Junior achievement: The fine art of the adviser;

              Junior Achievement:
Are you young, and energetic, and something of an extrovert? Do you enjoy working with other people learning what makes them tick?
Would you like to meet more of the businessmen and women in your community who really count? And would you like the chance, away from the office, to practice some of the arts of adviser and manager?
If your answer is "Yes" to the first two questions, there's hardly a better way to answer the second two than to become a volunteer adviser in Junior Achievement Staff members in Haskins & Sells offices from coast to coast have been taking part in JA activity for some years now, and the word seems to be that for the right kind of person it has been highly rewarding.
"A feeling of personal satisfaction is the greatest benefit I have received from Junior Achievement work;' according to Steve Urry, Orange County principal, who has served for several years as a JA adviser, as well as a coordinator of advisers i n the Los Angeles area.
Those who know Junior Achievement need no introduction to it. But for those who have not taken part, a quick overview of JA organization may be useful:
Junior Achievement Inc. is a teen-age business education organization in which high school students organize into groups to operate businesses from capitalization to liquidation. The life of each of these miniature companies is limited to an eight-month period, corresponding to the normal school year. Almost all Achievers, as the
members of J A companies are termed, are high school sophomores, juniors or seniors. The companies make a product or provide a service, sell it, and end up the year with a profit or a loss.
The companies are formed at the start of the school year in September Achievers are recruited to a great extent through announcements in the schools, where Achievers from previous years help stir up interest and answer queries about the program. There is also publicity through business organ izations whose executives are active in sponsoring JA in their city, from the JA center in those cities that have a headquarters building, and through cooperating newspapers and radio stations.
As the JA headquarters in New York City frankly states: "The key to the success of JA companies (7,200 this past year) are advisers from business and the professions—people who volunteer one evening each week guiding Achievers in their particular area of experience. In the 1972-73 school year, 23,600 volunteer advisers worked with Achievers, spending about two hours weekly in on-the-spot counseling, and an estimated three hours a week for travel time and preparation. Usually, three advisers work with one company of 20 to 25 Achievers, This permits the advisers to rotate their weekly evenings with the youngsters, if they wish. As people in H&S know, such flexibility in advisers' dates is especially important for public accountants during the January-April busy season.
Behind the adult advisers stands a strong national and regional JA
organization. After a slow start in the pre-World War II days, JA has grown rapidly in the past few years. Recently an increasing number of large national organizations like H&S have taken an interest in JA and helped get action going in new places. From about a dozen cities where there was JA activity in 1946, there are now 1,000 communities in the United States with active JA programs Nearly three-fourths of them have JA business centers, or activity buildings, with meeting rooms, shops, tools, storage space and other facilities. More than 170,000 Achievers were enrolled in the past school year. Recently JA has spread outside this country to a dozen cities in Canada, Latin America, Western Europe and even to Hong Kong.
Corporate sponsorship has been most important to Junior Achievement, and H&S sponsors the programs in a number of cities. The professional staff of JA is headed by President Richard Maxwell and Executive Vice President Joseph J. Francomano, operating from the national headquarters in New York City. Policy guidance and financial support come from a national board of directors, which during the past year was chaired by W M. Elmer, chairman and chief executive officer of the Texas Gas Transmission Corporation. Officers of H&S client companies who have served on the JA board recently include H.Harold Bible of Monsanto Company, Henry Z. Carter of Avondale Shipyards in New Orleans, and Donald E. Garretson of 3M Company. Other client officials who have taken an active part in
The Fine Art of the
Adviser