Submitted By: Katie Patton, President
I hope you had an amazing break and enjoyed everything the season brings! I absolutely loved spending time with my family, enjoying wonderful meals (and desserts), and seeing some snow! Arguably my favorite thing about break was the time to rest and relax. During the semester it’s always go, go, go, and life seems crazy all. the. time. Do you agree? However, I really like January too! Not because of the coldness and short daylight time, but because it seems to be the only month during second semester that isn’t absolutely crazy. It’s a nice continuation of break and a great time to ease back into a schedule. With that being said, we should try to be productive in January so we can get ahead! I’m planning on filling out a bunch of scholarships, focusing on my grades, and working hard on my FCCLA responsibilities!
Another thing I’m very excited to work on this month is a new toolkit released by the National Office! The National Vice President of Membership, Amitoj Kaur, has created a “Membership Madness” toolkit to support chapters across the nation with membership recruitment during the month of January. This toolkit has everything you could possibly need to reach out to students at your school and encourage them to be a part of FCCLA! As an added bonus, chapters that apply for the Membership Madness toolkit will be entered into a drawing to receive 1 of 5 $50 gift cards! It’s super simple to sign your chapter up and receive the toolkit. There is a short application on the Membership page of the National FCCLA website that opened January 2nd. This application simply asks you to explain how your chapter will be using the toolkit. As mentioned above, January tends to be slower in regards to responsibilities, so this is a great time to work on increasing your membership as a chapter! Also, the Nebraska SOT has introduced a new program this year that will recognize chapters at the State Conference who grow their membership by 7. Chapters will receive a bottle of 7-Up and a certificate on stage!
I know membership recruitment normally happens in August, but why not do it in January also! Members can slowly be introduced to the amazing opportunities Nebraska and National FCCLA offer. New members can watch experienced members compete in STAR and travel to Nationals this summer. They can see the community service projects your chapter is doing and get a feel for what it’s like to be in FCCLA. This is a great opportunity for them to learn and then become more involved come next August. So really, January is a perfect month for membership recruitment! I hope you and your chapter will take full advantage of this FREE toolkit offered to you, and start recruiting new members!