District Six FBLA Co-President Attends Executive Retreat

By: Bre Crockett, Contributing Writer

​Elijah Hill, third from the left, posed for a photo in front of the Missouri FBLA District Leadership Conference banner with other conference attendees.

Senior ​Elijah Hill has always been interested in entrepreneurship and has been a member of Centralia High School (CHS) Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) for four years.

He never expected that it would lead to him becoming a District Six Co-President. Hill attended the Executive Leadership Retreat in Jefferson City on June 8-9.

For Hill to be nominated as president of our district, he had to complete the first level of the Business Achievement Award (BAA), create a slogan and a campaign booth and prepare and present a speech to around five hundred people. Once that process was completed, the final decision would be held by a vote from the voting delegates. 

Hill was accompanied by one of the two FBLA advisers, Mr. Andrew Reynolds. Reynolds explains, “The Executive Leadership Retreat was for district officers and advisers to learn about plans the state officers have for Missouri FBLA this year,” Reynolds begins, “and begin planning what we want our district leadership conference (which we usually refer to as district contest) to be like.” Reynolds’s role in the conference was a chapter and district advisor, and he planned and operated the District Six Leadership Conference.

This conference focused on team bonding amongst the district officers as well as leadership skill building through different activities. During one of the activities, Hill and the other district officers had to branch out to different districts for the assignment. They were given the task of taking a personality survey to see which classification they got: golden retriever, lion, otter and beaver. Hill states, “I was selected for Lion and was put into the lion group where I found it difficult to work with people exactly like me.” They then got together to see each other’s thoughts on their dream State Leadership Conference location and who should perform there.

District officers underwent training on how to become effective leaders during this period. The training sessions consisted of sit-down seminars and discussions. According to Hill, “The keynote speaker, Bryant Collier, did an amazing job on teaching us the basics, ethics and benefits of good leadership.” Hill believes that the conference was worth his time and he had a great time. “For anybody that is interested in FBLA I heavily recommend running for District Office,” Hill proclaims, “as it is a great opportunity to meet new people and build your leadership experience.”