1/25/2019 Message

I have listed several items for your consideration as you prepare for our SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Conference (ULSC). Please read ALL of the information CAREFULLY to avoid any confusion or miscommunication and let us know if you have any questions. Please note, the capitalization, font color, and highlights are just to draw attention to specific information, it is not intended to come across as aggressive language.
 
SkillsUSA Membership RegistrationEVERY STUDENT COMPETITOR MUST BE REGISTERED AND PAID AS A NATIONAL MEMBER OF SKILLSUSA ON OR BEFORE THE DEADLINE OF FEBRUARY 15, 2019 OR THEY WILL NOT BE ALLOWED TO COMPETE IN THE STATE COMPETITION.
 

• Official Membership Registration requires the submission of complete and accurate student information plus full payment of all membership dues by the membership deadline of February 15, 2019.  Students that are not registered and paid members of SkillsUSA will not be allowed to compete at the state conference. 
  • This mandatory registration deadline is required to provide sufficient time for the proper verification of student membership status before the close of state conference registration.

 
While many advisors have already submitted a membership roster of students and advisors from their school, it may be necessary to add new student / professional members, so it is appropriate for us to share the membership registration procedures links) one more time.  
 

1. MEMBERSHIP DEADLINE IN UTAH IS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH, 2019
   • Our registration system WILL NOT ALLOW students to register for their Contests until they are a REGISTERED, SUBMITTED, MEMBER of SkillsUSA.
   • Students registered as members after this deadline will not be eligible to compete at the State Conference and they are not eligible for national competition.

 

1. MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION NEEDS TO BE COMPLETED ON THE NATIONAL WEBSITE AT WWW.SKILLSUSA.ORG. 
   • Instructions for the completion of the membership registration on the national website can be found on our STATE WEBSITE (www.utahskillsusa.org) by:
     • Going to our ULSC Page under ‘Membership Questions?’ OR
       • CLICKING HERE   
     • If you need additional assistance with membership registration, please call the national membership hotline at 844-875-4557, or email them at operators@skillsusa.org.  

1. MEMBERSHIP DUES:
   • Student Membership Dues are $16.00 for all High School/Secondary and College/Post-Secondary students.
   • Advisor/professional membership dues are $30.00 and includes on-line access to the current Technical Standards. 
   • When you click the final “submit” button on the membership registration site, an invoice will be generated and you must make payment arrangements for this invoice amount.  If you add more members later, an additional invoice will be created, and a second payment will be required.
   • You will need to register a few extra students as members of SkillsUSA in case you need “alternates” or “substitutes” for last minute drop outs and emergencies.  Every year we have to disqualify a few competitive teams because they do not have enough registered members due to last minute issues and emergencies.  It would be prudent to have a few eligible “alternates” registered as members to avoid this problem.
   • Membership dues are paid directly to the National SkillsUSA office in Leesburg, Virginia.  If paying by credit card, payment is completed on-line through the national website.  If paying by check, please include a copy of the invoice with the check and mail them to the address shown on the membership invoice. We have had schools accidently mail their memberships checks to us, just delaying their payment that much longer.

  
SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Conference:
WHEN: Thursday and Friday, March 28th-29th, 2019
WHERE: Salt Lake Community College, Taylorsville/Redwood Campus, 4700 South Redwood Road, Salt Lake City, UT  
 
BUSSES & TRANSPORTAION CANCELLED FOR 2019
Due to the very high cost to provide shuttle buses and drivers during the state conference and the extremely low number of riders on the buses during the last two state conference events, the decision has been made to discontinue provided bus transportation service to all contests and events, effective immediately. 
 
Individual districts and/or schools must make the necessary arrangements to transport their students to and from all venues, contest sites and activities during the 2019 SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Conference.
 
CONTEST STATUS SHEET
The list of state conference contests and the proposed contest sites as presently constituted are available on the our State SkillsUSA Utah website (www.utahskillsusa.org) by:

• Clicking the RED BUTTON under ‘Contest Status Sheet, Updates Fees & Other Important Files’ that says, ‘2019 CONTEST STATUS SHEET’ in the left column of our ULSC Page OR
• CLICK HERE to be routed to our ULSC Page. OR
• Copy and paste the following link into your web browser: https://www.utahskillsusa.org/ulsc---utah-leadership--skills-competition-ulsc.html
• **THIS DOCUMENT IS CONSTANTLY BEING UPDATED WITH NEW DATES, TIMES, LOCATIONS, CONTACT INFORMATION, # OF REGISTRANTS ALLOWED, ETC. PLEASE CHECK IT REGULARLY FOR THE MOST ACCURATE INFORMATION. **

 
CONTEST FEES:
Some state level contests have special contest fees assessed to participants to help offset the cost of contest materials and supplies. This list of contests and the associated fees can be found on the Utah state website by:

• Going to our ULSC Page and clicking the RED BUTTON under ‘Contest Status Sheet, Updates, Fees & Other Important Files’ that says ‘2019 CONTEST FEES’ OR
• CLICKING HERE OR
• Copying the following link to your web browser: https://www.utahskillsusa.org/uploads/8/1/2/7/81273014/fees_for_2019_ulsc.pdf

 
‘GENERAL’ STATE CONFERENCE AGENDA:
We are finishing up some last-minute details with the agenda this year, and will be sending it out and posting it to the website ASAP. Some confirmed/discussed changes are as follows:

• Eliminating the Opening Session – We will not be having an Opening Session again this year. We are hoping this will give more time for students and advisors to arrive, check in, and prepare for contests and allow contest hosts more preparation time.
• Potential Time Changes for a few Contests – In an effort to improve service and complete the score tabulation process earlier on Friday, some of the competitions that have traditionally been held on Friday may be moved to Thursday.  We will confirm these changes as soon as possible and post a revised schedule on the Contest Status Sheet if/when this occurs.
  • Please check the CONTEST STATUS SHEET REGULARLY for updates and we will also send out email updates when these decisions are confirmed.

 
THEME:
The SkillsUSA competition theme for the 2018-19 year is:
SkillsUSA: Champions at Work, Career-Ready Starts Here.
The SkillsUSA competition theme is used throughout the year as the topic to be addressed by contestants in the Chapter Display, Prepared Speech and Promotional Bulletin Board competitions at local, state and national levels.
The topic to be addressed by contestants in the Chapter Display, Prepared Speech and Promotional Bulletin Board competitions is how our theme, “SkillsUSA: Champions at Work, Career-Ready Starts Here,” addresses the SkillsUSA program of work in the area of professional development.

• Additional suggestions for contestants can be found on our national website at
  https://www.skillsusa.org/about/theme/ OR

• Go to the national website at www.skillsusa.org and type “theme” in the search box.

  
CONTEST UPDATES:
To view contest updates, you can:

• Go to: https://2019contestupdates.blogspot.com/ OR
• Go to our State Website (www.utahskillsusa.org) and hover your mouse over the ‘CONFERENCES & EVENTS’ option on our top menu. This will produce a short drop-down menu where you can locate and click ‘2019 CONTEST

UPDATES’ OR

• Go to our ULSC Page and click the RED BUTTON under ‘Contest Status Sheet, Updates, Fees & Other Important Files’ that says ‘2019 CONTEST UPDATES’

 
All Contest Updates for the 2019 SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Competition will be posted through this Page. On the right side of the page you can sign up to receive emails whenever a Contest is Updated. This will sign you up to receive emails for ALL contests. There is not a way to subscribe to a specific contest. If you do not want to receive emails, just check the page on your own, and often.
 
To view updates, click on the name of a specific contest from the alphabetized list on the right side of the webpage to view updates for that contest.
 
STATE CONFERENCE REGISTRATION:
Due to an unusually high number of student disqualifications in previous years from a lack of National Membership Registration plus a significant number of membership registrations that were submitted after the state membership deadline, major changes have been made to the 2019 State Conference Deadline calendar and a Financial Penalty has been added for late registrations.  
 
With the New State Conference Registration System we implemented last year on the National SkillsUSA website, student contestants MUST BE REGISTERED, SUBMITTED members of SkillsUSA BEFORE they will be able to register for any contest at the State Competition.
 
The 2018 SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Conference registration costs and deadlines are as follows: 

• Monday, January 28th - Tuesday, February 19th, 2019: Regular Registration o $40 Per Student Contestant o $20 Per Advisor
• Wednesday, February 20th – Friday, February 22nd, 201: Late Registrations o $50 per Student Contestant ($40 registration fee + $10.00 late fee per contestant) o $30 Advisor Registration ($20 registration fee + $10.00 late fee per Advisor) 

o The new system does not allow ‘special circumstances’ or ‘refunds’ for late registrations.
 
REGISTRATION PROCEDURE:
The ULSC Registration procedure is the same system that we have used the last couple of years. The Walk-through for Contest Registration Procedures can be found on our State Website (www.utahskillsusa.org) by:

• Going to our ULSC page, under ‘2019 Contest Registration’ clicking the ‘Contest Registration Walkthrough’ Button. OR
• CLICKING HERE to be routed to the walk-through OR
• Copying and Pasting the following Links into your web browser: https://www.utahskillsusa.org/uploads/8/1/2/7/81273014/how_to_register_for_skillsusa_ulsc.pdf

 
MODELS: Models ARE required to be PAID, STUDENT MEMBERS of SkillsUSA BEFORE the February 15th Deadline, but will not be required to register for contests this year.
 
ALTERNATES:

• You will need to register a few extra ‘Alternate’ students as MEMBERS OF SKILLSUSA by the February 15th Deadline. You WILL NOT need to register them for a contest. 
• After you have REGISTERED, SUBMITTED, AND PAID for the memberships of however many students you choose to have as ‘Alternates’, if you need to substitute them in for a contestant that drops out, all you will have to do is email Angelee Day at angelee.day@gmail.com AND CC Savannah Whitney at savysmiles@gmail.com with the following information:
  • The First and Last name, the school name, and which contest the ORIGINAL Contestant is Registered for
  • The First and Last name of the Alternate, Registered, Submitted, Paid, SkillsUSA Student Member from your school you would like to replace the original contestant.

 
She will make the substitution for you through the Conference Management System, and send a confirmation email when it is completed.
 
Invoices and Billing for SkillsUSA Utah Leadership and Skills Conference:
BILLING QUESTIONS/TO PAY VIA CREDIT CARD:

• Contact Jennifer Streker - (801)540-4342 - strekerj@gmail.com
• *There is a 3% Fee if you choose to pay your invoice via Credit Card

 
Please mail all payments/invoices and correspondence to:
 
               SkillsUSA Utah
                 Attn: Richard Wittwer
                 4318 West 1275 South
                 Cedar City, Utah 84720
 
***PLEASE INCLUDE A COPY OF YOUR SCHOOL’S INVOICE(S) FOR ULSC WITH YOURCHECK OR PURCHASE ORDER TO ENSURE PROPER RECORDS/DEPOSITS/PAYMENTS ARE COMPLETED. 
 
SkillsUSA Knowledge TestThe “traditional” SkillsUSA Knowledge / Professional Development Test will not be required this year.  We will follow the national conference procedure where all ties will be broken by the individual contest Technical Committee using one or more of the contest stations/scoring areas. 
 
Contest Clothing
There are specific clothing requirements for each contest at both the state and national conferences.  Specific contest clothing requirements can be found in the 2018-19 National Leadership and Skills Conference Technical Standards. All student contestants must be wearing the specified clothing during state conference competition events to avoid a clothing penalty.  Advisors, please make arrangements to obtain the appropriate clothing from the SkillsUSA Store, located on the national SkillsUSA website.
 
2018-2019 Technical StandardsAccess to the Technical Standards is provided to every SkillsUSA advisor with a Paid Professional Membership Registration through the National Website.  Advisors can access the Technical Standards by following the instructions provided by:

• Clicking ‘How to Access Tech Standards’ under the ‘Important Forms and Documents’ heading on either the Home Page, Advisor Page, or under ‘Technical Standards’ on our ULSC Page of our State Website (www.utahskillsusa.org) OR
• CLICKING HERE OR
• Copying and Pasting the Following Link into your web browser:
• http://www.utahskillsusa.org/uploads/8/1/2/7/81273014/how_to_access_technical_standards_2016-2017.pdf

 
Chapter Excellence Program (CEP)The national SkillsUSA Chapter Excellence Program or CEP is a voluntary recognition program designed to recognize the many wonderful local SkillsUSA students/chapters that excel in community service, professional development and career preparation activities.  

• The CEP Teacher’s Guide (https://www.skillsusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/cep-Teachers-Guide-2018-v2.pdf) that includes all of the information and application documents can be found at (https://www.skillsusa.org/programs/chapter-excellence-program/), or go to the national website and type CEP in the search bar.   
• As stated earlier, this is a voluntary participation activity.  There is a significant application procedure, an application deadline and numerous activities that must be completed to qualify for this chapter recognition.

 
Utah National Conference Pin and T-Shirt Design ChallengeAdvisor’s, please encourage your registered SkillsUSA students to submit designs for the Utah state pin and Utah state t-shirt that will be worn by all Utah participants at the national conference in Louisville, Kentucky.  The designs should feature something unique about our great state and must include the phrase “SkillsUSA Utah 2019.” 

• WHO: The designs submitted must be the work of a high school or college student member of SkillsUSA. 
• FORMAT: All designs must be submitted in a PDF format 
• DUE DATE: Friday, February 8th, 2019
• SUBMIT THROUGH OUR STATE WEBSITE AT: https://www.utahskillsusa.org/skillsusa-utah---nlsc-pin--t-shirt-design-challenge.html
• PRIZE: A cash award will be provided for each of the winning designs.
• INSTRUCTIONS: Click the ‘Click here for Official Pin & T-Shirt Design Rules’ button on the above webpage or follow this link - https://www.utahskillsusa.org/uploads/8/1/2/7/81273014/officialpinshirtrules2019.pdf
• QUESTIONS? Contact Todd Slade digitaljedi@ehsgraphics.org

 
State Officer CandidatesAdvisors, if you have dedicated and energetic SkillsUSA student members at your school that love the SkillsUSA organization and are looking to move to the next level of service, please have them consider running for a position on our state officer team during our upcoming state conference event.  We need additional high school and college level student officers to lead this student organization.  
 
The application can be found on our State Website (www.utahskillsusa.org) by:

• Going to our Top Menu and hovering over About Us, then going to ‘Organization’ from the drop-down menu, then going down to and clicking on ‘Student Offer Team’ from the submenu. On the bottom-right of the Student Officer Team Page, click ‘Apply Now’ and complete the online form. OR
• CLICK HERE to be taken directly to the form OR
• Copy and paste the following link into your web browser:  https://www.utahskillsusa.org/student-officer-application.html  

 Calendar Reminders:

• MONDAY, JANUARY 28TH, 2019 - ULSC REGISTRATION OPENS
  • $40.00 STUDENT/$20.00 ADVISOR REGISTRATION FEE
• FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 8TH, 2019 - NLSC PIN & T-SHIRT DESIGN CHALLENGE SUBMISSION DEADLINE
• FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 15TH, 2019 - NATIONAL & STATE MEMBERSHIP REGISTRATION DEADLINE (ON THE NATIONAL WEBSITE)
• MONDAY, FEBRUARY 18TH, 2019 - SKILLSUSA TOTAL PARTICIPATION PLAN (TPP) CONTRACTS/DOCUMENTS DUE TO THE STATE DIRECTOR
• TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH, 2019 – ULSC REGULAR REGISTRATION DEADLINE
  • $10.00 LATE FEE WILL BE ADDED PER REGISTRANT 2/20 - 2/22
• WEDNESDAY, FEB. 20TH - FRIDAY, FEB. 22ND, 2019 – ULSC LATE REGISTRATION FEE ASSESSED
  • $10.00 LATE FEE WILL BE ADDED PER REGISTRANT DURING THESE DATES
• FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22ND, 2019 – ULSC LATE/FINAL REGISTRATION DEADLINE
  • LAST DAY TO REGISTER
  • ADDITIONAL REGISTRATIONS WILL NOT BE ALLOWED AFTER THIS DATE.
  • ONLY DROPS AND SUBSTITUTIONS
• FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH, 2019 – ULSC SUBSTITUTE/DROP DEADLINE
  • NO DROP REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
• FRIDAY, MARCH 15TH, 2019 – ULSC PAYMENT DEADLINE
  • NO DROP REFUNDS AFTER THIS DATE
• THURSDAY - FRIDAY, MARCH 28TH-29TH, 2019 - SKILLSUSA UTAH LEADERSHIP & SKILLS COMPETITION (ULSC) 

 
FINAL REMARKSI know this is a lot to take in, and even more to implement in the last two months before the membership/state conference registration deadlines.  Advisors, thank you so much for your dedicated service as educators and SkillsUSA advisors.
 
Warm regards,
 
Richard Wittwer
SkillsUSA Utah State Director