Phi Beta Lambda Goes to Nationals

A group of six students and two advisors and one other staff member have arrived back from Chicago, IL after attending the PBL National Conference.  The students are Josh Black, Liz Caron, Brady Sherman, Todd Nelson, Tara Kemp, and Grace Chaires.  The advisors are Heath Whitehouse and David Ferrell.  Rich Martin accompanied us as a quasi-advisor, tour guide, PBL alumnus, former PBL national winner and native of the Chicago area.  He got us around the city of Chicago.

We experienced a range of emotions during the trip.  We had a great experience seeing the sites of Chicago including a) the Bean (I hadn't heard of it before), b) the Navy Pier, and c) Millennial Park among other sites.  We attended a variety of workshops and competed in various competitions.  We stayed at the Hyatt Regency in downtown Chicago situated right on the Chicago River.  The view was outstanding.

Unknown to us until the first day of the conference, our state advisor mistakenly left off of the official national event registration, three of our events effecting four students.  They were Marketing Analysis and Decision Making (Josh, Brady, Liz), Public Speaking (Josh) and Retail Management (Tara).  Each of these students had qualified in these events during State competition.  In fact, our Marketing team had taken first and had left our competition in the dust.

To make a long and hard process short, after much research, deliberation, discussion, two separate times with the PBL CEO (a very nice lady), we were not allowed to complete in these events since the state advisor failed to properly sign us up and did not properly proof her work (others from the Kansas delegation were left off as well). 

The good news is that the national office is changing their procedures based on our persistence with all the decision makers (whomever would hear our plight) which will help resolve this particular issue in the future.  David Ferrell is also crafting a protocol/proposal for the national office to consider for other discrepancies that occur.  It just wasn't right to penalize the students, who had done everything that had been asked of them, because of an error made on up the chain.  Because it effected four of our six students, it kind of put a damper on the week for us.  Josh Black was not allowed to compete in either of his two events because of some other persons mistake.

However, we are pleased to report that we still brought back a SECOND in Marketing Concepts by Tara Kemp.  This was an individual testing event.  We also brought back a FOURTH in Local Annual Chapter Report.  Our president, Liz Caron, was the primary writer and crafter of the report.  These are significant in light of how many students/colleges would have participated in these events.  There were 2300 students attending the conference, probably 35 or more competing in Marketing Concepts and probably 25-35 PBL local chapters submitting a chapter report.  For us to place as high as we did is a testament to our students and to our program.

Thanks to many of you for your support and prayers.  Next year to Atlanta.

David Ferrell