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Survey Link: https://pafbla.jotform.com/262837616427970
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Please read the information below before responding.
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If you want to talk to your officers or students who have attended an NLC in the past, please do so but there is one response per chapter.
Dear High School and Middle School FBLA Adviser
The current FBLA year is only three months old, and I have a very important email about next June's National Leadership Conference in Columbus, Ohio. Your input is needed and essential, and I need you to respond with your best guess how you and your parents may respond if they are the ones typically accompanying your qualifying members as I have to provide input to the National Office no later than Friday.
Let me provide some background to help you answer the data that I will need. I am asking that your answers be as honest as possible, but your answers WILL NOT commit you to anything.
- The 2027 NLC will be held in Columbus, Ohio. For some, this could be a "drive-in" event rather than a "fly-in" event.
- The actual dates of the conference will be June 23-26, which is a week earlier than usual as National FBLA endeavors to move the NLCs away from the July 4 holiday. Competitive events are usually held on Days 1, 2, and 3 of the conference.
- Columbus, Ohio, while a significant metropolitan area with a beautiful convention center, is not as large as the convention cities that National FBLA has used in the past.
- Hotel facilities are not as large and concentrated as major convention cities that we have experienced. At this point, it appears that there could be up to 70 or more different hotels in the Columbus metro area to house the nearly 20,000 FBLA national conference attendees. Translation: states will likely be split in multiple hotels/facilities as we were in San Antonio.
- As a way of keeping attendees closer to the convention center and keeping costs down for attendees, there is the potential that accommodations could be offered at air-conditioned dormitories on The Ohio State University campus. There is a hope that several thousand individuals staying in dorms might help alleviate any housing crunch that could occur.
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Last summer, State Leaders were given a tour of the potential dorms that could house attendees as an alternative to staying in one of the hotel facilities.
a. The dorms are typical two-person dorm rooms that many of us may remember. They are single beds; there is nothing capable of more than two in a room, to my knowledge.
b. Restroom facilities are common in the hall that all share.
c. The dorms are not "suites." There are no TVs in the room; there is no housekeeping; there will be free WiFi.
d. Meals could be available for a cost at one of the dining halls on campus.
e. There will be security monitoring the dorms should any FBLA conference attendees be housed there. The dorms will not be wide open to anyone who wanders in.
f. I have no answer to whether entire FBLA states will be "assigned" to the dorms; I believe this is fact-finding to see if any individuals/groups within a state would stay in the dorms.
g. I have no answers how adults and their children would be placed on floors within a dorm; how they would share common bathrooms; and whether genders would be on separate floors or separate wings in the dorm; and how a parent/child sharing a room would be placed.
h. I have no idea of the cost difference between a hotel stay and a dormitory stay, but I expect there would be savings.
i. There would be shuttle transportation provided by National FBLA from all areas to the convention center except the downtown district area, I believe.
This past August was my first trip to Columbus, Ohio, as a State Leader. I was pleasantly surprised at what I saw in the "downtown district." Very nice, very clean. I saw the dorm rooms in the OSU areas, but I did not see anything outside those two areas.
Air Travel vs. Driving to Columbus
Since Columbus is within a 4-5 hour drive from parts of Pennsylvania, I have to gauge how many might consider driving vs flying. The Columbus John Glenn Airport is a large airport but not as large as the airport in major convention cities. All major airlines fly in and out of Columbus, but many may require connecting flights to get to Columbus.
Map of Hotel Zones in Columbus Area
National FBLA has provided the map shown below of the areas in the Columbus metropolitan area where hotels will be located. Let me be clear: it is highly unlikely that a Pennsylvania delegation requiring 300 hotel rooms for 750+ attendees would be in one hotel in the downtown district Columbus area. Remember, National FBLA has already told State Leaders that there will be 70+ different hotels used in the areas found on the map, with some that could be 45-60 minutes away from the downtown convention center. And so you must know: National FBLA requires all NLC qualifiers to stay in a National FBLA contracted hotel, which could be assigned anywhere in the mapped areas shown below; you cannot make lodging at your own hotels. I believe National FBLA is trying to determine what percentage of travelers from a state might consider staying in the Ohio State dormitories.
The survey:
To help me provide data to National FBLA, please click this link to answer the questions on this survey no later than Thursday, October 15, at 12:00 noon. Even though the survey will ask for contact information, nothing on the survey commits you to anything or will be made public. The only ones seeing the survey responses will be Janet Skiles and me as we must review the survey responses, and I must provide data that National FBLA is asking of us.
The survey may take as much as 15 minutes to complete, but it could be less -- depending on how long you ponder a question. Remember, I am asking for your "best educated guess."
Bruce Boncal
PA FBLA Executive Director
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