2006 California FBLA State Conference
By Anonymous
Wednesday, May 10, 2006 11:22 PM
Westmoor FBLA at the
by Whitney Esguerra and Nathan Yan
2006 FBLA State Conference Photostream
On the morning of Thursday, April 27, 2006, approximately thirty Westmoor Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) members and two advisers woke up extra early to get to the Westmoor parking lot. Students loaded their mounds of luggage, backpacks, pillows, and AP study guides on the charter bus. They were prepared for an eight hour long bus ride to After eight long hours, the FBLA members finally arrived at the Hyatt Regency in
The main event of Thursday night was a contest inspired by the popular television show, "Dancing with the Stars". Two of Westmoor's students, Angela Tolosa and Sheree Cruz, performed an upbeat swing routine. Nearly the entire chapter watched the competition, along with other chapters from the state of
To wind down from a busy day, the Westmoor students entered their hotel rooms to beat the 11:00 p.m. curfew and studied for their FBLA competitions. They were prepared to compete against over eighty chapters the next day.
The FBLA State Conference officially started on the morning of Friday, April 28, 2006. At 9:15 a.m, members had the opportunity to attend one of five informative workshops: SAT 2400, presented by Steve Kwon, Solafide - A Turn-Around Case Study, presented by Victor Sim, Leadership Development Why Not Me, presented by Howard Thee and Rose Lee, There's A Lot to Learn about Money, presented by Darcy Horak, and The College Admissions Juggernaut, presented by Lad L. Dell.
The workshops were followed by the ultimate opening ceremony, the state conference general session, where all eighty-two chapters were present in full business attire. The state president, Meicheng Shi, called the session to order with the rap of her gavel, a cue for everyone to absorb endless loads of information within the next two hours and in between some points, scream at the top of their lungs. The general session is much like a pep rally and business leadership workshop combined. Shaun Alger, CompleteComm Founder and CEO, was presented as the keynote speaker. He advised all FBLA members to work steadily towards their passions, and used colorful figurative language such as "chewing the elephant." After all the opening speeches, several chapter awards were presented. The last portion of the opening session was the campaign speeches of candidates running for state office. Most members were entertained by the speeches, since most of them contained gimmicks ranging from Disney songs to dating games. At the adjournment of the general session, members were free to attend any of the events offered during the rest of the daytime part of the conference, such as competitive event presentations, written event competitions, and business tours.
The main focus throughout Saturday was on the testing and competitive events. After qualifying for the competitions at the FBLA Bay Section Conference hosted by Westmoor on March 4, 2006, students had worked hard to study and prepare for the state competitions. Most students attended one of three sessions in the grand ballroom for most of the testing competitions, while others in team presentations or public speaking events had assigned rooms and times.
Just an hour after the general session, the chapter's Business Plan Team was scheduled for their presentation. The team of three previously spent months of preparing a thirty-page business report, complete with details about financial costs, potential risks, competitors, marketing plans, and every other aspect about running a business. The few minutes before their presentation were spent practicing the script numerous times in a hallway outside the conference room. They then had seven minutes to present, followed by questions from the judges. The team was relieved to deliver their presentation successfully. Although some of the presenters were done for the day, there were still many students who had other competitions to complete.
The atmosphere in each of the rooms ranged from intensive cramming for those yet to compete, to relieved exuberance for those who had finished their competitions already.
After the last testing session, FBLA members were required to attend a meeting conducted by their respective section officer teams. Westmoor FBLA members attended the Bay Section Meeting, which consisted of new officer elections for the vacant President and Vice President positions, and an installation ceremony. Members then had an hour to rest before the last event of the night, the Blue Jeans for Babies dance. Those who attended the dance were required to pay $1 for admission, and the proceeds benefited the charity March of Dimes, a nonprofit organization that helps prevent birth defects in newborn babies. Members partied in the Garden Pavilion until midnight, then strolled along into their hotel rooms before the 12:30 a.m. curfew.
The last competitive event of the conference for Westmoor was the presentation for the Website Development Competition, which took place early on Saturday morning. The Website Development Competition event consists of two parts. The first was the website itself, which this year was based on creating a website for a city (real or fictional) designed to provide information and attract businesses. The website design team had worked for weeks on creating and developing a website for the design competition (located here at http://whs.juhsd.net/flask/statecomp/, and after a long delay, finally learned that they had placed into the top 5 and qualified for the state competition - two days before the actual conference! From there the team spent nights creating, planning, and rehearsing the second part of the website competition: the presentation. With only five minutes to present, and an entire website to decode and explain, the team worked throughout the night and into the morning, rehearsing up until the last minute until their presentation on Saturday morning. You can download the website design team's powerpoint presentation at (websitedesign.ppt, 6.55 MB)Saturday was a day of leisure and social activities. Westmoor students chose between attending the wonderful world of
Students from every floor packed into the excessively crowded elevators, which stopped at every successive floor down to the disappointment of students waiting for an open lift. At the lobby, students were dressed in their finest attire, men debonair in suits and glamorous girls in formal dresses, and the energy in the ballroom was electric. The Awards Ceremony started, and the room went dark, but it didn't quiet down the students a bit - applause and cheers and screams rang continuously throughout the ceremony as the top finishers for each of the competitive events were called onto stage, and awarded their place in the competition. In all, 11 Westmoor students placed into the top 10 in 7 different competitions, and one student, freshman Anita Poon, qualified into the FBLA National Conference competitions by, placing 1st among all students in the state for the Word Processing I competition.
A list of all Westmoor students who placed top ten at the State Conference (top 2 qualify onto nationals):
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Lester Tam (4th)
Business Plan
Westmoor Business Plan Team (3rd)
Michelle DeMesa
Bernadette Dugtong
Erin Partlan
Computer Applications
Faye Baltazar (3rd)
Economics
Leo Szeto (9th)
Networking Concepts
Leo Szeto (5th)
Web Site Development
Westmoor Website Development Team (3rd)
Vincent Chow
Reynaldo Gonzales
Nathan Yan
Word Processing I
Anita Poon (1st)
Carin Szeto (9th)
As a chapter, Westmoor's FBLA tied for 9th overall among all schools who competed at the State Conference.
Two representatives went up on stage to receive the chapter's 9th place award in the Sweepstakes event, a ranking of the schools based on accumulative points from competitive event winners. Although the individual awards were all handed out, the awards session was nowhere near finished. After the Westmoor students somewhat calmed down from all the excitement, a new speaker entered and described the next award: The Outstanding Local Chapter Adviser Award. Whispers traveled all around the two rows of Westmoor students, followed by shouts of celebration. The Westmoor FBLA Adviser, Mrs. Nancy Sansot, received the award for the year, and went up on stage speechless. It was an incredibly joyous moment for the chapter as members greeted their adviser with hugs and words of congratulations, and some greeted her with tears. The Westmoor Chapter almost could not believe their tremendous accomplishments that received recognition at the awards session.
After the awards ceremony, the results of the state officer elections were announced, and the new state officer team for 2006-2007 was inducted, as the entire California FBLA said goodbye to the out-going 2005-2006 officer team that had served this year. Finally, students were left with one last dance in the ballroom, and many went straight there in their formal attire after the awards ceremony.The night was spent in celebration, bittersweet excitement for the return home, dancing and singing under the flags at the main entrance. And packing. The next morning, the students bid farewell to fellow chapters and friends they had made while there, and headed back onto the bus. The long ride home was a great end to an incredible year for Westmoor FBLA.
The Westmoor News Blog is a weblog which updates on current events and news going on at Westmoor. It is written entirely by students, and thus any and all views, ideas, and witticisms expressed here do not necessarily correlate to those of Westmoor High School or JUHSD. You can submit feedback by emailing us at westmoorgoldenram@yahoo.com
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