The Chapter Community Development Vice-President

As Community Development Vice-President, you are a leader in “Community advancement”.  It is you who directs efforts to identify community needs; selects (with assistance from the board) the ones the chapter can affect; and determines the best way to achieve results.  Your first step is to survey your community in order to determine the needs to be addressed.  Next review the Chapter Plan from the past three to five years and develop a plan for your year.  After meeting with this year and last year’s board, you can complete the Community and International Area’s of Opportunity portion of the Chapter Plan.  Be sure to meet with the Treasurer to ensure budgetary items are planned for.  Finally, be sure the Membership Vice-President is included to ensure adequate manpower will be available for projects. 

Consideration should also be given to the skills chapter members will need to implement projects and programs, and most importantly, that the suggested activity works towards the ultimate chapter goal: providing the proper atmosphere in which the member can drive maximum benefits of being a member.

Once the Chapter Plan is developed, it requires the board approval, then membership approval.  This is important, because the more everyone knows about your goals, the more supportive the membership will be. 

You should communicate with your Chapter President on a regular basis, letting them know the status of the Community & International Area’s of Opportunity, potential or existing problems and their solutions.

You should also work with your Directors, ensuring they know your goals of the Chapter and how you plan to reach them.  The Directors are often the link with the members, you communicate their responsibilities to communicate with their assign monthly contacts, as well as recruit and train project chair people.  Working closely with your directors, you ensure these chair people are prepared and ready to go with their project.

Through the chapter board meetings, you update other team members on your progress and learn where others are on their goals.  This is where the team should discuss new strategies to reaching the chapter’s goals.  The board meetings are also where you should plan the upcoming General Membership meeting.  Know what is expected of you, your Directors, and your chair people. 

Chapter Newsletters are where you communicate information to the membership about projects and opportunities available to them.  Your Directors should also include articles about specific projects for which they are responsible.

Constantly review your Chapter Plan, remember once it is completed it is not in stone, the object of the Chapter Plan is merely a plan and should be improvised to accommodate changes in you Area and Chapter. 

LEAD BY EXAMPLE!  If you are not attending projects, why should the membership??   You should try to attend projects in ALL areas of opportunity, but most importantly show support to your project chairs and try to attend all of your Community projects- TEAMWORK is a necessity!  Constantly promote the Chapter and member’s image in the Community.  Most importantly, you must help with inviting people to join the greatest young person’s organization- The Jaycees!!

The Community Development Director

You are one of the Chapter’s most important officers, for it is through your link with assigned members that you provide guidance and counsel to them, keeping them informed, but also getting their input.  You make project information calls as well as “How’s it going” calls at least twice a month.  You know what the members are feeling about issues of importance to the chapter and communicate these to your chapter Community Vice-President, other board members, and Chapter President. 

You also recruit project coordinators or chair people, working with them to make sure they know how to carry out their responsibilities.  In this case, you work with other chapter officers to ensure each chairperson’s needs are addressed.

Please remember, if you have problems, concerns, or complaints talk to your Vice-President, President, or Chairman of the board.  It is always best that you complain up instead of to the general membership. This will ensure solutions, thus following the trail to achieving success.

As a board member, you must LEAD BY EXAMPLE by being visible in chapter activities, constantly communicating with board members as well as general members.  You should help with recruiting new members.

The Chapter Community Survey

The Community Survey is an essential tool to help you determine your chapter’s Community Development programming for the coming year.  Without it, how can you know what needs are going unmet in your community?  But, too many chapters continue to send out the same survey year after year.  In addition, many chapters experience a poor response rate from the surveys that are mailed to leaders in the community.

If you haven’t done your community survey yet, here are a few suggestions:

1.                   Before you mail out the same survey that was used last year, take a look at it to see if the questions are still relevant. Also add projects that highlighted your chapter last year, they are most recent and still on the minds of the individuals.

2.                   Make sure that your survey is not so long that no one wants to complete it.

3.                   Check with your local newspaper to see if they would be willing to publish your survey in an upcoming issue (obviously, this won’t work with the Detroit News or the Lansing State Journal).

4.                   Instead of mailing your survey, why not conduct a telephone or in-person interview with some of your local community leaders.

5.                   Hand deliver the survey, introduce yourself and give a deadline date. (Most important, follow up with a phone call, in person or a reminder letter on the deadline date.)  Offer to pick up the survey or include a self-addressed/stamped envelope.

6.         Host a breakfast, lunch, or dinner event to which you invite community leaders.  As the leaders arrive, ask each of them to fill-out a survey.  If you’re providing them with a free meal, they’re more likely to complete the survey.

Once the survey is received, a thank you note is a nice way to assure the responder that the survey has been received.  A THANK YOU really goes a long way!


 

(Sample) Community Survey

Each year the “Your Town” Jaycees like to survey our community and business leaders for your input on what the Jaycees can do to better Our Town.  Please take a few moments to answer the following questions and help us make Our Town a better place to live.  Thank you, Your Town Jaycees.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

The Your Town Jaycees

Areas of Opportunity

This year the “Books” will be assembled by “Areas of Opportunity”.  There will be a total of 5 Areas of Opportunity:  The Individual Area of Opportunity, the Management Area of Opportunity, the Community Area of Opportunity, the Membership Area of Opportunity, and the International Area of Opportunity.

As Community Development Vice-President, you are responsible to assemble two of the five Areas of Opportunity; the Community Area of Opportunity and the International Area of Opportunity.  If your chapter has an International Vice-President, then he/she will be responsible for the International Area of Opportunity.

If you need ideas for projects in the Areas of Opportunity; please contact myself or one of the Community Team Members, we will be more than happy to assist you as needed.

The Community Area of Opportunity:  Please assemble CPGs, pictures, and substantiation from projects that fall under the commissions of Community Service, Community Fundraising, Children and Youth, and Government and Civic Involvement.

The International Area of Opportunity: Please assemble CPGs, pictures, and substantiation from projects that fall under the commissions of State, National, & International JCI Involvement Commission and International Involvement Commission.

Award information needed:

                Number of Projects run in this area

                Number of Jaycees involved (Total Chapter Members Involved)

% of Jaycees involved (Total Chapter Members Involved as a % of Chapter Base)

Number of Other Jaycees involved (Other)

Number of Non-Jaycees involved

Number of Junior Jaycees involved

                Number of new members recruited at the project/ Area of Opportunity.

                Number of Community Organizations Involved

                Total dollar amount raised for the Community

Awards

Areas of Opportunity quarterly evaluations will be judged based on each Chapter’s January 1, 2006 Base Membership.  The goal of the break down is to allow EVERY Chapter the opportunity to compete with chapters of equal size. Single Project Entries are encouraged to be submitted quarterly.

The Governors Cup is awarded at the end of the year. This recognizes effective Government involvement.

If you have any questions, please contact Government and Civic Involvement Program Manager Gary Bulson.

Blue Chip Requirements

Please refer to the 2006 Blue Chip form for the Community and International Programming Requirements. 

News Release Tips

Long the mainstay of public relations, the news release is a VERY valuable tool to the Community Area of Opportunity.  But one-on-one contacts and event fact sheets are also being used with great results.  It’s unfortunate, but a sloppy news release may get trashed, no matter what the content.  Also, please don’t send the same release to more than one editor at the same facility.

Here are some rules to follow:

1         Use letterhead bond, 8.5” x 11” paper.

2         Type (case sensitive, double space and single side) all releases.

3         Include the date of the release (even for IMMEDIATE RELEASE), office and home telephone numbers of the chapter contact.

4         Place “more”at the end of each page, except the final page.  At the end of the last page type a “30” or “###”.

5         On successive pages, type page number, date and brief tag line at the top.

6         Double check spelling.  Then have someone else proof read it.

7         Make sure your mailing, fax and e-mail lists are current and accurate.  If you’re not absolutely sure, just address the release to the News Director or News Editor.

8         Almost all news releases can be stated on one page.  The story must be important to need a second page.

Structure the information in the inverted pyramid style.  Put as much valuable information in the first sentence as possible.  The editor will decide the value of your release by its headline and first few sentences.  Write succinctly, using your best and most interesting facts first.

If a phone call to an editor will work as well as a news release, make the phone call.

Take the editor to lunch (invite them to a GMM); a face to your name will be beneficial.  Our GOAL for 2006 is to stop hiding the best kept secret- the Michigan Jaycees!

(Sample) News Release

Michigan Jaycees

MICHIGAN JAYCEES TO HOLD ANNUAL MODEL LEGISLATURE IN LANSING

The Michigan Jaycees will hold their annual Model Legislature on Saturday, April XX, 2006, in the Chambers of the Michigan House of Representatives, at the State Capitol Building, in Lansing.  Jaycees from across Michigan will convene in a “mock” legislative session to debate issues of concern.  The Model Legislature will begin at 9:00 AM and run until a luncheon recess at 11:30AM.  The session will reconvene at 1:00 PM and continue until 3:30 PM.  The Jaycees are a Community Service and Leadership Training Organization for young adults in the 21-40 age range.  If you are interested, please call 1-800-949-MIJC. You can also visit the Michigan Jaycees and many of its local chapters on the worldwide web at www.mijaycees.org.