On Wednesday, January 18, 445 Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) students and advisers arrived at Appling County High School to attend the Region 2 Leadership Conference. These students and advisers represented 21 counties in southeast Georgia. Appling County High School’s FBLA served as hosts and advisers, Trudy Greenway and Alison Lamb, were responsible for planning the conference. The purpose of the region conference is for students to compete in performance event areas such as Business Presentations, Client Service, Emerging Business Issues, Impromptu Speaking, Public Speaking I and II, and Job Interview. In addition to the performance events, members of Georgia FBLA also compete online in objective testing and skill testing prior to arriving at the conference. While attending the conference, FBLA members attend workshops conducted by region and state FBLA officers. The culmination of the Region Leadership Conference is the Awards Ceremony where students await to see if they will advance to the State Leadership Conference in Atlanta, Georgia to be held in March.
This year, Appling County High School had a total of 15 students to compete at the Region level. Receiving medals and earning a trip to the stage were Taylor Dominy, Autumn Bellew, Sam Rentz, and Cole Ursrey. Taylor Dominy will advance to State in the areas of Business Calculations and Business Communications where she placed 2nd in Business Calculations and 7th in Business Communications at the Region level. Cole Ursrey also advances to state competition with his 4th place win in Introduction to Technology Concepts. Sam Rentz who placed 3rd in Introduction to Business Communication will also advance to the state level of competitions. Autumn Bellew placed 2nd in Future Business Leader at Region competition.
Laura Ammons, Rachel Snow, Caleb Wright, Haley Simmons, Meghan Simmons, Brooke Sikes, Haleigh Taylor, Emily Knight, Usha Reddy, Hope Hutchinson, Elijah Manning, Haven Hutchinson, Larra Williams, Alonna Edenfield, and Autumn Bellew all either attended, competed, and/or assisted judges at the Region Leadership conference.
The advisers would like to thank the many community representatives, teachers, and administrators that donated their time in order to make this conference a huge success. A special thank you to the following: Melissa Howard-Appling County Primary School, Debra Crosby-Appling Elementary Assistant Principal, Jane Tomberlin-Appling Co. Elementary School, Gail Dixon-Appling Sheriff Department, Randalyn Smith-retired Juvenile Justice Department, Josh Lamb-Georgia State Patrol Post 16, Chad Kent-Juvenile Justice Department, Sam Maghee-Lawter, Janet Patton-ACHS Academic Boosters, Cheryl Nipper and Jennifer Evans—Altamaha Technical College, Amy Rediger-Family Connection Center, Lamar Lee-Baxley Church of God, Samantha Carter-Appling County Middle School, Dr. Sandy Dominy-Assistant Superintendent, Pat Hailey, Greg Hanson, and Jeffrey Stewart-Appling BOE, Dr. Starr-ACHS Principal, David Williams-ACHS Assistant Principal, Pam Thomas, Michael Waters, Rebecca Gardner, Mary Ann Ellis, Pam Stone, Tamela Folsom, Sharon Simpson, and Simika Wright, Stephanie Lightsey, Jennifer Summerall, Delena Leggett, Rhonda Stone, Julie Osborne, Janet Carter, Barbee Griffis, Rebecca Shumans, Becky Ammons, Wendy Simmons, Bree Bennett, Scott Tuck, Charles Vann and Jason Anthony-Appling County High School, and Mrs. Betty Jo Daniels and Mr. Bob Rump from the Retired Educators Association also served as event leaders. We would also like to thank those that volunteered and brought refreshments.
Much praise was given by our Georgia FBLA Director, Monty Rhodes, on the combined efforts of school and community involvement to make this such a great conference. In all, many persons volunteered their time and resources to make this event a success for Appling County High and the Appling County School System.