee and

play all sorts of games that we

have set up throughout the gym.

This allows kids the ability to

play games as many times as

they want without spending a

fortune. Some of the games we

offer during the carnival in-

clude: ring toss, to face paint-

ing, to even a bouncy house, or

of course a simple game of mu-

sical chairs. Another fundrais-

ing favorite of mine is

“Auctioning Workers”. This is

where club members are auc-

tioned off to perform various

services, such as, cleaning, yard

work, babysitting, etc. The

money earned by the individual

person, is provided to that stu-

dent to use towards BPA State

or Nationals.

As Drew and I went

through our workshop at FLC,

we wrote down various fund-

raising ideas to assist others in

their money making adventures.

If you are looking for some new

and fresh fundraising ideas, take

a look below! If you have any

question or don’t fully under-

stand how a fundraiser works,

please feel free to contact me.

MAKING ENDS MEET

Kasey Gorder

Membership Director

We are officially the officer team of firsts!

At this year’s State Leadership Conference

on March 13-15, the officer team will be

hosting a day of service that offers partici-

pants to volunteer around Billings. Projects

will include writing letters to soldiers, vol-

unteering at the zoo, and playing FeedRice

at the hotel. With such a wide variety of

projects, everyone is bound to find some-

thing they can contribute to. Volunteering

not only counts on Torch Awards, but gives

you a sense of pride and community that is

truly irreplaceable. As on officer team, we

are eager to host this event and look for-

ward to seeing you all at State. Best of luck

at Regional competition.

Volunteer Opportunity

Kjersten Sandru

Public Relations

Director

1. Meeting in a spirit of friendship and good-

will.

2. Preparing for careers in a world-class

workforce.

3. Working together to develop profession-

alism and leadership.

4. Pledging our loyalty to BPA and our

nation.

Date April 2016 Date May 2016

1 Registration Due for National Leadership Con-

ference 5-9 National Leadership Conference in Boston, MA

Date February 2016 Date March 2016

5 State Conference Registration Deadline

Torch Resumes due to VP (via Online system) 12

State Officers Arrive for State Leadership Confer-

ence

24 State Officer Conference Call 7 a.m. 13-15 State Leadership Conference, Billings

21 Bump Up Deadline

Date December 2015 Date January 2016

1 Program Cover and T-Shirt Designs due to Staci

5

5

6 0r 13

18

20

Montana BPA Region 1 Conference in Kalispell (FVCC)

Montana BPA Region 5 Conference in Wilsall

Montana BPA Region 2 Conference in Missoula

Montana BPA Region 3 Conference in Great Falls

Montana BPA Region 8 Conference in Sidney

7

16

21-22

Montana BPA Region 7 Conference in Baker

Montana BPA Region 4 Conference in Helena

Montana BPA Region 6 Conference in Billlings

31 MT Advisor of the Year Nomination Deadline

WINTER CALENDAR