Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Greensboro Jaycees 66

I would first like to say I'm sorry to the thirty people that came to the Greater Greensboro Open Blog on Wednesday and found no news or comments about today's article in the News and Record.

I really have nothing to add to the discussion, but let's recap. A couple of Jaycees made some bad decisions with credit cards. The Greensboro Jaycees did an audit of their books and pointed out that these Jaycees made mistakes and informed them they excepted to be paid back. These folks said yeah you're right and have either paid off their debt or are in the process of doing so.

Oh yeah, and this happened a year ago and somehow it's news today? My favorite part is the on going conspiracy against the Jaycees. News and Record reporter, Robert Bell, had three members of the current Jaycee leadership tell him that this really didn't have an affect on membership, yet he still attempted to link it to the organization's decline in members.

Where was his exclusive interview with the guy that refused to join the Jaycees because he heard a rumor about some credit card charges? The truth is that the Greensboro Jaycees have a lot of problems to deal with right now. All of which can in one way or another be linked to a decline in membership.

I would like to point out the score as far as successful tournaments go:
Greensboro Jaycees 66 New Foundation 0

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Randy, I must say that I was very disappointed when I read the article in the N&R; not because the reporter did his job, but because the Jaycees maybe didn't do their job.

When I finished the article, I felt hollow. When money is misused, whether it is the Jaycees or some other public trust, it makes me mad. Many people, past Jaycees and present, have worked very hard to promote our community, and give something back to the place we all love to live. Unfortunately, when someone betrays the trust of the organization, its members and community, there can only be one result—people will instinctively want to distance themselves from that entity. The newspaper is probably right, the short term net result will probably be that the Jaycees will have a harder time recruiting, and will possibly see a drop in current membership.

We do not have to look far for a good example of the effects of bad press on a Jaycee organization. Anyone from Hartford will tell you that their non-Jaycee related issue with a sitting president caused immense harm to their club.

After talking to some Green Coats and a couple current board members, I still do not know what really has transpired. I understand the Jaycees’ position of allowing the monies to be paid back; as long as the money in question could have been a legitimate Jaycee expense that has just remained undocumented. However, in the event that money was misused (as reported in the N&R article, for personal utilities) then I personally feel that harsher steps should have been taken. The Jaycees must protect the public trust.

I do feel a little better that the Jaycees took immediate steps to prevent credit card misuse from happening in the future. I hope that the community can forgive the Jaycees quickly, and we all can get back to building a better comminuty.