USU Delta Omega Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi Sets World Record

This month the USU Delta Omega Chapter of Beta Alpha Psi achieved the prestigious Superior status, which makes them the longest concurrent superior chapter in the world. The Utah State chapter has achieved this status every year since 1977. Worldwide there are 298 active chapters representing over 17,000 members.

The chapter will be recognized at Beta Alpha Psi’s Annual Meeting and receive $275, which mostly covers chapter maintenance fees or dues for the year. Superior chapters are also recognized as such with a ribbon on their nametags when they attend the annual meeting and on the executive website.

The recognition is designed to:

• Encourage chapters to fulfill the objectives of Beta Alpha Psi and prepare members for careers as financial information professionals,

• Identify chapters needing assistance from Chapter Advocates and Professional Partners, and

• Recognize chapters that excel in serving their members, campus, community, and/or profession.

“We are an ambitious group with superior students, caring faculty, and engaged alumni,” Bonnie Villarreal, Beta Alpha Psi Faculty Advisor, said.

The club has set “to add value to the experience at the School of Accountancy at USU” by:

• Holding a leadership role and strong visual presence in the school’s activities

• Participating in all competitions and nominations that will represent and enhance the reputation of the USU SOA

• Continuing to build a “two-way bridge” between the academic and professional community enabling placement of students and opportunities for alumni to give back and stay involved

• Improving interaction and thus improving the educational experience

· Student to student – encouraging study groups and collaboration

· Student to faculty – encouraging academic pursuit/postgrad work/better classroom engagement

· Student to professionals – lifetime networking for Aggies

A Beta Alpha Psi chapter can be a Mission Based, Distinguished, or Superior chapter depending on the requirements they attempt and fulfill. Currently, to be a Superior chapter the following must be completed and timely reported to the executive office:

1. Beginning of the Year report (plan of operations for chapter activities)

2. Initiation ceremony for candidates meeting all qualifications for membership

3. Officer elections

4. End of year report including financial statements and tax reporting

5. Minimum of six professional activities including at least one “essential skills” session. Such as hosting a visiting professional speaker, mock interviews, joint meetings with other professional organizations, etc - Each involving at least 25 percent of the chapter membership.

6. Minimum of one service activity involving at least 25 percent of the chapter. Our chapter helps run the Juvenile Diabetes Walk for a Cure, Stokes Nature Center Auction, Child and Family Support Center Santa’s Workshop project, and has presented merit badge workshops for Boy Scouts and other community service events.

7. Minimum of eight “reaching out activities” such as attendance at regional and annual meetings, hosting of regional meeting, presenting in an information session at a regional or annual meeting, mentoring a developing chapter, alumni events, and other specifically identified events.

There are also requirements of at least 12 professional activity hours and 12 service hours per chapter member with a total of at least 32 hours of combined professional and service activities per chapter member.

HMA Stukent Internet Marketing Competition: Round Five and Awards Lecture

By Jason Porter

Congrats to the winners! Round five of the competition had me making gains again. My email marketing campaign went really well, but I didn't learn the ads fast enough to really be competitive. It was interesting to see my statistics of the campaigns I was running climb steadily as I learned more about targeting ads. Overall, my stats weren't bad, and considering I have had little training, they were pretty good.

I think this is an opportunity more people should explore. How often do you get to throw around $25,000 of someone’s (fake) money to see what it does? The awards lecture by Chad Heath, from Netmark.com was really interesting. He gave a rundown of how to “bootstrap” your business idea and get it running with little or no capital. Advice like this from someone of his background is pure gold. He also reached out to help those in attendance. One more great opportunity I got to participate in thanks to the Huntsman Marketing Association. Thanks to our sponsors Netmark.com, Utah Mattress Outlet, and Stukent!

HMA Stukent Internet Marketing Competition: Round Four

By Jason Porter

Round four I am seeing the results of my ad experiments and research. All my statistics are going up again. A/B testing works out slowly for me, but it does work. I can see where one ad boosts click through rates compared to the other. Perhaps if I had started this testing in the practice round I might have been able to boost my conversions higher by now. As it is my statistics aren't bad for someone with little formal training. I like seeing what effect my decisions have without sacrificing my money to see it.

On a bright note I am making the email marketing part work well for me. One of the campaigns has nearly a 100 percent open rate (nearly unheard of in the industry) and is converting 50 percent of my leads into buys (also extremely high). Just one more round to go! Thanks to our sponsors Netmark.com, Utah Mattress Outlet, and Stukent!

HMA Stukent Internet Marketing Competition: Round Three

by Jason Porter

*Sigh* Lesson learned. I changed horses in midstream and allowed the competition room to wiggle. I am learning what makes ads work and what doesn't. It also is very clear I need different strategies for my UK products. If it works in the UK it might not work in the US. One would think I would know that after an International Business class and a Cultures class.

I am finding that pinpointing the proper key words in my ads is harder than I thought. Posting tons of different ads with different keywords is helping narrow it down, but I might have given over too much of an advantage to the competition to recover. Maybe luck will be on my side for the last two rounds! Thanks to our sponsors Netmark.com, Utah Mattress Outlet, and Stukent!

HMA Stukent Internet Marketing Competition: Round Two

By Jason Porter

Well, as it often happens, my practice round was no indicator of what the first round would be like.

All my competitors brought out their A game and trounced me good. We are given limited information about what the others are doing with their campaign, but we do get glimpses. It appears that at least two other people have tried my same tactic, so I decided to switch gears entirely.

Will that be a good idea? Who knows, but I will find out in the morning. It was interesting to see what was working and what wasn’t. My long shot ad campaign ended up being my best. That campaign stuck squarely in the middle and was the most costly, driving up my cost per conversion. Many things went right. Other things went not so right. Only time will tell if a change in tactics was the right choice.

Opportunity Scholarship: Bo Johnson

By Bo Johnson

Studying abroad in the United Kingdom has been one of the most edifying experiences I’ve ever had. Participating in an exchange program is more than attending a different college; it is truly a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to develop and grow as an individual, academic, and citizen. By leaving all that is familiar behind, you will learn more about yourself and widen your perspective. No amount of schooling will offer the knowledge you gain by immersing yourself in a foreign culture. Thanks to the Huntsman Opportunity Scholarship, I received the financial support I needed to study abroad. To anyone who is considering a semester abroad, I say, what are you waiting for? And to anyone who has not considered a semester abroad, I say, consider it! This is your opportunity to see the world! It will be an experience you will never forget.

Bo Johnson

Stukent Internet Marketing Competition: Round One

by Jason Porter


The Stukent RealDeal Internet Marketing Simulation Competition is under way. As a competitor, I

was given $5,000 to spend in the simulation to try and drive traffic to my websites and sell Tablet Computers. Stuart Draper gave us all a great kick start on Monday, showing us some tricks and tips we could use to get more web traffic. At first, the learning curve was brutal. Designing a good website and setting up pay-per-click ads is difficult when you haven’t had to do it before. I felt good about our practice round where I managed to grab about 38 percent of the web traffic among my group of six even though my statistics were average. The competition has just started, and I already have learned a lot about optimizing websites. Now it’s time to see if my adjusted ad strategy pays off!

Studs

Dictionaries define stud variously as:

1) A male breeding animal – as in stud horse;

2) A young, virile, man;

3) An earring consisting of a small, button-like ornament mounted on a metal post designed to pass through a pierced ear lobe;

4) Any of a large number of small projecting lugs embedded in an automobile tire (studded tire) to improve traction on snowy or icy roads;

5) A knob, nailhead, or other protuberance projecting from a surface or part, especially as an ornament.

None of these are relevant to this blog. Just interesting. The definition I want is:

6) Any of a number of slender, upright members of wood, steel, etc., forming the frame of a wall or partition and covered with plasterwork, siding, glass, etc.

Construction workers mounting studs that will support the sheet glass walls on the exterior of Huntsman Hall

Have you seen the studs going up on the side of Huntsman Hall this past week? These things are huge! Some of the studs are as long as 50’ long. It takes three men to carry these studs. They are special-made for Huntsman Hall. The remarkable thing is how quickly they are attached to the building. Matter of fact, they are going up so fast that we should soon see sheet glass walls hanging on these studs!

Ken Snyder