JCI

Great News Everyone, I talked to Anthony Colletti today via email. He’s in Brussels Belgium at the JCI World Congress and said that were *#3 in the
WORLD* for JCI organizations in raising money for Nothing But Nets !!!!! just think how much more we can achieve by the end of the year. For every $10 we raise we save a life from Malaria donate at http://bit.ly/ut25Oh

Richard Lewis
2011 Website Program Manager – United States Jaycees
2011 National Prog/ Govt. Involvement State Chair – Illinois Jaycees

What an awesome GA we had this past weekend!!! Saturday during Lunch Anthony Colletti spoke about how close we are the our 2011 Nothing But Nets goal and our chapters STEPPED UP big time…to the tune of $1051.00 in pledges and donations. A big thanks goes out to all those chapters Mount Prospect, Gurnee/Lindenhurst, Bolingbrook, Chatham, Woodstock, Lombard, and Woodridge. Once we receive all the checks we will be only $289 away from our goal !!! please consider making a donation of 10 bucks to our State Nothing But Nets Site.

Last friday was exciting I announced my candidacy for 2012 Area One Vice President of the Illinois Jaycees. I believe that we can grow our area with outstanding Training held locally, We can use the Knowledge of our members and our networks to strengthen our area, and We can retain our members through all the Opportunities our organization have to offer. Like my page on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/Voteforrichard and follow my campaign. Since our organizations election is less then two weeks away I’m visiting 14 chapters in 13 days with a three day vacation in the middle of my campaign. I want to get out and hear from our members what are their concerns across the Area chapters in the Fox Valley may have different concerns then chapters in the Northeast or Northwest.

As Jaycee members we have a long history of driving change in our communities across the country and all through our grassroots skills and efforts. For example, when a group of young business men in the Los Angeles area were dissatisfied with their representation in congress they sought out a candidate and came across a young who was a Jaycee their first reaction was here is a young man who has been through the best training in the world. This particular Jaycee won their confidence and was elected to serve them in congress. He went on to serve his country as our nation’s President. Here’s another example of Jaycees and politics; Did you know Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Gerald Ford, Ralph Nader, Dick Chaney, Joe Biden and many more were all TOYA recipients? Still need more proof you say…. ever hear of the Young Republicans Party? Well it was founded by then Jaycees National President George H. Olmsted in 1932 after being called upon by US President Herbert Hoover who was looking for a way to get more young men out to vote and involved in politics. Speaking of getting out to vote did you know that Get Out The Vote is our very own national program for the Jaycees organization under the Government Involvement area? Which mean each chapter should and is encouraged to run a project to support this program. The easiest thing to do is to run a voter registration drive in your community at one of your town festivals or events. A toolkit can be downloaded from http://www.usjaycees.org/index.php/government-involvement and information on how you can best serve your local community can be found through your local County Clerks office.

Over the weekend I read another chapter of the book Young Men Can Change The World. I came across another great story this one of how the Abbeville Jaycees was founded. The story was a recount of the adventure of at the time U.S. Jaycees National Vice President Robert E. Condon who at the age of 29 also held the position of civil defense commissioner for the greater New York metro area. Condon decided to use his position in both the Jaycees and personally to grow the organization as well as help his community by introducing an airmail service from New York to Atlanta. After introducing his plan the two cities and U.S. Post Office were excited to put it into action. During their first flight from Atlanta the plane developed troubles over South Carolina with Condon at co-pilot which ended with a crashing landing in a  farm field outside the town of Abbeville, SC. After hitching hiking into town Condon was interviewed by the local newspaper reporter he began to tell him that this was the inaugural flight of The United States Junior Chamber airmail program when the reporter said The United States what????? Well just like Jaycees do theses days when presented with the opportunity of spreading our message. Condon told the reporter all about the Jaycees by night fall he rounded up a group of young men typed out a charter for the Abbeville Junior Chamber Of Commerce and had their charter fee in his pocket. The plane never made it to New York but as result of Robert’s trip it resulted in the founding of the Abbeville Jaycees chapter. Condon went on to meet Charles Lindbergh while waiting for a flight and invite him to our organization and serve as our 7th Junior Chamber National President.

Since 1954 Outstanding Young Farmers has been a signature program of the US Jaycees and believe it or not we’ve got very little to do with. now i know that’s hard to believe that the largest Jaycee state and is covered by 80% of farm land hasn’t Produce an Outstanding Young Farmer since 2008. Well that changes this year, because our states goal is to submit 5 outstanding candidates for this award. The requirements for submission of this award is simple they must be in Jaycee age range, they must be actual farm operators, deriving a minimum of two-thirds of their income from farming, and All information on the nomination form must be completed. The cost of nominating someone to your chapter is free because it is sponsored by John Deere and as a bonus for submitting you can earn POC points for your chapter. So there’s no reason why our chapters in farming communities can’t submit at least one nominee.