At the Oct. 26 fall delegate assembly at the University of Kansas, junior Kailei Sidebottom ran for a Business Professionals of America (BPA) state officer position. Sidebottom ran against eight other candidates, including two of the previous state officers. Sidebottom was successful and was elected as Parliamentarian on the Executive Council.

“So what I’ll do, is when we have meetings and when we have conferences I will do like the meeting is adjourned, doing the Robert’s rule of orders and things like that. Every officer kind of shares the same responsibilities,” Sidebottom said.

Leading up to the conference, Sidebottom spent a week preparing, which included doing a large amount of paperwork and taking a test. On top of that, Sidebottom gave two speeches, answered questions about BPA and its values, and participated in a campaign rally where she spoke with potential voters.

Sidebottom made the decision to run for state officer towards the end of BPA last year. In her first year as a member, she placed second in Prepared Speech at the national competition. Sidebottom decided being a state officer was something that she would really enjoy doing.

“I decided to run because I really like BPA and I think it’s really cool. I think the opportunities are really cool that you get with planning the state conference and being in charge of it and just learning leadership skills,” Sidebottom said. “I enjoy competing and coming up with new ideas for business.”

The thing that appeals to Sidebottom the most about becoming a state officer is the opportunity make a difference.

“At the state conference there’s a lot of speakers and there’s a lot of business stuff and I just want to be able to get people’s opinions on what would make it more fun and things like that. I want to make BPA as best as it can be,” Sidebottom said.