Area 8

Your New Area 8 President

Hello Area 8 members and advisors!

NEWS
May/June 2012

In This Issue:
Area Presidents Message p.1 Meet the new Area Leader p.2 ICDC qualifiers p. 2 Kylie Heerlyn appointed Area VP p.3 Stay connected! p. 3

My name is Coleman Johnson and Im excited and honored to be serving as your Area 8 President for the 2012-2013 term. I am currently a sophomore at Capital High School in Olympia. While I often tell people that my life revolves around DECA, my other activities include serving on Washingtons Legislative Youth Advisory Council, volunteering in my community, and AKC dog shows. My experience as chapter Vice-President includes leading our recruitment drive, which helped achieve record-high membership for our chapter; organizing members for community service events; and serving as a peer mentor before SCDC and ICDC. I have been blessed the past two years to win first place at ICDC in the Professional Selling Event. Im overjoyed for the opportunity to be a servant-leader for Area 8. One of my goals is to assist in re-focusing the area on competitionI want members to be prepared to succeed at both the Area and State conferences. I look forward to working to provide a mock competition in the fall/winter before our area conference. Im also currently exploring the possibility of competition workshops in the fall. If theres anything I can do to help your chapter prepare for competition, Ill be happy to help, so please dont hesitate to ask. I also look forward to working with area chapters to develop community service projects and area social activities to increase our connectedness. Ill always be happy to assist chapters however needed. If you have questions, ideas to share, or want to contact me for any reason, I invite you to email me at coleman.johnson@wadeca-officer.org and/or call me at (360) 485-8516. Lets make it a great year!

Coleman Johnson

New Area Leader

Area 8 is very fortunate to have Mrs. Angel Elam (my very own advisor from Capital High School) stepping up to serve as our new area leader for the 2012-2013 school year. She is acquiring the position due to the fact that our current Area Leader, Mr. Dave Eby from Olympia High School, has announced that he is stepping down at the end of this school year. We should all be tremendously grateful to Mr. Eby for his service over the past ?? years. Each area has an advisor who serves as the Area Leader, whose job is to be liaison between Washington DECA and the other Area advisors, as well as helping to plan and coordinate functions such as the area conference. I am completely confident in Mrs. Elams ability as our Area Leader, and know how much she looks forward to working with Washington DECA and the advisors and members of Area 8. She can be reached at aelam@osd.wednet.edu and (360) 596-8167.

Congratulations ICDC Qualifiers!

Washington dominated at ICDC, with 87 Top 20 Finalists, 62 Top 10 Finalists, and 23 Top 3 Winners. This is certainly something we should be proud of! While those who made it to finals deserve extra recognition, its an amazing and huge accomplishment just to qualify for ICDC. I wanted to recognize the following DECA members within Area 8 for their tremendous success at SCDC that allowed them to qualify for ICDC. You represent Area 8 as champions and make us all proud! SCDC First Place Student Name - Event Name

p.2

Kylie Heerlyn appointed Area VP

Area 8 is very lucky that my friend and predecessor as Area President, Kylie Heerlyn, has agreed to stay on another year as part of the areas leadership team. Kylie, who is a junior and a member of North Thurston DECA, has served the past two terms as our Area 8 President. Now that the torch has been passed to me, I know how valuable it will be to have the perspective and experience of a two-year state officer on our team. Thats why I was so grateful when Kylie agreed to serve as our Area VP over the next year. I know that her experience, enthusiasm, and dedication to DECA will be helpful as Area 8 seeks to achieve its goals. If you have questions or wish to contact Kylie, you can do so at kyliesemail@gmail.com and (360) 528-9916.

Stay Connected!
A big part of DECA, of course, is networking! I encourage you to like, friend, and follow! By connecting via Facebook and Twitter, youll stay up to date with the latest happenings in Area 8 and Washington DECA. Also make sure to check out Area 8s all-new Facebook page! Like Area 8 DECA on Facebook! @colemanfjohnson Coleman Johnson @DECA_Washington Washington DECA

Feedback on the newsletter? Ideas for the next issue? Coleman.johnson @wadeca-officer.org

p.3