January 1972

The meeting was opened with prayer.

I want to express appreciation to each of you for agreeing to serve as Trustees of Christian Research Education Action Technical Enterprises, Inc. hereinafter called CREATE, Inc.  Keirsey and I both appreciate your willingness to serve.

It is our desire to serve God and our fellowman not only with our time and our talent, but also with the material possessions that we own in the Journal Publishing Company.  These include the Daily Journal, Community Enterprises, Inc. and Community Warehouse Corporation. 

It is our desire to see the Daily Journal continue without interruption after we are gone.  We believe this newspaper should always put the service of God and man as its first objective and that the profit making role should be secondary to the development of a Christian Community.  After Keirsey and I are gone we want you five men and your successors to see to it that these properties are used as Christ would have them used as instruments of service and development.  This means that you will have to be very careful to develop competent, dedicated employees and officers of the Journal.  Such officers and employees must be committed to the service of God and man and must never be permitted to put their own selfish interests ahead of the good of the people of this area.

This trusteeship also requires that the Journal continue to be strong enough to with stand pressure and profitable enough to be able to devote considerable sums to the overall development of the best interest of all the people where the Journal is read.  At the same time this means that the Trustees must see to it that the employees of the Company are given good salaries, adequate fringe benefits, and liberal pensions for those who have devoted major portions of their lives to this institution of service.  I do not want the Journal to be sold…If it must be sold it is my very strong request that it not be sold to any local group.  That temptation must never be put before Trustees or employees.  It is also my stated wish that if the Journal is sold for any reason that all major officers be terminated and by contract the new owners be barred from using those whose mismanagement or failure contributed to the forced sale.

I suggest that we have staggered terms for the Trustees with the exception of the donors.  I suggest that you permit Trustees to succeed themselves.  But I specifically ask that you not reappoint any Trustee whose age and infirmity prevents him or her rendering the best possible service or whose reappointment would stand in the way of electing a new member who could strengthen the Trustees in the years ahead.  In this connection you may want to use some older Trustees as advisory Trustees whose presence and counsel would be valuable but who can best contribute by letting more active men move into the active voting role.

This Trusteeship must remain innovative and enterprising.  If it stagnates or lacks vision, competence, or dedication it will not endure.

I do not need to remind you that this is an experiment as was the Community Development Foundation.  This is an attempt to let the principles of Christ, the intention of Christ, find expression in locally controlled tax-paying enterprises.

These properties are not non-profit charitable agencies.  They are businesses.  But we believe that whatever the Daily Journal and its related properties can do to stimulate and develop the people of our area, in every aspect of their lives, will mean a better life for all and more profit for these enterprises and for all other enterprises in our area.

The work of CREATE, Inc. must not be confined to economic matters, for “man does not live by bread alone.”  But it is also eternally true that “man does not live without bread” and we must help all people achieve a decent standard of living.  We cannot build a better world on a foundation of poverty, ignorance, poor health and spiritual indifference.

We hope that many innovative and constructive endeavors will be sponsored and supported in all aspects of life.

The major emphasis must be on the development of people, not on constructing buildings or other material things.  CREATE, Inc. is not a Community Chest.  Its funds and efforts are not to be dissipated in unplanned, disconnected charities.

We would like to suggest three or four areas in which we feel a special concern:

1. The development of the very young.  We believe the first 5 years are vital in physical, psychological and social growth.
2. The training of people of all ages in vocational and technical skills.
3. The conscious, planned development of competent, unselfish leaders.  This means community leaders, business leaders, government leaders, spiritual leaders, etc.
4. Seek to use the money available in CREATE, Inc. to stimulate gifts from local citizens, foundations and governmental grants to really move into a practical effective leadership development program.

George McLean