The annual SkillsUSA Fall Leadership Conference (FLC) was originally scheduled to be held in Elko, Nevada at Great Basin College on Nov. 16, but due to budget constraints within the southern region, cancellations and changes were made.

“This year’s conference definitely felt a bit rushed compared to last year because they had a location change last minute to Clark High School,” Secretary Tiffany Liang said. “I wasn’t expecting very much, but I liked how this year it was just one day instead of multiple days in the past.”

With the last minute arrangements, club board members and adviser Dana Cuni worked together and maintained a flexible approach.

“The purpose of this conference is to really get the students excited to become leaders,” Cuni said. “Regardless of the sudden changes, we’re pulling through and making it work. It’s truly a great opportunity for them to meet with different groups of students and do different projects before the state conference and I couldn’t be any prouder of them for all the dedication they put in this club. We are hoping and looking forward to winning tons and tons of awards for the SLC.”

Despite other schools having both board and club members attend FLC, attendance was decided to be exclusive to only board members.

“In past years, members that were being trained to become part of the future board [were allowed to attend],” Vice President Reid Bracken said. “However with the rising costs of attending and the information given in the conference itself, we felt that it was best to just have the current board members go. A lot of the conference is related to ‘how to increase membership’ or ‘how to promote advocacy/business/etc’ so those topics are more for the board members to worry about and not general members.”

Workshops ranged from student-based presentations, lectures, and student/group activities.

“It was more general activities either you or your board would do. One of them was a part of the ‘Team’ section,” Harveston said. “If I had to choose, my favorite workshop would be the Chapter of Excellence (CEP) because we got to work on future plans to qualify for the CEP award. Basically the CEP award recognizes our school’s SkillsUSA chapter as a positive example for others.”

Regardless of the sudden changes, senior board members felt bittersweet about their time during this conference.“I feel like I’ve grown as a person while being in this club,” Liang said. “I used to be extremely timid, but now I’m a lot more social so I guess the club shaped me into a better leader. It’s bittersweet leaving this club because I’ve been in it since my freshman year and I won’t get to be in this position ever again, but my time has been amazing and I hope the current members feel the amount of joy I have felt.”