Committees — Now we can really get things going . . .

Friday, March 26th, 2010

. . . and give every member the opportunity to be involved.

At the March Board of Directors meeting the BOD agreed to reactivate the committees that the chapter formed in 2009 and we also agreed to revamp the way the committees work.

Committees are the backbone of any organization. Committees allow members to delve deeper into new ideas and share their ideas in a way that is more conducive to discussion and development than our full membership meetings. Committees are able to reduce the workload of the full membership by focusing the nuts and bolts of hashing through the details of new ideas and project development to a smaller, more functional group. When a large group uses committees, the organization is able to pay more attention to the details of all its operations, plan better events and allow its members to be more active.

For the WMD Jaycees the committees will provide all of those benefits. We will use committees to develop new ideas, discuss problems with our current systems and make recommendations to the BOD – and the full membership – on how to move forward.

We have 4 committees; they are Fundraising, Membership, Social and By-laws. We are asking the every member of the chapter participate in at least one of these committees. The committees will meet at a time and place that is convenient to its members, not necessarily before the membership meetings.

Each committee is chaired by a member of the chapter, and one member of the BOD has been assigned to each committee to serve as advisor and co-chair.

The committee leadership looks like this:

Fundraising Committee
Chair: Joe Caporale
BOD Advisor: Eric Ritchie

Membership Committee:
Chair: Brooke VonStein
BOD Advisor: Kelley Hallam

Social Committee:
Chair: Stacey Simpson
BOD Advisor: Kerri Adams

By-laws Committee:
Chair: Matt Shipway
BOD Advisor: Kelly Brown

Every member of the WMD Jaycees is asked to join at least one of these committees!!!

To get in touch with one of the committee chairs, simply click on his/her name to send an e-mail. The chairs can provide more information on what issues and ideas the committee will be tackling and when they plan to start meeting.

If anyone has any questions that I can answer please don’t hesitate to ask me. It’s always a pleasure to write to you and a constant honor to be your President!

Thank you.

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First Western Maryland Jaycees Idol Smashing Success

Friday, March 26th, 2010

Hello Western Maryland Jaycees:

I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone who participated in Jaycees Idol last night at Niners Canal Pub!  WHAT a fantastic time!  If you couldn’t make it, you missed a great event but hopefully we can continue more nights such as this in the future.

I want to announce and congratulate our winners:

Best Individual Performance:  Ryan Woolslayer, for his originality and use of props

Best Group:  Joe Caporale and Matt Shipway, for their song choice and harmonizin’

Best in Show:  Kelley Hallam, for her connection to both her song and the audience

A big thanks to our judges, Donnell Householder, Brooke VonStein and Nicole Munson, to Nathan Householder for his technical assistance, and to Kelly Brown for haulin’ tables and chairs during set up.

Finally, thanks to EVERYONE who got up there and sang, whether during the official contest or after.  It takes guts to get up in front of your peers and let loose.  So congrats to any and all who may have overcome some stage fright last night!

Additional judges comments were very positive and include:

“H.O.T.T”

“I felt the love!  The next Sonny and Cher!  Nailed the last note!”

“The raspy voice is sexy…grrr!!!”

“‘Love the shoes!  Put a little more @$$ into it!”

“Never knew you could rap Gwen Stefani!  Awesome!”

“Good song for your voice range!  Good audience participation.”

“Kudos for being so brave and doing an original number without music.  You were awesome!”

“I thought you sounded like Destiny’s Child!”

“I like the laid back look – hand in pocket.  Rock the Creedence!”

“Great dance moves and jazz hands!  Fantastic!”

I’m taking suggestions for future ID projects that are both fun and help us grow as individuals!  If you have an idea, please email me at keadams@actpersonnel.com.

Again, thanks to everyone for making this first ID project such a success!! 

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UBIQUITY: Time to Get Involved – April Events Coming Up!

Thursday, March 11th, 2010

We’re now less than a month away from the year’s busiest Community Events season.  We have a lot of volunteer slots to fill and we’re going to need everyone’s help in order to meet our obligations.

It’s an exciting time of year and we are going to show the community that the Western Maryland Jaycees can do many, many things all at one time. We’re gong to be ubiquitous! I’m excited, I can’t wait for April!

Please make plans to participate in at least one of these upcoming events and get in touch with the event leaders to get on the list and to get more information:

Canal Clean-up April 10th
Lead by:  Kelley Hallam
This is a Community project organized by the Potomac River Project’s “Clean-it” Committee which aims to revive interest in using the Potomac River as a piece of the economy in Allegany County. Members who participate will don cold-weather gear and rubber gloves and join in a community-wide effort to remove trash and debris from the banks of the C & O Canal in the Canal Place area.

Autism Speaks Walk April 10th
Lead by: Jennifer Scarborough
This is a Community event where participating members serve as volunteers at the fund and awareness raising walk event organized by the National Association for Autism Research. Members assist in clean-up of the walk facility and help the organizers close the event.

March for Babies April 17th
Lead by: Donnell Householder
This is a Community event where our members participate in the annual fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Participating members will raise money by soliciting sponsorship donations then walk in the event held at Rocky Gap State Park. Members will wear Jaycees t-shirts (we will provide them) and walk together as a team.

Special Olympics April 29th and May 1st
Lead by: Jennifer Chisholm and Aaron Hendrickson
This is a Community event where participating members work with the local Special Olympics. Our members volunteer at the pre-event dance on the evening of April 29th by serving food and helping to clean up. And our members facilitate the softball throw event at the Spring Games held at Allegany College of MD on May 1st.

Please get in touch with an event leader by clicking on his or her name and get on board!!

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Leadership Opportunities ABOUND!!

Friday, March 5th, 2010

In accordance with our stated mission to develop leadership through community service, the Western Maryland Jaycees is looking for members to take on leadership roles to oversee our myriad of upcoming events.
Now that the calendar has turned to March and winter is finally pushing into Spring, we find ourselves approaching the busy portion of our 2010 events calendar. We have a full slate of events coming up in the next couple of months, plus we’re going to busy again this Summer and Fall. Many of the events on our calendar are those in which we have participated in the past but we have also added many new events for 2010.
We need to take the time during this brief period of (relative) inactivity to get ourselves prepared for the busy months ahead. To that end, I am soliciting the help of our members to step-up and volunteer to lead one of the events on the calendar.

Duties of an Event Leader

In general, prior to an event the event leader will recruit members to participate, coordinate the members who will participate by establishing meet-up times, determine appropriate dress, assign duties to other members, etc. The leader will coordinate with the WMD Jaycees BOD to prepare any necessary payments by check or other administrative paperwork prior to the event. If the Jaycees are participating in an event that is organized by another organization – such as the Special Olympics or the Mylan Tailgate Party – the event the leader will communicate with the event organizers to make sure that all necessary details for participation, paperwork, payments and other preparations are completed.
On the day of the event the leader will coordinate the participating members at the event site, manage all aspects of the event and/or act as the representative of the WMD Jaycees to the event organizers.
Following the event the leader will submit a report of the event to the WMD Jaycees BOD. The report should summarize the planning and execution of the event as well as the leader’s recommendations on what changes to make for the following year.
The BOD of the chapter will provide support for the event leaders throughout the process. We will be talking about these roles at the upcoming membership meeting on March 10th so please bring your questions to the meeting!

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