Hello Oklahoma BPA, this is your State Parliamentarian, Tate Crauthers, here to describe what CTU is and what I learned while there.

CTU stands for CareerTech University. CTU is a leadership training camp for all the Career Technical State Organization (CTSO) Officers here in Oklahoma. It is run by CareerTech which is headquartered in Stillwater. CTU is held in Wagoner at Fort Gibson Lake.

As a State Officer, you must know how you and the other members on the officer team work together, to be an effective team. CTU offers that chance to get to know them and offers the training to be an effective leader within your organization. If you become a state officer in any CTSO – which I highly recommend for hard workers that want to make a difference – this will increase your leadership skills.

First, we learned about the Rules of Leadership. The Rules of Leadership are essentially the foundation of being a leader. From these rules that we went over, I have learned to be thirty to fifteen minutes early, listen to everyone’s concerns and opinions, treat everyone like family, that I am an example since I am the State Parliamentarian, and to always seek clarity on an issue that I do not fully understand. The second thing I learned was to be interested and not interesting. I must listen to all voices, be transparent with any answers, and be purposefully engaging with my words.

Another thing I learned would be the do’s and don’ts of social media. Which is really just common sense, but I have not had a social media account till we as a State Officer team decided to get official Twitter accounts, to help fulfill our jobs as a State Officer Team.

The final thing I learned was what my team and I truly valued as good team standards and what we expect out of each other as leaders.

Overall, this was a great experience, I got to learn how to be a leader, learn about my team, and this has made me completely enthusiastic for this term. I can not wait to walk this road and look back on the great things this organization has done for its’ members.

-Tate Crauthers

Central Technology Center – Drumright