We’re very excited to welcome your teens to Los Angeles, California tomorrow! While February Executives Conference, our pre-IC leadership summit, is only about 22 hours long, it’s a packed schedule where significant discussion and important planning happens among our International Executive Body.  “Feb Execs” is the annual winter gathering of as many Council/Regional Presidents and Country Representatives of BBYO communities from across the world as possible. This year, we have delegates from 8 countries (Bulgaria, Serbia, United Kingdom, Ireland, Argentina, Israel, Canada and the US) and more than 40 North American communities.

We thought you might appreciate a little insight into the subject matter of this year’s conference that your teen will be attending from Wednesday to Thursday, prior to the start of BBYO’s International Convention. Many more details are to come on the IC blog throughout Execs!

Going into Feb Execs 2011, BBYO teens have much to be proud of:

• BBYO is experiencing its third year of consistent growth. AZA and BBG membership is on pace to grow for the third consecutive year, Teen Connection (our programming for middle school tweens) is 14% ahead of where it was at this time last year, and Total Jewish Teen Engagement is 13% ahead.

• Chapter programming in our communities is increasingly becoming more intellectually challenging, original and relevant to teen interests. It offers experiences that can’t be accessed through other venues outside of BBYO, and our teens are using their BBYO networks and technology to their advantage to share ideas and best practices.

• Their community service, philanthropy and advocacy efforts have become unified and improved via BBYO’s Stand Up! campaign. Jewish teens are making a difference, having fun engaging in tikkun olam (repair of our world) and sharing the experience with others. Since 2009, teens across BBYO North America have raised over $250,000, partnered with over 200 organizations and have made a difference in the areas of cancer awareness (including significant breast cancer awareness advocacy), poverty, homelessness, human rights, the environment, Israel, the Haiti earthquake disaster, health and wellness, and global Jewry (to name a few!). Their efforts will culminate in April during J-Serve 2011, the annual day of global Jewish youth service. Our goal is to engage 10,000 Jewish teens worldwide in this effort.

• They have pledged to raise $25,000 this programming year for BBYO’s International Service Fund, which supports the participation of Jewish teens from overseas communities in BBYO’s summer and international programming offerings.

• Nearly 500 teens and Chapters applied for International awards this year. They’re proud of what they’ve accomplished, and we are too!

Our time together during Feb Execs is short, but rich and packed with valuable content. We will be assessing this year’s teen leadership priorities, previewing and discussing BBYO’s new 5-year strategic plan, exploring new AZA and BBG business, all while developing strategic skills to bolster the strengths of our Executive Body for the remainder of this program year.

We hope this post got your excited for what is to come! We’re excited to share how Feb Execs 2011 will unfold.

Your BBYO International Teen Leadership Network Staff Team,

Emily Hyatt

Ian Kandel

Josh Langer

Judith Rosenberg

Shayna Kreisler