This Tuesday Tipster is for Secondary chapters only. The weekly updates will probably continue to be long until after all the SLC deadlines have passed. You may want to print this message since there is a lot to read.

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
January 27: Deadline to receive the BPA TV video clip (see below)

BPA TV...SEE YOUR CHAPTER ON THE BIG SCREEN!
For the first time ever we will have constant streaming of BPA news in the hotel rooms at the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel and on a large TV screen in the Center Concourse during the state leadership conference. Does your chapter
want some screen time? Please send in photos and videos of your chapter or students at the regional leadership conference, completing community service activities, conducting fundraisers, and more. Look at the information sheet entitled "SLC Video Submission" on the documents page of our Web site. The deadline to mail your entries to the Michigan BPA's State Office is January 27, 2012. Schools may submit more than one video.

***IMPORTANT*** WSAP GUIDELINES FOR STATE COMPETITION
The WSAP Guidelines and ancillary documents have been updated quite a bit this year. In order to make sure everyone is on the same page for state competition, the official version that will be used for the SLC is posted
online at http://www.michiganbpa.org/documents. This is the version you should provide to your students as they prepare for competition. (See note below regarding "Pre-submitted Events.")

SLC REGISTRATION PROCESSING CHANGES
Since the payment section of the BPA Scheduler Web site is now set up in such a way that you can enter and save your registration dollar amounts, you no longer need to mail anything to the state office UNTIL you are ready to submit a check for payment. Once your check is ready, please mail the SLC Registration Payment Summary/Student Listing printout and your check or money order to the State Office.

If you are paying via credit card, you do NOT need to mail any sort of hard copy documentation of your SLC Registration Payment Summary/Student Listing printout.

We no longer need you to mail hard copies of your hotel reservation listing. We will print those documents from the BPA Scheduler Web site.

STOP: Please read this section again so you can make sure you understand if you do or do not need to mail anything to the state office in terms of SLC registration.

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.

SLC FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Visit the Frequently Asked Questions page (www.michiganbpa.org/slc-faq) to help save some time as you prepare for the conference.

BPA SCHEDULER REGISTRATION LOCK OUT
If your chapter still has not resolved the issue of submitting any past due advisor code of ethics forms, payment for regional conference registration, payment for state dues, or payment for national dues, your school is still locked out of the BPA Scheduler Web site. Such chapters will NOT be able to register for the state conference or make hotel reservations until the missing items are RECEIVED. Furthermore, please note that if these items are not resolved before the February 1, 2012 registration deadline, late fees will apply to state conference registration. Being locked out of the BPA Scheduler site due to missing previous deadlines and not resolving previous issues does not qualify for
exemption from missing the state conference registration deadline.

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.

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.

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.)

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.

JOB APPLICATIONS FOR INTERVIEW SKILLS & ADVANCED INTERVIEW SKILLS
The electronic version (Word format) of the job application for Interview Skills and Advanced Interview Skills are posted online on the documents page of our Web site. Please note that even though the files may say Regional 2012, the form has not changed and therefore, the students can use the form and won´t be penalized.

Contestants must download, complete, and save their job application in PDF format. This job application must be uploaded to the BPA Scheduler along with their other documents required for the event.

The job application can be a separate PDF and does NOT need to be saved in the same PDF file as the cover letter and resume. Any job application documents should be saved appropriately as "IS_APP_XX_XXXX_XXX" or "AIS_APP_XX_XXXX_XXX." Obviously, the X´s indicate the student´s contestant number.

If you wish, you can indeed include the job application as a part of the one single PDF document containing the resume and cover letter.

The application must be submitted by the same deadline as the other materials for this event. In addition, a signed copy of the job application must be turned in on site at the SLC.

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 was posted online via a password-protected Web site on January 12, 2012. In addition, a memo with instructions for submitting the Graphic Design Promotion material is posted online at http://www.michiganbpa.org/state-leadership-conference.

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

Make sure students are following the guidelines in the SLC edition of the WSAP Guidelines when preparing materials for these competitions. (See message above regarding "WSAP Guidelines for State Competition.")

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.

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.