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Prepping for a Record Year: Building Your Chapter’s Calendar with Purpose
If you want to lead your chapter to a record year, you need a calendar that covers competitions, community service, social events and everything in between. Here's how to build one that works.
Go The Extra: High School Program of Leadership
The 2025-2026 High School Division Executive Officer Team is excited to introduce our Program of Leadership. We can’t wait to help members Go The Extra through advocacy, communications and membership engagement.
How to Have the Best First Chapter Meeting
What’s the secret to having the best first chapter meeting of the year? Spoiler: it’s not free donuts. As we approach the start of a new school year, chapter officers need to hold an informative and engaging first meeting.
Taylor’s Version: A Masterclass in Branding, Loyalty and Business Strategy
This moment is a real-time lesson in business strategy, branding and consumer behavior. Here’s why Taylor Swift’s move matters to DECA members and what it teaches us about business and brand identity.
Freshmen Are the Future: How to Spark Interest and Grow Your DECA Chapter
The key to gaining freshmen interest isn’t just handing them a flyer or discussing competition. It's about making them feel welcome, excited and connected. Here’s how to make that happen.
Money Moves: Effective Fundraising for Your Chapter
The best chapters treat fundraising like a business: they plan smart, market well and get creative. Here’s how to make money moves that matter!
DECA Welcomes New Partners in Empowering the Next Generation of Leaders
Please join us in applauding our newest collaborators who are providing realistic insights into business and industry, and promoting meaningful, relevant learning for DECA members.
Announcing the Ultimate DECA Power Trip Keynote Speakers
DECA is pleased to announce that Eddie Slowikowski and Josh Sundquist, will deliver the keynotes during the opening and closing sessions at the 2025 Ultimate DECA Power Trip.
Bee-lieve in the Buzz: East Paulding DECA’s Secret to Chapter Marketing Success
When it comes to marketing your DECA chapter, it’s more than just promotion. It’s about creating visibility and connection – just what East Paulding DECA did with its “Bee The One” theme for the 2024-25 school year.
Get to Know the 2025-2026 Executive Officers
During this year's DECA ICDC in Orlando, members elected the leaders who will serve during the 2025-2026 school year. As the team prepares to Go The Extra this year, take a moment to learn more about the faces behind the blazers and the stories that led them here.
How to Track Your Chapter’s Summer Goals Like a Pro
Summer is the perfect time to build momentum for your DECA chapter. Start small, stay organized, check in often and keep your purpose in focus to turn summer goals into real success when school starts.
Ingredients of Successful Chapter Leadership
Successful management for DECA depends on teamwork, roles, motivation, communication, flexibility, planning and leadership. These are the recipes for a successful team that can do incredible things and learn together.
Video Call Tips and Tricks
Practically overnight, video calls have become a new societal norm. This guide will provide you with a few tips and useful tricks to help improve your online learning or telecommuting experience.
A Quick Guide to Understanding Servant Leadership
The concept of leadership has been around since the days of Aristotle and Plato and has evolved countless times throughout the centuries. But in 1970, a new theory emerged. Developed by Robert Greenleaf, servant leadership is the idea that empowered leaders serve their followers and to enable them to live and work to their full potential.
The Ethics of Leadership
Ethical leaders exist in all walks of life. They are the individuals who step forward when crises occur, come to the rescue of others and generally do what's right—no matter what. Anyone can talk the talk, but can they walk the walk? In today's high-visibility, social world, more people are taking note of leaders’ behavior and holding them accountable.
DECA Direct Magazine: Next Level Leadership
A new school year brings new chances to elevate your leadership to the next level. Discover fresh ideas to enhance your chapter and become a leader worth following in your school, community and beyond.
The Next Level is Inclusion
It has never been more important for emerging leaders to be characterized by teamwork, innovation, competency and integrity. Fortunately, those are the valued characteristics of DECA’s student leaders. What if this moment needs you and the unique values that drive your leadership?
Top Tips for Socially-distant Membership Recruitment
Building your chapter’s membership is one of the most important ways to set it up for success in the new school year. But what are the best ways to recruit within the “new normal” of more virtual interactions and less in-person activities? Learn how to recruit new members the socially-distant way with these top tips.
The Power of the Diamond
Throughout your DECA career, you’ll wear the blazer, throw up a DECA diamond symbol and add lots of blue to your wardrobe. You will also undoubtedly hear DECA’s core values and mission statement more times than you can count. But have you ever stopped to think about what they really mean?
Cultivate Your Chapter’s Culture
2020 is a year that has changed all of our lives. If your DECA chapter has experienced a decline in recent months, struggling to cope with virtual meetings and maintain engagement, your chapter culture may need a boost.
Discover Your DECA Leadership Style
There are hundreds of assessments to help you pinpoint your leadership traits, but the only one you need to take your leadership to the next level is the DECA Leadership Style Quiz.
Influence with Informal Leadership
While you may not have an official leadership title, you still have the ability to help take your chapter to the #NextLevel with your informal leadership influence. Read on to learn more about informal leadership and how you can use it to make this year a success for you and your chapter.
DECA Members Raise $7,000 Through the MDA Muscle Corp Program
DECA members raised over $7,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) this summer through the pilot MDA Muscle Corp Program. Twenty-one DECA members successfully completed the program and earned 40 hours of community service.
Mountain View High School Virtual Recruitment
Like for many chapters, this year’s DECA kickoff meeting was unique for Mountain View High School in Georgia. Even though the meeting was held through Zoom, the chapter still found a way to make it one of their best meetings yet.
