Have you heard of the BPA Torch Awards Program yet?

The Torch Awards Program is designed to promote professionalism and leadership at the local, regional, state, and national
levels. You begin by documenting all of your BPA (and some non-BPA) activities in an online
“resume” found on the bpa.org website with your BPA login information. The Torch Program may
seem overwhelming at first, but once you understand the basics, you will be able to quickly gain
points in each category.

There are seven categories to Torch which are Leadership, Service, Cooperation,
Knowledge, Friendship, Love-Hope-Faith, and Patriotism.

There are three Torch Award levels you can receive which are Executive, Statesman, and Ambassador and all require a certain
amount of points in each category in order to receive recognition.

The Executive award is given within your local chapter and it requires 10 points in each category which will be a total of 70.
The Diplomat level requires 30 points per category for a total of 210 points. Next is the
Statesmen award, which requires 50 points in each category that will equal 350 in all. You will
receive special on-stage recognition during the Oklahoma State Leadership Conference and will
receive your certificate as well as a pin at the Statesman level. The Ambassador award requires
70 points in every category creating a total of 490 in which you receive national-level recognition
during the National Leadership Conference in National Harbor, MD this year. At the national
level, you will be presented with your certificate and pin, along with your name displayed in front
of thousands during a special candle-lighting ceremony. You can still receive your Ambassador
certificate and pin even if you cannot physically attend nationals, in which they would be mailed to you after the conference.

There are plenty of Torch points that can be claimed more than once such as in the
Leadership category code 114. For code 114, you can submit a feasible, detailed, and written
plan to your local vice president for a new local chapter project, and can submit a different plan
up to five times total. That code is worth five points, so by completing the task five times, you
can gain 25 points from just completing Leadership code 114. When you are filling out an
activity, make sure the following requirements are correct. Entries must be in complete
sentences, grammatically correct with no spelling errors, the event must have already occured.
All events must also occur while you are an active BPA member. The earlier you start logging in
the activities you have been doing, the easier it will be for you to remember the dates upon
which it happened and the accurate description for what you have accomplished. Make sure
you read through every category and corresponding activities so you can plan out what you
have completed and what you will need to complete, in order to be more organized and efficient
when filling out the form. The official deadline to submit your completed Torch award
submission for Oklahoma is February 6, 2020 at the Statesmen Torch level in order to be
recognized during State Conference. It may seem as if you have plenty of time, but if it is your
first time participating in the Torch Awards Program, it is best to start as soon as possible so
that you can make sure you are correctly filling out each category, and able to plan for future
activities that would qualify for Torch.

Please feel free to reach out to me or to any other State Officer for any questions or any
help you need with filling out your submission for Torch. It is a great way to earn recognition at
both the State and National level for BPA!

-Jesus Mesta

OK BPA State Vice President