Keith Lakatosh, President, 248-854-8446
Well it’s another new year! Another 12 months to grow as individuals and as citizens of the world. First and foremost I would like to say thank you to the 2009 Board of Directors and members for the wonderful accomplishments of last year. As President and with a strong board behind him, Jason Matz was able to provide a wide variety of opportunities to meet people, help the community, and enhance our skills. I am fortunate to have him as my Chairman of the Board and expect him to provide a great deal of guidance as I continue the successes from last year.
This year’s board has been hard at work establishing our chapter plan and budget. I was happy to see several new projects and fundraising opportunities we have in store this year. Building on that, I would like to talk about some of the goals I have set for myself to best serve our organization this year. Some of these goals are focused on responsibilities I have and some involve empowering our members (I Mean You!) to provide the most benefit to our community and most importantly you.
Throughout this year, if I do my job effectively, you will hear me talk a lot about value. I think the most important job I have this year is to ensure that the members of this chapter receive the value from the Jaycees. The mission of the Jaycees is to “To provide young people the opportunity to develop personal and leadership skills through local community action and organizational involvement while expanding the Junior Chamber movement.” I believe this can be achieved through three broad concepts: Participate, Lead, Impact.
Participate – Aside from just showing up to events, what I mean by participate is taking advantage of the opportunities our chapter provides. There are a wide variety of people in the Rochester Jaycees. We have multicultural members, a veterinarian from the Pharr Road Animal Hospital, techies, and even a professional goofinologist, to name a few. There are a wide variety of personalities and skills in each of our members. Also, we will be providing a host of team building exercises, competitions and guest speakers at GMMs to increase the value of our monthly meetings.
Lead – Let’s face it, no one became a leader of anything without taking charge. My opinion has always been the Jaycees are an opportunity to stretch my leadership skills without the risk of failure. Don’t get me wrong, there have been many times I have not achieved what I set out to do. However, at the end of the day, I was able to take away a lot of valuable lessons and self analysis that made me more equipped to be successful, especially when it related to my job. I strongly encourage members to run events or partner with other members to learn how to organize an event. These are skills that are highly transferable into any setting, personal or professional. I have personally known people – including myself – who have adapted the skills learned from the Chairperson’s Planning Guide (CPG) process to perform better at work, organize events outside the organization, or even start a business. Please take advantage of the opportunity and utilize the leadership opportunities in the chapter to hone these skills.
Impact – There are a variety of reason why people joined Jaycees. I know for myself one of the main reasons was to give back to the community. For anyone who has ever helped deliver Senior Easter Baskets or spent time taking a child shopping for their family at Christmas Shopping Tour, you know the enlightening feeling you get when you know you have impacted someone’s life in a positive way. I look forward to the many opportunities to impact the community and the positive effect we can have on the people within it.
I hope this provides some early-year encouragement and insight into the objectives I have for my presidency. I do not want to claim that I am here to motivate you to take advantage of the opportunities the Rochester Jaycees can provide. After all, it is up to you to determine what motivates you. I am simply here to listen and adapt to the needs of the chapter. I promise I will always be open to suggestions and appreciate feedback that can make this year a valuable experience for all of our members. Thank you and I will talk to you again soon!