Orlando teens attend new member convention

Over the Jan. 30-Feb. 1 weekend, 40 Orlando BBYO members attended a weekend retreat in Lake Placid, Fla., with other teens from throughout the state of Florida. The convention featured a learning track for all new members, partnered with an advanced leadership track for teens that held chapter board positions.

The new member track, or "MIT/AIT," was filled with inspiration and education, as teen leaders taught their peers the history, definitions, songs and cheers, as well as the traditions of what it means to be an Aleph or a B'nai B'rith Girl. The new members that participated in these education sessions started a strong foundation to build their BBYO legacy.

The advanced leadership track, or LTI (Leadership Training Institute), taught participants the ins and outs of quality programming, communication, building stronger brotherhood/sisterhood, recruitment, marketing/public relations and goal setting. The goal for this track was for participants to go back to their local communities and be able to make a bigger impact with their strong leadership.

All participants came together for Shabbat, which was celebrated with convention-themed services on Friday night and Saturday morning. 

"The Adventure Begins" was the theme throughout the course of Shabbat and the services, as well as during Shabbat electives on Saturday afternoon. 

Additionally, both conventions had an opportunity to meet with the guest educator and area field director, Jen Polito, who led a session about relationship driven recruitment-how to build strategies and develop skills to achieve a strong recruitment campaign by creating relationship with Jewish teens to invite them to join AZA and BBG.

The next regional convention is over the March 27-29 weekend at a hotel near Tampa.

For more information about BBYO, please contact Lory Conte at LConte@bbyo.org or 407-621-4032.