Waukon High School Future Business Leaders of America Chapter lays claim to its fifth consecutive Iowa Chapter of the Year honor

The Waukon High School chapter of Future Business Leaders of America (FBLA) continued to extend the recent dynasty it has established at the annual State Leadership Conference, winning its fifth consecutive Lloyd V. Douglas Chapter of the Year Award at the 2025 Iowa FBLA State Leadership Conference held at the Alliant Energy Powerhouse in Cedar Rapids March 30-April 1. This year’s competition saw the Waukon chapter tally 477 points, 133 points ahead of second-place Waukee.

Waukon FBLA Advisor Joanne Ericson noted that this is the first year that it is required by State of Iowa legislation that schools that have a business or information solutions program also have a career and technical student organization, with three organizations being available to choose from for business programs - FBLA, DECA (Distributive Education Clubs of America), and BPA (Business Professionals of America).

“In northeast Iowa, most schools have chosen to go with FBLA because it covers both business and information solutions strands,” Ericson noted. “Since it was the first required year, there were a lot more schools present at the competition and with it - a lot more competitors. I believe they stated over 1,000 competitors.”

The Waukon chapter has finished as either the State Chapter of the Year or Runner-Up Chapter of the Year each season for nearly the past decade, with the 2020 State Leadership Conference canceled by COVID-19 just before it was slated to take place.

The Waukon chapter also earned Gold Chapter status for a third consecutive year for earning the maximum points for the Iowa FBLA FBLAopoly event, which is a  premier program for chapter development in Iowa. FBLAopoly focuses on creating quality local chapters through recruitment, financial management, community service, service learning projects, marketing and public relations, and participation in state and national programs. The Waukon chapter also received Grow15 recognition for growing its chapter membership by 15 members or more from the previous year.

The annual State Leadership Conference is an opportunity for students to compete against other students from around the state of Iowa in various business-related tests, presentations and speeches. Many projects were completed by students throughout the past couple of months and then presented to judges at the Conference. Events also included case studies and written tests.

Ericson further noted that 20 of Waukon’s State competition events required students to place in the top-two or receive a wild-card nomination at the FBLA District Leadership Conference held in January in order to compete at the State Conference.

The scoring at the State Leadership Conference is tabulated much like a track meet, with first-place finishers scoring the most points, and so on. The Lloyd V. Douglas Chapter of the Year Award is presented to the chapter that accumulates the most points from events at the State Leadership Conference.

The Iowa FBLA State Leadership Conference is held annually and consists of general sessions, competitive events, seminars, workshops, election of officers, awards and recognition, special programs, and other leadership and educational learning activities. The Waukon students are advised by Waukon High School Business teacher Joanne Ericson and Social Studies teacher Ben Pline. Ericson noted this year’s competition group consisted of 12 seniors, 5 juniors, 21 sophomores and 27 freshmen, with 34 freshmen competition events placing within the top-10 overall finishers, and 26 sophomore events doing likewise.

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