This month’s Club of the Month is DECA.

DECA is advised by Mr. Coulter in room 138 B.

DECA stands for Distributive Education Clubs of

America. It is an international association of high

school students and teachers in marketing, management,

and entrepreneurship in business, finance,

hospitality, and marketing sales. The purpose of

DECA is to help students create better interviewing

skills and professional experience. The students that

take part in DECA at Falls Church High School are

in Intro to Marketing, Marketing 1, Sports Marketing,

Advanced Marketing, Entrepreneurship, and

EPF.

Mr. Coulter is going to try a few different things

this year, he is going have applications for officers

and is going to have his officers vetted more. Also he

wants DECA to try and be more involved in the Annandale

Chamber of Commerce.

DECA meets once every three weeks, each meeting

lasting about 40 minutes, and they discuss their

upcoming competitions and how DECA can serve

the community. Before competitions, the club members

can choose any one of the fifty-six competitions

available. The club members are competing against

students from other schools in Fairfax County; they

are trying to advance to the state level competition

in Norfolk, Virginia. There are 10

topics to choose from, and under each

topic there are lists of competitions that fit

under each category. The topics are Principles

of Business Administration Events,

Team Decision Making Events, Individual

Series Events, Personal Financial Literacy

Event, Business Operations Events, Chapter

Team Events, Entrepreneurship Events,

Marketing Representative Events, Professional

Selling and Consulting Events, and

Online Events.

The events start with each competitor

reading from three categories: Twenty-

First Century Skills, Performance Indica-

and Event Situation. Competitors have ten

minutes to review what they read. Next they have

up to ten minutes of role playing with a judge.

Each competitor is evaluated on how well they

met the performance indicators. At the very end

each competitor turns in all their notes and event

materials. Falls Church High School DECA serves

the community by participating in the Annandale

Chamber of Commerce. By participating in the

Annandale Chamber of Commerce, DECA has to

run a couple of ACC events. Some examples of

events they have helped run are the Haunted Village

in October and the Bed Race in May.

DECA is a great organization and club that

helps kids get professional experience and a little

taste of what work life is like after school.