FBLA and DECA: More than Just a Club

The season of giving has arrived at Fair Grove High School, which causes our Future Business Leaders Of America (FBLA) and Distributive Education Clubs of America (DECA) clubs to bring on fundraisers that create holiday spirit.

FBLA and DECA are clubs that help high school students prepare for careers in business through academic competitions, leadership development, and educational programs. The main goals of both clubs is to instill confidence, leadership, and employability skills in students. These are business/marketing clubs, but they are for any student wanting to make a difference in their home, school, and community (Areas of Interest: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Finance, Management, and more).

 FBLA doesn’t just come together once a month and play games at their club meetings, it’s a lot more than that. 

“A lot of work goes into planning events. We have committees that meet almost daily to work on flyers and getting the word out. They also work on planning the event itself. We have an officer meeting before every club meeting, but our smaller committees meet a lot more often,” stated Lauren Thomlinson (11), a leader in FBLA and DECA.

Braden Booth (11) said, “There is a lot that goes into it. The first step is to start brainstorming ideas, coming up with themes and dates. After that, we immediately jump in to flyers and promotions to get people interested and excited. As we get closer to the date of the event, we start working on behind the scenes stuff, like getting supplies and getting teams arranged for ManPuff or PowderPuff. The day of we usually have stuff mostly lined out, so it’s just monitoring to make sure everything goes alright. In all, it takes eight officers a couple weeks to plan and execute any event.”

There are a lot of exciting things that you would get to participate in like PowderPuff, ManPuff, Community Service, Business Tours, Blood Drives, Competitions – District, State, & Nationals.

On the competitive side of FBLA/DECA, there are different categories. One is the Business Management and Administration side of DECA, and the events are: Business Law and Ethics, Team Decision Making, Business Services Operations Research, Business Solutions Project, Career Development Project, Community Awareness Project, Community Giving Project, Financial Literacy Project, Human Resources Management Series, Principles of Business, Management and Administration, and Sales Project. That is just one of the many categories. If you’re wanting to learn more about competing in DECA you can visit deca.org.

Currently in Fair Grove, FBLA has several events lately, including the Winter Blood Drive on December 3rd, ManPuff on December 8th, and their Christmas party on December 10th.