DECA kicks off new school year

DECA to hold first club-wide meeting Sept. 13

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Dani Orloff

DECA co-advisers Sally Adams and Sophia Ross and senior officer Lewis Brown address DECA members attending the Fall Leadership Conference Oct. 27. The conference allows DECA chapters to bond within their chapters and with other Minnesota chapters.

According to DECA club president, senior Alexis Machoka, DECA will hold a meeting Thursday Sept. 13 where club officers will clarify what DECA is to potential members, as well as introduce their plans for the year.

“On Thursday, we will be talking about what DECA is and how to get involved. A lot of students have confusion (about) what exactly DECA is, so we are trying to clear up some of that confusion,” Machoka said.

DECA adviser Sophia Ross said she recommends students attend this first meeting to gauge their interest in the club.

“I think it’s important for all students to join some type of group or activity or club of some sort, whether it be in-school or out-of-school, where they learn how to grow professionally,” Ross said. “DECA is one of those student organizations where you build your leadership skills and (it) provides you with different opportunities to grow on a professional level in the areas of entrepreneurship, business, marketing (and) finance.”

Machoka said DECA intends to showcase the more enjoyable aspects of DECA in order to recruit new members.

“Our method of recruiting is just trying to show people how fun DECA actually is and making sure we communicate that it doesn’t require as much involvement as people think and it’s more fun than it is hard,” Machoka said.

Ross said this meeting serves as a way to welcome new students to the club and also inform members of upcoming opportunities.

“We will be introducing students to what DECA is, we will also be letting them know how they can join, what type of activities DECA is involved in, and we are also going to be briefly discussing a trip that’s coming,” Ross said. DECA goes to New York every other year and so we will be talking about the New York field experience opportunity to DECA members as well.”

According to Ross, the club expects between 20-40 students to attend. Ross said her role in the meeting will be smaller as it is generally run by the club’s student leadership.

“(I will) probably be just introducing myself as one of the advisers, how long I’ve been doing DECA, and what I love most about DECA, but then I’ll just be helping the officers kind of run the meeting and probably keeping track of time or something like that,” Ross said.

According to Ross, the DECA meeting is 8 a.m. Sept. 13 in room B226.