Maryland Jaycees District West

Germantown Oktoberfest

2009-10-07T00:26:00.002-04:00

The Gazette has made several mentions of the Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees during their coverage of the Germantown Oktoberest.

G&G member Katie Skinker was quoted in the September 30 edition, talking about the chapter's plans to donate money from running the beer tent to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society and the local Meals on Wheels.

A week later, during the festival, Sarah Knetzer also spoke to a reporter about the plans to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

(G&G is planning to field a team in the society's "Light the Night" walk. There's still time to make donations.)

Western Maryland - Outstanding Young Professionals Dinner.

2009-09-24T20:58:00.005-04:00

The September 23 edition of the Cumberland Times-News reports that the Western Maryland Jaycees are accepting nominations for its first Outstanding Young Professional Award (Third item on the page). Likewise, tonight's copy of the Maryland Jaycees Weekly E-news also includes a mention of it.

This is a feeder for the state's Outstanding Young Marylander program which in turn feeds into national's Ten Outstanding Young American.

Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees - Bike Rodeo Photos

2009-09-11T23:07:00.003-04:00

The Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees have posted photos from their recent Bicycle Rodeo. Photos from the event were published in the Gaithersburg and Germantown editions of The Gazette.

Frederick Jaycees on Faceebook

2009-09-02T23:03:00.000-04:00

The Frederick Jaycees have a Facebook Page. It looks like the page has actually been around for a while, but my Google alert for news about the Frederick Jaycees took a while to deliver it.

Western Maryland Jaycee - Chamber of Commerce membership

2009-08-26T22:58:00.001-04:00

The August 25 edition of the Cumberland Times-News reports that the Western Maryland Jaycees have joined the Allegany County Chamber of Commerce. This provides Jaycee members access to the Chamber of Commerce they might not have even if their individual employers are members of the chamber.

(Original story.)

Salisbury Jaycees on Faceebook

2009-08-17T22:00:00.001-04:00

The Salisbury Jaycees have a Facebook Page. (OK, technically they're not a District West chapter, but that's not their fault, and the page has likely been up there since forever, but they're nice people so why not give them a mention, right?)

Western Maryland Jaycees - Beautiful Babies and Prettiest Pet contest

2009-08-04T22:47:00.003-04:00

The August 3 edition of the Cumberland Times-News reported on the results of a most beautiful baby boy and girl and the prettiest pet contest sponsored by the Western Maryland Jaycees.

The contest raised more than $2,300 for the chapter's annual Christmas shopping tour.

(Original story)

Western Maryland Jaycees - Celebration of Young Professionals

2009-06-17T20:02:00.004-04:00

According to an article in the Cumberland Times, Western Maryland will hold its Second Annual Celebration of Young Professionals on October 9 in Cumberland.

I assume (but don't know for certain) that this feeds into the state's Outstanding Young Marylander program.

Western Maryland Jaycees elect President

2009-01-21T00:48:00.002-05:00

According to an article in the Daily American, the Western Maryland Jaycees have elected Brad Shaulis as President. Brad joined the chapter in 2006 and served as their 2008 Community Development Vice President.

2008 District Director West

2008-02-04T00:31:00.000-05:00

Earlier this week I learned that the Maryland Jaycees Executive Committee has appointed Jeff Snyder of the Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees to be your 2008 District Director West.

Since joining the Jaycees in 2002, Jeff has received much recognition and held a variety of positions on the local level, including Management VP, Membership VP and Treasurer. As the 2006 president of the Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees, Jeff led the chapter through a year which ended with the chapter winning the Henry S. Giessenbier Memorial Award as the Most Outstanding Chapter of the Year by the Maryland Jaycees for 2006 (the highest award a chapter can win at the state level). Jeff personally was named as an outstanding local president by the US Jaycees and received the 2006 Charles Kulp, Jr. Memorial Award.

I haven't heard whether an official email address has been set up yet, but Jeff will doubtless be in touch with the chapter contact people in the very near future. (It's quite possible that he's already been in touch.)

Publicity To-Do List

2008-01-24T23:37:00.000-05:00

Now that we're well into January, this is a great time to review your chapter's to-do list and make sure you're on track for letting the world know all the great things you do.

A few things to double-check:

Is the chapter web-site up-to-date? Having an out-of-date web site is worse than having no web site at all. If people visit the web site and the most recent information is for last fall's events, they'll think you don't having any programming right now. They might even think the chapter no longer exists!

Do you have a current list of publicity contacts? At a minimum, you should know the name and email address of the reporter(s) who cover your community. You'll want to send them announcements about all of your chapter's activities.

Does the local newspaper have your next meeting date? Most local newspapers have a community calendar. This is usually maintained by someone other than the news reporter, so make sure you have this person's name and contact information too. And then make sure they have the date, time, and location for your next membership meeting as well as a phone number people can call with questions.

Have you announced your 2008 officers? Have you had your annual Awards and Officer Installation (A&I) banquet yet? Once your 2008 board has been installed, you should send out a press release to the local paper (see above) and announce who the officers are. Be sure to end the release with a quick summary of what the Jaycees are and how long your chapter has been around.

PS Don't forget! OTS is this weekend!

What are they saying about your chapter?

2008-01-21T09:21:00.000-05:00

Do you know what's being said about your chapter?

One way to highlight your chapter's work in the community is to maintain a list of links to recent articles on the local paper's web site. But how do you find out when your chapter's been mentioned in the news? Wouldn't it be cool if you could get some sort of automatic notification every time your chapter was mentioned?

That's exactly what happens when you set up an automatic search agent on Google Alerts! It's as easy as 1-2-3:

Go to http://www.google.com/alerts/.

Enter your chapter's name in the search terms.

Choose a search type (I suggest "Comprehensive") and Frequency

Enter your email address.

Click the Create button.

And that's all you have to do (OK, that's really 1-2-3-4-5, but it's still easy). Google will let you know every time your chapter's name appears in the news. And it doesn't cost you anything but a few minutes of your time.

Winter Convention

2008-01-17T21:29:00.000-05:00

Celebrate Jaycees!

The 2008 Winter Convention (and 2007 Year End Awards) will take place the weekend of February 29 - March 2 in Timonium at the Days Inn Timonium.

Registration is $60 through January 29 (after which it goes up to $65) and includes all meetings/trainings on Friday, Saturday and Sunday; Saturday lunch; Saturday banquet (including beer and wine) and awards; and a Sunday brunch featuring Mimosas and Bloody Marys.

The registration form is available on the Maryland Jaycees' state web site.

Officer Training School

2008-01-16T21:14:00.000-05:00

The 2008 Officers Training School (OTS) is scheduled for Saturday, January 26. This is the Maryland Jaycees' annual training where chapter officers will meet with their counterparts from other chapters as well as state officers to answer the question, "I'm elected. Now what?"^*

The event will take place in the Skipjack room of the Days Inn Timonium starting at 9:00 AM and continuing until 3:30 PM.

Coffee and donuts will be provided from 8:30 to 9:00 AM
Lunch is included with registration.
Early Registration postmarked by 1/18/06--$15.00 per person
Registration at the door--$20.00 per person

The registration form is available on the Maryland Jaycees' state web site.

(^* Thanks to Jen Ray for a wonderful turn of the phrase!)

Book Judging for 2007 Year-end

2008-01-13T17:11:00.000-05:00

I've already sent this out via email, but just in case anyone was missed...

Book Judging for the 2007 year end awards judging will be held at the Severna Park Service Center on January 19^th at 9:30 AM!

DEADLINE FOR ALL BOOKS FOR JUDING WILL BE AT 10AM THE DAY OF BOOK JUDGING!

LUNCH – There is no fee to attend as a judge and lunch will be provided, however you must RSVP to let us know how many judges you will bring so we can plan enough food for everyone. Please RSVP via awards@mdjaycees.org ! (One RSVP form each chapter is preferred, but not required.

This year Book Judging will be the traditional …live hard copy judging...however.

Annual Reports/Area of Opportunity

Ø The On-line chapter and state Annual Reports/Area of Opportunity Reports need to be submitted on-line using the B.9 Best Chapter of the Area on the JCI website.

Ø The JCI e-awards program can be found here: www.jci.cc/eawards

Ø Registration is easy and only take s a few minutes.

Ø Annual Reports / Areas will be entered to online and printed copies will be brought to Book Judging on the 19th

Ø Hard copy Annual Reports / Areas should be in the USJC electronic format…printed

1. One copy for each category under consideration

2. Printouts will NOT be judged for being pretty.

3. Winners by division will be sent to USJC electronically

Judges

ØAll chapters need to provide judges in accordance with the 2007 Awards Manual

Maryland Militia Awards

Awards submissions for Local Secretary, Treasurer and Director as described in the awards manual are due via EMAIL not later than 19 January. These submissions should be sent to awards@mdjaycees.org

Single Project Entries (CPGs)

Ø Single project entries will be judged the same as in the past, and NOT on-line. CREATE CPG FOLDERS AS YOU ALWASYS HAVE

Other MDJC Awards - No Changes from the 2007 Awards Manual

Troop Supply Drive

2008-01-13T00:25:00.000-05:00

Recognizing that a lot of the drives to support the troops take place around the winter holiday season, the Salisbury Jaycees have started a drive to collect items that will be sent after the end of January, when fewer packages are being sent.

Very cool.

Hagerstown in the News

2008-01-07T20:34:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure when the article was written, but the Jaycees of Hagerstown were mentioned sometime recently in Hagerstown Magazine. The article is an introduction to the various community organizations in Hagerstown (Clubs with Purpose) and features a few quotes from former chapter President Dan Prescott which do a great job of describing what you might hope to get out of being a Jaycee.

Jaycee Directory

2008-01-06T15:21:00.000-05:00

I've discovered that the Pensacola Jaycees maintain a blog on their web site called The Jaycees Web Directory Project. There haven't been any entries in a few months, but the blog goes beyond reporting on events their chapter has been involved in, but also mentions projects nationwide. I even found mention of a project in Mount Airy from 2005.

Downing of the Browns

2008-01-03T22:58:00.001-05:00

The Frederick Jaycees have a holiday tradition called the "Hanging of the Greens." Every year in mid-November they go out and hang Christmas garlands (ropes of pine branches) and wreaths on the storefronts of various businesses in Frederick. It's a great opportunity for socializing and a fun way to spend one of the last Saturdays before Thanksgiving.

This Saturday (January 5), the chapter goes back into the community for another traditional event. This one is called the "Downing of the Browns" in which members of the chapter go and remove the decorations -- which are perhaps not quite as green as they were two months earlier. This is the final event on the chapter's 2007 Plan of Action.

See you Saturday!

Advice for a new District Director

2008-01-01T19:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't heard whether there's a new District Director West. A lot of folks are still in "Holiday Mode" though, so it's quite likely that nobody's given it much thought yet.

Probably the most important piece of advice anyone gave me when I was elected was simply, "Don't let anyone tell you how to do the job." After thinking about it for a bit, I realized this was sound advice. The world is full of people who want to second-guess you. Or putting it another way:

Rule 1: There are no rules about how to be a Jaycee Leader

Everything else in this post should doubtless be filtered through Rule 1. :-)

That being said... the District Director is in a unique position relative to the rest of the Executive Board. Everyone else has to deal with every chapter in the state, the district director works with a smaller number of them.

Pragmatically, what this means is that the district director will most likely be the person "gently reminding" chapters to send in their close out information. Going the other direction, you'll be bringing concerns from your chapters to the rest of the team and making sure the chapters know what's going on around the state.

Some experiences and/or things that worked for me (This in particular is where Rule 1 applies):

Phone communications are great, I highly recommend them. But they're also time consuming. Talk to chapter contacts once a month (or more) if you can, but don't plan to make more than two (or three) calls in a single night. There will always be a few folks who just won't get off the phone.

Conversely, there are probably going to be a few people who you just can't get hold of to save your life. That being the case, you may want to consider making up a list of email addresses for all your chapter contacts so you can keep them informed about what's going on. Start off with the President and State Director. As you find out who more of your chapters' board members are, add them to your list. This increases the likelihood that somebody in each chapter will pay attention.

Some chapters will never get around to asking you to come to their events. Don't be afraid to invite yourself. Send an email to one of your contacts (starting with the President and/or State Director) saying something like, "Hey, I'd really like to come to such-and-such project. What time does it start and how do I get there?" (Projects are probably a better thing to show up at than meetings.) Of course, the same rule for attending your own chapter's project also applies here - don't even think about trying to attend everything or you'll burn yourself out.

There's nothing wrong with holding district meetings during the quarterly conventions. That may give your chapters one more reason to make sure they have someone there. On the other hand, you may want to schedule them as separate events, some chapters may not have representatives at conventions). The two approaches seem to have similar results.

One important note though: Schedule your district meetings as far in advance as possible. (Folks will complain anyhow, but that's just how it goes.) If you can get chapters to find a meeting location, etc. that's great, but you do have the option of making your own arrangements. Probably the smartest thing I did in 2007 was when I decided to have a meeting in a central location. When the local chapter didn't respond, I organized the meeting myself. The chapter was a lot more responsive afterward.

Plan to have your 4th quarter meeting as early as possible in the quarter for two reasons: (A) This way you can also use it as a candidates forum for elections and (B) after the November convention, the Jaycees pretty much shut down until January. (This is one of the reasons I tend to agree with the folks who believe we played a huge prank on ourselves by matching the Jaycee year to the calendar year.)

The job can be a lot of work, but it's worthwhile.

Jaycees in the News

2007-11-21T21:50:00.000-05:00

The Mount Airy Area Jaycees' Thanksgiving Baskets project this past weekend was covered in two area papers, complete with photos of chapter members at work.

Carroll County Times (Photo of David and Kristin Blais and Barbara Keith)
The Gazette (Photos of Curtis Keltner, Mary Flagler and Kris Blais)

Great work all!

Congratulations!

2007-11-04T23:59:00.000-05:00

Congratulations to Kristen and David Blais on their wedding on November 2.

District Meeting on Saturday

2007-10-17T02:46:00.000-04:00

The fourth quarter District West meeting will take place this coming Saturday, October 20, at 3:00pm. The meeting will be held at Crumland Farm, just North of Frederick and is being jointly hosted by the Frederick and Gaithersburg/Germantown chapters. This will be a sanctioned candidates forum for those wishing to serve on the 2008 executive board.

After the meeting, the Frederick Jaycees have invited all who are interested to stay and help haunt the woods. If you can help out that evening, please RSVP to info [at] frederickjaycees.com.

Directions to Crumland Farm

From Eastbound I-70, take exit 52 to Route 15 North
From Westbound I-70, take exit 53 onto I-270 North, this merges with Route 15 North.
From Northbound I-270, stay on I-270 as it merges with Route 15 North

Follow Route 15 North towards Thurmont/Harrisburg

You will pass Oppussumtown Pike, Route 26, Hayward Road, and Monocacy Blvd.

Crumland Farms is at the next left on Willow Road, however you will go past that to the next U Turn Lane in the left lane. This is directly across from Biggs Ford Road on the right.

Continue onto the U Turn Lane & cross directly over Rt 15 South into the gravel driveway. Follow the gravel driveway back past the Crum family house to the tree line. Please drive slowly once you pass the house so not to bottom out.

Getting Ready to Go Bump in the Night

2007-09-30T12:06:00.001-04:00

I went to Crumland Farm on Saturday to help the Frederick Jaycees set up for this year's Haunted Hayride. This has been a fun event to work at the past few years, but I was curious to see what it looked like in daylight.

Over the afternoon, Lynn Boerschel and I ran a hundred yards or so of extension cords through the woods (hopefully not through too many patches of poison ivy) while Jeremy Teague and Matt Trivett knocked down a tree and worked on some finishing touches for a new set piece. Later, we cleared some debris from the area where a falling tree had knocked down part of the entrance way last winter. Other folks helping out while I was there were Michelle Hunsicker-Blair, Deborah Morrone, Anna Trivett and visiting his first-ever Haunted Hayride, Blaine Trivett (I believe the appropriate phrase here is "Cute as a button").

If you've been to the Hayride before, you should expect to see several new set pieces (Nope, I'm not going to spoil the surprise). If you've never been there before, you should look forward to having a spook-tacular time.

Dates for this year's Haunted Hayride appear below. All times are 6:00pm to 10:30pm.

October: 11 - 13	(Thursday - Saturday)
19-20	(Friday - Saturday)
25-29	(Thursday - Sunday)

For more information, or to Volunteer, contact info [at] frederickjaycees.com.

District Meeting

2007-09-27T02:44:00.000-04:00

There will be no third-quarter District Meeting. I should have started the ball in motion for that back in August and instead let the opportunity slip by. For that, I most sincerely apologize.

That being said, I do plan to have a meeting in the fourth quarter. Nothing is set in stone right now, but a couple possibilities are cooking. I should know a bit more by Monday evening (possibly sooner), but I'm generally looking at the week of Oktober 15-20. Looking over chapter calendars, the only conflicts I'm immediately aware of are Frederick's Membership Meeting (17th) and the Haunted Hayride (evenings of the 19th and 20th). If there are other days and/or times that absolutely don't work for your chapter, please let me know.

Please note that elections for the Maryland Jaycees Exec Board during the state convention in Frederick the weekend of November 9 - 11. The intent is that this quarterly meeting will also be a "Meet the Candidates" event pending approval by the state election committee.

And speaking of the November Convention, did you know that it's being hosted by our very own Frederick Jaycees? And because I know you're planning to participate, the write-up/speak-up topics for the fourth quarter can be found at: http://mdjc-west.blogspot.com/2007/09/fourth-quarter-id-topics.html. :-)

More soon!

Fourth Quarter ID topics

2007-09-17T23:08:00.000-04:00

Copied from this evening's MDJCNews email.

Important Note: At the USJC National convention last March, we had an extensive discussion on things that we can do to change or improve the ID competitions. One suggestion from one of the national trainers was to not require all speak-up and write-up competitors to relate their topic to the Jaycees. This should allow people to share experiences and interpretations of the topics to a much wider perspective.

To that end, we are going to try something a little different at November Convention. All judges will be advised not to use the "Relate topic to the Jaycees" as criteria for judging. We hope that you will have fun with this and choose to participate this quarter!

These topics are also posted on the MDJC Website

"If opportunity doesn't knock, build a door." - Milton Berle - What opportunities in your life have you created for yourself… what did you learn from the experience?

"Don't worry about people stealing an idea. If it's original, you will have to ram it down their throats." - Howard Aiken (Pioneer Computer Scientist) – What new ideas have you worked to bring to light? What challenges did you face?

Who has made you who you are? Mom, Dad, Friend, Mentor… Introduce us to the person who has made the greatest impact on your life.

"As long as the world is turning and spinning, we're gonna be dizzy and we're gonna make mistakes." – Mel Brooks – What mistake have you learned the most from?

"We must have a theme, a goal, a purpose in our lives. If you don't know where you're aiming, you don't have a goal. My goal is to live my life in such a way that when I die, someone can say, she cared. - Mary Kay Ash - What is your personal theme, goal and purpose in life?

Condolences

2007-09-11T23:03:00.000-04:00

Sympathies to Mark and Suzanne Voss on the loss of Mark's mother on September 9.

Congratulations!

2007-09-07T19:56:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Michaele and Jeremy Teague on the birth of their daughter, born this morning at 8:44am.

District Update

2007-09-04T02:41:00.000-04:00

Covering the programming areas in no particular order.

Community Development:

So far, approximately $5,000 has been raised for the stab vest project, enough for 5 vests.
Nationwide, Maryland remains the top fundraising state for Relay for Life. The final Relay event in Maryland is on September 29 in Salisbury.
The Maryland Jaycees have launched a program called "Cure Cancer Now" with a goal of raising $13,100 dollars before the November convention. (Contact Jennifer Ray for more information.)

Membership Development:

September closeout is on the 25th. (You have three weeks left to recruit new members for this month!)
The Chapter Assistance Mentor Program has been launched and mentors have started to be assigned. Please let me know whether you've been contacted yet.

Individual Development:

"Up Topics" will come out 45 days before the November convention.
Forms for the Outstanding Young Farmer, Marylander, Educator and Jaycee family will be sent out in near future. (Contact EVP Cia Marshall for questions/details.)

Chapter updates:

The Mount Airy Area Jaycees have their Fall yard sale coming up on September 22.

The Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees request assistance with the Germantown Oktoberfest on October 6.

The Frederick Jaycees have their Haunted Hayride coming up in October and request assistance with the setup. (The next work dates are September 9th starting at 9:30 am and 15th starting at 10:30 am. Also coming up in Frederick is the Kids' Block during the "In The Streets" festival on October 6.

Don't forget to register for the Fall Convention in Frederick on November 9-11. More information is available on the state web site at http://mdjaycees.org//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=137

TOYA winner in District West!

2007-08-25T00:28:00.001-04:00

Congratulations to Matt Trivett of the Frederick Jaycees. Matt has been named as one of the US Jaycees' Ten Outstanding Young Americans for 2006. This puts Matt in some rather elite company including such notables as Presidents John Kennedy, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Bill Clinton, and Vice Presidents Al Gore, Dan Quayle, and Richard Cheney. Other past honorees were Howard Hughes, Orson Wells, Elvis Presley, Nelson Rockefeller, Ted Kennedy, dogsled champion Susan Butcher, and actors Christopher Reeve, and Shannon Reed.

This has been a great month for the Trivett family. First a new baby, and now this.

Congratulations Matt! We can't wait to see what you do with the rest of the year!

New Meeting Time and Place for Frederick Jaycees

2007-08-23T01:06:00.000-04:00

If you're planning to visit a membership meeting, the Frederick Jaycees have a new meeting time and place. Starting on October 3, they'll be meeting on the first Wednesday of the month at Venuti’s Restaurant on Patrick Street. Dinner/Meet-n-Greet will take place at 6:00pm and the meeting will start at 7:00pm.

The Membership Meeting for September 19th will still take place at the Holiday Inn on Patrick Street.

Congratulations!

2007-08-15T20:29:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Anna and Matt Trivett on the birth of their son, born this morning at 8:54am.

Relay for Life

2007-07-29T11:24:00.000-04:00

A little dated, but still worth passing along....

As of July 10, the Maryland Jaycees had raised a combined total of $16,505 for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life (a fundraiser to support cancer research). At the time, that put Maryland's fundraising efforts ahead of all the other states in the US -- combined.

Of interest to those of us in District West, two of the top three chapters in the state are located in our own district: the Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees and the Mount Airy Area Jaycees.

Travel Update

2007-07-20T01:04:00.000-04:00

It's been pretty well established over the years that every project is a membership project. But sometimes it's an Individual Development project too! Take July 4th for example…

I visited the Frederick Jaycees on July 4th to help with the events they were running at the Independence Day celebration in Baker Park. Somewhere in that park was a Peanut Butter & Jelly tent, but the first Jaycees I found were running the beer tent.

The funny thing is, the only time I'd ever poured beer before that day was back in 2001 at Rockville's Hometown Holiday celebration. I was pretty bad at it too. Pretty much every cup of beer I poured was 3/4 foam. So when President Jeremy said he needed me to take over on pouring I cautioned him that this might be a bad idea and explained why.

Jeremy quickly explained that there's a trick to pouring beer. Part of it is that you want to hold the cup up close to the tap. If the beer's falling over any sort of distance, it's going to foam, but I already knew that. The part I didn't know is that you also want to tilt the cup so the beer is going down the side before it gets to the bottom.

So I got to learn something new for the day. :-)

I'm looking forward to learning something new at your chapter's events too.

Last Chance for Orioles Tickets

2007-07-02T21:31:00.000-04:00

Community VP Melanie Pepper has announced a "Last Call" for the Orioles baseball game on August 26. The Orioles will be playing against the Minnesota Twins with the game starting at 1:15 pm. Tickets cost $15 each with $5 from each ticket benefiting the K-9 stab vest program.

Tickets must be purchased from Melanie by July 25th. There will be no tickets available for last minute attendees.

If you or members of your chapter would like to attend the game, please contact Melanie at 07cdvp -[At]- MDJaycees dot ORG

Travel Schedule

2007-06-23T13:52:00.000-04:00

I'm looking forward to attending events for District West chapters this summer. Here's what's on my calendar so far.

July 4: Frederick, July 4th celebration

July 7: Hagerstown, Habitat for Humanity

July 13 - 15: Shore Leave (Not a Jaycee event, but that's where I'll be that weekend.)

What's coming up for your chapter?

Congratulations!

2007-06-12T01:44:00.000-04:00

Congratulations to Stacy and Andrew Field of the Gaithersburg/Germantown Jaycees on the birth of their daughter this past Friday.

Congratulations also to Jodi and Gary Blair of the Hagerstown Jaycees on the birth of their daughter on Sunday.

And last, but certainly not least, congratulations on the new job to Tim Glenn of the Western Maryland Jaycees. As I understand it, the new job means Tim will be moving out of the area; I'm certain we're all sorry to see him go, but congratulations none the less.

Gone Fishin’

2007-06-04T11:43:00.000-04:00

On Saturday, I traveled to Western Maryland for their Fishing Rodeo. It’s an annual event for Special Olympics organized by the local Outdoors Club. Participants fish for Bass, Trout, Catfish and Panfish.

The Jaycees are responsible for logging all the fish caught according to time, weight, type of fish and the name of the lucky angler who caught them. At the end of the event, prizes are awarded in a variety of categories including first fish (less than ten minutes into the day), largest fish (about six pounds!) and most fish. (One fellow caught eleven in just three hours!) There’s even a category for “Most Unusual Catch” which as of 12:30 was a 2 1/2 pound snapping turtle.

My thanks to Dave, Melanie, Josh, Brent, Jennifer and Brad for a memorable morning at the lake.

May 24th District Meeting

2007-06-01T01:22:00.000-04:00

A few people who weren’t able to attend the District Meeting on May 24th have asked for a summary of the meeting. That seems like a great way to kick off the District Blog.

The Second Quarter District Meeting was held at the Crazy Horse Steakhouse in Hagerstown. Chapters in attendance were Frederick, Gaithersburg/Germantown, Hagerstown and Mt. Airy.

District Notes:

The May closeout was on Tuesday, May 22nd. Hopefully everyone has turned in their recruiting and retention information to the State Membership team.

The August Convention will be held August 17 to 19 in Waldorf. More information and a flier are available from the Maryland Jaycees Web site.

Congratulations to the Frederick Jaycees on a successful bid to host the November Convention. That will be taking place November 9 to 11 in Frederick.

Membership Programming: Matt Trivett

The Maryland Jaycees have recently launched a Chapter Assistance Mentoring Program (aka “CAMP”). This program is a partnership with the Maryland JCI Senate to assign a mentor to every chapter in the state.

In order to encourage “cross-pollination” of ideas, mentors will be from chapters other than the one they’re assigned to. They will be available to act in an advisory role, not to run the chapter or its projects.

Look for more details to be announced soon.

Management Programming: Michelle Hunsicker-Blair

The Maryland Jaycees are now able to offer free web hosting to any chapter that wishes it. The hosting includes a choice of several templates, allowing you to put your chapter’s information online almost immediately without the need for any knowledge of how to create web pages. Please contact Michelle for more information.

Following a town-hall meeting at the May convention, the Management team is evaluating how to change the POC/IO program to require less paperwork and make it more attractive to the chapters.

Community Development Programming:

(Melanie Pepper was unable to attend due to distance, but I had a few notes.)

Melanie is looking for chapters to host fund-raisers for the stab vest program. This is a great way to get members of the general public out to an event and a fantastic public relations opportunity as well. Let me know if your chapter is interested.

The Baltimore Orioles organization is hosting Maryland Jaycees Day at Camden Yards on Sunday, August 26th when the Orioles will be playing against the Minnesota Twins. Tickets cost $15 each with $5 of each ticket being donated to the stab vest program. There are only 200 tickets in our block and once they’re gone, they’re gone. If you’re interested in going, contact me and I’ll get you hooked up.

Round-Robin discussion of upcoming Projects and dates:

The list of upcoming events is already a little dated. Please use the chapter links on the left side menu to view individual chapter calendars.