Opening Session – Thursday, March 9, 2023 at 9:00 PM EST
General Session – Friday, March 10, 2023 at 9:00 PM EST
Grand Award Session – Saturday March 11, 2023 at 9:30 AM EST
Registration
The conference registration fee will cover two meal vouchers for the Huntington Place food court (can be used anytime during the weekend), registration materials, entertainment on Friday evening (to be announced) and conference administrative expenses.
Only students that are competing at the State Conference may attend the conference.
Refunds
Refunds will be given only if Michigan DECA receives the Refund Request Form to receive your chapter’s refund.
Dress During the Conference
Business attire is required for all scheduled sessions and activities. Delegates’ clothing must be neat and in good repair to compete, attend the sessions, or be allowed on stage.
During free time, shirts must have no bare shoulders, arms, or midriff. Skirts and shorts must be at least fingertip length. No cargo pants, jeans (denim material), T-shirts, sweatshirts, leggings, flip-flop sandals, or athletic shoes of any form will be allowed during the competition or at sessions! Delegates wearing any of these items will be sent to change, before being allowed to compete or attend any conference sessions. Please review the Michigan DECA Dress Code.
Masks are optional.. If face coverings are worn during competition, they cannot display any words or logos that would indicate where the competitor is from.
Schedule
Conference registration will start at 11:00am on Thursday. The first student activity will start at 2:00 p.m. Please be aware and prepared if your event orientation is early, you may not be able to check into your hotel room to change until after 3:00pm.
State Conference T-Shirts
Michigan Alumni DECA is selling State Conference T-shirts again this year. The shirts will be designed around the conference theme, and will be 100% cotton T-shirts. T-shirts are to be pre-ordered with the conference registration via the Conference Registration Portal. If we have any extra shirts available to sell, they will be sold at the Alumni booth on Friday. Please consider to pre-order your shirts when you register for the conference, as the limited number we have to sell are usually sold out early! This fund raiser is designed help Alumni Division so they can sponsor a competitive event to provide more travel scholarships for qualifiers to attend the International Career Development Conference.
Voting Delegates
Number of Voting Delegates per Chapter Membership
According to the Constitution, each chapter is allowed one voting delegate per 40 members or a major fraction thereof. See the table below for the number of voting delegates based on chapter size. The appropriate number of voting delegate ribbons will be included in your chapter’s registration materials. The advisor will distribute the ribbons to the voting delegates for their chapter. Voting Delegates must wear their ribbon to vote. Replacement ribbons will not be provided once a chapter has picked up their registration materials at the conference.
Competitor Eligibility
Substitution Policy
Members of the Michigan DECA Advisor’s Council have volunteered to double check each State Conference registration to be sure that chapters are following the Cancellation and Substitution policy, and that the correct qualifiers from the District Conferences are advancing on to the State Conference. You should fully explain to students that they will not be able to compete if one member of the team is unable for any reason to attend the next level of competition.
Competition Items
Each participant is expected to have a pen or pencil and a calculator for competition. Other items (workbooks, notebooks, handouts, etc.) are not allowed. Cell phones, smartphones, smartwatches, iPads, iPods, AirPods/wireless or wired earbuds, PDAs, programmable calculators, and graphing calculators may not be used or worn during competition, which includes during online testing, prep-time, waiting for judges, and during competition in role-play events.
Written Events
All Written Events will compete on Thursday from 3:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. Written Event participants will have their orientation at 2:00 p.m. on Thursday. There will be one interview with one or two judges. All written event participants are required to take either the math or economics evaluation.
All written events (except the Chapter Awards Program) will need to be uploaded to the Chapter Registration Portal by February 15, 2023. Complete instructions on how to upload projects have been posted on the Written Event webpage and the Forms page.
Students will not be able to use the hotel or convention center internet for their event presentations, because that would involve asking someone else to help them with their equipment. (Refer to the event’s presentation guidelines.) You may use an internet aircard or personal hotspot with your own computer if you have one. But we caution that it could be difficult to receive and maintain a connection due to so many people using cell phones while at the conference. If you lose connection, you will not be given additional time. Our suggestion is to save anything that you might want to reference directly onto the computer.
Applied Certification Exams
Delegates are required to take one of the following exams on Friday. (Students have the option to take all if desired.) A certificate will be awarded to those who achieve minimum proficiency on each exam. The top ten participants on each test will receive special recognition.
Certificates of Excellence
Michigan DECA will issue Certificates of Excellence to all competitors that receive an average score above 70% during competition. The certificates will be mailed to chapter advisers several weeks after the conference.Face
Parents and family members are welcome to stay with Michigan DECA in our hotels, but they are considered part of the Michigan delegation, so they must also register for the conference and pay the registration fee. They will need to be included on the same registration form as the chapter, and adhere to the same deadlines and Code of Conduct for students and adults, even if they are paying their portion on their own. All fees should be paid to the chapter, who in turn pays Michigan DECA and the assigned hotel. Our group booking procedures for hotels do not allow for the use of reward points or vouchers towards the payment.(form
All delegates (adult and student) must wear their name badges and wrist bands at all times. No one will be admitted to conference activities without a name badge and wrist band. If a delegate loses their wrist band or name badge, a replacement may be obtained in the conference headquarters for $5.00 each. Delegates will be required to show identification for a replacement name badge or must have their Advisor with them.
Advisors
To have a successful conference, adults will need to assist with the conference. Advisors will be pre-assigned by members of the Advisor’s Council to work a competitive event. All individuals are required to assist during their assigned time. Because this assistance is important, advisors who do not assist during their entire assigned time, will have letters stressing the importance of their assistance and their absence sent to their school principal.
Advisor Reception & Recognition
The Michigan Marketing Educators (MME) and Michigan DECA will host a reception and recognition session for all advisors.
Chaperones
All chaperones attending the conference will also be responsible to assist with conference management and supervision. All chaperones are required to pay the conference registration fee.
Supervision
At least one (1) adult must attend and pay the registration fee for every ten (10) student delegates attending. Advisors/chaperones must attend and be seated with their students during all sessions to assure proper dress and conduct (behavior) during the sessions.
Curfew
All students must be in their own room at curfew. No chapter activities (meetings, practice sessions, etc.) may be conducted after curfew, even if it takes place in their Advisor’s room. No food may be delivered to any room after curfew.
Code of Conduct & COVID Liability and Waiver Forms
Each delegate, student and adult, must sign the Code of Conduct Form. This form must be hand-carried to the conference and kept by the Chapter Advisor. Do not send them to the Michigan DECA office.
Each delegate, student and adult, must sign the COVID Liability and Waiver Form. A completed and fully signed form is required for all attendees, and must be turned in to conference headquarters upon arrival at the conference.
No alcoholic beverages or drugs may be possessed by any delegate at the conference. This is a school function. Delegates may not enter the lounges at the hotels. Students suspected of being under the influence of alcohol will be required to take a breath alcohol test as specified by state law. A uniformed police officer will be on site during the evening hours of the conference.
Private Autos at the Conference
The use of private automobiles will not be permitted after arrival at the conference. Car doors shall be locked upon arrival, and the keys turned over to the chapter advisor.
March 14-16, 2024 – State Career Development Conference – Detroit, MI
