Four members of the TCU chapter of the NAACP have been elected officers on the state executive board for the youth division of organization.Erica Parker, Allison Robinson, Brittany Conley and Dominique Akins will not only be serving TCU students as representatives for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People on campus, but they will also be leading students across the state for the next two years, officers said.

The four TCU students are part of a seven-member state board.

Parker, TCU chapter president, and Robinson, vice president, will continue to hold their respective titles on the state executive board. Conley will serve as second vice president, and Akins will serve as assistant treasurer.

Elections were held at the annual state conference in early October.

“I planned on running,” Parker said. “When we were there, there were a couple spots open.”

Parker said she nominated Robinson, Conley and Akins on the floor of the conference. They were each elected by delegates in attendance.

Traditionally, members interested in running for office must be nominated for their position and submit a letter of intent to run prior to the convention, said Parker, a senior secondary education major.

Parker said she intended to run for president, and a lack of nominees for other offices inspired her to nominate three fellow TCU chapter members for the available positions.

Conley, a junior radio-TV-film major, said she had been interested in holding an office in the future but hadn’t been prepared to run at the time of the convention.

“I had to give a speech on the spot,” Conley said.

Akins, a freshman business and psychology major, said she and her fellow executive members will be utilizing their new positions to increase the number of students involved in NAACP on the TCU campus.

“We want anybody to come to our meetings,” Akins said.

She said their goal will be to better inform students about the role the organization plays on campus. Akins said many students are intimidated by NAACP, thinking it is open only to certain segments of the TCU population, but she wants all students to participate in the future.

Akins said the executive members are still working to define the exact responsibilities they hold and how they are going to contribute to the state chapter.

“It is a long process,” Akins said, “but that is what we are working on now.”

She said part of their job will be to connect other chapters and unite its goals. Akins said the other three executive members are students at other colleges in Texas, so the board discusses issues through conference calls with all seven officers.

“We talk about different things we want to do in Texas for youth council,” Akins said. “We will focus on colleges and how we can help each other out.”

Conley said as an executive board, the officers will be participating in a retreat in December to create programming that they can facilitate to other state and youth chapters of NAACP.

Akins said she hopes her position on the board will provide her with the experience to be an effective leader once the upperclassmen in the organization have graduated.

“As an incoming freshman, I feel if I get involved now, I can carry this on,” Akins said. “Once I am a senior, I can teach underclassmen how to keep it going.