Alexandria Jaycees Attend LOTS

Seven Alexandria Jaycees made the trip down to Ashland, Virginia to attend the Local Officer Training Seminar (LOTS) put on by the leadership of the Virginia Jaycees on Saturday, February 20, 2010. While at the event, they met other Jaycees from across the commonwealth, learned about motivating their team, conflict resolution, public speaking, the new Passport to Leadership Degrees program and Jaycee competitions.

Former Jaycee Trish Tyler led the discussion in how to motivate your members. She noted that there were four main types of motivation but the most effective was Intrinsic Motivation. This is when you have a desire within yourself to do something. It is the proverbial ‘What’s in it for me?’ If you can listen to your members and prospective members you can find out what they really want and you can find a way to motivate them.

Trish also talked about Conflict Resolution and surprised us a bit by stating that conflicts can be good. They can raise and address problems, energize work on the most appropriate issues, help motivate members to participate and help us to learn to recognize and benefit from our differences. However, you have to know how deal with a conflict in order to have a positive outcome. When people are confronted with a conflict, they have five different reactions: Avoid it, accommodate with the idea, compete with the person who is creating the conflict, compromise or collaborate. All of these reactions can be effective in different situations, but the best option is usually to collaborate to make sure that everyone is on the same page.

Speaking from her experience of winning two US Jaycees Speak Up competitions, Trish gave her audience some pointers on public speaking. She said to stay on point, try to stick with the rule of three. Having three points helps you remember the information that you are presenting and can avoid overloading or boring the audience with too much information. Everyone needs to know how to speak publicly and this is a skill that can help you advance in your professional career as well.

Alexandria Jaycee members who attended were Daniel Anzanello, Sarah Godshall, Romney Hogaboam, Jennifer Jackson, Laura Jarchow, Harry Schroeder and Sally Schroeder. We all were able to meet and reconnect with other chapters from around the state including Fredericksburg, Richmond, West End, Tuckahoe, Pulaski, and more. All of these chapters are excited about the new year and will be working hard to be the best chapter in the state.

As is usually the case when attending state events, I think that everyone got a fresh dose of excitement, motivation and new ideas to bring back to their local chapters. If you haven’t taken the time to go to a state-level convention or training, you owe it to yourself to check one out. It is definitely worth it.