Michigan Junior Chamber 90th Anniversary Program | Page 37

Thank you to the Michigan Jaycees for a great year!
John R. Badeen, #89

The Michigan Jaycees 2000 and Beyond!
We started out the new century with a bang!!!! The
Michigan Jaycees grew by over 300 members and
added 10 new chapters in 2000. That same year, the
Michigan Jaycees blew away the competition and
walked away with almost every award the US Jaycees
had to offer. The Michigan Jaycees continue to be one
of the largest fundraising states for national campaigns
like Mission Inn and Relay for Life. In 2005, the
organization did away with paid staff and passed all
those responsibilities onto the board of the directors.
“Smaller” chapters also proved that they could
compete with the big boys and win larger prestigious
awards.
The next decade would showcase our biggest changes
to date. We had 3 straight years of the USJC Marks
award winners. Wyandotte started the trend in 2010.
Greater Muskegon went on to win this honor 2011 and
then Ann Arbor in 2012, who then went on to win the
Best Chapter in the Americas.

We designed the tag line “We Build Leaders” which
has become a lasting statement of what we believe in
and the qualities that embody the Jaycees . In 2012,
we sold our service center in Lansing to the Chamber
of Commerce and moved into their building. This has
allowed us to create a new relationship with the
Chamber while cutting our expenses and need to rent
“space” for meetings elsewhere.
This was also the decade we went green: we
transferred to an online submission process for books,
we launched Guidebook for members to use for all
their needed information at conventions (which were
renamed to conferences) and renewals also went
online for chapters to add and renew members on the
USJC database. We amended bylaws to allow
collegiate chapters; Wayne State University being our
first.