Who are the Jaycees?

Jaycees = Junior Chamber of Commerce = JCC = J.C.'s).

Membership Requirements:

• Ages 21 to 39   (this keeps things fun and dynamic.  Younger = more active, a fresh attitude, willing to try anything).
• Women and Men both (in the U.S. overall, and in most chapters, the ratio is about  45% men, 55% women.  Let's just say half each).
• Dues:  $50 per year  (for most chapters, give or take $10).
• Breathing (you must be alive to be a member).

Member Benefits

• Instant simultaneous membership in:
• local chapter (example:  'The Ann Arbor Jaycees');
• state Jaycees organization (example:  'The Michigan Jaycees')
• United States Junior Chamber of Commerce
• Junior Chamber International (the international Jaycees organization)
• It also means you'll get several publications:
• your chapter newsletter (usually a monthly publication), telling what's happening, when, where, etc.
• 'Jaycees', a magazine put out by the National Headquarters
• Some states have their own publications; Iowa has a twice-yearly newspaper-size newsletter.
• The primary benefit is the experience of Being a Jaycee.  The reason we exist is to help our members extend themselves, professionally and personally.
• The activities we do are not just to make us feel like we're nice people.  If you want to just be a volunteer and get a thrill from helping someone, you can join a church, or another 'service organization'.
• What we do is different:  we initiate the projects that we see a need for, to prove to potential employers, the world, and to ourselves that we're Capable of More.  Demonstrate by Doing.  Learn by trying it.  You can make mistakes and not get fired.  The benefit of Jaycees is in being an active Jaycee.
• Membership Perks:  (from the national level) discounts on insurance, long-distance, etc. (standard targeted-marketing).   Browse to the U.S. Jaycees website to learn more.
• Recognition:  Jaycees is big into recognizing excellence.  If you do a good job at something, someone's going to notice.  That's part of good people skills and good managment skills.  We recognize achievement because rewarding success is a habit worth having.

Organization Facts

• 300,000 members internationally
• 80,000 U.S.members
• Dues include membership in the local chapter, the state organization, the national organzation, and the international organization.
• Started in 1923
• Many U.S. presidents, VP's, senators, congressmen, celebrities, and vast numbers of business leaders were Jaycees.  Ask them.
• Jaycees prove their professional capability by initiating, organizing, promoting, and running worthwhile projects.

Purpose and Goals

• Jaycees is not religious.  Our credo mentions God but that's about it.
• Jaycees is not political.  We have no official position on any political issues or candidates.  We're way too diverse a group to agree on anything as divisive as politics.
• We sell nothing.  We buy nothing.  We have no ulterior motives.
• Our primary stated goal is to provide our members with management and leadership skills.
• We run projects.  Large project or small, project management skills translate everywhere and you learn it by doing.
• Categories of projects are equally community service, personal interest, and professional development projects.
• Jaycees Continuing Goal:  Young professionals trying to circumvent the Old Boy's Network and glass ceiling of political and family ties in preferential promotions, hiring, and job assignments common in business.
• Employers notice Jaycee attributes of initiative, can-do attitudes, cooperation towards goals, and experience managing projects.

How We Provide Leadership Training

• FREE Training is available from other members at the local, state, national, and international levels, at conventions, local meetings, one-on-one talks with people who've done specific things before, etc.
• FREE Training materials are usually provided during training sessions. We're not selling anything.
• Want to know what it's like to run a well-planned project?  Never organized an event?  Ask to do a small one.  Fail or succeed, either way - you'll learn.  We give you permission to do both.  Regardless, other Jaycees will reward your efforts by support and encouragement.
• We have standard paperwork that helps you through the chair process.  This includes the Chairman's Planning Guide (CPG), which asks 10 questions of Who, What, Why, When, How, at what Cost, etc.  This is a great learning tool; ask to see one.
• The chapter officers (President, VP of Mangament, Individual development, Community Development, various Director-level positions, and program manager slots) are filled by people just like you.
• Want to learn how to manage a project?  Manage one.
• Want to Manage people?  Become a director - coordinating, encouraging, and leading effectively.
• Want to Manage an entire organization?  Be president.
• Want to Become a Master Salesman?  Volunteer for the 'marketing director', 'public relations director' or 'membership VP' positions and learn how to sell a thought, product, an event, or an organization.
• Jaycee skills all transfer to 'real life' (the business world) readily.  Cite 'em on your resume and talk 'em up in an interview!

Check Us Out

• Ask anyone your parent's age who we are.  You'll find out the way-cool local community projects we've done in the past: free sandbox sand, christmas gifts for needy people, building the town hall, lobbying for better playground equipment, or just building the park in the first place!  All are typical projects, and all of them taught valuable monetry, project mangament, and people skills to the people that ran them.  Just ask.
• Ask your boss about us.  Or their boss.  They'll probably tell you about some cool Jaycee project they know of.
• Call your local chapter.  Go to the next event.  Ask someone there.
• Get their newsletter.  See for yourself the kinds of projects we run.  Every day, somewhere around this land, Jaycees are having fun while they're doing something that helps both themselves and others.
• Guests are always welcome.  Free.  You don't ever have to join, you can just keep being a guest.  Until you want to run a project, probably - then you should probably pay the dues and become a member.  That, and getting the newsletters usually is only free for a couple of issues, then you really should ante up.
• Watch our faces.  We can't fake having fun.

  Typical Issues:

• We're usually quite efficient and organized - that's the point of the organization.
• A schedule shows activites as community service, personal interest/learning, or social activities.  You know what you're going to.
• We're all volunteers.  Only in business can you waste people's time and get away with it.
• You Invest time in a learning process, you don't just spend it. Rewards are often subtle but later you don't know how you managed without knowing this stuff.
• For our social activities, someone is handing all the details for you.  Just show up and have fun.

• How much does college cost?  And Jaycee dues are about $50 a year?  Right.
• This isn't a health club:  we actually want you to show up and get something out of it.
• Invest money, don't spend it.  Dues are an investment.

        I went around and asked some Jaycees why they joined, and I found their answers boiled down to the following ideas:

• Meet People
• Do fun stuff
• Professional growth / project & people managment
• Business contacts
• Showing you have a brain, use it, and want to get ahead in the world.
• Get Wacky in public with other wacky people

How to Join

• Call the closest Jaycees chapter.  They're usually in the phone book under 'YourCityName Jaycees' or yellow pages under 'Civic Groups'.  Directory information might also have a listing somewhere in your area code under your state's name (example: "Iowa Jaycees").
• If you can't find them, call 1-800-JAYCEES.  Ask where the closest chapter is, or ask to have your name and phone number given to the right person.
• Just Show up at a meeting or event.
• If no one asks you to join, tell any Jaycee you want to join.  It's that simple.
• I'd love it if you put my name, Kevin Rice of Des Moines as the 'referred by' Jaycee.  I don't get anything for it but I'd know someone read this document and found it informative.
• If you feel pressured to join, tell them to back off, that you'll let them know when you decide.  They'll respect that.  If they don't, sissyslap them and yell real loud ;-)

Problems?

• There should be no problems with you joining Jaycees provided you meet the criteria (above) (alive and age 21-39).
• BUT:  You may not live in an city with a Jaycees chapter.  You may live in another country.  You may not be able to locate the chapter nearest you.  Whatever.
• Join the Des Moines Jaycees.  Send a check for US$49.50 payable to the 'Des Moines Jaycees', 1011 Locust Street, Des Moines, Iowa 50309 U.S.A.  Include your full Name, address, city, state, zip, and birth date.   You must be between 21 and 39 years old.  Please also include that the referring Jaycee is Kevin Rice.
• If you want to transfer your membership to a chapter closer to you, that's very possible.  To transfer your membership, please add $20.  There's a transfer fee and some paperwork fees to cover our expenses, mailing, and possibly even a phone call to verify they know about you, etc.
• NOTE:  YOUR CHAPTER'S DUES MAY BE MORE THAN DES MOINES - YOU'LL HAVE TO PAY ANY DIFFERENCE MORE THAN $10.  I've seen chapter dues as high as $75 but that's rare.  $50 is pretty average.
• The Des Moines Jaycees makes no guarantees that we can transfer your membership.  There may not be a chapter near you.  They may be unreachable.  In any case, we'll try to do the transfer.
• Note also we can't make a policy of giving refunds since we send on a major portion of received dues to the state and national organizations.
• International:  Junior Chamber International has an office in Coral Gables, Florida.  You should contact them about joining a chapter in your country.
• International:  If there is no chapter in your country, you can still join the Des Moines, Iowa Jaycees (see above).  Please make the funds payable in U.S. dollars, and please add at least $25 for the year's postage for our newsletter.  The Des Moines Jaycees Can take VISA and Mastercard.  Please note: we can't call you back at international telephone prices.

Examples of Typical Projects

• Art Tour:  Tour of the local art museum, free, with a guide who's a local community college professor.
• Auto maintenance seminar:  a mechanic shows what the basic parts are, what they do, and how to fix them.
• Mayoral Candidate Debate: During elections for mayor of Des Moines, we sponsored a debate between the candidates.
• Holiday Gift Baskets:  Taking gift food baskets to deserving families at holiday time.
• Holiday Shopping Tour:  Taking underpriveledged kids out shopping for christmas toys (we raise and then distribute $75 per kid, they choose what toy they want.)
• Music Festival and Beer Garden:  Local bands provide entertainment, we provide beverages, and pour to raise money for a cause or charitable event.
• Resume Seminar: we bring in a personnel manager to find out what they're really looking at and how to get hired or a raise.
• Haunted House:  provide entertainment for kids and adults alike; we get to act like lunatics in public, and it raises money to fund the other Great projects we run.
• Walk for the Cure:  we send a group out to walk for MD, ALS, etc.
• Friday Night BLAAST:  Bar room Leisure Activity And Social Time.  A friendly get-together, deliberately rotated around many taverns in the area, as a social time.  The organizer, though, gets to plan the timing, location, publicity, welcoming, coordination with the tavern's management, coordination with other events to prevent conflicts, assessment of  opinion on where people want to go, etc.  Not just hanging out with friends, this is an admittedly small project but it encompasses project management principles.  The 10-question planning (CPG, above) write-up is presented to the board of directors for preliminary and final approval (a formality, but instructive in how organizations function).
• Park Day:  Many chapters sponsor a fair in their town square/ park with activities for kids and adults.
• July Fourth Celebration:  Ames, Iowa (for example) raises over $25,000 a year through donations and local business involvement to spend on fireworks and activities, running their very-well-attended, city-wide all-day fair and celebration.  Countless people have fun, Jaycees organize and run the event, and get a valuable, fun experience doing it.
• Countless other activities:  where there's good ideas, we do it.  Be a Jaycee!  Have fun and get involved in something that pays you back.  Join Us!

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United States Jaycees Website