The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

DAYTON - Ian Smay said he was more than surprised when he learned he took first place at the FBLA (Future Business Leaders of America) state conference a couple of weeks ago in the Computer Applications competition. "I had no idea I'd do that well," the Dayton High School junior said.

Smay was one of eleven members of Dayton's FBLA team who received ten topfive finishes at the conference. Some were individual competitions and some were in teams.

The Computer Applications event, which Smay won, involved taking a 100-question test and then preparing several documents using Microsoft Office software. In two hours, he had to prepare a letter in Word, graphs and charts in Excel, a presentation in PowerPoint and a database in Access.

"We also had to show that we could move information between the programs," Smay said. "I use these programs a lot for school and other things," he said.

Junior Keelin Hovrud took second place in an event called "Partnership with Business Project." In Seattle, she made a presentation on the outcome of a monthslong project in which she worked with the Passmore Dental office in Dayton, learning about many different issues involved in running a business. She also wrote a 15-page paper about the project, which was submitted prior to the conference.

Part of the project involved working with Dr. Norm Passmore and other local business people to present information on their businesses to the entire FBLA group. "It was A LOT of work," Hovrud said.

Dayton's other secondplace finishers were Angie Dedloff and Angela Mascall in the Desktop Publishing category. For their project, they designed a book cover, for a new book, along with a flyer and a newspaper ad to promote the book. The designs were created using the Microsoft Publisher software. Artwork was created using Adobe Fireworks, a computer drawing program.

Dedloff and Mascall created their designs prior to the regional conference in Tri- Cities earlier this year, where they won first place. They reworked the design some based on comments they got from judges there.

When asked the secret to their success, Dedloff pointed to her partner, Mascall and said, "She's OCD!" Both students said they tried to be perfectionists as they were finalizing their designs.

Other top-five finishers at the state level included: - Carlos Oribio, 4th - Business Procedures - Angie Dedloff, 4th - FBLA

Principles and Procedures - Taylor Frame, 4th - Local

Chapter Annual Business

Report - The team of Frame, Matthew Warren, Hovrud and

Oribio, 4th - Parliamentary

Procedure - The Team of Ally Chapman and Oscar Teixeira,

5th - Emerging Business

Issues - Caitlyn Robins, 5th -

Graphic Design - Marisa Klein, 5th - Introduction to Parliamentary

Procedure

Two members of the Dayton FBLA chapter were also chosen as state officers for next year.

Taylor Frame was selected as State Parliamentarian, after a series of interviews and demonstrations of her knowledge of running meetings.

Keelin Hovrud was elected State Vice President representing the Southeast Region. For that position, she had to make a speech and campaign over a period of a day-and-a-half during the state conference.

"She was obviously better prepared and more enthusiastic," said Dayton Chapter Advisor Rob Moore, comparing Hovrud to her competitor from Connell.

In all, 21 Dayton students traveled to the state conference. More than 1,700 students from around the state attended.

Members of Dayton High School's FBLA Chapter show off their many awards at the conclusion of the State Spring FBLA Conference in Seattle last month.

Seven members of the Dayton FBLA chapter will travel to the national FBLA conference, which will be held in Nashville, Tenn., from June 27 to July 3. Smay, Dedloff, Mascall and Hovrud will compete in the events in which they placed at the state conference. Frame will travel as Chapter President.

Matthew Warren and Caitlyn Robins will also attend the national conference. Adults chaperoning the group will be Moore, Kristine Warren and Brooke Robins.

Moore said the chapter is getting busy raising money for the trip. "We need to raise about $4,200, not counting airfare," he said.

A car wash is planned in May (date TBD). Also, packets of seeds donated by the Pullman Ace Hardware Store are being sold in local businesses to benefit FBLA. The group is also hoping to get assistance from local clubs and businesses.

Anyone interested in helping with financial support for the FBLA trip to the national conference should contact Moore at Dayton High School at (509) 382- 4775 or robm@daytonsd.org.