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Yesterday UVU hosted the high school regional DECA competition, so being a member of the college-level PBL/DECA, I got to go help run the show. (For those who are wondering - PBL and DECA are business clubs. DECA is mostly focused on marketing, whereas Phi Beta Lambda is a more all-inclusive business club. DECA is the same for high school and college, whereas the high school version of PBL is FBLA - Future Business Leaders of America - which I was a member of way back in my high school days.)
Anyway! The DECA regionals were yesterday and I braved the icy roads and showed up at 7am (!!!) to help. Apparently there was an accident on the freeway after I got there, so several schools were late arriving and we got a late start on the opening ceremonies, which threw the whole schedule out of whack. Mikki O'Connor (the assistant dean and new advisor for PBL/DECA) was doing this for the first time and was so stressed out. :( She still kept the mood light, though, and is one of those people who's always smiling and manages to turn disasters into humorous learning experiences.
I acted as judge for the Accounting Applications event. Not sure why they had it, since every other category was about marketing, but whatever. I had only one kid signed up, but that morning some advisors switched two more into my event, probably because they saw only one person and thought, "Hey, they could get at least 2nd place!" I was originally the only judge since there was only one kid, but since there were two last-minute additions they gave me another judge - a business marketing education major, who (as you could imagine) knew less about accounting than these contestants did. I had to explain to her after each person left how the things they said were good or bad, and I was like "Why am I not the only judge, I'm the only one validly judging anyway." But oh well. Our last kid was so nervous, the poor thing. He was a sophomore and it was his first time competing, and then his advisor goes and switches events on him? I mean, he'd been preparing for something else! And none of the other events are anything like accounting; it's not like switching someone from Principles of Marketing to just Marketing - that's a pretty easy switch. Even switching from Marketing to Fashion Merchandising. All the others are somewhat relevant to each other, and Accounting Applications is just way out in left field. Poor kid. He did a good job though, brought up good points and other than being clearly petrified he was pretty good. After judging my three people, I then went in and spent the rest of the morning tabulating results. And helping myself to the catered meal. Lots of cheese cubes and Diet Dr Pepper. Mmmm.
Anyway, you might be wondering why I'm still helping out with clubs when I'm graduated. Good question! For PBL, once you join in the fall then you're a member for a year, until next fall. So I can still go compete in our State competition this spring, and if I get 1st or 2nd I can go to Nationals in the summer. This is depending on if I'm still around, of course, but might as well, right? Nationals is in Orlando this year! Which is crazy, because they rotate the location of Nationals each year, but it was in Orlando in 2000 when I went after getting 1st in State in FBLA. Rockin'. And by helping out with events and such that UVU hosts, I get "points" that go towards our PBL chapter paying for my way to Nationals. So that people who don't help and just go to State to get to Nationals have to pay their way more than people who have been actively participating and helping out. The more I help, the less it costs me. And since I have no job and no school, I've got plenty of time to help. DECA is over, but we host two regionals for FBLA in February. Yay high schoolers. (Okay in their defense they were not so bad yesterday. I guess business clubs generally attract students of a somewhat higher caliber than sports teams. I don't care if that sounds prejudiced, it's true.)