By-Laws up for revision, Matt Shipway

Wednesday, June 9th, 2010

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GOLF TOURNAMENT!!!

Monday, May 17th, 2010

We’re hosting a golf tournament!! I’m thrilled that at our May membership meeting the Western Maryland Jaycees voted (unanimously) to host a golf tournament in 2010 – August 7th, at the Fore Sisters Golf Course in Rawlings, MD to be exact.

This is going to be a huge step for our chapter. We will be putting on an event that will garner a large amount of attention from the community and raise a large amount of money for us to put toward our many community efforts. Hosting this tournament will combine our abilities in organizing details, reaching out to the business community, public relations, motivating our membership and everything else we have been learning how to do as members of the Jaycees. The Western Maryland Jaycees Golf Tournament will become another signature event for us. I can’t think of a better way to crown the achievements and growth we have been working so hard to accomplish the last several years.

In addition to raising a lot of money for the chapter, the benefits of hosting a golf tournament will be manifold. Here are just a few that come to my mind:
1) Publicity – We get to promote this tournament, and in doing so we will be saying “Western Maryland Jaycees” an awful lot to an awful lot of people in an awful lot of ways over the course of several months. We get to show our logo, post it on signs and place it on flyers that promote the tournament. We get to explain to everyone we talk to about the tournament what it is that we do and why we do it.
2) Respect – We don’t do anything half-assed in this chapter, so when the community sees that our group can organize and execute an event of this magnitude at the high level of competency with which we will it will be unmistakable that the WMD Jaycees has its act together.
3) Membership – With publicity and respect comes membership. Not only will we see residual effects of greater publicity in the community come back to us in new members over time, watching us work so well together (as we will) and achieve so much (which we will) in a one-day event, word will quickly spread from the golfers and other participants and I fully expect see a noticeable bump in membership directly attributable to this tournament.
4) Tons of Fun for Everyone – Working hard together and watching our efforts turn into a successful event is at the heart of what it means to be a member of the Western Maryland Jaycees. Here, ladies and gentlemen, we get to do it again! Plus, we get to spend the day together enjoying each others’ company and creating lasting memories. I am excited, I simply cannot wait!

Ofcourse, an event of this magnitude will require the full support and participation of the entire chapter. We will need to pull support from our friends (a great opportunity to rope in prospective members), roosters who have aged out of the chapter and those who in the community have supported us in the past. As the Fundraising Committee works at getting the details of this event put together and begins to assign duties to the rest of us we will have a better understanding of what will be asked. But, I can assuredly say, the entire chapter stands ready and willing to do whatever is necessary.

While it will be a massive project for us to get of the ground this year, the highly competent team heading this effort has the unconditional confidence and support of the BOD and the entire chapter. It’s going to be a tremendous process of planning the tournament, and after the last put hits the bottom of the cup on August 7th we will all be very proud that we were able to be a part of it.

I already am!

– Joe Harman, President

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Membership Committee Meeting 5-10-2010

Tuesday, May 4th, 2010

We will be having a Membership Committee meeting on Monday May 10 at 7 o’clock at El Canelos in Cumberland.  Anyone can attend!  Plus you can have dinner or an alcoholic beverage with chips and salsa.  Any questions just pop me an email at brookem_@hotmail.com.  Thanks

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WE DID IT!! Ubiquity achieved!!!

Friday, April 16th, 2010

On April 14th we held our monthly Board of Directors and Membership meetings, which finished the busiest five week period in the Western Maryland Jaycees I have ever seen.

Just take a look at all we accomplished from our meeting on March 10th to April 14th:
• We conducted a hoagie sale fundraiser that netted twice as much as we expected it to.
• We held our first Individual Development event, Jaycee Idol, where our members sang their hearts out in public and everyone had a ton of fun.
• We held an officers’ work session where we discussed putting together Community Survey so we can learn what the community we strive to serve would like to see from its young professionals.
• Four committees were formed, we found chairs and co-chairs for the committees, the committees garnered their memberships and they held meetings.
• Our fundraising team put together the framework for a golf tournament fundraiser and dealt with a complicated and contentious situation with the Friday After Five Beer Truck events, a situation about which we will all be getting more information as it develops.
• The Membership Committee met and developed a list of initiatives that they intend to implement, like encourage current members to recruit new members and establish a mentoring program for new members.
• A strong contingent of our members participated in the Canal Clean-up Event on April 10th, where we helped clean unsightly trash from the C & O Canal and the Potomac River flood plain.
• Also on April 10th, members assisted at the Autism Speaks Walk event by helping with the cleanup and tear down of that event.
• Our Chapter Management Vice President Kelly Brown celebrated a birthday, and she was recognized in the newspaper for being promoted to Vice President at First People’s Community Credit Union.

Amazing . . . positively amazing. Thank you to everyone in the chapter for being a part of this wonderful and awesome organization. I’m very proud to say that I am a part of a group of people who can do all of that in such a short period of time.

That was just in the past five weeks . . . and we’re not finished yet. We will soon be working with the Special Olympics and looking ahead to the Beautiful Baby / Prettiest Pet Contest, the Frostburg Derby Day, Celebration of Young Professionals III and perhaps a 1st Annual Western Maryland Jaycees Golf Tournament. If all goes to plan not only will we continue to be ubiquitous, we will redefine the word.

Watching what is happening at other organizations in this community, and seeing some of it first hand, I can honestly say that the Western Maryland Jaycees is one of the, if not THE, hardest working, most productive, most focused and best run organization in the tri-state area. This is due to a PHENOMENAL group of officers and leaders and a membership that no money could buy.

On a sadder note, our Past President Brad Shaulis left the area and the Jaycees to pursue a terrific professional opportunity with his employer, Cintas. We held a going away event for Brad at Niner’s Canal Pub which was a lot of fun and we presented Brad with a plaque to represent how much we all have appreciated what he has done for the Western Maryland Jaycees and this community. While we’re all very happy for Brad that he has been given this unique opportunity to further his career, that positive emotion is overwhelmed by the negative emotion of knowing how much we will miss Brad, his leadership, his friendship, his ability to drink and his moppy hair. : )

Thank you all, again, for an amazing month. With your continued help and dedication we will not only achieve the goals we have already set for ourselves but we will raise the bar for organizations in this community.

Joe Harman — President

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BRAD LEAVES WESTERN MD

Wednesday, April 7th, 2010

Brad Shaulis is leaving the area FOREVER. A proper send off is as follows:

Niner’s Pub

Saturday, April 10th at 8:00pm

He knows about it because I told him, so this is not a secret, but it is a CELEBRATION! Have a few send off drinks and buy Brad drinks.

Most importantly enjoy his company and buy him drinks.

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MEMBERSHIP COMMITTEE MEETING

Friday, April 2nd, 2010

Calling all Jaycees,

I am currently the BOD and Brooke Munson is the Chair of the Membership Committee. This committee is THE committee because the members are the heart of the Jaycees and gaining new faces with new ideas is what we need in order to revamp and reenergize our group. This is a great opportunity to really get the Jaycees name out there. Brooke Munson has scheduled a meeting.

Tuesday, April 6
Niner’s Pub
6:00 PM

Please bring your ideas! Input is greatly appreciated and your attendance really makes the difference.

Holla,
Kelley

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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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