History of the Annapolis Jaycees

Chapter History
During the summer of 1949, the Baltimore Junior Chamber of Commerce decided to extend a chapter in Annapolis. The Extension Chairman traveled to Annapolis and spoke to Mr. Emerson Wiley, an employee of The Annapolis Banking and Trust Company. Mr. Wiley gave this gentleman the names of several young men in the Annapolis area whom he felt would be interested in hearing more about the Jaycee story. At this time, the Jaycees, or Junior Chamber of Commerce, were nationally affiliated and supervised by the "Senior" Chamber of Commerce.

The first meeting was held on August 18, 1949 at the Carvel Hall Hotel, which has now been restored as the Paca House. About a dozen prospective members were present. Because this first meeting went so well, they decided to meet again the following month, with each attendee bringing a prospective member.

The Elks Club offered their State Circle lodge (now the Shaw House) as a regular meeting place. Publicity in the newspaper provided just enough stimulus to get the chapter going. At the third meeting in October, enough interested men were present to form our chapter. Murray Davis was elected Chapter President. Charter members include some of today's most prominent Annapolitans.

On June 20, 1950, the Annapolis Jaycees affiliated with the state and national organizations. They worked closely with then Governor McKeldin (a former Baltimore chapter president), State Senator Louis Phillips, and various mayors of Annapolis. Some of their projects included establishing one-way streets, assisting with annexations, increasing voter turnout, Cleaning areas of the City, providing holiday baskets and organizing sporting events.


The Early Role of Women
Women first participated as the "Jayshees," a wives' auxiliary club. A group of twenty was formed in August, 1950, at the initiative of Murray Davis' wife, Betty. She sat down with a roster of Annapolis Jaycees and called each of the wives. Concerned about the amount of time their husbands were spending with the Jaycees, they decided the only way to see their husbands and help in the community was to form an auxiliary.

Basically a social activities planning group, the Jayshees soon began assisting with Jaycee projects and developing projects on their own. They later changed their name from the Jayshees to the Jaycee Wives.

Under the direction of President Lisa Hillman in 1972, complete wives by-laws were written and the Jaycee Wives became more formally organized. They began to conduct their meetings according to Robert's Rules of Order, shifting their priorities to include service to the community, individual development and aid to Jaycee projects.

Under the leadership of Linda Jones in 1974, the group expanded to more than thirty women and was recognized on the state level for excellence in programming. For the next several years, the Jaycee Wives assumed major leadership roles in the state organization. They were named the best chapter in their population division for five consecutive years.


A Time of Change and Growth
William Smouse was chapter president in 1972 when the local National Organization of Women (NOW), under the direction of their local president, Casey Hughes, began to question the all-male membership restriction. After a great deal of discussion, a straw vote was taken: of the forty-one members at the meeting, thirty-seven voted against open membership.

The next president, Dick Hillman, decided the only way to bring about change was to increase the membership with people who were progressive in their thinking. By the end of his term, the chapter grew from approximately fifty to ninety members. Another straw vote was then taken and the margin narrowed.

During this period, we aligned ourselves with several other national Jaycee chapters interested in open membership, including two of the largest chapters in the country, Boston and Chicago. One by one, their charters were revoked by the national organization because they Admitted women as members.

In 1974, with Tyson Bennett as president, the chapter was coming very close to making its decision about open membership. Members wanted to work from within, knowing that their ultimate goal was open membership, not only in Annapolis, but also nationwide.

Campaigning for the presidency in 1975, Leroy Moore stated that he believed that the Jaycees were discriminating against women by not allowing them to join the chapter. Despite his open support for women in membership, he was handily elected as President. The time for positive change had finally arrived. At Leroy's second meeting on July 15, 1975 a vote was taken and the motion to admit women as members passed. This meeting was held in the upstairs meeting room of the Colonial Players building. That same evening after the vote the Annapolis Jaycees admitted Lisa Hillman, Casey Hughes and Peg Conlyn Overton as its first three women members. In September of 1975 both Tali Katz and Kathy Cordero also joined.

Thus we embarked on a new trial in Jaycee history!

The first year was rather quiet since nobody wanted to deal with the issue. Surprisingly Carl Price, the Maryland Jaycees Dues Administrator, was in favor of our position and he submitted the names of our women to the U.S. Jaycees as regular members.

During the presidential terms of Mel Malenski and Walt Eilers, more and more women, like Beth, joined the chapter and assumed more active roles. In April 1978, Kathleen Songey was elected as the first female President of the Annapolis Jaycees. The chapter supported her as she stood at state meetings and introduced herself as President of the Annapolis Jaycees. This, however, created a problem for the Maryland Jaycees. They could no longer ignore the issue.

Over a period of several months and after much discussion, the Annapolis chapter was told by the U.S. Jaycees that they could not admit women as regular members and that women could not serve as officers of the organization. If they did not comply, they would revoke the Annapolis charter. In January of 1979, Mel Malenski traveled to Tulsa, Oklahoma to represent the chapter at the mid-year Board of Directors' meeting of the U.S. Jaycees. Despite his efforts, the Annapolis Jaycees' charter was revoked at this meeting. As we all know, this was not the end of this issue.

Immediately, the chapter submitted the names of twenty male members to the Maryland Jaycees and requested a charter. Annapolis essentially did its own extension. Due to the efforts of several well-known members of our chapter, as well as the support of a national Jaycee Vice President, a motion was made at the Winter Board meeting of the Maryland Jaycees in Ocean City to admit the "new" Annapolis Jaycees as a chapter. The chapter was reseated as a chapter, but with a much higher charter number.

Knowing that other Jaycee chapters across the country had admitted women members under the "umbrella" protection of a holding company known as the "Chicago Plan," the Annapolis Jaycees formed their own holding company called the Annapolis Junior Citizens. This action was initiated during the remainder of Kathleen Songey's term in the spring of 1979. Under this plan, the Annapolis Jaycees, the Annapolis Jaycee Women, and the Annapolis Jaycee Foundation were all established as subsidiaries of the Annapolis Junior Citizens. While each organization had its own officers and on the third Tuesday of each month separate meetings were held, all business was conducted by the Annapolis Junior Citizens. Women, however, assumed the role as associate members of the national organization.

In the fall of 1979, the Annapolis Jaycee Women decided to dissolve their organization. Our chapter, however, felt that their organization had too much history and formally merged the Annapolis Jaycee Women with the Annapolis Jaycees. This would forever keep their history very much a part of the chapter's.

In the spring of 1980, at the end of Bill Jones' term as president, the Annapolis Jaycees was again cited for being in violation of the national by-laws because of the holding company.

Essentially, the U.S. Jaycees said that a Jaycee chapter cannot be a subsidiary of another organization. Soon after, Steve Yaniga was elected Chapter President. A committee was formed to advise the chapter on how to deal with this latest violation. In June 1980, Bill Jones and several other chapter members traveled to Cleveland, Ohio to attend the U.S. Jaycees national convention. Chris Beard, chapter Legal Counsel, obtained an injunction restraining the U.S. Jaycees from revoking our charter. The committee returned with the charter intact.

The following year, Sherry Moody Yaniga was elected President of the Annapolis Junior Citizens. Though the chapter recognized her as president of the Annapolis Jaycees, Steve Hartley was the nationally recognized leader. The chapter continued to operate in this manner during the administrations of Pam Miley and John Cotter, and into the first half of Diane Pickett's administration.

Meanwhile, the U.S. Jaycees had come under some scrutiny. The Minnesota Jaycees filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Jaycees for discriminating against women in their membership policies. This case was ultimately heard in the United States Supreme Court in April, 1984. On July 3,1984, the Supreme Court ruled that the U.S. Jaycees were in violation of the Minnesota State Public Accommodations laws by denying women regular membership in the organization. The U.S. Jaycees were ordered to accept women as members in the state of Minnesota.

Shortly thereafter, it was determined that approximately 23 states in the country had similar Public Accommodations laws. The U.S. Jaycees had a special meeting of the membership on August 16, 1984, and voted to admit women as regular members. The Annapolis Junior Citizens merged with the Annapolis Jaycees in September, 1984. After discussion (and some negotiation) with the U.S. Jaycees, the Annapolis Jaycees were presented with their original charter number.