This Tuesday Tipster is for Secondary chapters only.

UPCOMING DEADLINES
The following items must be postmarked on or before Wednesday, January 18, 2012:
Most of these forms are located in the Michigan Guidelines Supplement OR can be downloaded from the documents page of our Web site
1. Barbara Chambers Outstanding Advisor Award Nomination Deadline

2. Chapter of the Year Award Application

3. Michigan BPA Scholarship Application

4. State Executive Council Candidate Application

5. State Service Project Award Application (located in the Michigan Guidelines Supplement)

6. Statesman Torch Award (see info. below)

OTHER UPCOMING DEADLINES
January 23: Visit http://www.michiganbpa.org/national-anthem-singer-at-slc1

UPCOMING EVENTS
January 13, 2012: RLC - Region 4
January 14, 2012: RLC - Region 3

SLC WEB SITE IS AVAILABLE
Visit http://www.michiganbpa.org/state-leadership-conference to view and obtain all the information you need for the SLC. Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page (www.michiganbpa.org/slc-faq) to help save some time as you prepare for the conference.

SLC REGISTRATION BOOKLET & ACCURACY CHECKLIST CORRECTIONS
If you downloaded a copy of the SLC Registration Booklet or the Registration Accuracy Checklist prior to reading this message, please download the revised version from http://www.michiganbpa.org/state-leadership-conference. There have been changes made to the document and the changes are highlighted in yellow.

STUDENTS NOT ATTENDING THE SLC
If you have students that were regional winners and they are **NOT** attending the SLC, please notify your regional advisor AND the state office immediately. We want to contact the alternates for those applicable events.

CONFERENCE REGISTRATION IS OFFICIALLY OPEN
Schools may start registering for the state leadership conference and making hotel reservations via the BPA Scheduler Web site. Conference registration, hotel reservation, and tax exempt status confirmation will be managed through the BPA Scheduler Web site. Make sure you read pages 26-28 of the 2012 SLC Registration Booklet before using the online conference registration system. Failure to do so will result in numerous errors and unnecessary frustration.

All chapters must use the BPA Scheduler registration system in order to sign students up for state competition. The system is located at at http://www.bpascheduler.com. You will need your chapter ID # in order to log in. The chapter ID # serves as your password. If you don't know your chapter ID #, please log into the online membership system at http://www.registermychapter.com/bpamem/ to obtain your six digit chapter ID #. The number begins with "04-XXXX." NOTE: If your school has any outstanding balance for membership dues or regional registration, you will be locked out of BPA Scheduler until your school’s balance is paid in full.

When you go to the BPA Scheduler site, make sure you select the appropriate state (Michigan) and region for your school.

ATTENDANCE ELIGIBILITY
A frequently asked question right now is whether or not a chapter can bring extra students to the conference. Please review the “Attendance Eligibility” section on page 5 of the SLC Registration Booklet for the answer to that question.

RLC AWARD WINNERS ELIGIBLE FOR SLC
Please review Tuesday Tipster #12 (December 13, 2011) for a list of the number of students recognized at the RLCs varies by region. Only the students that fall into the number allowed per region will be allowed to compete in the various state competitions. Any student can compete in open events at the SLC.

NLC VIRTUAL COMPETITORS ELIGIBLE FOR SLC
Students who are officially registered to participate in national virtual competitions sponsored by National BPA are eligible to attend the state leadership conference. Please make sure you have a clear plan of activities such student(s) will participate in during the conference (i.e., open events, legacy launchers, college fair, etc.)

STUDENTS MUST ATTEND ENTIRE WEEKEND
Remember, the Michigan BPA policy is that in order for a student to compete at the SLC, he/she must be a registered and paid hotel guest for the entire conference weekend (minimum Friday and Saturday nights). This conference is about more than just competition. The entire conference includes leadership workshops, networking, service projects, the general sessions (opening, dinner, and awards), and much more. This applies to ALL students. There should not be any back-and-forth travel because this makes you, your school, and BPA liable if anything unfortunate may happen. As stated on page 6 of the SLC registration booklet, anyone who is registered for the conference and discovers they cannot stay at the hotel for the entire weekend will be eligible for a partial refund only. We appreciate everyone’s cooperation in this matter.

GENDER ON HOTEL RESERVATION LIST
When completing your hotel reservation list, please make sure you indicate the gender of all your participants. This is crucial information. This information will be used to help avoid guests of the opposite gender being placed in adjoining rooms with a connecting door.

CHECK INFORMATION ON HOTEL RESERVATON LIST
Please make sure you include the check # and the payor’s name of the check that you send to the hotel. Space to record this information is at the top of the hotel reservation list printout.

SLC PRINTED PROGRAM BOOKLETS
Since many students do not use the program booklets during the conference, all of the information for the SLC will be posted on a mobile Web site. Therefore, schools must indicate the number of printed program booklets when registering online at the BPA Scheduler Web site. There is a statement in the payment section of the site requesting you to enter the number of printed program booklets you need. Some students and advisors may not have Smartphones and may still wish to have a printed program booklet.

PRE-SUBMITTED EVENTS
As you know, there are 11 competitions that are considered mail-in events because they have materials that must be mailed to us prior to the state conference.

Instructions for submitting these events online via our BPA Scheduler Web site can be found online once you logon to the BPA Scheduler site and go to the Competition Listing page.

The Desktop Publishing information will be posted online via a password-protected Web site on January 12, 2012. In addition, instructions for submitting the Graphic Design Promotion material will be posted on our Web site next week.

The pre-submitted events are as follows:
Administrative Support Research Project-Individual
Advanced Interview Skills
Desktop Publishing
Economic Research Project-Individual
Economic Research Project-Team
Entrepreneurship
Global Marketing Team
Graphic Design Promotion ***
Interview Skills
Web Application Team
Web Site Design Team

*** Due to the nature of the materials the contestants prepare, these events will be submitted via U.S. mail. Details will be posted on our SLC Web site

COMPETITIVE EVENT DOCUMENTATION FORMS
Mail-in 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.

SLC TEAM MEMBER CHANGES
Team members may change from each level of competition as long as one original team member remains from the regional level. You will enter all of your team members via the BPA Scheduler Web site by registering the students for their respective team events.

The state office does NOT need to know any team member changes from regional to state at the present time.

CONTESTANT SCHEDULE CONFLICTS
As mentioned at the FLC and as published in the SLC Registration Booklet, we will **NOT** be rescheduling students due to contest conflicts. As printed on page 18 of the SLC registration booklet, students who quality for multiple events that have conflicting times will be allowed to take only one of their events. The next regional qualifier will be permitted to take their spot in the contest they decide to drop. This does **NOT** apply to the following: Saturday’s judged appointment events or the Parliamentary Procedures Concepts-Open Event (for team members only).

PLEASE review all your students contest times now so we can notify the alternate of the event they plan to drop. Please notify your regional advisor AND state office if you have a student dropping a contest because of a particular event might even be someone at your school. Michigan BPA is **NOT** responsible for notifying you of any schedule conflict prior to the conference. If you relied on the state office to catch every single conflict, students who fit this scenario could end up being notified as late as the first day of the conference.

CHAPERONES
Our policy as published on the advisor code of ethics form is that a minimum of two advisors/chaperones is required for ALL chapters. In addition, one advisor and/or chapter is required for every ten students or major portion thereof. (Example: After the 15th student, an additional advisor/chaperone is required, so on and so forth.) During the conference, one chaperone must be designated to remain on your assigned hotel guest room floor at all times. We will contact any school throughout the registration process if they don’t meet this requirement. It is important that we have sufficient supervision at the conference.

Although we appreciate the extra adult supervision, do NOT register an excessive number of chaperones in comparison to the number of students you are bringing (example: two students and 4 adults). Please be conservative, yet follow the policy stated above when making chaperone arrangements.

ADVISOR SLC CONTEST ASSIGNMENTS
If you are a chapter advisor and you are **NOT** attending the SLC, please contact State Director Maurice S. Henderson. We don’t want to assign an advisor to an event if they are not attending the conference. Furthermore, if you did not attend the SLC last year, but are attending this year, please contact us as well. ALL chapter advisors must work a contest at the SLC. More volunteers are needed since we have so many events; therefore, if you have chaperones attending the conference that want to volunteer, please let us know.