Stillman Valley’s FBLA officers attend State Leadership Conference

Three of Stillman Valley’s FBLA officers attended the Illinois State Leadership workshop from July 17-19 at the Northfield Inn Suites in Springfield, Ill. Richie Sutliff, Tyler Kubiszewski and Logan Apsey took part in the leadership training and workshop sponsored by Future Business Leaders of America. The workshop’s focus was to unite FBLA officers and members from our State to build fellowship, leadership training and teamwork.
The workshop’s keynote speaker was Patty Hendrickson, who was an exceptional interactive speaker. Her motivational forum challenged the members to set high goals, move out of their comfort zone, and open themselves up to new and exciting experiences by taking the risk to meet new people.
Patty was a former FBLA member as well as a National FBLA President. Her highly motivating techniques have helped many FBLA members to strive for excellence beyond what they ever thought possible. At the beginning, Patty had the members connect up with someone that they did not know to build a “power partner” bond during the workshop.
Then she provided ideas on how they could improve their confidence and build a positive and thriving perspective for their future. According to Tyler, “Nothing is fun until you have experienced the SLW (State Leadership Workshop) with the famous person of all, Patty Hendrickson. The conference was not all about work; it’s about meeting new people and experiencing new things. The “power partners” was the best thing that ever happened to me.”
Each member was assigned to a “mock” chapter that was made up of members that they did not know from our State. Throughout the workshop, they worked on communication skills, leadership skills and teamwork.
Each chapter selected a candidate to run for the mock officer position of President, Vice President, Secretary and Treasurer. This year, Stillman Valley was honored to have Richie Sutliff run for Treasurer of his mock chapter and was selected by the entire conference members to be their SLW Treasurer.
Richie was required to build a campaign with his mock chapter, prepare a speech, present the speech at the FBLA banquet and then undergo a “Q & A” from the members. Congrats to Richie for a fantastic overall presentation.
Richie Sutliff commented, “I really enjoyed the Summer Leadership Workshop! It was so fun to learn and connect with new people! 10/10”.
Other activities included playing Family Feud, participating in the Amazing Race and creating fellowships through FBLA cheers and game activities. Each FBLA chapter in attendance was also given time to prepare their program of work for the upcoming school year, which included community service projects, events, conferences and fundraising.
Another important part of the workshop included having five of the State judges speak with the members about how they approach judging projects and presentations. After attending the workshop for the first time, Logan stated, “It took me out of my comfort zone in a comforting way.”
Each year at the SLW, individual members are selected for the Aspiring Business Leader Scholarship. This year our very own Tyler Kubiszewski, the Secretary of Stillman’s FBLA chapter, was selected as one of the recipients of the Aspiring Business Leader Scholarship. Congrats to Tyler!
For more information on becoming a part of FBLA, visit our Stillman Valley FBLA Website @ https://sites.google.com/mail.meridian223.org/stillman-fbla/home, or contact any Stillman Valley FBLA Adviser (Cathie Murphy, Ryan Read, or Tammy Pierson).
You can also follow Stillman FBLA through Twitter using the tag, @fbla_valley. If you would like to become a “power sponsor” for Stillman’s FBLA, please contact any of the officers or advisers for more information.