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WORLAND — It’s official. Future Business Leaders of America has returned to Worland High School after an absence of more than three decades.

Business teacher Amy Lamm officially became the advisor at Monday night’s Washakie County School District Nol. 1 Board of Trustees meeting, but the program began in September and several members have already attended fall conference and a leadership conference in Greybull, as well as helping with community service projects. Lamm said they realized just recently that as an advisor she needed to officially be appointed by the board.

As for starting up the program, Lamm said she was approached at a conference this summer about being an FBLA advisor and bringing the program back to Worland. She was considering it when freshman Makinzie McGonigal approached her about starting the chapter. The rest is, as they say, history.

Lamm had a meeting in which seven students showed interest and four of them she took to the fall leadership conference. “They were enthusiastic about it and wanted to get it going,” she said.

After a recruiting meeting, there were 21 students interested in the program and there are currently 13 active members.

Lamm said FBLA is an organization for secondary students participating in business and business-related programs.

Lamm said that according to the state FBLA records, the last time Worland had a chapter was the early 1980s. Since then FBLA has evolved into FBLA-PBL (Phi Beta Lamda). According to the FBLA-PBL website, http://www.fbla-pbl.org, Future Business Leaders of America-Phi Beta Lambda, Inc. (FBLA-PBL) “is the largest career student organization in the world. Each year, FBLA-PBL helps over 230,000 members prepare for careers in business.”

The mission of the organization is to “bring business and education together in a positive working relationship through innovative leadership and career development programs.”

Programs focus on leadership development, academic competitions (at the state convention in March), education programs, membership benefits, community service and awards and recognition.

Lamm said “Future Business Leaders of America can function as an integral part of the instructional program of the business curriculum in secondary schools.” She said members can work on different areas for the competitions, including areas that aren’t necessarily taught at the high school.

“The purpose of FBLA is to provide, as an integral part of the instructional program, additional opportunities for secondary students (grades 9-12) in the business and/or business-related field to develop vocational and career supportive competencies and to promote civic and personal responsibilities.”

Topics for competitions at the state convention include accounting, advertising, agribusiness, business calculations, business communication, business law, computer problem solving, cyber security, economics, FBLA principles and procedures, health care administration, insurance and risk management, introduction to business, introduction to business communication, introduction to financial math, introduction to information technology, introduction to parliamentary procedures, journalism, Microsoft Office specialist in Excel and Word, networking concepts, organizational leadership, personal finance and securities and investments.

WHS Chapter

Senior Buck Butterfield serves as president, McGonigal is vice president, senior Jason Wang is secretary/treasurer and fellow senior Taelor Nielsen is parliamentarian and recorder.

McGonigal said a friend of hers is a state officer for Wyoming and told her that FBLA would be good for her with her current interests and school activities and that is why she approached Lamm. She said she was interested in FBLA for what the chapter can do for her in furthering her knowledge of business.

Butterfield said FBLA is a perfect fit to continue the work he is doing in FFA with agribusiness, providing more of the business-side for skills.

Wang, said he is working to become a certified public accountant and FBLA is perfect for him. “It made sense since I’m going into the business field. It gives me a bigger exposure on what business is all about.”

(Nielsen was absent during an interview earlier this week with Lamm, Butterfield, McGonigal and Wang.)

As for the community service portion of the organization, the officers during the leadership conference in Greybull helped put together bags for area troops.

Recently, the chapter collected food from the members and put together turkey boxes for five Worland families for the holidays.

The group plans to conduct an event or community service each month. This month they plan on hosting a school dance as a fundraiser for the chapter.

FBLA-PBL has as its national charity, the March of Dimes, and the WHS chapter will be working on fundraisers for this. Lamm said they also will be raising funds for the chapter through the school store.

She said while they have a lot of seniors in this year’s chapter, there are many underclassmen and they hope with enthusiasm of those participating this year, the program will grow each year.