THE FIRST YEAR

Elected: June 1972, in Atlanta, Georgia
Other presidential candidates: First President (Elected by Acclamation)

"We have approximately 10,000 US JCI Senators. Organized states only have 50% of the Senators signed up as members. The cash flow had been acute since our inception. New billing due in July, 1973, to bring in dues badly needed. We had no funds for travel, all officers traveled at their own expenses. No debts were incurred and some funds were expected in the future from medallions, name tags, patches, and insurance."

"Mel Routt did an absolutely phenomenal job for the US JCI Senate. Among his accomplishments were the survey of states, 17-point questionnaire, editing and publishing of the first Senate magazine, (which he titled) layout and art work FREE. There was no current roster to work from, the cost factor per issue was beyond our means, IBM tapes were not immediately available. Mel was an organizer and I was proud to have him on the starting team. What a great asset he was to the Senate movement! Nationwide mailing of the MENTORS took place one week after the National Convention."

"I personally visited 21 states, T.O.Y.M., Canada, Japan, Korea, China, and attended the CREW meeting in Washington, D.C. I made two visits to Coral Gables at the International headquarters, and met with John Armbruster in St. Louis plus attended numerous chapter meetings. I put 100 flying hours on my Beech Bonanza, 10,000 miles on my 1972 Ford and 76 hours by commercial jet."

"At that time we realized 31 organized Senate states. JCI Senate numbers were hitting 17,500. Many hours of service were put in by those first officers, at no compensation whatsoever. The vice presidents visited many states, wrote numerous letters, had untold long distance telephone calls, gathered data, and set files up on all states. Leo Briere published the first listing in booklet form of the then known State leaders and officers in the National Senate Directory. Time and expense was paid for by his company, Crown Publications. Ray Battaglini opened our account in Nevada and had books and records donated by one of the banks in Nevada. He did the billings and gave us accurate accountings of our monies. Ralph Sowell chartered our organization in the State of Mississippi. All legal work was done at no charge and Ralph spearheaded the Charter of the Mississippi Senate."

"We continued working on California and Pennsylvania to join the Senate. We set up our own data processing disk for mailing labels. We encouraged the states to help pay visiting officers' expenses, and encouraged Senate states to attend institute meetings. We raised the state dues to $10.00 so the state organizations could get out more mailings and sponsor Jaycee International programs by aiding the Jaycees with finances. We worked toward getting a secretary for the National senate organization. The US JCI Senate was definitely off the ground."

"That first Charter year had its rewards and frustrations. I sincerely want to express my thankfulness to the organization for allowing me to serve in that beginning year. I only hope that I have proven worthy to all of my peers, the US JCI Senators."

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Wow, what a first year! An unbelievable job of work was required to be completed by our first president and his board of directors. How lucky we were to have the right men in the right place at the right time. They took on the challenges of that job and completed the first year with the beginnings of an organization that we can all be very proud of.