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The Union Lake Jaycees This is the home, and story of the former Union Lake Jaycees, who's chapter has since folded, as of June or July 2004. The Reason The chapter suffered from several years of minimal activity, which was a great contributor to its fall. Unfortunately, and I'm sure with good reason when the rule was made, the United states Junior chamber of commerce (Jaycees) (JC's) requires a chapter to have a minimum number of members (20). And then gives a chapter that has fallen below 20 three months to regain enough members to bring it back to 20. It is interesting that the largest service organization "Lions" has no such limit. The Save Never the less due to some accounting errors with the Michigan Jaycees (the state level of the Jaycee organization) the date at which the chapter fell below 20 members is unclear. We were originally told the chapter was due to fold in a given month, and we gathered enough members to bring the chapter back to 20 members by the close-out date of that month (the last minute, in true JC fashion). At that point the chapter considered themselves saved, and moved on. The Save, Again? Nearly a month later, at the close of the next month we were told that we were again in trouble, as we had not saved the chapter the previous month? It seems that 3 of the members we turned in were transfer members and can not be added to a chapter that is on probation (i.e. in the 3 month grace period after falling below 20), while this is a known rule, that had been forgotten, the question of why the Michigan Jaycees took nearly a month to tell us is certainly an issue. Regardless, in order to once again save the chapter we dug up three members to replace the transfer members, which would bring us to 20 and at that point we could add the 3 transfers brining us to a comfortable 23 members. The Accounting Error After calling the Michigan Jaycees back with the three members we were told the chapter had already folded and that it actually folded a month prior to the date it was originally stated, because of yet more accounting errors by the Michigan Jaycees. As you can imagine the chapter membership was quite aggravated, yet we decided to continue operation of the Jaycee building and its activities, and simply re-organize and re-charter the chapter. The Horror Several months later, without even a single phone call from the Michigan Jaycees, a court officer showed up to take possession of the building. We were given 3 days to get any personal items out of the building, an leave. This gave almost no time for the three AA (alcoholics anonymous) groups to find a new place to re-locate, and being the three days were during the week, gave us three very late nights at the building removing our stuff. After trying to arrange a way to extend at least a weeks worth of time we were denied and told that the AA groups would be notified by a legal letter, this never happened, and i had several pissed off groups wanting to know what happened, and you can bet i told them! The Death Sentance of the Building After cleaning out our things I asked the court officer to what name i should have the heat and electricity turned over to, the answer was quite surprising, i was told to simply turn it off (in the dead of winter). At this point i can be rest assured that both the toilets and many of the pipes in the building are busted wide open, and much of the interior drywall is most likely cracked up, in other words the lack of care, resulted in an almost worthless building at this point. Try, Try, Try, Again? Fortunately the Quarterly JC convention was the weekend following our eviction date, and we attempted to get some answers, as to what could be done, to save the building and many of its activities, and reputation. Again we were disappointed as it seems the usual answer again showed its ugly face, while the president did try to come up with many solutions, the answer was the same as always the Michigan Jaycees would be more than happy to take our 20 new members (numbers), but would provide absolutely no guarantee that we could get our building back. The True Dissapointment After all this turmoil many of the members vowed to never re-join, any chapter regardless. Ultimately all the assets of the chapter (including the building, located at 900 round lake Road) were to turned over to the Michigan Jaycees or the Michigan Jaycee Foundation, and will hopefully be used for the good of the community, but it seems likely that most funding will some how be missed managed or accounted for incorrectly by the administration. After all they couldn't even keep track of 20 members. Our Hope for the Future!! It is our hope that the building, and/or the funds will be turned over to the Union Lake Lions club, whom would very much like to put the building back to use. The Union Lake Lions and the Union Lake Jaycees were working very closely together for many years sharing our building and in our projects. We were trying our best to make a wonderful example of the agreement between Lions International, and The Junior Chamber international, that states how both groups can work together to accomplish great things! One can only hope the Michigan Jaycees and/or foundation also does the right thing. Well obviously that's my gripe, if you don't like it then don't read it. Marc Rickel Former President The Union Lake Jaycees Former Michigan Jaycees District F2 Director The Michigan Jaycees UPDATE - 9/13/2006 I don't recall when I wrote the above information, but it was years ago. The building has been sold, and to whom I'm not sure, however it has not been put to any use that I have seen. I have never done any research as to where the funds from the sale of the building went to either. To this day, every time I think or re-read what happened I become aggravated. And even thou I promised myself I would walk away from the Jaycees, I did leave the option open to my friends in the Waterford JC's that if they were ever in desperate need of a member I would join. So I am a member of the Waterford JC's again, LOL. I have never stopped believing in the creed, I just stopped believing in some of the people who claim they believe. Politics, and money it seems, becomes a problem wherever you go, in work, and in play. I'm not sure that is what really happened to our chapter, but it seems like a reasonable explanation, since I never got one from anyone else. The best that we can do is to step away from what we know is wrong, and let it run its course. But remain vigilant, because there is always someone in need of our help. | |||||
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