A brief History of JCI - Tacloban
If there is one local organization member in the Philippines to which the birth of Jayceeism in Eastern Visayas could properly be attributed, it is none but the Tacloban “Love” Jaycees. Known to be among the pioneers in the movement nationwide, the Tacloban “Love” has played a significant role in propagating the ideals of brotherhood and genuine public service and letting the seed grow immensely that helped build the regional jurisdiction of the Philippine Jaycees. The inception of the Tacloban Jaycees dated back to the days when Jayceeism was starting to spread out across the entire archipelago. The history of the Junior Chamber of the Philippines confirms the fact that the LOM is among the precursor of what is now renowned as “institution” in nurturing authentic leaders in the country.
According to the JCP annals, some young men of Tacloban heeded an invitation from the Manila Jaycees in 1948 in the latter’s desire to broaden the arena of the Jaycee movement in the country. The core group organized in Tacloban on a Valentine’s day in 1948 was among those few chapters formed in the country that took part in the first national convention in Manila in 1949. Little was known, though, what transpired next.
Tacloban Jaycees’ formal start was documented on March 31, 1963 at the Boy’s Scout Building in Tacloban City. Jose Ortiz, president of Cebu Jaycees together with then JCP National President Jose Morada conducted an orientation seminar in the City and helped initiate an organizational meeting among those in attendance.
It was then that the first recorded president of the Tacloban Jaycees was elected, in the person of Atty. Eduardo Montilla.
Junior Chamber International Philippines
(Philippine Jaycees, Inc.)
Brief History
Any historical account of the Jaycee movement in Asia necessarily begins with the Philippine Jaycees.
It was here that the first Jaycee chapter in Asia-the Manila Jaycees – was born on December 20, 1947. On March 10, 1948, two delegates from the Manila Jaycees attended the 3rd World Congress of the Junior Chamber International held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil to petition for the admission of the chapter to the worldwide organization. They came back to Manila with charter for the national chamber that was to be known as the Philippine Jaycees, and the distinction for JC Gregorio Feliciano for being the first Filipino Vice President of Junior Chamber International.
Two circumstances may be said to paved way the way for the Jaycees’ transplantation in Asia through the Philippines.
1. Its historical ties with the United States
2. The restlessness of its young professionals to help the county recover from the ravages brought by the Pacific War.
From various accounts in the past, we have known how this involvement begun with the curiosity of that venerable Artemio Vergel de Dios, still very much active in the movement to this day, who as a young man read about the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce in October 1946 issue of the American Magazine PIC and for with wrote the U.S. Jaycees to inquire how a similar organization could be established in the Philippines.
By September 12, 1947, Vergel de Dios got the cue from Bob Richards, Executive secretary of the US Jaycees, who referred him to Bert Talbot, a former Jaycee from St. Paul, Minnesota, who was then Northwest Airlines traffic manager in Manila. At about the same time, Talbot got a letter from Tyrlor Cole, then president of the Junior Chamber International, about Vergel de Dios intention, suggesting that he and Robert Trent, then representative of the Hawaiian Sugar Planters in Manila, meet with the Filipino.
As advised, the meeting among the three was arranged and held at the Rotary Room of the Manila Hotel on September 25, 1947 and initial plans were drawn for an organizational meeting. These were firmed up in October with a list of 60 young men to charter members, but only 17 were able to attend the organizational meeting December 20, 1947, 10 of whom were Filipinos and 7 Americans. The Filipinos, who were soon to become prominent businessman and industrialist, were Ramon V. del Rosario, Oscar Arellano, Rafael Estrada, Fred Benitez, Gregorio Feliciano, Oliverio Laperal, Jose Mayuga, Eugenio Puyat, Graciano Yupangco and the one who started it all, Artemio Vergel de Dios. The Americans were John Bachman, Steve Brodie, Chuck Nelson, Stephen Stonich, Wylie Young and the two referrals, Bert Talbot and Robert Trent.
By the time the constitution and By-Laws of the chapter, was taken up and approved on January 03, 1948, 42 members had signed up. The first board of directors elected Ramon del Rosario- President, Robert Trent-Executive Vice President, Eugenio Puyat-Vice President for External Affairs, Jose Mayuga-Vice President for Internal Affairs, Artemio Vergel de Dios-Secretary, Gregorio Feliciano-Treasurer and Steve Brodie-Public Relations Officer.
Having granted the charter for the national Jaycees Organization in the Philippines, the intrepid Manila Jaycees fanned out in the provinces to organize chapters. The first to respond were the young men of BACOLOD, CABANATUAN, CAPIZ, CAVITE, ILOILO, DAVAO, LUCENA, SAN PABLO, TACLOBAN and ZAMBOANGA. By the year end, the number of chapters organized had reached 22.
The first national convention was held in Manila in April 1949. Following the approval of the constitution and By-laws of the Philippine Jaycees, the first set of national officers were elected with Ramon del Rosario as President.
That same month, 19 Filipino Jaycees led by Del Rosario attended the 4th JCI World Congress in Brussels. The rather large delegation must have so impressed the Jaycees from different countries that they voted to hold the 5th JCI World Congress in Manila the following year.
From Brussels, the Filipino delegates broke up into five teams for a “Sell the Philippines” campaign tour to Latin America, Canada and the United States, with different itineraries, the Filipino ambassadors of goodwill did their country proud as they spoke at banquets, radio programs, TV appearances and newspaper and its people, in the process dispelling ignorance and correcting misinformation then prevalent about the fledgling republic.
At the 5th JCI World Congress held in October 1950 at the Manila Hotel, the delegates were addressed by President Quirino and other officials of the Philippine Government. A momentous highlight of the assembly was the election of Ramon del Rosario as world president of the Junior Chamber International, the first Filipino and Asian to hold that position. In three successive years, del Rosario earned the distinction of chalking up three first: first president of Manila Jaycees, and first Filipino president of JCI. Two years later, another Filipino, Roberto Villanueva, was elected to the same office: Other Filipino subsequently elected JCI President were Feliciano Belmonte, Jr., Victor Luciano and Crispin Dy, Jr.
Through the years, the Philippines Jaycees as an organization has become a byword in civic projects of varying scope and importance such as setting up monuments, blood banks and puericultures centers, exterminating rodents and harmful insects, and campaigning for people to “get out and vote”. The tragic death of National President Joaquin V. Gonzales in a plane crash is memorialized by a rehabilitation pavilion at Welfareville in Mandaluyong, Metro Manila, set up under the auspices of the Philippine Jaycees.
Two projects of the Philippine Jaycees which have become institutions are the “Voice of Democracy” oratorical contest among students and the annual search for the “Outstanding Young Men” of the Philippines.
Also to this great credit and to this day widely remembered is “Operations Brotherhood”, a humanitarian project in Vietnam and Laos whose methodology evolved out of the “Help the Barrio” project initiated by Cesar Climaco in Zamboanga and later adopted nationwide by the Philippine Jaycees, under the name “Held Juan”. The essence of “Operation Brotherhood” was an enlarged and more systematic application of a Multi-disciplinary approach in helping the needy whose implementation Oscar Arellano successfully headed.
The rise of Jayceeism in the Philippine and in Asia paralleled the organization’s phenomenal growth the world over. By 1952, there were 52 national chambers. In Asia, the growth of Jayceeism was notably brisk from that year to 1952.
In 1952, there were only 79 local chapters in Asia of which 37 in the Philippine and 34 in Japan, with a chapter each in Hongkong, India, Indonesia, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam. By 1954, Jaycee chapters had been organized in Burma, Ceylon, Malaysia and Pakistan. There were nucleus organizations in Borneo and Laos which eventually become full chambers with a total of 126 local chapters.
Today, there are 15 national Jaycee organizations in Asia, with the addition of Bangladesh and Nepal. Under the JCI structure, the region falls under Area B to which Australia, New Zealand, Guam and Fuji are included.
The other dimension of Jayceeism is the Jaycee Senate, founded in January 1952 by JCI World President Phil T.R. Pugsley of Canada to provide a lifetime link with the organization for elder members and at the same time harness them for Jaycee extension.
Today, the Jaycee Senate International has over 43,000 members representing just a little over one percent of the three million people who have been Jaycee. This is so because a JCI Senatorship, lifetime title, is selectively for outstanding performance by a Jaycees whether on the local, national or international level.
The origin of JCI (Junior Chamber International, Inc.) can be traced as far back as 1910 to the city of St. Louis, Missouri, USA, where a young man named Henry "Hy" Giessenbier dared to dream "impossible dreams." Giessenbier was born June 26, 1892, and was raised in St. Louis, Missouri. He was one of six children in the Giessenbier family.
The son of a German father and a kind-hearted mother was to rise out of this tapestry with a vision that would lead to the establishment of the world's foremost organization for young people. Henry Giessenbier was to create the structure that would motivate young adults across the country (and later, around the world) to blend their voices to create improvements in themselves and their communities.
In 1910, Giessenbier and his friends first formed the Herculaneum Dance Club with the main objective of advancing the social standing of its members. He frequently invited community leaders to speak to the group at its regular meetings. In 1915, Colonel Huse N. Morgan, a powerful orator, argued to the Federation the case for constructing a major parkway through the city. In so doing, he struck a responsive chord with Giessenbier who was realizing that there was more to life than dancing.
That objective changed when Giessenbier realized how much more young people could accomplish for their communities and for themselves if, inspired by noble ideals, they worked together. About a week later, the young banker was telling Morgan about an "idea" he had to organize a group of men, ages 18 to 30, with the purpose of: "... bringing the young men of our great city together into one grand body with that great purpose of fellowship, advancement and everything which would make a good boy a better boy, a good student a more proficient scholar and a good citizen a better citizen."
Morgan, whose parkway hopes would ultimately fail, recognized the potential in the 21-year-old's concept and offered his help. Following a trip to Cleveland to look into the young men's business club there, and investigating similar clubs in other cities, Giessenbier felt that none matched his lofty intentions.
Five years later, encouraged by Colonel Morgan, Giessenbier and 32 other young men formed the Young Men's Progressive Civic Association (YMPCA) on October 13, 1915. Giessenbier envisioned young people participating in the civic affairs of their communities to help and benefit people of all ages. YMPCA grew to a membership of 750 in less than five months. The association went on to dedicate itself to bringing about civic improvements and giving young people a constructive approach to civic problems.
Extending Locally and Nationally
The very next year, 1916, saw another name change as the YMPCA became "Junior Citizens," commonly called "JCs," which later became "Jaycees." Their work so impressed the St. Louis Junior Chamber of Commerce that they asked these young men in 1918 to adopt the name ?Junior Chamber of Commerce? which was done despite some members objecting to the word Junior and some objecting to the word Commerce.
After World War I, Giessenbier contacted other cities in the United States with similar young businessmen's groups. St. Louis members had enthusiastically spread the news of their organization while off to war and, as a result, questions began pouring in from all over the country about how to form similar groups.
A pamphlet describing the "St. Louis Plan" was sent in response and caucus invitations were issued to all existing young men's groups. When the proceedings opened in St. Louis on January 21, 1920, 30 cities were represented. With the adoption of a provisional constitution until a convention could be held in June, and the election of officers, the national Junior Chamber movement was born.
The caucus-adopted constitution permitted wide latitude for member groups in regard to age of members and the name of their organizations. Names varied greatly from the Strollers Club and the Young Men's Business Club of New Orleans to the Under Forty Division of the Detroit Board of Commerce. Some clubs accepted men in their 40s, while others welcomed teenagers. These points would cause controversy and debate for years to come.
Giessenbier won election as provisional president of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce (USJCC) by acclamation, and was joined by other officers from St. Louis; El Paso and Dallas Texas; Terre Haute, Indiana; and Springfield, Massachusetts. The United States Junior Chamber of Commerce (now JCI USA) was established with 29 clubs from around the nation. Henry Giessenbier was elected as the first President of the national organization.
Becoming International
The first local organization outside the United States that had similar nature with that of the U.S. Junior Chamber of Commerce was the Winnipeg Board of Trade, which was established in 1923.
In 1924, Sir Gilbert Vyle and Mr. R.B. Dunwoody, President and Secretary respectively of the Association of British Chambers of Commerce had attended an international meeting of chambers of commerce in America and had seen the work of the Junior Chamber there.
Mr. Dunwoody speaking at an annual dinner of Lincoln Chamber of Commerce said ?In the United States they are forming Junior Chambers of Commerce where lads and youths may be enrolled for the study of industrial and commercial questions and prepared for the future to become members of the Senior Chambers and useful citizens. There is a great future, in my opinion, for such a movement and I hope to see it started in connection with our chambers here.?
Shortly after, on May 14, 1925, Lincoln Junior Chamber was formed, thought to be the first actual Junior Chamber outside the United States, although as we have seen above a similar type of organization had been formed in Winnipeg. Birmingham was formed in 1927, followed the same year by Sheffield and by Nottingham in early 1928.
By the time officials from the U.S. Junior Chamber visited England in 1928, there were already eleven functioning chambers. In 1929, Douglas Jelley, President of Northampton Jaycees visited the United States for the first time, which was followed by a visit by a delegation of three Sheffield Members led by W.G. Ibberson to the annual convention of the U.S. Junior Chamber in Brooklyn in 1930. Because the national organization did not have, in the early days, the present structure of a full team of national officers carrying out functional responsibilities, many national activities were conducted by assigned chambers on behalf of the organization.
The first formal attempts to form an international organization came at the Los Angeles Olympic Games in 1932 when an International Executive Committee was formed. However, even the U.S Junior Chamber was not sure whether this was a separate organization or one of their own committees. The U.S. Junior Chamber official history does not record that the group evolved into anything more than a loose grouping of member nations with the U.S., Canada, England, Mexico, New Zealand, Australia and Colombia. In 1936, at the national conference in Liverpool representatives from several countries determined to form an International Junior Chamber, but this appears to have been overlooked when JCI was eventually formed.
In 1940, a resolution was passed by JCI USA approving a program to further mutual interests among countries in Central and South America. This led to the establishment of JCI organizations in Mexico City, Guatemala City, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama City in 1943.
A meeting took place in Mexico City in December 1944 which was billed as an Inter-America Meeting at which representatives of the U.S.A. and seven Latin American countries attended and it was at this meeting that the decision to form Junior Chamber International (JCI) was taken. It was resolved to hold a further meeting in Panama City in 1946.
New Zealand was unable to attend and asked the Chicago President to protest on their behalf about not having been included in the original decision to form an international organization as they had been active pioneers in international cooperation. The British delegation failed to attend having only got as far as New York.
The establishment of JCI as an international organization had begun. In 1944, the first international conference was held in Mexico City. Raul Garcia Vidal of Mexico was elected JCI's first President. The countries that originally formed JCI were Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and the United States of America.
The First JCI World Congress
Junior Chamber International would come into formal being at the First World Congress in Panama at the end of February in 1946. It was attended by 44 delegates from 16 different countries. Presided over by Erasmo Chambonnet of Panama, since JCI President Raul Garcia Vidal was ill and unable to attend, the delegates approved a temporary Constitution and set for themselves a list of purposeful resolutions which all in attendance agreed to follow.
Erasmo Chambonnet of Panama was elected the second JCI President at that JCI Congress, and Australia and Canada were officially affiliated.
In 1948, the JCI Creed was officially adopted at the IV JCI World Congress in Rio de Janeiro, and in 1952 a permanent JCI Headquarters was established. In 2002, after more than 30 years in Coral Gables, Florida, the JCI Headquarters moved to Chesterfield, Missouri.
Over the years, the organization developed and became known as "Junior Chamber," "Junior Chamber of Commerce," "Jaycees International," and their multiple translations in various languages. Since 2004, however, JCI organizations worldwide are incorporating "JCI" in their names.