Business Professionals of America » Service Programs » The Torch Awards Program » Role of the State Advisor

Role of the State Advisor

State Advisors are responsible for evaluating submitted résumés using the Torch Awards Online System. State advisors are the administrators of the Diplomat and Statesman Awards. Statesman Awards must be given at the state level. State advisors decide how to give the Diplomat Award. They can leave it up to the local advisor, assign regional helpers to give it at regions, or take care of it at the state level.


Delegating Diplomat/Statesman Responsibilities to a Helper

State Advisors have the option of delegating Torch Award duties to State Advisor Helpers. To create Torch Award accounts for these helpers, State Advisors should follow the following steps:
  1. Log into the State Advisor Administrative section of the Membership Registration System.
  2. To give the helper authority over all of the state’s Torch Awards, leave the “region” field blank.
  3. To limit the helper’s authority to a particular region for the purpose of regional Diplomat awards, enter the region into the “region” field.
  4. Save changes.


State Advisor/Helper Responsibilities

The State Advisor must delegate all of the of the following responsibilities between him/herself or State Advisor Helpers:
  1. Set a deadline for Diplomat and Statesman résumé submissions and disseminate this information to local advisors and students.
  2. Use the online system to evaluate submitted résumés, approving satisfactory résumés and rejecting unsatisfactory résumés. Ideally, this is done throughout the year as résumés come in so that students can improve unsatisfactory résumés and advisors can resubmit the improved résumés for re-evaluation.
  3. Recognize students who have earned Diplomat/Statesman Awards with a pin and certificate at the appropriate conference. Pins and certificates can be purchases online from the BPA Mall.


(For more details on using the Torch Award Online System, click here.)