FBLA Fall Leadership Conference

Creekview’s Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) recently attended the State Fall FBLA Leadership Conference, held annually at the University of Georgia. During the conference, members participated in small group workshops to build business leadership skills and competed in teams to test their skills. Awards from the team competitions at the Fall Motivational Rally were announced and Creekview’s own seniors, Macy D. and Casie W., finished first in Banking and Personal Finance. Other competitive events included: Public Speaking, Entrepreneurship, Business Ethics, Accounting, Job Interview, Web Site Design, and many more events dealing with different aspects of business. FBLA members were also able to listen to motivational guest speakers lecturing about being successful in the business world. The meeting was open to officers and students from across Georgia who are involved in FBLA.

FBLA members usually attend six conferences a year, starting with the Fall Motivational Rally progressing to Regional and State competitions. The Fall Motivational Rally and the Annual Fall Conference are open to any interested FBLA member. These events are previews to the school year's upcoming competitions and offer combined event team testing to allow students to see which competitive events they will be interested in for future conferences.

FBLA’s motto shown over the FBLA crest is “Service, Education, Progress.” The club is very involved in community service activities. Some include the Adopt-a-Child Foundation around Christmastime and the March of Dimes Campaign.

FBLA can benefit members by providing scholarship opportunities to those interested in pursuing a business career and provides hands-on, real-world business experience. Members can compete to win awards which can help when applying for colleges. Students gain a competitive edge for education and career success.

The club is sponsored by Coach Jeffreys. It meets in room 1310 on the first and last Tuesday of each month. FBLA is very active in the community, holding monthly social events such as the end-of-year banquet, Halloween parties, Christmas parades, and member cookouts.

Members are encouraged to earn Business Achievement Awards (BAA). The BAA’s is a self-directed business and leadership program designed to help students work on leadership skills with a heavy emphasis on integrated classroom projects and education. The program has four distinct levels: Future, Business, Leader, and America. Each level has its own set of qualifications. Levels can be reached by completing a certain set of business-related tasks.

Meetings are run just as an actual business meeting would occur. Topics discussed during the meetings include: current events, social events, and the planning of current community service activities. Another big part of the meetings is working on building business and leadership skills and preparing for competitions.

Creekview’s FBLA is a growing student organization always looking for new members. Anyone can join FBLA during any time of the year, but in order to participate in conferences, the student must be enrolled by certain deadlines. Creekview FBLA has 118 members so far this year, a huge growth from just 22 members its first year.
Written by: Gwen Kirby