Writing something like this never truly crossed my mind. All of my positive and negative thoughts on my experiences in DECA over the past five years have been expressed in private conversations with close friends and mentors. But looking back to being entrusted by the members of this incredible organization with the responsibility of being their voice, I feel I owe it to them to share my thoughts and experiences.

My good friend, Andrew Weatherman, your former Executive President, inspired me to write this with his own article on the matter. I highly recommend you go and read his piece as our perceptions will differ on most topics.

MY EXPERIENCE AS A STATE OFFICER

My Senior year was one of the best years of my life thanks to the privilege of being a State Officer. The staff at Michigan DECA are some the most real and genuine people I have ever met. The alumni who return are people who have found great success, but still don’t forget where they came from. With a Chartered Association that has just about every single member actually involved in DECA, it’s extremely refreshing to be around them. It’s one of the organization’s top 10 largest associations that has worked hard to earn their spot, and this goes to show the character of the staff leading Michigan DECA.

I love Team 72, even though we had a lot of drama and some hatred at times during our term. Each officer had their role. No two of us were alike and that’s what made it pure. We were a family. A family that fought a lot, but a family nonetheless. And that’s what makes family, family.

This is when I got introduced to what I believe holds the most benefit in DECA: becoming an officer, no matter what level. We prepare emerging leaders. Not emerging test takers or roleplayers. Emerging leaders. Don’t get me wrong, I love DECA competition. It is the foundation of the entire organization. Being able to apply classroom learning into something worthy was something I never thought I’d experience during high school. But in my extremely unique circumstances, what I’ve taken away from DECA has little to do with my time in competition.

It’s meeting new people and making their experience with the organization the best it can be. It’s planning and doing your share of the grunt work behind the scenes to make the conferences possible. It’s making a difference in the organization that has given so much to you.

That’s what being a State Officer is all about.

And here’s to anyone that has been inspired to run for office.

IT IS NOT ABOUT speaking in front of a large audience. IT IS NOT ABOUT building your resume. IT IS NOT ABOUT gaining followers on social media. IT IS NOT ABOUT trying to become a DECA celebrity at conferences.

These are all perks that only come to the officers that truly care for their association and put in the time and effort to see their organization thrive under their reign.

So, if you find yourself running or wanting to run for any of those reasons, congratulations. You’ve sincerely pissed me off. And if you somehow get elected with any of those intentions, then you’ve REALLY pissed me off. At that point, I can only hope your teammates carry the unnecessary baggage that you’ve put on their shoulders.

MY TIME AS AN EXECUTIVE OFFICER

The difference between these two offices lies in the voting delegates. If you have those intentions, you may be able to get elected to state office because you hit “the woah” during your speech. But when you run for executive office, the voting delegates will see right through you.

Does it sound conceded of me to say this after all of my success. Well if you think so, then that’s your opinion. Because I have plenty of people that will vouch for my passion and drive for this organization. I’ve bled blue for the past five years to the point where my blood now might just be purple. But this feels beside the point.

To sum up my experience as the Central Region Vice President in one word: Indifferent. Being an executive officer was exactly what I expected, and that was the problem. That’s what was disappointing. Not the term itself, but the fact it didn’t exceed expectations.

But let me also start at the beginning…

CAMPAIGNING

Andrew said a lot of true things about the election process. It is a toxic environment. There is a lot of secrecy and back-door plays. I’ve witnessed the rumors started with no factual or logical base. But Andrew can’t really expect people to “grow up”. When you look at the bigger picture and the real world, almost every single organization or company that has a ladder to climb, with people fighting for which rung they get to be on. This is something that is evident everywhere. Not just politics.

Being a part of this type of environment was one of the most real experiences I’ve ever had and what made campaigning worth it, looking back. No matter what the result ended up being, knowing how to deal with public relations on the fly and answering questions on the spot.

So yes, if you’re qualified to run and decide to do so, I will echo what Andrew had to say.

“Learn to slow down, cherish those moments, and appreciate the experience. You can do both and win.”

FIGUREHEADS

Not only was this the root of why Andrew hated this year, but it’s probably the section that made his piece gain so much traction. Here’s what I have to say.

Executive Officers do have power to an extent. We are able to make recommendations to the board on things we’d like to see in the future, and changes that may be necessary in the bylaws of the organization. One of the issues is, we don’t actually get to have a representative from our team at those board meetings, which really hurts the credibility and explanations of why we want to see those changes. I think if the executive President could sit in on those meetings and discuss why we want the changes we’re suggesting, they may see the light of day. We don’t have a seat at THE table, we have a seat at the table in the other room.

The biggest reason for why I think DECA doesn’t trust giving us much power is because of how short-lived our term is. It’s a revolving door. You come in, serve a year, and you head right back out. And a lot of these changes that we want made would take years to plan, implement, and execute. Years that we don’t have.

However, there are things that we are able to implement. This year I was honored to bring the idea of #OneDECA calls to fruition. This idea was something that originated from my platform for CRVP. And even though there were plenty of people that never heard of the idea, for those that participated, you could tell the impact it had on their year. Which is why I get discouraged when voting delegates don’t pay attention to executive officer candidates’ platforms. If they are realistic and achievable in a year, then they deserve to be evaluated.

But what Andrew said regarding whether or not DECA gives attention to our ideas… well it’s kind of true. We were in a very unique year, new people in new positions in Reston (HQ). We did try so hard to introduce new programs and activations, but most of which were futile. #OneDECA calls was the only exception, as Regional Reporters was just a new take on an already tried and true Social Media Correspondent program.

This was an unfavorable year for DECA Inc, with all the internal changes, the most obvious being the departure of our Executive Director just before the halfway point of the year. But it got to a point where my team wasn’t given much attention. It felt like we were among the least of DECA’s problems, but I can fully understand and appreciate what they prioritized. It had to be done.

From what I’ve heard, previous teams haven’t had a communication issue. However, they were given much less leniency than we were. Like the previous years, we weren’t given much power. But for once, my team was given freedom. I don’t think former Presidents could of gotten away with tweeting about college basketball so much during the month of March.

But this is a step in the right direction. In the past, everything that was posted on social media by Executive Officers had to be DECA. It’s what made kids with name badges so unapproachable and not relatable to the average member.

There does need to be a balance of the things posted to social media that are DECA related and personal. There is a brand image to uphold, and you have to expect that when elected to the position.

IT’S LONELY AT THE TOP

This is something I think Andrew forgot to acknowledge. When you’re on a chapter officer team or a state officer team, it is a team effort. Every time you meet to work on your activities as an officer, you are with your team. However, as an Executive Officer, this is not the case.

We meet in the summer for our officer training and start to set goals and plan out the year. We bond as a team. It’s a really great time, fueled by hunger and large aspirations. But aside from Regional Leadership Conferences in the fall, you won’t see your team in person until January (when your term is already half over). And then after that, unless two of you get invited to the same conference, you won’t see them again until ICDC. Then it’s over.

The Executive Officer position is an extremely independent job. The President does their thing, while each Regional Vice President (RVP) goes off and works with their associations. From that point you make out of your term what you want.

This concept puts the President at a major disadvantage. I ran for CRVP opposed to President for the idea of impacting my region. You see, an RVP gets their own set of officers to work with. I had 13 amazing officer teams that I got to work with to help influence and impact their home associations. A successful RVP won’t see themselves as an authoritative figure above their officers, but rather try to be an honorary member of each of their teams. You’re there with them as opposed to for them, and that’s exactly what I sought out to achieve.

But the President doesn’t have that ability. They don’t get a set of their own officers, and they potentially fear getting too involved with a region or an association as it either

a. Is seen as overstepping the respective RVP and disrespectful to them

or

b. Can display favoritism toward one region, which is a bad look for the lead student representative of over 222,000 students.

I honestly can’t say if this is what Andrew felt. For me personally, aside from attending CRLC, Andrew did a great job of remaining neutral between all of the regions. But that comes at a cost. The cost of feeling completely isolated during the downtimes of the DECA year. And when you’re not able to go to school, it’s hard to fill that time when you wish you could be doing more.

Then you lose motivation. You lose your ambition. You may look back on that slow-motion video of you jumping in the air when your name was called, hoping it reminds you of why you ran in the first place. And it does work the first handful of times, but after that, the effect starts to wear off.

Andrew and all of the Presidents are put into odd positions and I can understand the struggle and frustration Andrew is expressing. I will vouch for it ’til the end of time.

LONELY, BUT NOT ALONE

With all that being said, I had one of the most unbelievably amazing years of my life. I ran with personal goals for CR and for myself and what I wanted to accomplish in this position. I made sure these goals were not strictly reliant on DECA’s backing. I was able to share my story and my dark, regretful past. I helped inspire many young adults to make changes in their lives, young adults who were on similar paths that I was. (If you care to see where I’ve come from, here’s the video).

I’ve built relationships that will last a lifetime and made impacts in the associations across the CR that will be built on for years to come. And none of this would’ve happened, had I not decided to run for DECA’s Executive Office.

Different from Andrew, I’d encourage qualified candidates to run for this position. If we want to see change at this level, we need outstanding officers every year in order to establish a trust toward executive officers in taking on larger responsibilities.

I also feel that it NEEDS to be mentioned. I’ve had the honor and privilege of working with the new staff members this past year. This was a year of figuring things out. And even though there were plenty of struggles during the term, I am so grateful to have been a part of one of the most critical years DECA will ever have. I can only hope I did my part in setting up the organization for unparalleled success in the years to come.

I can honestly say, even if you don’t think so at this point in time: DECA, you are in good hands, and you don’t need Allstate to tell you that.

This staff has me feeling content and optimistic for DECA’s future.

SO LONG, DECA

…Well, no. This is not a goodbye. This is a “see you later”. You may see me at conferences down the line to continue to help mold the world’s future leaders and entrepreneurs. I just have to take a backseat now.

I won’t forget where I came from and will forever be grateful for all DECA has given me.

Michigan DECA, thank you for everything. You have changed my life for the better and acted as the light at the end of the tunnel.

I’m also going to end with a quote from my farewell this past week:

I want to reiterate that these past five years have truly been the journey of a lifetime, and I am forever in debt to you, DECA.

Because of you, I am ready for it. Whatever “it” may be.

Here… we… go.