Hello, I’d like to start by introducing myself. I am Todd Weber and I will be serving as the Northeast Regional Director for 2001. (2001, that seems weird but oh well.) Anyway, I am from Hartford and have held various offices both at local and state levels. Most recently, I was Hartford’s Chapter President in 1999. I look forward to meeting many of you and helping with many of your chapter’s projects.

     I would like to congratulate all of you on a great start to the new year! The Northeast Region grew it’s membership in January! That means more people to help run all of those great projects that you do and more new people to have fun with. Specifically, I want to congratulate and thank the key performers for January:

Growth Districts

Alice Hammer +5   Becky Kranz +3

Growth Chapters

Colton +1, Estelline +1. Colman +2, Hartford +2, Dell Rapids +3, and the Top Northeast growth chapter, "The Madison Jaycees" +4

     Thank you all for a job well done. The most impressive part about the month of January was the way that you kept the members you had. Over 72% of the members that you started with renewed their membership for another year. Those are phenomenal retention rates! Keep up the good work and continue to work that retention and add new members for February.

     Start looking around and making plans to extend the Jaycee opportunity to other communities. I have a great incentive out there for the first new chapter extension of the year. Ask your District Director what it is and find out how to make me payJ

     There are a great many things coming up the next few months of the year. Take the opportunity to get involved in as many of them as you can. The 2000 Year End Banquet and Convention is in Mitchell on Feb. 2-4. February 24^th is closeout for Feb. Call in your new members, what ever you still have for Feb. renewals and March early retention. The State Hot Shot competition is in Lake Preston on Feb. 24. We will be having a Regional Rally in March. I want it to be on Saturday, March 17. If you are interested in hosting this event, let me or your District Director know. It could be a lot of fun with a St. Patrick’s Day theme. Finally, get working on or finishing up those Chapter and District Blue Chip submissions. They are due in April. The Chapter deadline is April 2 and the District deadline is April 12.

     Chapters, call your District Directors often for help. If they can’t help, call me. Also, I would like to receive a newsletter from all of you. This will allow me to schedule dates to come and help you with your events, with recruiting, or just a meeting to get to know you and your members. In conclusion, keep up the great work and keep that "Northeast Thunder" building to a deafening roar!

In Jaycees,

Todd J. Weber

NERD