Twilight of the Jaycees

This article was reprinted in its entirety with permission of the author. http://gatecity.blogspot.com/2004/10/twilight-of-jaycees.html

Sunday, October 10, 2004

Twilight of the Jaycees

With the first public acknowledgement in the News & Record of something that has been discussed for some time privately in town, the Jaycees formally started down the path to irrelevance in Greensboro.

Perhaps as soon as the 2005 tournament, the Jaycees will not be in charge. It looks like a separate non-profit organization will be running the tournament from then on in the Gate City.

While this is something that should have been done a long time ago, it still makes me sad to see it end this way for the Jaycees. It could have been avoided.

The Jaycees are an organization that has been of tremendous benefit to Greensboro. It ran the tournament since it's existence. It produced leaders for our town. And it helped numerous charities through it's efforts.

But for whatever reason, the Jaycees stopped being a factor in the City of Flowers a decade or more ago. While the path to power in Greensboro once ran through the Jaycees, it does no longer. For whatever reason, it's membership dropped and the town's best and brightest young professionals ceased being members. With it's membership in decline and their talent pool getting smaller each year, the tournament suffered as well.

And when the tournament suffered, the prestige of the Jaycees suffered as well. The GGO was what gave them a place at the table in Greensboro. The tourney brought publicity and pride, and most importantly, dollars to the community and the charitable organizations it funded.

But the profits declined and the charitable contributions took a nose dive, and so did the Jaycees importance in the area. You see, the GGO was the Jaycees and the Jaycees were the GGO. There was no difference. So when the tournament looked bad, they looked bad.

Without the golf tournament, the Greensboro Jaycees are simply another civic organization for young people, and not even a high profile one at that. How often do you think of the High Point Jaycees? The Winston Jaycees? Be honest.To their credit, the Jaycees did an admirable job running an extremely complicated event. But they put off making needed changes too long. They put off hiring a full time director for years, and then they did not let the first one do his job. The current Jaycees also alienated their former members who could have helped them make the necessary transitions to keep them in charge along with having a professional staff.

The wake-up call for them came when they had to change their dates to the Fall. Wachovia came in and got the prime dates in the Spring, something that they and the PGA had been discussing for some time before it actually happened. All of the sudden there was another tournament in the Carolinas, one run by high level leaders who could get things done. Combined with a lack of profits in Greensboro and a greater lack of accolades, things looked grim.

It was at this point that certain past members reportedly attempted a coup to take back the tournament. Some have said those guys were just floating this to the press, others say a call really was made to the PGA. Regardless of what actually happened, times were not good for the Jaycees.

Then they did something right. The Jaycees hired Mark Brazil and actually let him do his job. And Judy Revels did a superb job of running the 2003 tourney. Brazil rallied the community, and got crucial support from groups like the GMA, Greensboro Rotary, and the Future Fund (i.e. the Community Foundation of Greensboro.) Without their help and others support, the GGO may well have died last year.That stopped the bleeding, but the damage was done. The patient needed to start fresh. Hence, a new organization.If they had had the foresight, the Jaycees could have done this long ago, and kept themselves in charge. But they did not, and now they may simply become (paid) volunteers for the new group as reported by the N & R.And by no longer running the GGO, they will simply fade into the background.Am I sad about their decline? In all honesty, yes. I like tradition. I think the long line of Green Coats was cool. And I think all this could have been avoided.But I also like what the tournament does for Greensboro. It is important to our economy, our national recognition, and damn it, our pride.

So if it means that the Jaycees have to stop running it, I can live with that.I just wish I did not have to do so.