Future Business Leaders Association is preparing for the school year, planning fundraisers and getting ready for the club expo to recruit new members to further build their club.
FBLA is an organization that helps students prepare for careers in business through competitions and leadership/workforce skill development. Their organization has programs like the National Awards Program, also known as competitive events, which recognizes and rewards excellence in a broad range of business and career-related areas. There are nine roles that represent FBLA High School’s membership: The National President, National Secretary, National Treasurer, National Parliamentarian and five Regional Vice Presidents.
This year, FBLA wants to make more of a difference within their club by recruiting more members. They plan on doing a lot of outreach through the club expo to share more about what FBLA and the fun activities they do, their instagram posts and making current members reach out to their friends encouraging them to join FBLA. “Last year we had a good amount of membership, we did cool things last year and it would be great to have more people succeed and learn business skills,” FBLA Southwestern Region Vice President and junior Laya Kudaravalli said.
Most of the activities within FBLA are centered around competitions, which mainly include state and national competitions. FBLA is currently figuring out fundraisers to pay for dues for the state and national competition. “We want to do Chipotle, Krispy Kreme, Chick-fil-A, or possibly an arcade night for fundraising,” FBLA Treasurer and junior Janel Suleminov said.
The state competition will be held in Ocean City and the national competition will be held in San Antonio. “I met a bunch of new people, held a lot of workshops at states and nationals. I also got to learn how to become a better speaker,” FBLA PR Officer and junior Esha Khosla said.
On Oct. 7, FBLA held their first official meeting to go into more detail about competition events, membership dues and open positions. In particular, they are beginning to get ready for the Regional Leadership conference that takes place on Nov. 15. This event allows students to practice professional skills as well figure out what events they’re most interested in competing in.
In general, FBLA involves members spending a lot of time around each other. This year, the club leadership wants to emphasize team bonding. “We want members to feel comfortable. It would be fun to have a good relationship with others in the club,” Laya Kudaravalli said.
FBLA members encourage people to join because it presents students with the opportunity to meet new people and build professional skills. They also believe that it helps build students’ confidence since many of these competition events allow students to develop in public speaking. “My favorite activity is to see the kids be a part of a club where they actually have to work hard, not for a grade but to better themselves,” club Sponsor Michele Ridge said.
