Event Guidelines

Membership Policy

To be eligible to compete in Michigan DECA’s competitive events program, the student must be a paid member of Michigan and National DECA and enrolled in or a completer of a marketing education program.

Tie Breaking Procedures:

  1. At all conferences, the decisions of the judges are final. Michigan DECA will not re-evaluate the judges’ decisions. Michigan DECA will investigate, and if necessary correct any tabulation errors.
  2. In the event that there is a tie between overall finalists at the State Conference in an event with an occupational exam, the comprehensive exam score will be used to break the tie, followed by the participatory event score for the event labeled “1”, then followed by the participatory event score for the event labeled “2”.
  3. In the event that there is a tie between overall finalists at the State Conference in an event without a comprehensive exam, the tie will be broken by the score for the interview, then the judges’ overall impression, followed by the categories worth the most points.

Please note that there are usually several excellent projects and competitors. The difference between first and second place could be as little as one point.  All decisions of the judges are final.

District Conference Competition Guidelines

  • Schools with 50 or less members by October 31: Each local school (area career center or comprehensive high school) may send a maximum of four (4) participants to each individual event. Two (2) teams in each TDM event and one (1) person or team will be allowed in the Advertising Campaign, Entrepreneurship Participating, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event, Professional Selling Event and the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan Event. This will allow a maximum of 96 participants per school. Chapters with 100% membership will be allowed an additional participant or team in each event.
  • Schools with 51 to 99 members by October 31: Each local school (area career center or comprehensive high school) may send a maximum of five (5) participants in each individual event. Two (2) teams in each TDM event, and three (3) registrants or teams will be allowed in the Advertising Campaign, Entrepreneurship Participating, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event, Professional Selling Event and the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan Event. This will allow a maximum of 127 participants per school. Chapters with 100% membership will be allowed an additional participant or team in each event.
  • Schools with 100 or more members by October 31: Each local school (area career center or comprehensive high school) may send a maximum of six (6) participants in each individual event. Three (3) teams in each TDM event, and four (4) registrants or teams will be allowed in the Advertising Campaign, Entrepreneurship Participating, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event, Professional Selling Event and the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan Event. This will allow a maximum of 164 participants per school. Chapters with 100% membership will be allowed an additional participant or team in each event.
  • Schools that submit their membership roster after November 30: Each local school (area career center or comprehensive high school) may send a maximum of three (3) participants in each individual event. Two (2) teams in each TDM event, and two (2) registrants or teams will be allowed in the Advertising Campaign, Entrepreneurship Participating, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event, Professional Selling Event and the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan Event. This will allow a maximum of 89 participants per school. Chapters with 100% membership submitting late rosters will not be allowed the additional participants.

State Conference Competition Guidelines

  • The number of participants for each district will be determined annually, upon receipt of the fall memberships received by November 30, as a percentage of the total state-wide DECA membership. Each district will be guaranteed a minimum of four (4) participants, per individual event, and a maximum of ten (10) participants at the State Career Development Conference. There will be 68 participants for each individual event, and 50 for each Team Decision Making Event at the SCDC.
  • If there is an extra slot(s) due to rounding, it will be given to the smallest district(s).
  • The following table lists the number of entries allowed per chapter for each written event at the SCDC.
    •   Two Entries per Chapter Three Entries per Chapter
        Community Service Project   Business Services Operations Research
        Creative Marketing Project   Buying and Merchandising Operations Research
        Entrepreneurship Promotion Project   Entrepreneurship Written
        Financial Literacy Promotion Project   Finance Operations Research
        Learn and Earn Project   International Business Plan
        Public Relations Project   Hospitality and Tourism Operations Research
            Sports and Entertainment Marketing Operations Research
  • Competitors in the Advertising Campaign, Entrepreneurship Participating, Fashion Merchandising Promotion Plan, Hospitality and Tourism Professional Selling Event, Professional Selling Event and the Sports and Entertainment Promotion Plan Event must qualify at their respective District Conference to compete at the SCDC. The top three places at each District Conference will advance to the State Conference, for a total of 24 entries. These competitors must submit their projects by February 17, 2012 for the Written Event Screening, in order to compete at the State Conference.
  • If an event at a District Conference has less students competing than the number of qualifiers allocated for the state conference for that district, then the number of qualifiers will be reduced to half of the allocation. This is done because each student competing at the State Conference must earn their way there by placing at their District Conference.
  • Participants in the Stock Market Game and Virtual Business Challenge will not compete at the State Conference. Instead they will qualify for the International Conference through the process established by DECA Inc. Students in these events that are advancing directly to the International Conference, will be invited to exhibit their entries at the State Conference.
  • Participants in the 7-Up Challenge will not compete at the State Conference. Instead they will qualify for the International Conference through the process established by DECA Inc.
  • Schools participating in the School Based Enterprise must mail their project to National DECA to be received before January 13, 2012. Chapters that receive the Gold Certification have the option to have these students attend the State Conference to be interviewed on Friday. (If a student is in another event with an interview on Friday, they will not be able to participate in this interview.) The top five teams will receive recognition at the Saturday Night Awards Session. Teams that receive the Gold Certification do not have to attend the State Conference; they can advance directly to the International Conference.