A much needed update

Everything is going pretty well, but we need to clarify some due dates.
February 1st is the deadline for chapter advisors to affiliate their chapters in order to be eligible to compete in the Spring Regional Fair.
February 11th is the  deadline for chapters to register for the Spring Regional Fair and the deadline for regional officer applications.
If you are going  to submit a design for the Pin and T-shirt Design Opportunity, you need to send your submission to the Regional President by February 15th.
March 5th is the spring regional fair, so everyone who plans to enter a contest should be hard at work!
March 25th is the deadline for state officer applications. Anyone interested in applying for a regional or state officer position should be working on them and getting all of the signatures!
Make sure to remember these dates!
Thanks!

November News

"If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more, and become more, you are a leader."—John Quincy Adams

 Hello everyone! This will also be a post with a decent bit of information - bear with us!

•  The Fall Rally was successfully held on November 20, 2010 at James Madison Middle School in Roanoke, Virginia. More details on the rally will be added, along with pictures taken at the event and a way for you to submit comments/suggestions to be used for next year's rally - so be sure to look through the pictures and give some feedback if you attended!
• The Regional Council is very excited to announce that two new Regional Officers have been installed! Caroline Salle, a 7th grader from Blacksburg Middle School, and Corey Kendall, an 8th grader from Blacksburg Middle School, were appointed to the Reporter and Sergeant-at-Arms positions respectively. Information on both students will be added to the "Regional Officers" shortly.
• The Virginia TSA Reporter position is now vacant and applications are being accepted. Serving as a State Officer is a wonderful opportunity for both leadership experience and growing as a person, so please consider applying! Applications must be turned in to the Virginia TSA office by December 21, 2010. All applicants will be asked to make a short campaign speech in front of the Executive Council (state officers) about why they are interested in the position, and then the Executive Council will vote to select the new officer. If you have any questions about the duties of the Virginia TSA Reporter or the obligations of a State Officer in general, please feel free to contact me at anytime!
• Students should also begin considering if they are interested in applying for Regional Officer for the 2011-2012 school year. Applications for any of the eight positions are due by February 11, 2011. Applicants will make a short campaign speech and be given time to campaign during the Spring Regional Fair. Delegates from each school attending the Regional Fair in the region will then be given the opportunity to vote for the new officers, who will be installed during the Closing of the Fair.
  ** PLEASE NOTE: Receiving all the necessary signatures on any application will take time, as will mailing the application to the Virginia TSA office. Please allow yourself enough time to complete your applications. (I would recommend starting at least five weeks before the application is due.)
• At the November Executive Council meeting, it was decided that Leadership Academy will not be held during Technosphere this year. Due to the time restrictions, it would not be possible to hold an event that would represent the Leadership Academy in a way that would be both beneficial and fun for the students. Though there will be no academy this year, the Executive Council is planning to continue the tradition of holding the event in the fall of 2011.
• Everyone who has expressed interest in submitting a design(s) for the Pin and T-Shirt Design opportunity are encouraged to continue working hard on their designs! Designs should be turned in as soon as possible, so please email or mail your design to me as soon as it is completed. I will be uploading a form that you may use for your design to the "Design Opportunity" page. If you have already completed your design, feel free to enclose the form with your design.

 I will continue to update the different pages throughout the month, so please keep checking for any new information. As always, feel free to contact me if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

 - Jill Pritts, Blue Ridge Region President

Moving Into October

"The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible." - Arthur C. Clarke

Hello everybody! I would like to apologize for the amount of information that is going to be explained in this post - alot of new information is coming out, so please bear with us!

• The September Executive Council Meeting was a success! All of the officers were well prepared and several exciting plans developed. This year Virginia TSA will not be hosting a separate Leadership Academy, but there has been a lot of discussion on ways to incorporate the academy into the 2010-2011 Technosphere conference! Hopefully this will give more chapters the opportunity to participate and encourage students to attend the academy in future years if it is not combined with the State Conference. A theme was set for the 2010-2011 State Conference: "Snapshot of Innovation", which correlates with the National TSA theme for the year. The Virginia TSA Vice President position was filled by Mahir Dagra (a senior from Highland Springs High School in Richmond, VA).
• The Fall Rally is approaching! This year, the Blue Ridge Region Fall Rally will be held on October 23rd at Patrick Henry High School in Roanoke, VA. The rally offers opportunities to expand leadership abilities, develop problem solving skills, hear inspirational guest speakers, and interact with other students throughout the region to help increase excitement for the upcoming events of the year. All affiliated chapters within the Blue Ridge Region are invited to attend, but registration is due by October 12th. We hope to see everyone there!
• With the Fall Rally approaching, we are very eager to fill our empty Regional Officer positions! Anyone who wishes to apply for an office in the current school year is encouraged to fill out their application as soon as possible! We are also looking for replacement officers to assist us during the Fall Rally with the various ceremonies, so please contact a Regional Officer or the Regional Advisor is you are interested. It is a great opportunity to experience some of the duties of a Regional Officer to see if you are interested in making the full commitment!
• The Executive Council is asking that Virginia TSA members submit T-shirt/Lapel Pin designs to be used for the 2010-2011 Technosphere Conference shirts and finalist pins. These may be turned in as an electric or hand drawn copy at the Fall Rally or any time prior to February. More information is available on the "Design Opportunity" page found on the left sidebar.
• Team Unitus, a Formula One In Schools (or more commonly known as F1) team from the US, took first place in the F1 In Schools World Championship Conference in Singapore during September. The team was made up of six students; five from Southeast High School in Florida and one from Patrick Henry High School (competing as James Madison Middle School) in Roanoke, VA! These students have been offered several amazing opportunities along with the title of World Champions. Congratulations to the whole team, we are proud to have you represent our region!
• In addition to the "Design Opportunity" page, two new pages have been added to the blog! The "Scholarship and Awards" page gives a brief description of the different awards and scholarships that are available to Virginia TSA students. The "Blue Ridge Give Back" page will be a region-wide project to encourage chapters to take part in helping improve their communities; different volunteering project will be listed (as well as several websites to help you find community service projects in your own area) and a list of projects that schools have completed will be listed. At the Regional Fair, chapters that participated in community service activities will be recognized, so be sure to contact a Regional Council member about any projects you plan to/or have taken part in!

 As the year progresses, it continues to be a strong year for the Blue Ridge Region. We are excited to welcome several new chapters and look forward to seeing everyone at the Fall Rally! If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

- Jill Pritts, Blue Ridge Region President

Approaching Council Meeting

"The difference between the impossible and possible lies in a
person's determination." - Tommy Lasorda

 Happy September! I hope everything is going well as school starts. With the year starting up, it means the first Executive Council meeting is approaching. Mr. Morris (Regional Advisor) and I will be attending the meeting on September 11th at Virginia State University. Since the meeting is strictly for the Exectutive Council (state officers, regional presidents, the immediate past president, and their advisors), please send me any comments, concerns, or updates about your chapter that you would like to be reported at the meeting.

 Some main points of the agenda are:

• Planning the Virginia Leadership Academy
• Working on details of the State Conference (Technosphere)
• Voting to fill the empty Vice President position

 In addition, I will also be making a report on what has been happening in the region and what I hope to accomplish prior to the November Executive Council meeting.

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 It's also an important time to start recruiting new members for your chapter! With chapters starting to meet, we need to show that the Blue Ridge Region is going to be stronger than ever this year.

 I would like to encourage everyone to run for a chapter office if your chapter will be electing them. It's a great way to get involved with some leadership opportunities and it might just inspire you to run for regional or state office!

I look forward to hearing from you.

- Jill Pritts, Blue Ridge Region President

Empty Officer Positions

"The function of leadership is to produce more leaders, not more followers." - Ralph Nader

 Hello everybody. For those of you who are not aware, there are six vacant officer positions on the Regional Council. We would really love to have all of these positions filled by mid-October, so that we can avoid any set backs that could occur as an effect of these vacancies. Regional Officers attend monthly meetings and help with the planning of regional events, fundraisers, and projects. Being part of the council is a wonderful leadership opportunity that lets you have a huge part in the growth of the region and work with some really great people. If you are even a little bit interested, please talk to your advisor about it or contact me for further information. The form avaliable online is to apply for the 2011-2012 Regional Council, so if you are interested in being part of this year's council, you can email me for the application or just change the dates on the online version.

 We are aiming to have a full council for the next year as well, so be sure to consider applying then also. Applications for next year's Regional Council will be due on the same date as Regional Fair registration. I will be posting more information on this as the deadline approaches (it will be in February). For anyone interested in applying for any position (current year or next year), it is important that you begin working on your application early enough to recieve the necessary signatures and still make the deadline. We would also like to see members of the Blue Ridge Region apply for some State Officers positions! State Officer positions open many doors and allow you to be the part of planning all state events (Technosphere, Leadership Academy, etc.). I hope to see your name on a ballot in the future.

 The State Vice President position is also currently vacant. Applications for the position were due in June and several remarkable students will be campaigning for it. At the September Exectutive Council meeting, the candidates will make speeches and then the Executive Council (State Officers, Regional Presidents, and the Immediate Past President) will vote. I look forward to announcing the sucessful election.

- Jill Pritts, Blue Ridge Region President

Kicking Off the Year!

"Don't tell people how to do things, tell them what to do and let them surprise you with their results." - George S. Patton

 Hello Blue Ridge TSA! The Regional Council has been hard at work all summer to ensure that this is the best year we've had so far. With so many plans for the upcoming year, it's extremely important that we stay in touch with each chapter every step of the way.

 Some things to look forward to:

• A Fall Rally: The Fall Rally is an event held in the fall by each region that is designed to motivate the students to get involved throughout the year by offering break out sessions focusing on leadership and problem solving skills.
• A Regional Community Service Project: This project will give students the oppertunity to give back to their communities and expand the influence of TSA in the region.
• The Regional Spring Conference: Students will be able to compete against other students from the region to qualify in certain contests for the State level.
• A Region Attire Program: This program will help students that cannot afford to buy TSA attire by collecting attire from past members or that current members have outgrown. (See the link on the left for more information)
• Installation of new Regional Council Members: Students are encouraged to apply for the six avaliable council positions for the 2010-2011 school year.
• The State Leadership Conference, or Technosphere: The State level conference gives sutdents the oppertunity to compete against students from across the state, run for state office, and spend time with other exceptional TSA members.

 More information about all of these events will be coming out as the dates approach, so keep an eye out! As your representative on the Executive Council, please let me know any ideas you have for the regional, state, or national TSA associations so that I may take actions into making them a reality. You have elected a remarkable group of State Officers for this year, who have already been hard at work to ensure that you have an amazing year. I look forward to keeping you involved on all the details and plans of our region, and as always, just shoot me an email if you have any questions!

- Jill Pritts, Blue Ridge Region President