Founded in 1946, DECA is a 501(c)(3) Association of Marketing Students made up of 170,000 marketing students, 4,500 marketing teachers, and 14,000 postsecondary Delta Epsilon Chi members. The student members of DECA are smart, dedicated individuals already actively involved in preparing for successful careers in marketing, management and entrepreneurship.
DECA members are experienced in workplace skills and are proven leaders within their peer groups and their neighborhood communities. The majority—generally juniors and seniors in high school—hold jobs, and a surprising percentage own their own businesses. Eighty-six percent of DECA members will pursue postsecondary education.
DECA is not extracurricular; it is an integral part of the classroom instructional program. DECA provides teachers and members with educational and leadership development activities to merge with the classroom instructional program, teaching the skills that a successful career in business requires. Working hand-in-hand with the educational and business communities, DECA’s goal is for its members to develop a “career success kit” to carry into their professional and personal lives after graduation, including
• Occupational skills needed for careers in marketing, management and entrepreneurship
• Leadership skills
• An understanding and appreciation of civic responsibility
• Ethical behavior in personal and business relationships
• An understanding of the role of our free enterprise system in the global economy
To accomplish this, DECA uses on-the-job experience, chapter projects, and a competency based competitive events program in more than 35 specific occupational areas. These events emphasize academic and vocational excellence as building blocks for successful marketing and management careers and demonstrate the direct relationship between marketing education and the real needs of business and industry. Each year, more than 112,000 members participate in competitions on the local, state/provincial and international levels.
DECA emphasizes academic and career excellence and helps to demonstrate the all-important direct relationship between marketing education and the real needs of business and industry. The organization is nonprofit, nonpolitical and totally student oriented. All chapters are selfsupporting, with members paying local, state/provincial and national dues. Each chapter elects its own student officers, and the local instructor serves as the chapter advisor. All chapters within a state/province comprise a state/provincial association under the leadership of the state/provincial advisor. Each state/province elects student officers for its division. The international organization is composed of the total of all state or provincial associations. Student delegates selected by each state, in turn, elect their national student officers. DECA Inc., the legal sponsoring unit of DECA, elects a board of directors, which is the policymaking group of the organization. DECA is the only international student organization operating in the nation’s high schools that attracts individuals to the fields of marketing, management and entrepreneurship.
The DECA chapter is to the marketing education program what a civic or professional organization is to a group of businesspeople. Chapter activities are recognized as a part of the total educational program because they develop leadership skills, professional attitudes, business competency, citizenship characteristics and social growth of the individual. These same activities serve the instructor as a teaching tool by creating student interest in all phases of marketing, management and entrepreneurship. DECA activities provide members with opportunities to serve in leadership roles, work in teams and receive local, state and international recognition.
DECA History
The Development of DECA
During the period between 1937 and 1942, when cooperative programs in marketing education (distributive education as it was called then) were becoming more widely established, students in these marketing and distributive education classes began to form Distributive Education Clubs. This spontaneous effort on the part of students and teachers occurred simultaneously throughout the country.
Students Were Employed
First, distributive education students were employed away from their school campus at business training stations during the afternoon at a time when many of the other students in their school were involved with the school’s extracurricular activities. The distributive education students were, therefore, missing a very important part of school life. Second, these students of distributive education had a common interest—their great personal desire for professional and personal growth. Third, they felt the need to belong, to develop professionally and socially, and to be a part of a group.
Clubs Began to Form
Clubs began to spring up all over the country. These local clubs adopted many names—Future Retailers, Future Distributors, Future Merchants and Distributive Education Clubs. Between 1941 and 1944, as the number and size of local clubs were growing, they began to realize the need for a more organized way to communicate with each other. A few states held statewide meetings of Distributive Education Clubs. By 1945, a few states had officially organized state associations and began holding state conferences.
National DECA Forms
In 1946, the United States Office of Education invited a representative committee of state supervisors of distributive education to meet in Washington, D.C., with representatives of the USOE and the American Vocational Association (now ACTE) to develop plans for the national organization of Distributive Education Clubs and to prepare a tentative constitution and an organizational chart. As a result of this preliminary meeting, the national organization was launched, and the first Interstate Conference of Distributive Education Clubs was held in Memphis, Tennessee, in April 1947. At that meeting, delegates from 12 states unanimously adopted a resolution to form a national organization. The second national conference, held in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1948, saw the adoption of the constitution and the official name, the Distributive Education Clubs of America, designated DECA, and the acceptance of 17 charter member states. These were: Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Washington.
National Headquarters Established
In 1953, a national headquarters for DECA was established in Washington, D.C., with the help of the American Vocational Association.
DECA in a Nutshell
Year Established:
1946
Purposes:
(1) To assist the state associations of DECA in their own growth and development;
(2) To further develop education in marketing, management and entrepreneurship which will contribute to occupational competence;
(3) to promote understanding of and appreciation for the responsibilities of citizenship in our free enterprise system.
Membership:
56 state/provincial associations, including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands, the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Manitoba, Germany and Mexico. Student membership is over 180,000 members.
Headquarters:
1908 Association Drive
Reston, VA 20191-1594
(703) 860-5000
FAX (703) 860-4013 www.deca.org
Tag Line:
Developing Future Leaders in Marketing, Management and Entrepreneurship
Identifier:
An Association of Marketing Students
Colors:
Blue and Gold
Executive Director:
Edward L. Davis, Ed.D.
Regions of DECA:
Western Region (13 states plus Guam)
Central Region (13 states and Manitoba, Canada)
North Atlantic Region (12 states, the District of Columbia, and Ontario, Canada)
Southern Region (12 states, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands)
Divisions of DECA:
High School Division, Delta Epsilon Chi Division, Collegiate Division, Alumni Division and Professional Division.
