Jeffrey Victor

How to Role Play

By: Dana Schoolsky

With District Conferences around the corner, it’s time to start preparing how to tackle your Role Play events. Whether you’re an individual competitor or part of a team event, these steps will help you ace that Role Play!

Step 1: Introduce yourself to your judge. It’s important that you state your name, shake his/her hand, and politely ask if you may take a seat.

Step 2: Go over your agenda. Tell the judge who you are, why you’re meeting, and what you will discuss. It can be helpful for you to play a character, perhaps an employee at the company. Act the part confidently!

Step 3: In your agenda, include the Performance Indicators. Tell your judge up front that you will be discussing A,B,C,D,F. Then, he or she will know what to expect and you’ve already stated the PIs… now it’s time to elaborate on each of them.

Step 4: Explain all the details for each Performance Indicator as related to the scenario. Go in-depth on ones you’re more comfortable with, but be sure to discuss ALL of them.

Step 5: Use visual aids! If the scenario lends itself to you drawing a poster, drafting a social media post, or even making a business card, go for it! Judges love the extra effort and it really goes to show that you put lots of effort and thought into your presentation. It doesn’t matter if it’s the most artistic-looking visual aid, anything is appreciated. If you don’t have time to make anything, do not stress at all, these aren’t required by any means, they are just something that can make you stand out.

Step 6: After you’ve addressed the problem and introduced a solution, sum everything up and plan a “follow-up”. In the real world, meetings don’t end after the given time period set for them; there is always a follow-up call, email, etc. Remind your judge that he/she “has your contact information” and should feel free to reach out anytime. It makes the situation seem realistic.

Step 7: Thank the judge for his/her time and wish him/her well. Congrats! You made it through your DECA Role Play 🙂

Some general tips:

• Be creative, but not too far-fetched. You don’t want to be so unrealistic that your judge thinks you don’t know your stuff (don’t make first year projections too high, don’t expect that a celebrity would love to be a part of your small-shop campaign).
• Know your buzz words! Learn commonly used vocabulary for your specific event, whether it be accounting terms or auto-motive terms, and even learn some general marketing terms! It really shows that you know what you’re talking about if you can utilize the proper jargon.
• Be confident! Silence is better than “um” or “like”, and when you make eye-contact, have good posture, and handle yourself professionally, it will read very well. Don’t forget to smile, and don’t be too uptight! Judges are humans too.
• Have fun!!!! DECA provides invaluable, applicable experience that is hard to come by. Don’t stress yourself out if it doesn’t go exactly how you planned it- that’s life. Just give it your all and be yourself.

Introducing Member & Advisor of the Month

By: Nicholas Brophy, Central Region Vice President

Member of the Month

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYeH6MIxISo5W5vx0Fy2CXdo868jyJ4ukQ3tyTd9PgLM7HWQ/viewform

Once again, students may be nominated to be elected as a New Jersey DECA Member of the Month. These students are motivated, dedicated, and remain #NJDECABOLD leaders throughout their school and state communities. They are hardworking members who stand out for their perseverance and contributions to their DECA chapters. Both members and advisors alike are encouraged to use the form on the New Jersey DECA website in order to nominate these outstanding students.

Advisor of the Month

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScdbb2zrnkMbaqfY8kDnVr_X6olGlnNLL509K8Ee4Cl1aEeog/viewform

New to this year is the Advisor of the Month. Not only are our members #NJDECABOLD, but so are the advisors, who spend countless hours leading their students to success. Their dedication and guidance, as well as their contributions to New Jersey DECA, deserve to be recognized. There is a form on the New Jersey DECA website that can be used by members or advisors to nominate advisors that are major influences on both their chapter and the entire state.

The forms are open continuously, and the nominations will be evaluated at the end of each month by the State Action Team, in order to select one Member and one Advisor of the Month.        These individuals will be recognized on social media, and will be given a certificate for their hard work and commitment to staying #NJDECABOLD. The State Action Team looks forward to acknowledging these individuals, and is excited for a year of competition, development, and accomplishments.

President’s Welcome

By: Dana Schoolsky, President

Hi New Jersey DECA members! I’m Dana Schoolsky and I will be representing you this year as your State President.

I cannot begin to express the excitement that I have for the year we have ahead. We will be making new traditions and breaking old ones. One thing that my team and I aspire to work towards is connecting with our members on a personal level and reaching out so that we can gain your feedback to make NJ DECA the best it can possibly be. Your thoughts and ideas are important to us so never hesitate to reach out to me or to anyone on the officer team!

Additionally, we know that this year our numbers can and will continue to grow! Our team is looking forward to expanding our social media presence so that we can inform current members of everything that is happening, but we need your help as members and advisors to spread the passion and love for DECA that we all share so that we can fuel even more involvement and take even more students to ICDC in Orlando.

Your officers and I promise that we will stop at nothing to make your 2018-2019 year incredible. We’re all #ReadyForIt and we hope that you will join us in being #NJDECABOLD!

How to Choose a Competitive Event

by Dustin Rosenfeld, Recording Secretary

Competing at DECA conferences is a great way to build fundamental skills in problem-solving, communication, and presentation, and can provide useful experience with real-life applications. Finding a competitive event that fits you best is an important first step to succeeding at Districts, SCDC, and ICDC. Settling on just one competitive event may seem daunting, but it doesn’t have to be.

Consider your own skillset. Do you perform better in a team or riding solo? Do you love the challenge of thinking on the fly, or do you relish the comfort of a prepared presentation? What business topics peak your curiosity? These are all questions to ask yourself when choosing a competitive event, and the following guide can help make the decision much easier.

Go With What You Know

Are you in a marketing class? Do you read fashion magazines? Have you worked at a restaurant? Your past (or present) experience can make all the difference during competition. I have always competed in the Accounting Applications category, and I was inspired to pick that competitive event because, at the time of registration, I was enrolled in an accounting class. The same strategy can be used by the avid Vogue reader or the Starbucks barista. The information learned outside of DECA transfers naturally to the roleplay. So, when in doubt, go with what you know.

Too Many Cooks…

As the saying goes, too many cooks spoil the broth. In other words, pick an event with the number of partners that suits you best. If you work best maintaining control of the conversation and savor a silent prep time, solo events are your best bet. If bouncing ideas off another person create the best presentation, Team Decision Making events are for you. If you want to work in a larger group, taking your time in producing the best work, consider entering a prepared written paper event. In the end, it all comes down to choosing the environment that best fosters success.

Consider All Your Options

The standard roleplay scenario isn’t for everyone. Luckily, DECA offers a plethora of options that extend beyond the confines of the typical competitive events. Do you trade penny stocks? Consider playing the Stock Market Game.  The gamers of DECA may have a knack for the Virtual Business Challenges. Those with an eye for detail might wish to enter a Professional Selling competition. Before you choose an event, consider all your options. Whatever skills you bring to the table, DECA has a way for you to express them.

Ultimately, the choice of a competitive event is yours. You won’t go wrong, but strategizing your selection will help make everything go right.

How to Approach Your Chapter Campaigns

By: Alexander Ruhl, Northern Region Vice President

Chapter campaigns are a great way to get your chapter involved in a variety of activities ranging from increasing chapter size to community service. The completion of campaigns will result in chapters gaining various academy allocations at ICDC. A summary of the chapter campaigns is provided at https://www.deca.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Campaign-Guidebook.pdf.

One of the most common chapter campaigns is the community service campaign. In order to complete the community service campaign, a chapter needs to have at least one community service activity where at least 75% of the chapter participates. This event has to use at least one form of promotion in order to fulfill all the requirements for the campaign. One way of getting 75% of a chapter to participate in the community service activity is to establish a system of hours requirement. This system is used at the Ridgewood High School (RHS) chapter and requires every chapter member to have a certain number of hours to compete at each level of competition. For example, two hours are required for any member to compete at districts, four hours for SCDC and six hours for ICDC. Hours are gained by members volunteering at RHS DECA sponsored events such as the community service activity.

Another popular chapter campaign is the membership campaign. In order to reach achievement level for this campaign one out of the three tasks are required. The three tasks are 20 more members than the previous year, 20 alumni members or 20 professional members. If two of the three tasks are completed, Thrive level is achieved and the chapter gains three allocations for the thrive academy at ICDC. An extra incentive for chapters to complete the membership task is that a chapter will receive one DECA blazer for the chapter for every 10 new members are added over their previous year’s membership.