FCCLA Chapters are invited to learn "Beyond Measure" at Virtual Leadership Experience

Family, Career and Community Leaders of America (FCCLA) is excited to offer our first-ever Virtual Leadership Experience (VLE) to enrich the resources available to chapter advisers and members during the 2020-2021 school year. Starting December 8 and to be hosted through February 12, 2021, chapters registered for VLE will have the opportunity to hear from motivational speakers, strengthen real world skills, navigate a College and Industry Resource Fair, meet the 2020-2021 National Executive Council, explore Career Pathways, discover National Program presentations, compete in Skill Demonstration Events and the FCCLA/LifeSmarts Knowledge Bowl and more.

All affiliated FCCLA chapters are invited to attend. Instead of registering individually, an entire chapter can register for $150, which provides access to every affiliated adviser and member to attend. More information can be found at fcclainc.org.

Crook County’s own FaithHoney Anderson encourages chapters to register and participate in VLE from her position as National Vice President of Development on the 2020-21 National Executive Council. Along with nine other officers on the National Executive Council, FaithHoney serves on board committees, interacts with members during conferences and represents over 181,000 members at a national level.

Her duties include reaching out to potential partners and sponsors and engaging members in different national initiatives. Being elected a national officer is the highest leadership honor an FCCLA member can achieve.

“I joined FCCLA simply because of the opportunity to travel, but after my first National Leadership Conference in Nashville during the summer of 2017, I was hooked,” she says.

The 2020 National Leadership Conference theme was “Your Story, Our Story” and was slated to be held in Washington, D.C. in July. The organization wrote a unique chapter in their story when the conference was moved to a virtual platform, which created a distinct difference in the campaign process for the 34 national officer candidates.

The process to run for a national office began for FaithHoney in the spring of 2020 by completing an application and giving a speech at the virtual Wyoming FCCLA State Convention. After voting delegates elected her as the Wyoming National Officer Candidate, she waited until mid-June to find out whether her application had been selected to advance to Top 20 by a nominating committee comprised of members from throughout the nation.

After the first cut, candidates participated in a virtual networking session with voting delegates from each state as well as Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. Then FaithHoney completed a 50 question FCCLA knowledge test and filmed her speech that was sent to the national voting delegates.

The top 10 candidates receiving the most votes are elected to the National Executive Council. Each person is elected to their specific office by those on the NEC. The candidates are not allowed to campaign and since face-to-face networking was not possible, they used social media to connect with members across the nation.

In August, the 2020-21 National Executive Council (the Zoomers) traveled to the national headquarters in Reston, Virginia for their summer planning meeting. FaithHoney is excited to be serving FCCLA throughout the year until the 2021 National Leadership Conference themed Beyond Measure, scheduled to take place in Nashville in June.

FaithHoney is a senior at Wyoming Virtual Academy and a member of the Wright FCCLA chapter. As a four-year member, she says about FCCLA: “The incredible networking and leadership skills I have learned have helped form some of the greatest friendships and connections that will last a lifetime.”

She credits her success to the incredible support of her advisor April Kirkham as well as her family. She served as the FCCLA Wyoming State Parliamentarian in 2019-2020 and a District Officer in 2018-2019.

Submitted by FaithHoney Anderson