Johnson City Sertoma Club PO Box 774 Johnson City, NY 13790
In the early 1940s, confusion emerged between the Co-Operative Club name and consumer cooperatives. A contest was announced with a $500 cash prize offered for a name which might be selected. A total of 49 names were submitted. The Board of Directors narrowed the list down to seven to present to the 1948 Albuquerque Convention: Ambassadors, Century, Cooperators, Monarch, Operative, Sertoma and Sponsors. Noble W. Hiatt, then President of the North Indianapolis, Indiana Club, coined the name SERTOMA from the slogan, SERvice TO MAnkind, and his idea was selected.
The first Sertoma Club chartered in Canada was at Windsor, Ontario in 1946. The organization at this time became truly International.
The need for an International sponsorship became apparent in 1949 - 1950, and the first sponsorship recommended to Clubs by the International Board of Directors was in 1949 by the Sertoma Club of Phoenix, Arizona, when the Club introduced the YES Program (Youth Employment Service). Sertoma International today holds the copyright to the name "YES", even though local, state and national government involvement in "employment services" has limited the need for Sertoma Club YES Programs.
The first Club chartered in Mexico was in Mexico City in 1956.
Dr. Charles Allen, Sertoma's last remaining founder, died during the spring of 1961, shortly after he had attended his Sertoma Club's luncheon meeting.
The original founder, Dr. George W. Smith, died in 1951, and Billy Rowe was listed as deceased sometime between 1951 and 1961.
The first International Convention outside the United States was the 1964 Convention, held in Mexico City, Mexico.
The first Sertoma Club established in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico was the San Juan Sertoma Club, chartered on August 14, 1965.
Plutarco Guzman became the first Sertoman who was not a United States citizen to be elected President of Sertoma International. The attorney from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Mexico, was elected at the 1972 International Convention in Dallas, Texas.
The most significant milestone of the 1970's was the introduction of Serteen and Collegiate Sertoma Clubs. The first Serteen Club, recognized in 1971, was the Page Equine Serteen Club of Greensboro, North Carolona. The first Collegiate Sertoma Club was the Collegiate Sertoma Club of the Kansas State Teachers College of Emporia, Kansas. More...
