Should Anonymous Son-in-Law Join the Greensboro Jaycees?

"Randy, You just don't get it. A lot of hard-working people (feel) betrayed by these people's actions. Thanks to guys like Mr. Conrad the Jaycees are trying to rebuild that trust. If you think recruiting won't be hurt by this let me tell you that you are wrong. My son-in-law now has no intention of joining until he's confident they have cleaned up their act. I can't blame him."

I received this anonymous comment on my blog and I'd like to make a few points based on its content. First let me thank you for reading my blog. I love the Greensboro Jaycees and the Greater Greensboro Open. I created the site because I have an interest in the tournament's history and I was sure other folks in this community felt the same way. (I had hoped I would receive emails along those lines, but that has yet to happen.)

"Randy, You just don't get it." I am not really sure what "it" is that I don't "get"? I was a Greensboro Jaycee for thirteen years and you need to look hard to find someone that worked any harder than I did. I was a Jaycee for five years before I ran for the board. I attended countless projects, served on the board and exec a total of 92 months and I was the 1999 GGCC Trash Chairman.

So, count me among those feeling betrayed these days. Unlike most Jaycees, I have a Green Coat and because of that I take part of the blame for anything that goes wrong. I aged out a year ago and I have not been to a membership meeting in 18 months, but I still get stopped at the Harris-Teeter and asked "What the hell's going on with the Jaycees?"

As far as this hurting recruitment in the future-of course it will. The problem I had with the News & Record article was that it implied that the misuse of the Jaycee credit card had caused a problem with recruiting up to that point. In my opinion, Robert Bell, did not prove his point.

(Keep in mind that in most cases the headlines are written by editors and not the reporter. I also point with interest to the fact that the headline was changed on the online verison of the article to more accurately reflect the content of the article.)

Should this mess keep your son-in-law from joining? Yes! There are many great civic organizations in this town for him to join.

Or maybe now is a great time to join. The group needs some leadership. Maybe he's just the guy they are looking for to fix some of these problems. Don't wait around for it to become a perfect organization because it never will be. It never has been.

Thanks for your comments and I hope you keep reading the Greater Greensboro Open Blog

Randy Harris