What Is Deca?
	DECA is a co-curricular, student-centered organization specifically designed to provide activities that will motivate secondary/post-secondary students to learn marketing competencies that will prepare them to become skilled, employable workers in the field of marketing.      Any student enrolled in a marketing education instructional program anywhere in the United States, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Canada can be a member of DECA. The organization is nonprofit, nonpolitical and totally student oriented. All chapters are self supporting with members paying local, state, and national dues. Each chapter elects student officers for its division. The national organization is composed of the total of all state associations. Student delegates selected by each state, in turn, elect their own national officers. DECA Incorporated, the legal sponsoring unit of DECA, elects a Board of Directors, which is the policy-making group of the organization. DECA is the only national student organization operating in the nation's high schools to attract individuals in the fields of marketing, merchandising, and management.       The DECA chapter is to the marketing education program what a civic or professional organization is to a group of business people. Chapter activities are recognized as a part of the total educational program because they develop leadership skills, professional attitudes, business competency, better citizenship characteristics and social growth of the individual. These same activities serve the instructor as a teaching tool by creating interest in all phases of marketing, merchandising, and management.       DECA activities provide members with an opportunity to serve as leaders and followers, and with an opportunity for them to receive local, state, or national recognition which they may otherwise not have. The Goals of DECA 1. To develop leadership characteristic to develop self-confidence and self-acceptance 2. To develop a greater understanding of our free, competitive enterprise system 3. To further develop occupational competencies needed for careers in marketing, merchandising, and management 4. To develop high ethical standards in personal and business relationships 5. To develop greater appreciation of the responsibilities of citizenship to develop a healthy competitive spirit