Welcome back to the Spring Semester.  I hope everyone had a great winter break and holiday season.   

Introduction 

I am Jeff Brown your new president of IDEA.  I have been a member of IDEA since 1993 and have been a board member since 2016.  I am excited to be the new president of IDEA and looking forward to working with the great IDEA board and all of you dedicated drafting and design teachers.   

Fall Semester 

This fall saw another productive semester for the organization.  We again hosted a combined format for the ITEC conference that allowed TEAI and the IDEA to offer two days of hands on activities for educators.  We hope that you had a chance to attend and enjoyed the format.  If you have any feedback, please let us know as we are always working on providing the best opportunities for our members.  

Spring Semester 

We look forward to continued growth with renewal of memberships and new members.  Educator dues is $40 and can be paid online by going to https://www.idea-online.org/join-idea/ 

Regional and State Competitions 

We will again be hosting the annual regional and state competitions.  A brief of the information is listed below and more details can be found at https://www.idea-online.org/teachers/   

*You must be a member of IDEA for your students to compete in the competitions.   

*The regional competition sites are listed under the competition tab, then the teachers section.  We have been actively working to keep this map up to date and maintain relationships with our community colleges to be able to offer these competitions.  If you are in an area that is not served by a regional please contact Steve Skorup who is our competition director and we can try to work with someone in your area to start a regional site or direct you to a site that can accommodate your students.   

*The regional competitions all have different dates. They are being offered within a window of February 21st -March 6th.  Please check your regional site to verify the date they will be hosting.  We also hope to add this information to our website as well.    

*All competition registrations are due by February 1st and we cannot accept late entries due to the logistics and scheduling of each regional facility.   Registration is $10 for each student competing and again, you will need to pay your $40 educator dues as well.   

*Registration forms are online.  The registration documents are via a Google Docs form under the competition then teachers, then school/teacher registration form tab.  Registration will be handled by Joe Sieczkowski and PayPal is available again this year.    https://www.idea-online.org/teachers/ 

*The state competition this year will be held on Saturday April 18th.   Depending on the contest and the number of students in the various contests will determine if just 1st place or 1st and 2nd place will advance to the state competition.  See specifics at https://www.idea-online.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/IDEA-Competition-Rules-and-Regs.pdf 

* As a member and educator preparing and bringing students to the state competition, we need your help.  We would appreciate it if you could volunteer your time at state to help judge competitions your students are not in.  More information will be forthcoming. 

Thank You 

Thank you for all the work you put in teachers to get your students ready, and to the students for taking the time and effort to compete in this competition.  Thank you to our board who does the work to make sure this organization and the competition continues to run smoothly.  Lastly, thanks to all the regional directors and Illinois State University for hosting our competitions and putting all the work in that is required to facilitate them. 

Sincerely, 

Jeff Brown – IDEA President