FBLA Fall Leadership Workshop 

The FBLA Fall Leadership Workshop

Riley Welch

Exeter High School's very own Future Business Leaders of America visited UNH on October 28. EHS was awarded first place for raising the most money out of all the chapters that attended the workshop, contributing a large amount to the Alzheimer's Association . The students who attended the workshop were able to network with other chapters, eat UNH dining hall food, and learn what it takes to be a successful leader today. The workshop began in UNH’s Memorial Union Building in a large room where the 2025-2026 state officers introduced themselves and welcomed workshop attendees. 26 other FBLA chapters were there, such as Spaulding, Seacoast School of Technology, and Pinkerton. By attending this conference, Exeter's students were able to network with students from across the state, participating in activities or sitting together to help build new connections within FBLA.

Each state officer presented what their state officer project would be for the year, the things each chapter can do to earn points for the project, and why they chose the given topic for their project. The state officer projects are projects created by each of the six elected New Hampshire state officers that discuss varying matters that relate to each officer. For example, Exeter's Caroline Normand is the Social Media Manager for NH FBLA and her project, Lead the Way, is designed to help members enter the entrepreneurial mindset, building connections with local entrepreneurs and like-minded innovators. Each project has a rubric that outlines what requirements and additional information are needed to earn points for the project. The total points earned per project will be added up and the chapter with the most points will be announced at the State Leadership Conference in the spring. 

After having lunch at the UNH dining hall, changes to competitive events were discussed. Competitive events for FBLA are events that range from business law to journalism, and our EHS chapter will go to Manchester in the spring and each will compete either in teams or as individuals at the Spring Leadership Conference. This year, various changes were made to best benefit the chapters within New Hampshire.

After discussing these changes the chapters were brought together to network with the current state officers playing a game like four corners, except a question was asked and each corner represented your response. This was a great game to engage with, and get to know other FBLA members across New Hampshire.

Finally, as the day came to a close, the officers gave their closing words and handed out the awards for top three best vision boards brought to the workshop and the top three schools who fundraised the most money for the Alzheimer's Association. Exeter High School came in first place, raising the most money out of all the chapters that attended the workshop! This was a great way to end the day and a great start for Exeter's FBLA chapter to make their mark going into this year.