One of the main purposes of marketing an FBLA chapter is to appeal to more students and gain new members. Besides increasing membership, marketing will facilitate awareness of FBLA and increase motivation within the organization. Most of the students who involve themselves in FBLA have a desire to enter business as a career or use FBLA as a platform for leadership. However, in order to appeal to more students with other interests, your chapter will have to expose students to many of the other opportunities that FBLA offers. This exposure can occur through a school dance. By hosting an FBLA Dance Social, your chapter will not only increase student interest in the organization, but it can also serve as a social activity, fundraiser, community outreach, and leadership opportunity.

To host the dance, your chapter officers and adviser will have to make many decisions including: the theme of the dance, the cost of admission, the music selection, which music provider, the location, which chaperones, and whether to offer refreshments. After the details are worked out, you will have to advertise the dance; this can be done through flyers and school announcements. Once everyone is informed about this dance social, everyone will want to attend!

Through careful planning and effective advertising, you will be able to market FBLA to a new group of students. Hopefully, many chapters will start having annual Dance Socials.

Many times when people fundraise, they look for the big bucks, but they do not count the little change. When you ask for change, it may not seem like a lot at the moment, but coins add up quickly. A great way to raise money is to start The Coin War, thus creating a nickel curtain between the classes.

The idea of The Coin War is to raise money by having a competition between the classes. How it works: a penny is worth one point, a nickel is worth five points, a dime is worth ten points, and so on and so forth. The catch is that bills are allowed, a dollar is worth minus 100 points, and so on and so forth. Each class puts change in their bucket and bills in other classes’ buckets, therefore, gaining points while making the other class lose points. The winner of the competition is the class with the most points. The Coin War is a great way to increase school spirit and raise money.

With The Coin War you will need to:

• Decide when money will be collected
• Have money collecting bins
• Publicize
• Find volunteers to collect and count money
• Decide upon a reward

To have this fundraiser it may be smart to enlist students who walk around during lunch or free periods collecting money. Lunch is especially a good time as most participants have change in their pockets. These enlisted students remind participants that there is a fundraiser. The enlisted students can also announce scores, thus increasing competition and donations.

In addition, you need to have a way to collect the money. Collecting money can occur through a variety of methods. Maybe you can get a couple of students to decorate the container for their grade level. There should be several different containers. Maybe some containers can be placed in the main office and others can be placed in the cafeteria or down hallways.

Once you have decided upon a time frame, you need to publicize, publicize, and publicize. If the students do not know that you are having a fundraiser than they cannot donate money. You need to make sure that all the students know about the fundraiser, how long it will last, and how they can help.

Next you will need to find volunteers. You will need helpers to carry the cans around at lunch or between classes. You also will need helpers to count the money after it is raised. The more volunteers, the more effective, efficient, and timely the fundraiser will be.

Lastly, you need to decide if you are going to give a reward to the winning class. This is recommended because this will give the students an incentive to donate money. Prizes could be an out of dress code day where students can wear hats or offering discounted tickets to a school event.

As the year comes to a close, your local chapter reflects on every measure taken and every splash made to make this year in Georgia FBLA the best it could be. You’ve dived in with a plethora of membership campaigns, made waves with your impact, and you’ve soaked up success with large numbers and even larger events. Now that the year is rounding off, what do you do next? Keep recruiting! While it may be a little late for your potential members to get involved on the state level, your local chapter can host plenty of events to keep the ball rolling!

• Plan a movie night for FBLA members and encourage them to bring along a non-member. Seeing your chapter’s awesome members interact in normal ways will make them feel right at home! (The Social Network and The Wall Street series is recommended—or any business-savvy movie!)
• Host your school’s talent show! A great way for the faces of FBLA to be recognized is through the organization of events. When non-members see the hard work that goes behind something as simple as the lighting for a solo dancer, they’ll feel compelled to be a part of our organization.
• Come up with a community service project! Visit your local elementary school for a short and interactive session on American Enterprise Day or do some free flyers for a community business. Volunteering in and around your neighborhood is a surefire way to bond and spread excitement.

It’s been a wonderful year recruiting with the local chapters of Georgia FBLA. Together, our little waves have made one huge splash to continue our distinction as the premiere state chapter of the leading national organization for students interested in business!