AmEx Proposal Status as of 6/19/07

Posted by: MPModerator03 Posted: 6/19/07 9:00 PM
The project idea submission and rating stage of The Members Project is now over but feel free to keep discovering great project ideas, sharing your comments or building interest in your project. The Advisory Panel will review the projects and the Top 50 will be announced on July 3rd. Stay tuned to see which projects make it through and vote for your favorite. Thanks for participating and good luck!

Status of AmEx Project 'Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!"

There are finally 7,018 entries in the American Express Members project challenge. See https://www.membersproject.com/home.action

The Link to 'Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!' is http://www.membersproject.com/Education/7009

Please consider it's potential to make our world a better place by training all of our youth in a positive and motivating Purpose in Life to bring forth their very best in service to their 'Teams' of faith, family and work and vote for this project! Thank you!!

Aristotle - Why we want to know our Purpose

"We are asking what the good for human beings is not simply because we want to have knowledge, but because we will be better able to achieve our good if we develop a fuller understanding of what it is to flourish." - Aristotle

Press Release!! Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!! Status!

Press Release!!
Local Author’s Project for Kansas City schools in National Contest for $5 million!!

The competition is heating up!! As of 6/15/07 at 9:40am there are 5,662 projects submitted. The deadline for submission is this weekend!!

At this point “Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!” which was only submitted on 6/14/07, is already ranked number 591 out of 5,662 projects!!! It will need at least 300 votes in order to win.

The following Press Release was submitted to the Kansas City Star on 6/15/07:

Local Author’s Project for Kansas City schools in National Contest for $5 million!!
A local author, Jerry W. Willis, has a project to improve our public school system in the American Express Members Project challenge which is offering up to $5 million to implement the winning proposal. The project is titled “Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!”. It was submitted 6/14/07 in the Education section. See details at http://AmericanExpress.comMembersProject.com/home.action and see Mr. Willis’ website www.jerrywwillis.com and his blogs with the details

Mr. Willis plans to try to implement the prototype program in the Kansas City school system if this project wins, and then, to seek the funding and approvals to implement it nationwide. Your support will be greatly appreciated…by Millions now and into the future!!

See more details and leave comments, PLEASE, and Vote!!!
http://www.membersproject.com/home.action and
www.jerrywwillis.com and
http://pursuitofhappinessman.blogspot.com and
http://www.TheUniversalPurposeInLife.blogspot.com

Press Release!! Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!! Status!

Press Release!!
Local Author’s Project for Kansas City schools in National Contest for $5 million!!

The competition is heating up!! As of 6/15/07 at 9:40am there are 5,662 projects submitted. The deadline for submission is this weekend!!

At this point “Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!” which was only submitted on 6/14/07, is already ranked number 591 out of 5,662 projects!!! It will need at least 300 votes in order to win.

The following Press Release was submitted to the Kansas City Star on 6/15/07:

Local Author’s Project for Kansas City schools in National Contest for $5 million!!
A local author, Jerry W. Willis, has a project to improve our public school system in the American Express Members Project challenge which is offering up to $5 million to implement the winning proposal. The project is titled “Bring forth the Potential of our Youth!!”. It was submitted 6/14/07 in the Education section. See details at http://AmericanExpress.comMembersProject.com/home.action and see Mr. Willis’ website www.jerrywwillis.com and his blogs with the details

Mr. Willis plans to try to implement the prototype program in the Kansas City school system if this project wins, and then, to seek the funding and approvals to implement it nationwide. Your support will be greatly appreciated…by Millions now and into the future!!

See more details and leave comments, PLEASE, and Vote!!!
http://www.membersproject.com/home.action and
www.jerrywwillis.com and
http://pursuitofhappinessman.blogspot.com and
http://www.TheUniversalPurposeInLife.blogspot.com

Winning the Lottery - The Pleasure of Elegance

Ever wonder what it would be like to have really clear Focus on 'right now'; what it would be like to 'win the lottery and keep it a secret'?

Here are my feelings and thoughts when I felt that I had 'won the lottery' by preparing the American Express proposal, posted earlier on this blogsite, called "I Have a Dream – The Audacity of a Universal Purpose in Life!"

The Pleasure of Elegance

I called my favorite restaurant, Café Provence, a little French restaurant in a small comfortable shopping center in Prairie Village, KS. What a name, right? A Prairie…a village in a prairie. The image one gets from the name is not so good. But the reality is much better. There are big oaks along the streets. The little and old houses are WAY too inexpensive for this beautiful area and location in one of the finest cities in the world!! One day Nanette and I might buy one, tear it down and build her dream home right there. It would start a trend and all the housing values would soar! We need to buy several of them before we build. The value of the others would pay for the new one!!

I was only able to get a reservation for 6:15 pm which was a little early for me. But I knew I wanted to go and I was looking forward to a nice glass of wine and a Kir Royale, my favorite French drink consisting of Champagne with Crème de Cassis. It’s delicious!! You’ve got to try it!

I think as I drove to the restaurant that the name ‘The Audacity of Hope’ seems to fit my book and my project proposal perfectly. I’ll bet Barrack Obama would love this idea! Does anyone know how we could submit it to him and see what he thinks? It would be a win-win!! ‘The Audacity of a Universal Purpose in Life!!’ That’s a winner!! I’m going to use it!!

It is early summer so the day is still full of light and I am one of the first people at the restaurant. Some people are sitting out at little tables with white tablecloths on the sidewalk in front of the place. It is comfortable, the temperature is perfect; people are leisurely drinking a nice glass of wine or reading a book or having a pleasant conversation.

I was ready to say I wanted to eat out there, but when I walked in and the soft music was echoing in the background and gruff little Danielle with her strong French Accent came to assist me to my table I knew I belonged inside.

A new young waiter asked me if the seat that Danielle had chosen for me was OK. I had to stop and think because it wasn’t. I wasn’t for sure why it wasn’t but I could tell it wasn’t the best seat in the place. I carefully evaluated them all and decided upon a small table at the front window. That one was reserved but ‘Jacques’ chose another very close that actually turned out to be even much better!! Danielle reported in her stern little voice with that haughty little attitude that since I had chosen that seat, JoAnn would be my waitress. She pronounced ‘JoAnn’ in such a way that I couldn’t tell for sure the name and I had to ask when my waitress arrived.

I sat and relaxed. I had just showered and had on my best new shirt and pants and felt really good. I was comfortable that I looked good because my new friend ‘Dr.’ Chen, at Dillard’s had assisted me to choose them. ‘Dr.’ Chen had given me his ‘Ph.D.’ explanation of all the collar styles and colors that look best on my complexion and what to wear whenever I am in different types of company, etc. He has an extremely heavy oriental accent but he is without doubt a ‘Ph.D.’ in clothes! Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated Ph.D. for the Latin Philosophiæ Doctor, meaning "teacher of philosophy," I just recently found him and I am so happy to have someone like him assisting me and on my Team!! I’ve needed Dr. Chen all my life!!

I looked around. The place was less than half full, the soft, beautiful music was rather ‘wispy’ like I would suspect would be in a restaurant in the really ‘French’ part of Paris or another nice city in France. The young waiter and JoAnn and Danielle all display the service and manners befitting the elegance of the French names in the menu and the quiet elegance of the small French restaurant.

The young woman preparing drinks behind the bar had a very attractive face, ie., she was rather like ‘Eye Candy’ and that added to the pleasure of my table and my view. The couple at the next table, I later found out, are in town to go to the opera. They come up from a KS city eight times per year since they have tickets for half of the season. They love the Opera. They commented about the pleasure of a nice French restaurant and I agreed and we drank a toast to that and had a pleasant little discourse. I have noticed and I love it, that when I feel like this, when I am so happy and so content within myself, that I do attract a lot of people who just enjoy talking. And so do I!!

JoAnn described the appetizer special of the day; 3 small pieces of toast each topped with a different piece of smoked seafood, one with a shrimp, one with sliced salmon and the other with a scallop. Each one is 'sitting on a small bed of saffron potatoes and drizzled with' a sauce of something I didn’t catch. I had to try that!! I ordered a glass of a wine that I had not tried before, Louis Latour Valmoissine Pinot Noir.

I sat back and listened to the music, I noticed the rather inexpensive looking pictures high on the wall on the East side of the restaurant. They were of young French women in very fashionable dresses in those ‘model’ poses with the attitudes of the ‘upper crust’. But this time I saw them in a different light than I had before. This time I saw that this part of life is not about sexuality or make believe, it is about the pleasure of elegance!! There is nothing really expensive in this place!! It is simply an attitude and an appreciation of a different and wonderful side of life that I had sensed and liked before but never really understood!

The sounds begin to meld together as the crowd grows in size and the music seems to change to a more mixed up sound that matches perfectly with the sounds from the crowd. Craig and Joyce French (we commented on the interesting name) and I introduce ourselves and discuss our jobs. Craig was injured a few years ago and had to retire. He is now an Author of Neo something type literature and has an agent in Sweden that is preparing to publish his first book!! I am an Author out celebrating the proposal that I am about to submit to the American Express Members Projects challenge. Craig and Joyce can’t wait to see it! I give them my new card – Jerry W. Willis – Author – member Bay Head Speakers Guild – www.jerrywwillis.com . We exchange email addresses. He will send me some of his writing and I will send him my proposal – I Have a Dream! But I Need Your Help! Now maybe that should be ‘I Have a Dream – The Audacity of a Universal Purpose in Life!’

JoAnn wants to know if I am ready to order my main course because I am so slowly eating my appetizer. But no, I am savoring this like never before. I am testing and tasting my wine and my appetizer – I swirl the wine in the large glass and smell it before almost each taste – as if I had a sense of smell and could really appreciate the exciting variety of smells that swirling the wine brings out, 'the hints of fruits like apple and pear', etc! So much fun in even the description!!

It feels like the wine tastes better because I smell it before I take a drink! Yes, there is more to even taking a small taste of wine than most people, like me, ever learned early in life!!

I finish the appetizer and the wine. It is good but I have tasted better. But it isn’t about the taste, not this time, it is about the event, the situation, the everything!! I order my favorite, a Kir Royale - Champagne with Crème de Cassis (a black currant flavored liqueur). They are delicious!! You can get the much cheaper black currant Flavored product and the Kir Royale tastes just fine. But the really good stuff is the Black Currant Liqueur in the bottle that looks like it was made for Royalty!! Thank you Pam (the love in my Son and Grandson’s lives – and now mine!) who introduced me to this 'higher level'!!

The Kir Royale comes with a small piece of lemon rind obviously twisted ever so slightly just to get the last little bit of lemon juice from the very little fruit left on the rim of the rind. Those French…they know how to find and use the most delicate bits of flavor in so many of their drinks and dishes!!

At the table in front of me is a nice, rich Grandmother and Grandfather entertaining their Granddaughter who is enjoying the interest from and the ‘quaintness’ of her Grandparents, her 'Ancestors'!

In the background through the open door to the kitchen the flames are jumping and creating a warm glow in the light. Before the chef covers them to prepare the next dish, he gently removes small portions of the current menu item from his skillet and places them ever so carefully in such a way as to have a ‘creation’ on the dish. For that is part of the beauty of the elegance, the pleasure for him and for all of his ‘Guests’ – those that understand and appreciate what this is all about. Funny, I never saw it all before. I never understood it so well before. It really is a thing of beauty and pleasure!

Danielle, with her normal diligence, is busily clearing the table after one set of customers leave, apparently oblivious, although I doubt it, to the beauty that she and the environment are creating. JoAnn announces to me that my dinner of Sea Bass with saffron sauce, with a curry sauce and a bueurre blanc (white butter sauce), should be ready in just minutes. She calls me ‘Monsieur’ and I call her ‘Madame’ and say ‘Merci’ and try to remember some of the French words I learned last year. Not to impress her but to feel good about myself that I do know some of this beautiful ‘Language of Love’. I must remember to look up some of the words before I come next time!! It is so nice to know and use them! It adds to the pleasure.

The ‘Eye Candy’ Barmaid smiles as she interacts with the male waiter and learns how to enter the items in the computer which is neatly hidden behind a column. She must be new. The Kir Royale and the wine have brightened and lightened my view of the world and what I am experiencing. The world is beautiful!! Life is GOOD!!

I want more to drink but I know that I am at the ‘top of the mountain’ and it is now time to begin coming down the other side. My entrée arrives. It has ‘baby carrots’ in the white cream sauce, the buerre blanc, surrounded by the light green saffron sauce. The large chunk of Sea Bass sits atop a 'finger of' deep fat fried 'potato jutting out into the mustard sauce'. There are no salt and pepper shakers on the tables – things are presented the way they ‘should be’, the way the chef has carefully prepared them!

As the Granddaughter discusses her ‘extreme engineering’ project in China she says it is ‘very cool’. The Sea Bass flakes perfectly into huge chips, the sauces are mild and tantalizing. They could use just a little more salt but…

The male waiter explains to a new guest about the special of Sea Bass with ‘baby carrots’ in saffron sauce. Granddaughter is happily telling about the new Music Festival that she is planning to attend soon.

I’m getting full even before I finish these relatively small portions. But I want to be sure to save room for the wonderful desserts and a ‘French Press’ of café.

You can tell some guests are parents entertaining their children and their spouses. The parents are tan and smiling; happy, obviously comfortable, dressed in very nice looking clothes. The Father in the couple closest to me has on a yellow and black striped knit shirt and the obligatory mustache of the rich and suave. The Mother reminds me of Jane Fonda with large rimmed glasses.

A delightful new couple comes in looking beautiful and they kiss and hug their waiting children before they sit down. This man has on a rather silk looking shirt that looks great!! I’m going to have to get one of those! He has on nice loafers. But the thing that makes each of these parents look so good is that they are trim!! I’ve got to get my eating under control!!

‘Eye Candy’ has perfect teeth. She is a little overweight and not dressed extremely well I see as she comes out from behind the bar. Danielle is describing the ‘Ta Ta Ta’ and the Crepe Suzette and the Chocolate Cake called ‘Gateau Au Chocolat‘ to a couple near me. I can’t wait, but I want to. The anticipation makes it even more fun and good!!

A young couple next to me seems to be trying to decide what to order but when they do the lady comfortably orders ‘the Ceasar Salad and hold the anchovies’ and the ‘Croque Chez Jacques’. She obviously knows a little French and enjoys it too. People are clicking wine glasses in toasts, smiling and smelling the wines before they taste. There is definitely the feel of being in France where the pleasures of good food and wines and service are treasured and exalted!!

Grandmother’s silk blouse is hung up on the back of her chair but she doesn’t know it and granddaughter doesn’t do anything about it if she sees it.

I order a crepe suzette and a French Press Café. Delicious!! Why haven’t I been ordering these more often? –

"Crêpe Suzette is a typical French and Belgian dessert, consisting of a crêpe with a hot sauce of caramelised sugar, orange juice, lightly grated orange peel and liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) on top, which is subsequently lit."

Grandmother’s hair is obviously coiffed – she is sweet and elegant and full of hope and pleasure and pride in her granddaughter. They talk of a ‘multi-year project’ which has a new meaning to me now that I have attained this golden age and Grandmother is obviously quite a bit older. It is almost humorous. Reminds me of the woman saying she doesn’t even buy green bananas anymore.

JoAnn smiles always. She greatly enjoys her guests loving their food and the experience and she knows and can see that I do. She wears large circle earrings; I always like large earrings on a woman. Her hair is cut very short in the back which I normally don’t like. But it doesn’t matter. Her sparkling personality, and obvious love of life, overcomes any deficits in her real physical beauty. She has a small heart discreetly tattooed on the back of her left hand.

This is why we want our family members to get a good education. So they can earn enough money to experience some of these extremely nice moments in life. But, many of them are available even if you don’t have a lot of money. All it takes is effort and setting the right priorities and having a glimpse of what is out there when you have the right understandings!

Granddad is comfortably taking his time looking over the menu while the young waiter waits patiently and comfortably. When he finally decides and orders Grandmother gently makes fun of him and to Granddaughter. They smile at each other with the comfortable attitude that says they have great Love for each other and enjoy each other so much especially in these times.

That is a wonderful feeling!! Nanette and I have it a lot! That is a beautiful part of a relationship that grows and mellows and ages gracefully when you are with the right kind of person in your life.

Grandmother and Granddaughter share some unique family features; the nose, the chin, the smile, the deep set eyes. They laugh and smile with obvious pleasure and happiness with the relationship and the evening.

Excellent!! It’s time to leave. JoAnn and I hug. We shared something beautiful together; my enjoyment of the evening, the food, the atmosphere and her service; and the common understanding! These things may seem superficial but they are not for some of us. This is a new and a better level, one that you want to experience if you can.

As I leave it is still light even though it is almost 9 pm. The temperature is perfect. The sky is clear. The air is clean. The neighborhoods are quiet and peaceful. WOW!!

There are some things in life that you want, like being really ‘Happy’, and sometimes you can’t imagine what it truly is going to feel like when they happen. This is a different realm in an alternate reality. It’s like ‘Number One’ experienced in the ‘Holideck ‘ on my favorite Star Trek show.

I don't know if any of you have experienced what I am experiencing right now but I hope you have and do. The thrill, excitement, hope, joy, satisfaction and peace of mind of all that you could hope for, even better than your dreams, and then some more, all happening in one fell swoop!

Wow! That’s all I can say, is WOW!!


So now I have typed past midnight. The first celebration of June 9, 2007 is now over. It was wonderful! I can’t wait until next year!

Love,

‘Willis’

Am Ex Proposal - I Have a Dream - The Audacity of a Universal Purpose in Life!!

I Have a Dream – The Audacity of a Universal Purpose in Life!!

My mind is ‘with child’, ‘but I don’t know nuthin ‘bout birthin’ no babies!!’

I’m not a teacher or a school administrator or a coach or a program director or manager. I am an observer, a writer, a speaker, a good Team member with the understanding and vision of a program that I know can make a huge difference.

I have excitedly described how this program would work to my sister and other Teams of mine and they have helped me to develop it even further. But when I tried to figure out how to get the funding to start it, I ‘folded like a cheap suit’!

Then a Team member of mine brought the American Express Members Projects to my attention. There it is!! That’s the way!! People with money searching for a way to bring forth their Potential and the Potential of their members to make our country and our world a better place!! Incredible things can and do happen!

I know within reason that there are tens of thousands of young people in this country and in the world who are not able to focus and bring forth their best because they don’t have an organized and clear way to think and understand and make good decisions.

I know that our public education system in this country leaves a lot of people out and leaves a lot of them behind and that we, as a country, are confused about what to do about it.

I know that that confusion leads to a lot of contention within various elements of our society. And I know that we, as a people, are willing to pay, are willing to devote a lot more or our resources to solve this problem if we can just figure out a way; a way to focus our money and effort and attention on a program that will really work.

I have a dream! Yes, I have a Dream!! I have a dream about a way to change that and turn it around. I have a dream of a day when all of our young people will come out of our public education system with the same Universal Purpose in Life. One that causes them to be constantly searching for a bigger and better way to devote themselves to bringing forth their best potential in service to others. And yet to be fully focused and completely dedicated to bringing forth the best potential they have discovered so far in service to their families and work and other teams in their lives.

And because of this Universal Purpose in Life, because of the fact that they know that they have put forth their utmost effort in bringing forth their best potential, they are self-confident, satisfied and have peace of mind! That because they are constantly searching for better ways to bring forth their Highest and Best Potential, they are excited and looking forward to tomorrow, knowing that ‘the best is yet to come!’

I have a dream that they come out of our public education system understanding what ‘the best things in life’ really are; that they understand what ‘living the good life’ really is, and that they are realizing those things in their lives because it is they are the result of being devoted to and living The Universal Purpose in Life.

Yes, I have a dream. A dream that this can and will come true! And that dream has brought me here to American Express and to You. I can only put it out there and hope that you and others will understand its potential.

All you need to do to make this dream a reality is to be ‘in service to’ American Express and help them to bring forth their Best Potential by funding this dream for our nation and the world!!

I’ll see you in my Dreams!!

For more information see http://www.jerrywwillis.com/ and http://pursuitofhappinessman.blogspot.com/ and
http://www.TheUniversalPurposeInLife.blogspot.com/

About the Summer Camp Proposal

Following is part of a May, 2007 teleconference about the Summer Camp portion of the new book 'Coaching the Rest of Us - Applying John Wooden's principles in your life' by Jerry W. Willis

PROJECT NAME: Education for ‘Teams’ of Families? Principles of Success?

PROJECT TYPE: Education

SUMMARY: Fund a program to teach the principles that John Wooden used to build excellent and successful basketball teams to build excellent and successful families! See www.jerrywwillis.com.

My new book has a working title of ‘Coaching the Rest of Us – Applying John Wooden’s principles in Your Life’.

Here is how the program will work.

The key Principle and Concept is a new understanding of ‘success’:
“...we are all given a certain potential unique to each one of us. Our first responsibility is to make the utmost effort to bring forth that potential in service to our team. For me, that is success." - John Wooden

It’s a camp. It’s a camp teaching the principles of Success. It’s Summer Camp and Coaching program teaching students to bring forth their best in service to their Team. We use John Wooden’s principles. He is the best coach of all times.

Here is an extract of key parts of a recent teleconference about the program:

JERRY W. Willis: Then one day as I was in the book store, following Barbara Sher’s advice, to look at the covers of the books and find those that caught my attention, I saw the book called, The Essential Wooden, A Lifetime of Lessons and Leaders, and it caught my eye, so I picked it up. I know about John Wooden, he has this fantastic coaching record at UCLA, so that was kind of interesting to me. I read in the front of the jacket cover, and Coach Wooden said,

“There is nothing fancy in what I teach about team building. Nothing that requires a special gift, privilege or access to power. Rather, it requires dedication to certain principles and concepts which I include in this book.”

That short little note made me curious and that’s what Barbara was telling us. We need a short little summary statement about what we’re talking about that catches people’s attention.
So I went to the back of the book and I want to read this to you so we all understand the credibility that this man deserves.

“John Wooden and his historic UCLA dynasty won ten NCA March Madness championships in twelve years including 88 straight games. He was named coach of the century by ESPN and hailed as a Leadership Genius by corporate America.”

Knowing what I do about college basketball and that’s not too much, I knew that was quite impressive but later as I looked in the earlier parts of the book, I found an even more impressive thing; Wooden coached basketball for over 40 years and during that time he only had one losing season. And that was the first year he coached!!

That still sends chills up my back! That is absolutely amazing. It says without question, without question, that this man has principles and concepts and understanding and leadership that speaks to these young men, these young college athletes and helps them bring out their absolute best and make very successful teams!

As I read the book I thought, “This is it!! These are not just principles for young male athletes, these are principles for life! These are principles for everyone!” And then I thought of the title that may well be the title of this book, why didn’t he coach the rest of us? Coaching the Rest of us is what we need here.

I changed my statement slightly to include what John Wooden would say because here was his first and foremost concept/principle:

First you must understand the definition of success. Success is not determined by fame or fortune or being number one. You must understand that we are all given a certain potential unique to each one of us and our “…first responsibility is to make the utmost effort to bring forth that potential in service to our team. For me, that is success.” – John Wooden

As I read that, I thought, “You know that’s almost exactly like my idea! A certain unique potential is the same thing as your unique characteristics, your strongest Attributes. And to use them in service to your Team, well that is even stronger than doing it for your own happiness and the happiness of your loved ones. For those of us that are not great young male college athletes, service to your Team is service to your family and to your loved ones!! That is the same thing as my message!! That is our Purpose in Life under John Wooden’s principles!!

By using this, Wooden taught his teams how to win but he taught them that by teaching them to believe in a higher standard than victory. He never mentioned winning to them, he just taught them the fundamentals it would take to be winners and successful in their lives.

So there is where I became so convinced that this is what I want to do. When people challenged me, “How are you going to teach this?” I concluded that the way to do it is we’re going have to hold a summer camp. We’re going to have to provide a voluntary program that the kid will love just as I loved summer camps when I was a kid and many people did. We went to the Falls Creek Baptist Assembly and I liked it. One guy I talked with went to a summer school and his daughter went to a summer school and they loved it.

Then I realized, we have school buildings all over this country sitting idle for three months of the year!! It’s amazing. The way that came about was because in the olden days the kids had to go home and help their parents harvest the crops and it was miserably hot and they had no air conditioning.

So the reasons for that absence from school during the summer have just vanished over time.

And another thought was that we could be using those facilities so much better now, what about the teachers? You know, nationwide our teachers are underpaid and underappreciated. The “No Child Left Behind” act has been misinterpreted. They are saying when a child is not ready to learn that it is the teacher’s fault. And the teachers aren’t getting paid enough so we’re not attracting and giving them all of best quality teachers that are possible. Many of the best quality teachers can barely make a good living at it. So here’s another opportunity, we can pay our teachers so much more by employing them more of the year!

But how could we do that? You couldn’t go through and immediately raise everybody’s taxes so initially at least it’s going to have to be privately funded.

So here is a summary of the idea of the summer camp that will be in my book. I’ll just go through it briefly and then ask for your feedback.

It is going to be a thirty day program.

It’s an all volunteer program.

There will be a one night orientation where they prepare the young adults for the upcoming camp. The leaders will explain to all of the program volunteers that there will be absolutely no drugs, no alcohol, no fighting, no cigarettes, no music. There will be no rebellion, there’s going to be big men to take you down if you want to cause problems. Then they tell them what they need to bring and when they are to show up.

The video I have of that course is called the “Youth At Risk Program”. It was a spinoff of Landmark Education’s Program called “The Forum.” It was spun off to a non-profit corporation because of the very severe problems of San Francisco at that time, 20 or more years ago. I investigated that program and got a tape. It shows two different five day courses where the Breakthrough Foundation presented one course in Cincinnati, Ohio and one course in London and in both cases they took 30 some kids. (See Y.O.U. - Youth Opportunities Unlimited in Cincinnati)

The one in Cincinnati in 1994? had 38 kids and they had 100 volunteers from the community that went with them. They spent five days. They had four or five professionals from the Breakthrough Foundation and the method of the training which I would say would be our first five day basic training is that they first start them off with exercise. They take them out and they run and they challenge them to perform strongly so they wear them out so that they are able to sit still and listen.

They have 10 to 12 hours a day of training, just class work, explanations, so that the kids get to understand what this is all about, get the proper perspective on life. And then they start running through a series of questions to get the kids to think and to open up about the problems in their lives.

And what they find is that as one person reveals what their problems in their life are, one guy, his mom is a drug addict, and there were times she does this or that. One of them drinks all the time, so he just drinks with his mom. One of them, his Dad died of cancer and it destroyed him. He doesn’t know how to handle it. He’s the man of the house and he’s not ready for that responsibility.

But as these guys talk this, all the rest of the kids are hearing it. It’s therapeutic for everybody in the whole place. Every day they are still going through their exercise program and little practice drills and so forth, where they get to trust each other as friends.

By the fourth day, these kids are really getting on top of it. They are beginning to recognize what their problems are, make commitments to change in their lives and what they want to do and what they want out of their lives.

When they brought them back on the fifth day, they had an auditorium meeting again and they had all of the parents and all of the volunteers. The cheering crowds were there as they came into town just as when they were when they left and when they arrived at the camp.

So these kids are now a part of a team. They had an assembly when they returned to town and any of the kids that wanted to tell the group what they discovered at this camp got up and it’s very moving. It’s very touching whenever they give their discovery; when they say

“Now I understand Mom, I’m sorry that I have done all those things to you. Mom, I love you.”

So I loved that program. When I first found it I went to the Kaufman Foundation here in Kansas City and I tried to get them to sponsor one for here in Kansas City and they required that I develop a non-profit corporation and all of that stuff and I just wasn’t in the state at that time to be able to do it so I let it drop.

Now, when I see this program again, I get all excited about it. Good!! I get to carry that forward this time!

We’re going to make that the first week – the basic training. When they come back after the five days, then there will be two days off, and they will get to volunteer again whether or not they want to continue with the rest of the course. It will be for 23 more days. One of the days will basically be a half a day start up with, a half a day when the program is over probably. A little confusing there.

There are certain things that we’re going to do for every child or every attendee. If they already have all of this and understand then we will verify.

They’re all going to have an email address and be taught how to make another email address.
We’re going to make sure they all understand:

How to use the computer and the internet.

How to use Word programs and put in a table of contents and headings in it.

How to send emails.

They’re going to be set up with the right kind of directories on their computer and they’re going to have their files filed appropriately.

We’re going to start out by sending each one of them an email that contains the instructions for every thing they are to be able to do.

In addition, we’ll provide them a print out of how to do it and we will walk them through the print out and they can make notes on it as we set them up here.

So this is the basic thing they have to be able to do to get through this training.

Every day of the 23 days there will be early exercises.

This will be just like training for a job. This is their job.

There will be daily classes going over the principles and concepts such as the definition of success according to John Wooden and how it applies to them; understanding the meaning of their potential; how to find out what their potential is, what to do with it.

And then there will be the development of what we call plays. It will be like John Wooden’s basketball plays. But it will be acting out of the situations in which these kids find themselves. The problems that they have in their lives and how they are to handle them, how they are to think and act and exactly what they are to say based upon the principles of John Wooden.

And those plays will continue to be developed. If a participant says yes, but if I say that, Dad’s going to knock me down or whatever, then that’s another play! We will develop a new play about how to handle that situation. Each of the plays will be named and these plays will be practiced over and over and over during the whole period so that the kids become automatic and very self-confident in the way they handle them.

John Wooden said

“You’ve all heard about the four laws of learning. They’ve been around for a long time: explanation, demonstration, imitation and repetition. But I like to tell people that there are actually eight laws of learning: explanation, demonstration, imitation and repetition, repetition, repetition, repetition, and repetition”.

That is the concept that we will use in this training program. We are going to repeat these, we are going to repeat them with exhilaration until these kids, just like John Wooden’s basketball teams, respond automatically and correctly with confidence and pride!

Now, there are some more things we are going to do.

We are going to take these kids to the public library, the major public library in town, and then another library. At both libraries we want to make sure that they sit down, that they use a pc that is provided there, that they find a book in the library, that they sign onto the internet from the library, that they do a research paper right there on the internet that they send to themselves and the Program Director in an email. They will copy their Senators and Representatives and Governors and parents and anyone that they know their email addresses!

Their research paper must include some of their thoughts about the information they have copied and it must have a proper URL so that they or anyone else can go to that same place.

We’re going to teach them that researching on the internet is how they find their Potential in life, those things that they are interested in. This is just the overview of it.

It’s going to be 23 days of intensive drills. I expect them to be having to start by about six or seven in the morning and not get through until 10 o’clock at night. They will need to publish a new research paper every day and keep a copy of it in their Potentials Word document. At the end of the summer camp program there will be at least monthly, maybe DAILY LIKE THE BASKETBALL DRILLS MAYBE EVERY OTHER DAY, every week or two, a follow-up meeting with the whole team will get back together and they will share the problems they’ve experienced, what they’ve found.

They will share the successes they had in bringing forth their ‘Potential’ in service to their families and loved ones. They will develop new plays by themselves and with their counselors based on John Wooden’s principles just as the leaders of their team did earlier.

We will carry that on for the whole season. Their season will be that year when they volunteer.

That’s the summary of the idea about how the summer camp program would work and I apologize for it being so long and I will entertain any questions, suggestions, ideas, or reactions.

Patrice: I have a couple of questions. Maybe you said it and I missed it but what’s the age group that you are targeting?

Jerry: I think this has to be in the high school group. Probably from sophomore to senior. However, I noticed that the program in Cincinnati is going from age 8 to age 16. This is a little uncertain yet. If you start out with a prototype session, you generally have to pick one age group. If you can get funding for it, if it works, then you probably have multiple sessions going at the same time because we have plenty of school facilities around.

Patrice: And it’s not residential right, it’s just a day camp?

Jerry: During the first week is actually offsite. ( I would love to make it 30 days offsite if we can get the funding!!) The rest of the time it’s a day camp. But like I said, it will be from early in the morning until late at night because of the research and documentation assignments.

Patrice: So the day camp actually still runs like the morning until 10 at night?

Jerry: Yes.

Patrice: Do you want to hear a parent’s reaction?

Jerry: Certainly.

Patrice: I don’t want to have to have them there at 6 in the morning and not pick them up 10 at night. You might want to think about that.

Jerry: Good point. You know what we could do there, all right, that’s a good point, so the program will have to deliver and pick them up. We can provide, I think we can get our funding to also provide, transportation. It would be wonderful if we could provide housing and food and clothing and everything for the entire summer camp. But we wouldn’t want to take young kids away from their families too long. Those details will have to be worked out. Maybe we could have visitation or a weekend pass or something like that.

Patrice: Maybe. That would be good.

X: The five day basic training, that’s the one where it would be introducing them to the idea and then they can volunteer whether to come back or not to come back for the rest of the month?

Jerry: That’s my idea at this point.

X: And one other question. The exercise part of it. You’d have to take in account, of course, kids that have been, not used to exercising that much and maybe have to have different levels of ability to take into account – just a thought there.

X: Yes we would have to accommodate people with physical disabilities.

Patty: How would you determine if it was successful?

Jerry: Good question, Patty. Let me think just one second here. In the Breakthrough Foundation Program I saw success. What I saw was that these kids when they left were bitter, fighting, completely out of control. And when they came back, they stood in front of a group of 200 plus people with a microphone in their hand and said,

“I understand now and I am committing my life to this and this is what I am going to do with my future.”

That’s success right there. But I think success would have to be from the basic training program, success would be your sign up rates for the rest of the program.

Success for the rest of the program would be how they react to the follow-up meetings, what they bring in.
If they just drop out and never show up, that wouldn’t be successful. If they come back and if they assist their teammates to work out new plays and to practice their old plays and the new plays about how to handle bad situations in their lives, if they report successes and what they have accomplished for their families, that’s where we would have real success. In between that, I don’t know.

X: Would you check how they did during the rest of the year?

Jerry: Give me an example of what you mean?

X: Well, you’ve got them for a few weeks in the summer, but would you follow-up with those kids, see what a difference it made in their lives.

Jerry: Yes. We will have follow-up meetings for the whole season. But I think it would be at least through the next school year. From this summer through the next school year is your ‘season’. This is your team, the 38 people that volunteered for this particular camp program.

X: On the orientation of the teachers, did I hear you say that just one night because I think it might be longer than that you need.

Jerry: No, That is orientation of the children; the young people that are going to the program.

X: I’m sorry, I thought you said the teachers.

Jerry: Now the teachers, you are absolutely right. We are going to have to have training for them. Initially it will be provided by the Breakthrough Foundation. They are a professional group that does this all the time. They would come in and train the teachers but in the course I saw, there was virtually nothing that the volunteers did besides be there, to be the cheering group, to be there and support them, mentally and in any way needed.

When the course was over, I thought it was fantastic, the last day of the five days just before they got back on the bus to take them back home, they had the young people turn around and face all the volunteers that were in a circle around them and just walk up and look at each one of them in the eye. The circle of participants just rotated inside the big circle of volunteers and they were to just look them in the face and I guess the idea was to say thank you, although they didn’t even tell them to do that.

It was amazing. The kids were crying, they were hugging the volunteers, they were so thankful. You would never believe it was the same group of kids who started five days earlier. I’m not sure how much training they need but there definitely has to be training. On the website in Cincinnati for that program, it says, training will be provided. They want volunteers. They want 100 volunteers at all times.

X: Would you be using their program or are you using John Wooden’s program? I’m confused.

Jerry: The idea here is that we would be using their program as the basic training, especially for the youth at risk. But the rest of the program would be based completely on John Wooden’s principles.

X: So the first week is theirs and then the rest is yours.

Jerry: Yes

X: Do you think you’ll write your book and give it to the volunteers? Do you think you will have your book written in time to give it to all the volunteers?

Jerry: Certainly! My book will be done!!

Patrice: When you talk about the role playing and keep going in deeper and deeper into their life situations, who do you see facilitating that? Do you feel like you need someone, because as you were saying, these young people from dysfunctional families and probably some pretty heavy emotional issues, the need to have some professional?

X: A school psychologist kind of person or something?

Patrice: Yeah, and there’s a whole program called psycho-drama which is using drama to work through psychological issues.

Jerry: Good point. At the Basic training we would have the Breakthrough Foundation trained staff and those that they train to assist them. I think who ever said this school psychologist is an excellent idea for the rest of the program.

The beauty of saying that we’re going to start out, at least, and we may have to continue with, private funding, is that you don’t have to worry about it as much that you would using public funding. If we can present this program to the right people, I’m telling you, if this book comes out and Oprah Winfrey believes in it she is going to give us 500 million dollars to make it happen for this country!!

X: You can’t have a better person behind you.

Jerry: That’s right. You know what, there is just so much money out there. Mrs. Walton just died, of Walmart fame. She had 16 billion dollars that she just turned over to the family trust to be used for education.
Mr. Buffet, Warren Buffet, the second richest man in the world is turning over, at a billion and a half a year, 35 billion dollars to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to be used for humanitarian purposes, for the good of mankind.

Bill and Melinda have another 35 billion dollars in their trust fund. There is so much money that’s just dying to find a place with a program that really works so that they can start to make a difference because they recognize that we have a lot of problems in our public education system and our youth.

X: You say the private funding frees you to pursue it the way you want to without the government’s regulations that are attached to public money.

Jerry: Right.

X: This John Wooden, is he still living?

Jerry: Yes he is. He is in his nineties and I suspect his health is not too good. He’s still around and he has a good little website out there. But I warn you as I told Eileen after she went out to look him up on his website, it’s good, there are some good quotes in there and stuff. But, you can’t get the real appreciation of John Wooden by that website. It’s not very good in that respect. When you look at the dustcover of the “Essential Wood, A Lifetime of Lessons on Leaders and Leadership,” you begin to get the feeling of it.

By the way, I’m going to have these books on my website real soon where you can order them from http://jerrywwillis.com . I will have all of the books out there that are referenced in my book.

There is another book called “Wooden, A Lifetime of Observations and Reflections On and Off the Court”. Inside that book is a section called Reflections on Coach Wooden and there are several guys that give testimonials. One is Bill Walsh, the former head football coach of the San Francisco 49ers. And the one that I think is most wonderful is Bill Walton, College Basketball Hall of Fame, NBA Hall of Fame, maybe the best pro basketball player there ever was. Bill Walton is just effusive in his praises of Coach Wooden and I see him in their little interviews together and that sort of thing.

When you read these testimonials you’ll realize that John Wooden made a tremendous impact on many, if not all, of the people he touched. I want to read this part to you.

“Now I’m 44 years old and I’m telling my four teenage sons what Coach Wooden used to tell his players. I’m even writing his maxims on their lunch boxes and then listening to them complain about it. Just like I used to complain. They’ll see, my kids will learn. Soon enough they’ll come to understand and appreciate the great wisdom of a very wise man, Coach John Wooden. I have nothing but the greatest love and respect for Coach. Thank you for your sacrifices, gifts and patience.” - Bill Walton.

That is the kind of testimonies that are given here. Kareem Abdul Jabar also gave his.

X: I wonder if John would want to contribute to your camp?

Jerry: Yes, that’s a good point.

X: Well the main thing is that he would give permission to use his name is a big deal. That’s worth money right there.

Jerry: I sent him an email through his website and I will be following up on that to try to get his permission.

X: It sounds like this is something that you really thought through a lot Jerry and are very passionate about. My only advice, not that you’re looking for advice, is to keep talking with people and young people, people who have children that age and that particular population. Because some of what you described, like what they will be doing, especially in terms of the computer and stuff, I’m thinking, and having three teenagers, that they know all that stuff but you’re not talking really about my kids.

Jerry: I am probably not talking about your kids. But that’s wonderful. If they already know all of that but do they know how to get it for free in the public libraries? Do they know how to get all of this stuff without having a penny?

X: My experience has been, with them, yes. But maybe not in inner city schools or things like that.

Jerry: Right. Good point though, excellent. I have a meeting coming up this Sunday with a neighbor of mine whose son inherited, at a young age, $50,000. He got into drugs and was eventually killed shortly thereafter. The man is a really sharp guy and when I mentioned my book to him, he said, Man, we need something for these schools, for these kids. I’m thrilled to get to go down there and talk with him. He’s the kind of guy I want to get his feedback.

Patty: Do you think that there are things that you could do to test out portions of this program or do you think like, do a program in a school during the school year? Or will you just look for funding and go for a big part in a big way, right away?

Jerry: Well, the first thing I’m doing is I’ve got a call in also to the Cincinnati Youth At Risk Program. They called theirs: Y.O.U., Youth Opportunities Unlimited and it’s been going on maybe since they did their first Youth At Risk Program. I’ve got a call in to their executive director. I’m going to be continuing to pursue them and I’m going to see if maybe they won’t try an introductory program for the basic training part. And the reason is, because they already have everything put together. They’ve got the facilities, they’ve got the people, they’ve got everything going so they, all they would have to do is, adjust the criteria and try Coach Wooden’s principles here and see how it came out. See how it compares. So that’s the first thing that I’m trying to do.

Eileen: Jerry I’m going to communicate with you on the email, I’m going to drop out now for a bit. I’ll talk to you in the email. Bye everybody.

Jerry: Anybody else too, I will let any of you go, anybody that has any ideas, I would love to hear them.

X: What sort of ideas do you feel you need?

Jerry: Just in general, give me a score of 1 – 10, how good of an idea is it?

X: You mean as far as the camp goes?
Jerry: Yes.

X: Well, I think you have a good model for your basic training, I mean that sounds like it’s a program that’s already been tested out and has parameters and all that stuff and then what you’re adding on to that.

I guess I believe in the foundation of it, the principles that you’re trying to teach. I have questions about the time commitment, the length of it, and all that sort of thing. If you’ll be able to get that kind of response from young people but definitely, you know, it sounds like the principles that you’re trying to get across are very worthwhile.

Jerry: Okay, give me a score.

X: What’s the modifications? Because, you know, I’ve been thinking about that transportation thing even more. The population that you’re reach absolutely will not transport their kids at those hours. If there’s not public transportation, they probably won’t transport them at all. But if there’s public transportation, then that’s another thing and that’s what you probably need.

Jerry: We might even be able to get the use of the school buses.

X: I think you’ll, I agree with Patrice, that you’ll probably need to change the hours in order to deal with the parents but I also think you’ve got to think about your municipal employees’ unions. You can’t just go in and open the schools yourself. You are going to need to have school employees there and you’re going to have unions to deal with and I expect they’re also going to keep your hours shorter.

Jerry: That’s a Good Point. Thank you.

X: It seems very ambitious and that’s a great thing and a frightening thing. So I think that your preparation of a description of it is really good because you’re going to need to recruit a lot of people to help you launch this.

X: And something comes to my mind. I think Patty asked if you were going to start small or just jump right in. Even through like the guidance offices and stuff, particularly in the middle schools, they run all kinds of groups for the children throughout the school year even. Like the ones in our school here called, Banana Splits, for children whose parents are divorced and just different things like that. So even trying out one based on John’s principles might be a way to test the waters and see the amount of interest is and the difference that it makes in the young people.

Jerry: You know I am starting at the high end of this thing and there’s no reason why you couldn’t start a program after school or weekends or whatever and start teaching these principles.

Although, it just kind of seemed to me that one of the reasons I chose 23 days, I think maybe I didn’t say that to you, is that because I understand that to adopt a habit is 22 days long. If you do something 22 days in a row, you’ve made a habit out it and 23 days will give us just enough time to make it a habit.

Every decision that you make, that every situation that you encounter, you mentally go through the process of going back to this purpose,

“Is this in the best interest of my family? Is this in my best interest? Is this an honorable and the right thing to do?”

If you get these kids to always think in that way, if you could do that partly in other programs, but when you think in those terms, you come to the right answers most of the time.

X: I think it sounds ambitious. I think you elevator speech needs to be shorter or you need to have a shorter version of it in addition to that version because there are going to be times when you’re not going to get to say that much and you need to get it down to a sound bite.

Jerry: When you asked me before, I couldn’t even think.

X: That’s why you need to have one is because it’s so hard to condense it. You have so much to say about it and

X: Some people are only going to the third floor.

Jerry: Good point but I thought it was pretty short.

X: Maybe we couldn’t tell where it ended.

Jerry: Well now that may be true.
How can young adults create a purpose-driven life if they’re turned off by religion? That’s really not part of the elevator speech, it’s the introduction to it.
This book is for young adults and the adults who care about them how to apply the principles of the greatest coach ever, John Wooden, to achieve real and lasting success in every aspect of their lives.

X: But this sounds like a speech and we’re tuning out before you even get through that much. You’re on TV and somebody just stuffed a microphone in front of your face and you have to say something fast, I would start out with,
“A camp” Because then we know what it is.
“And it’s a camp for the purpose-driven, it’s a non-religious camp to learn how to live a purpose-driven life.”
Then if you get asked how do you teach that? You say,
“we use John Wooden’s principles. He is the best coach of all times.’
So that you’re able, because you know how short those sound bites are on TV, that’s what you want. You want that sound bite because it’s short enough that it sticks in people’s minds when they walk away and then they might actually come back another day and say, tell me more or you might hook them right away and they might say tell me more.

You might get a chance to say it on TV and you’re not going to get more than like five words. You can say more but they’ll look for five somewhere in the middle and cut them out and so if you pick the five it’s a lot better.

Jerry: Excellent, thank you again! You’re great at this!! You ought to do, go into the business of writing elevator speeches!

X: I’m getting out of that business.

Jerry: I worked on the non-religious thing quite a bit and I kept concluding that I better stay away from that, WAY away from it because it just turns off so many people immediately and it’s a large number of the people.

X: You might also, I don’t know if he’s trade-marked that or anything like that. You might want to do some sort of legal check on that one. There’s a trademark site that the government runs where you can look up trademarks.

Jerry: I have a meeting with an attorney in just a couple more days. Part of a group legal plan I have and I’m going to go over and ask him about it. Now which part do you think is, that I need to check?

X: The purpose-driven life, if he’s trademarked the purpose-driven life.

Jerry: Oh yes, I’m sure he has but I will check.

X: You want to avoid it and I think you can turn that into Living on Purpose or Living With Purpose and people will make the connection.

Jerry: Yes, sure. Thank you!

X: And the more you can make it your phrase so that when anybody says it, everyone knows exactly what it means and whose program they’re talking about. You might do better with marketing it.

Jerry: Right, okay. Excellent ideas. Thank you. What else about trademarks and stuff, do you know anything about that. Like when I mention Bill Walton and try to quote him or any of these other famous people that I’m quoting?

X: You can do short quotes of them but when you start tweaking their intellectual property and calling it your own, you get in trouble. But that’s copyright. Trademark is an actual, registered set of words or single word or an image that used to indicate a company in interstate commerce. Now if you come up with a trademark of your own, you can put the TM on it temporarily but then you have to apply. It’s not an actual trademark until you get that R in the circle from the Office of Patents and Trademarks. And you can only apply for a trademark once you’ve begun doing business across state lines.

Jerry: You know there is an interesting thing too. Because of this legal plan, I’m going to go ahead and take advantage of it, I’m going to set up a trust fund that will include this information. I’m going to do it in the state of Kansas because that just happens to be where I’ve got the attorney but I live in the state of Missouri and I just wondered about, once I do that, does that add any credibility to it in some way? Or take away from it in some way?

X: That’s kind of cool. I forgot that you can do business across state lines without leaving town.