• National Conference Goes Digital In New DVD
• Kansas City, Here We ... Stay
• SkillsUSA Hits the Pits
• In Search of a Few Good Chapters

SkillsUSA’s 2003 National Leadership and Skills Conference was simply too gargantuan to be chronicled on paltry videotape. Now the biggest NLSC in SkillsUSA history is also SkillsUSA’s first digital document with the new 2003 NLSC Video Scrapbook DVD.

The DVD features nearly 40 minutes of day-by-day conference footage, taking you from the empty contest floor on Sunday to a packed house at Kemper Arena during Friday night’s Awards Ceremony. It also features a bonus slide show, offering a photographic diary of the fast-paced week.

If you were there, you’ll want this DVD as a keepsake. If you weren’t there, you’ll want to see what you’ve been missing. A conference DVD is expected to be a yearly project, so if you’re approached by a SkillsUSA cameraperson in Kansas City this year, smile pretty. Visit www.skillsusa.org for more information or www.skillsusa.org/store to order a copy.

Do you love Kansas City, Mo.? Good. Because if you attend the national conference anytime between 2004 and 2014, that’s where you’ll be staying.

SkillsUSA has just extended its contract with this great Midwestern city through the next 10 years. Other locations were considered, but incentives offered in the Kansas City proposal made it clear that K.C. loves SkillsUSA and doesn’t think we’ve overstayed our welcome by a long shot!

With numerous citywide improvements and additions promised in the coming years, SkillsUSA is looking forward to a great string of national conferences in the decade ahead.

Thanks to DeWALT, racing champion Matt Kenseth will display the SkillsUSA logo on the deck lid of his car during this year’s Daytona 500 (note: at press time, the race had yet to be run).

DeWALT will also feature the logo on die-cast collector edition cars, invite students from schools near 15 NASCAR tracks to be guests at upcoming races, and recognize the high school and college medalists from seven of our national competitions at the Checker Auto Parts 500 in November. Why the VIP treatment? Because, to our partners, SkillsUSA members are VIPs.

Is your SkillsUSA chapter a lean, mean champion machine? Then share your success by presenting at Skills University during the 2004 NLSC.

State association directors, along with local advisors and their students, are invited to share best practices relating to the SkillsUSA program of work. Learn more at www.skillsusa.org/skillsuniv.html or email Karen Perrino, karenp@skillsusa.org.