SkillsUSA Membership:  ONLINE MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED FOR 2007-08.  Membership in SkillsUSA is open to all students; however, a student must be enrolled in a Technical Education training program to be eligible for skills competition.  The program enrolled must be related to the skills competition.  In years past, all SkillsUSA advisors received a membership packet at the beginning of each year to help get the year started.  This will continue to be mailed, but only to advisors with an active chapter in 2006-2007.  Membership forms and other information are also available on the national website (www.skillsusa.org) for easy downloading.  In order for your chapter to receive the full benefit of your state and national dues, it is very important for you to get organized and submit your dues as soon as possible.  Membership dues must be submitted by March 1st to National SkillsUSA,

Follow these simple steps in making 2007-2008 application for membership:

• Organize your chapter and elect officers

• Collect Dues

• Obtain a school purchase order for the online membership registration

• Go to http://www.skillsusa-register.org/login.aspx login and ask for a password.  Follow the instructions to register your students electronically.  Your student membership will be certified upon receipt of your membership dues. 

• You may amend your membership at any time and electronic registration will make State Conference registration much easier.  The data you input is used to generate reports and name badges for reporting and conferences so please enter information accurately.

Please refer to the online instructions to ensure accuracy in completing the form and in submitting the proper amount of dues.  A separate membership roster is required for each training program in your school (cooperative training, automotive service technology, cosmetology, etc.) but only one check for dues per school is acceptable. Make sure that this one check also includes both state and national dues.  Send the check for dues to National SkillsUSA immediately after electronically submitting your roster.  Remember to include any professional members such as administrators, business partners, advisory council members, etc. 

Dues for the 2007-2008 year are as follows:

                       
Note:  All dues must be postmarked by March 10, 2008  in order for the student to compete in state or national contests.

Newly Affiliating Chapters: An application must be filled out for a chapter charter only if your school does not already have a charter.  Mail dues check, membership roster, constitution, and application for charter to: Alabama SkillsUSA Association, Attn – Myron Laurent, P. O. Box 302101, Montgomery, AL  36130-2101. Once your school has completed application for charter, its name will be added to the national data bank and your dues forwarded to the national office.

SkillsUSA Theme:  The theme for the 2007-08 year is “SkillsUSA: Champions at Work.”  The topic to be addressed by contestants in Prepared Speech, Chapter Display, State Pin, State Program, State T-shirt and Promotional Bulletin Board contests is how our theme SkillsUSA: Champions at Work relates to our national program of work in the area of SkillsUSA Championships. Within this topic, contestants might illustrate/discuss one of the following:

• How the SkillsUSA Championships motivates students to be the best they can be in their technical skill development and personal/ professional development.
• How the SkillsUSA Championships provides an opportunity for students to participate in timed and judged industry-based competitions where they can practice technical skills, teamwork, team building, creativity and management.
• How SkillsUSA increases productivity by cultivating a highly skilled and knowledgeable workforce to meet 21st century needs.
• How the SkillsUSA Championships is the national-level competition for public high school and college/postsecondary technical students enrolled in trade, technical, and skilled service profession instructional programs including allied health occupations.
• How SkillsUSA organizes this event, and it is considered the single greatest day of industry volunteerism in America every year at an estimated cost of more than $32 million.
• How SkillsUSA participation prepares each member for entry into the work force.
• How each SkillsUSA Championships national contestant is a state-level gold medalist, demonstrating excellence in career and technical education.
• How the SkillsUSA Championships has more than 5,000 competitors in more than 85 hands-on skill and leadership contests.
• How SkillsUSA represents 130 different occupational areas affiliated instructional programs.

Calendar of Events: Please review the 2007-2008 Calendar of Activities carefully. The Calendar of Activities contains valuable information that will help you in planning your local budget.  Work with your local administration to try to keep your prom and other activities from conflicting with the State Conference date if possible.  Please make a note that the SkillsUSA State Conference is April 29-30, 2008 in Birmingham at the BJCC and the National SkillsUSA Conference is June 23-27, 2008 in Kansas City, Missouri.  It is very important begin your fund raising efforts now to finance your planned activities. SkillsUSA must be as self- supporting as possible and not dependant or a drain on system funds.

Membership Goal: We have set 11000 as our membership goal for the 2007-2008 year.  With your help, we can reach this goal.  The larger our membership, the more opportunities we can offer our students. We have seen a slight increase in membership for the past 2 years after experiencing decreases for the prior three. Alabama dropped from the third largest state membership in the late 80’s and early 90’s to thirteenth in 2005; from 16,000 members to 7,890.  For the 2006-07 year we enrolled 9611 members. Only with your help can we continue this positive trend. College membership has seen noticeable increases in the past two years and indicators suggest that this trend will continue. We hope, as stated by Tim Lawrence, “to not only serve more students, but  also service students more.”

Hoping that the year is off to a great start,

Myron Laurent

Director, Alabama SkillsUSA
Education Specialist
P.O.Box 302101
Montgomery, Alabama 36130
334-353-4522