DECA will implement two new changes for the season this year. According to Arya Patel, DECA paper head and junior, group sizes for events are limited to two members.

Patel said, “The main changes that I think will affect DECA members the most are that this year every single event is limited to a two-person team.”

DECA sponsor Jacob Goodman said there are many reasons for this change.

“In the past, if there were groups of three, typically one or even two people would do very little work, and then one or two people would do the entire paper,” Goodman said. “And so we just wanted to be a little more equitable in terms of who’s actually doing the work, who gets to go to state and who gets to compete internationally. Additionally, we hopefully will get even more quality projects overall and increase our chances of doing well at the competitions.”

In addition, contrary to previous years, Goodman said paper events will now compete at districts rather than receiving a direct ticket to the state competition.

He said, “Those who participate in paper events need to have rough drafts of their papers ready and have a small version of their presentation ready by the week before or after winter break. They will give those presentations and share their rough draft either in their IB Business (and Management) class or during SSRT.”

Patel said, “Compared to previous years, the students who compete in the paper division will have to compete at districts and they will have to make it in the top three groups in their event in order to go on to state.”