Issue 1

September 27th, 2019

This year, Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) State Leadership Conference (SLC), Key Clubs District Convention (DCON) and the Regional First Robotics Competition (FRC) tournament overlapped during the weekend of March 20 through 23. This led to members of these clubs having to work around being at both SLC and either Robotics or DCON.

Many of the clubs at Rose main events are usually held in the spring. This makes these events overlap, as SLC and FRC do every year, and in addition with DECON as well this year.

Key Club advisor Molly Chandler took four of her members to DCON this year who also attended FBLA states. Members of both clubs had to communicate with their FBLA leaders

Photo by Maya Swaggerty

about working around the schedule of both

DCON and FBLA states.

“Time management and communication [was key],” FBLA and Key Club member Jaclyn Buckman said. “[When you] email people they’re really understanding when you give them a heads up.”

Junior Sandul Gunerthne is a member of the Pitt Pirates Robotics team and FBLA. He attended SLC and had an FRC tournament, so he had to work around going from SLC in Greensboro on March 20 through March 22 back to Greenville on the afternoon of March 22 where the FRC tournament was held at D. H. Conley High School.

“[It was] really tough because [I had to] leave early from FBLA to go to Robotics [in Greenville],” Gunerthne said.

Junior and Key Club President, Lorian McGillicuddy, also had to work around states and DCON being the same weekend. She had to prepare and hope to make it in time to deliver her speech for Lieutenant Governor over all of the Key Clubs in Pitt County.

“It ended up working out fine, I got to the meeting on time but it was a really tight crunch,” McGillicuddy said. “I got there around 5:30pm and the meeting that I needed to be there for was at 6:00pm, so I had to really quickly turn around [and] run up to the hotel and freshen up before running straight back down to the meeting.”

The SLC is an important event that North Carolina FBLA puts on each year. Students spent time preparing their presentations either individually or with their group, so it was important that members from both Key Club and Robotics didn’t rush out to make it to either Key Club or Robotics.

DCON is also one of Key Club’s main events that they put on each year so it was important that members from FBLA made it for most of the convention. This is where people from Key Clubs from North and South Carolina can meet and find out even more about Key Club.

“The main objective is to really spread love for Key Club and make others aware of what Key Club is, what they do, [and] who our partnerships [are],” McGillicuddy said. “That way moving forward if you are interested in becoming an officer you know what you're talking about and what's happening in Key Club moving forward.”