It’s the day after. The day after the 2009 Oklahoma FCCLA State Convention. My affiliation with FCCLA is a long one.

What is now called Family, Career & Community Leaders of America is what most folks my age and older remember as Future Homemakers of America, or FHA/HERO (HERO referred to Home Economics Related Occupations). FHA was founded in 1945. It eventually merged with New Homemakers of America (the corresponding organization for black youth) when we got past the nonsense of segregation. What you used to know as Home Economics is now Family & Consumer Sciences Education (FACSED), and just as FACSED is about much more than cooking and sewing these days (Home Ec really was, too), the FCCLA of today is an organization that trains young people with skills needed to be successful in whatever roles they will eventually have in life.

I was somewhat of a lost and wandering soul when I was in junior high. For some reason, I was up at the school building before the school year started, and a teacher asked me to help her with some things. Thankful for the interest in me and eager to help, I did whats he asked, and because she was the Home Ec teacher, I took her class as soon as I could. She moved to another school very soon after, but I was already entrenched. And, our new Home Ec teacher was mother to who would become my best friend. So it all worked out.

And because FHA was about more than cooking and sewing (I can do one, but not the other), I was involved in it, too. And here’s why. I was obviously a minority as a male. But what really frustrated me was how inefficient the girls ran our chapter. Our meetings were disorganized and out of control. So, I ran for chapter president and won.

Well, that started the upward spiral. I eventually served as a sub-district officer. Then state officer (NE District VP), and then I was elected a national officer in 1994-95, FHA/HERO’s 50th anniversary year. As National VP of Parliamentary Law, I was one of ten national officers in an organization of approximately 280,000 members. I won’t dull you with all the details, but it was a year of great fun, hard work, and genuine growth. I missed 65 days of my senior year (the school board had to grant an exception to the 10-day rule). I grew as a speaker and as a student (valedictorian of my class). I traveled over the country and spoke at several conventions and meetings.

Oklahoma’s state convention was, and remains, the largest one-day state meeting in the country. The year I was a national officer, I was at our state convention when I was struck with just what an opportunity I had been given. We were back stage in our dressing rooms before convention began. Governor Frank Keating was scheduled to appear and bring greetings. His state trooper detail brought him into our dressing room to wait for things to start. As we were standing there, the governor told me he was a little nervous because this was the largest crowd he had ever spoken to (we had 9,000-10,000) kids there. I remember thinking, Gee, I do this all the time. I wasn’t being a snot. I was realizing just how blessed I had been to be involved in this organization.

I intend to blog more about my FCCLA adventures in the days to come. It would be too long for one post. But for today, I’ll just add that I have been assisting with the state convention production for well over 10 years since I graduated (I’m trying to determine exactly how long). For the last three years, I have been privileged to write the script. I also get to work with the state officers on their rehearsal the day before convention.

This year’s officers did an outstanding job. There was lots of memorization, and they had it down pat. It is a big job, with lots to do and lots to remember. And they are live in front of 8,000 students, working from three stages in front of cameras. It’s no small task, and I have seen disasters happen. There were none this year (other than Trent’s unfortunate fall off a stage).

This group of 10 students who were elected from all over the state as state officers last year just put on a performance well beyond their years in difficulty with skill and excellence. Young leaders they truly are, and I’m proud to have worked with them.