This Tuesday Tipster is for Postsecondary chapters only.

UPCOMING DEADLINES
January 18: Statesman Torch Award deadline
January 30: Enter all dues-paying student members in online membership registration system
February 1: Dues payment deadline
February 1: State Leadership Conference registration deadline

UPCOMING EVENTS
February 11: State Leadership Conference (Northwood University, Midland, MI)

SLC ATTENDANCE
Remember, if you are *NOT* going to participate in the postsecondary state leadership conference or you are no longer active in BPA, please let me know. This will allow us to better plan the day's events if we know right away what chapters will or will not be participating.

ADDING ADDITIONAL MEMBERS
You can add additional members up until January 30, 2012. You can add these additional members by going online to the http://www.registermychapter.com/bpamem/. Remember, all dues payments must be received at both the state and national offices on or before February 1, 2012. Both offices accept MasterCard and VISA if you wish to pay via credit card. If you wish to use a credit card to pay for you state membership dues, please visit http://www.michiganbpa.org/credit.

SLC REGISTRATION BOOKLET
The state conference registration booklet was posted online on December 6, 2011. The BPA Scheduler Web site for registering for the conference is not open at the present time. Please stay tuned for more information. A hard copy will *NOT* be sent via U.S. mail. The specific page to visit is http://www.michiganbpa.org/postsecondary.

BPA SCHEDULER REGISTRATION IS OPEN
Registration for the Michigan BPA Postsecondary State Leadership Conference located at http://www.bpascheduler.com. Each chapter must use this Web site in order to register students for their competitions for the state conference. Your password to use the site is your six digit chapter ID number which starts with "04" such as "04-xxxx."

MEMBERSHIP VERIFICATION & DUES PAYMENTS
Schools with any outstanding balances for state and/or national dues or other items will not be allowed to register or compete at the SLC. If your school fits this category, you will be notified via e-mail on a weekly basis. Please continue to handle these matters expeditiously.

COMPETITIVE EVENT DOCUMENTATION FORMS
Event Documentation/Entry Forms (in Word Format) are posted online at
http://www.bpa.org/compete.aspx?div=ps&go=eventdownload. You will need the following documents:
*** Individual Event Entry Form and Statement of Originality
*** Team Event Entry Form and Statement of Originality
*** Release Form

Handwritten forms will NOT be accepted and will result in disqualification. Obviously, if there is an area where it tells the student to print or sign his/her name, handwriting is allowed in that spot.

REPEAT: Handwritten forms will NOT be accepted and will result in DISQUALIFICATION.

Remember, if you want to look up your student's contestant numbers to include on these forms, please logon to the membership registration system at http://www.registermychapter.com/bpamem/ and click on "Enter/View Your Members" and then "List All." The 10-digit number that is next to the students' names will be their contestant # for the SLC.

NOTE: Events are not pre-submitted in advance for the Postsecondary SLC. You will bring everything with you to the state conference.

STUDENT DISQUALIFICATION
Please make sure your students are following instructions for any event they are participating in. Remember, if the Style & Reference Manual is not followed, jobs in the administrative support events will not be graded resulting in a score of zero. Furthermore, not following some of the various the guidelines in the WSAP Guidelines 2012, especially as it relates to judged events, can result in disqualification. The judges rating sheet/scoring rubrics do not provide much flexibility or give instructions on how points should be deducted if certain instructions are not followed. Therefore, not following instructions as published in the WSAP Guidelines 2012 for any event can result in automatic disqualifications. Please review the guidelines carefully.

APPROVED CALCULATORS
Please remember that for any student competing in an event that allows a calculator, BPA will follow the guidelines approved by ACT. Please make sure you review the type of calculator your student(s) have as published at http://www.actstudent.org/faq/answers/calculator.html. I have just printed the prohibited calculator list from this site. Therefore, for the SLC we will use the information that is posted as of today. Contestants who violate the rules published on the ACT guidelines will be disqualified.

Per Michigan BPA policy, calculators on cell phones are prohibited as well. Use of cell phone calculators will result in disqualification. Keep in mind that cell phone use during any event will result in disqualification anyway.