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Great first planning meeting for the business lecture tonight led my Michael Best, JCI Leeds Secretary. 

Lots of ideas (which are top secret fror now!) but it promises to be a great event!

Also good to see two very new members wanting to get involved which is fantastic. 

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Myself and some of my fellow directors attended the Past Presidents’ Dinner last night at Moortown Golf Club.

We’re very lucky in Leeds as we are probably the only chamber in the UK where the current President gets to meet the Past Presidents to update them about the running of organisation.

Yesterday was a unique dinner as it open to my whole council team and we had a great turnout.

It was a fun night but very educational too as we heard some great stories about the history of JCI Leeds.

A good time was had by all!

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Hi all

Just finished my speech for the Past Presidents’ Dinner tomorrow.

JCI Leeds has a great tradition where every year, once a quarter, the president of JCI Leeds is invited to a dinner to speak to the Past Presidents of JCI Leeds about what is happening with the organisation.

It’s a great means to maintain a relationship and contact with presidents past and allows you to really appreciate the history behind JCI Leeds. The past presidents are very supportive and I’m looking forward to it!

This particular dinner is quite special because, for the first time, the dinner has been opened up so that my respective directors can also attend.

Wish me luck!

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With a bang actually! I was fortunate enough to be a top a table guest of Richard Kerr, outgoing JCI Glasgow Chair, at JCI Glasgow’s 74th Colquhoun Dinner.

JCI Glasgow is a twin of JCI Leeds (with JCI St. Louis, JCI Dortmund and JCI Dublin being the others).

It was an amazing night held at the magnificent Trades Hall. I met some great and very high profile people from Glasgow and the food and drink flowed. The Scots certainly know how to through a party! I was given the honour of giving the Loyal Toast (a JCI Tradition where you toast the Queen).

The next day I was treated to a traditional Scottish fry up for breakfast, followed by a tour of the Auchentoshan Whiskey Distillery which was then followed by a very large lunch at Cottiers. The Scottish hospitality is unmatched and it was a very memorable weekend.

Thanks again to Richard and his girlfriend Jacqui for taking care of me over the weekend.

Having visited Edinburgh last months, Glasgow this month and Aberdeen to follow at the Scottish National Conference in April, Scotland is my second home! : )

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Well, well, well what a start to the year!

I’m already exhausted but having fun!

Things kicked off on 3 January 2011 with a further planning meeting (I know, we met on the Bank Holiday!). Very positive meeting with great energy and enthusiasm for the year ahead. 

Being President of JCI Leeds did not really hit home until my first council meeting on 11 January 2011. Working through the agenda, approving the last set of minutes, running through the actions, getting the updates from my team...thought it went well for a first go!

On 15 January 2011, my team took part in JCI Discover at the Mint Hotel who very kindly provided us with a room. JCI Discover is a JCI course designed to give members new and old a good grounding in what JCI is. It was a great teambuilding exercise which ended up with a quiet drink at the Granary Lounge bar after. 

Friday 21 January 2011 was JCI Barnsley’s Annual Dinner. I was a top table guest of outgoing President Gemma Fletcher and being my first official engagement, I got to wear the presidential chain! Needless to say, many drinks ensued and a fun night was had by all. I later retired to my executive suite (which was amazing and only £25 for the night with a huge Yorkshire sized fry up the next morning!).

The breakfast certainly helped wake me up and boy did I need it for the mammoth journey to Edinburgh for the Burns Supper that evening.  Cab to the station, then train, then (delayed) coach and then finally the train to Edinburgh. My travel companion (JCI Aberdeen President Steve Wilson) and I were very fashionably late but I got to wear my chain again, eat some Haggis and enjoy a Ceilidh dance. Needless to say, the night carried on into the early hours. The Scots, very much like the good folk of Barnsley, know how to throw a party!

The biggie this month was our Launch Event on 27 January 2011 at the Mint Hotel in the Granary Lounge. Thanks again to Mint Hotel for their support. We had just under 50 people attend. There were lots of new faces all interested in learning about JCI Leeds and we must have impressed as we had nine people join up the night! Again, there was great buzz and energy in the room and people had a great time! I was very pleased with the event and all the hard work that my team had put in in preparation and on the night itself.

The night also saw the debut of our revamped quarterly newsletter. This first edition was kindly sponsored by printers Kall Kwik Leeds Pavilion so thank you. Members should now also have received their copy.

Friday 28 January 2011 was the JCI London Annual Dinner at the House of Lords! Very swish indeed! Yorkshire were well represented and another fun night was had by all. Although we had to drag ourselves out of bed the next day, we got to Reading to enjoy Inspiration Day (JCI UK’s first national event of the year). Inspirational speakers, a treasure hunt (with my team being one of three teams tied for first place but losing out in the tie break) plus a few words from me were then capped off with a nice meal and some 80s music in the evening. An Inspirational weekend!

Anil Champaneri
President
JCI Leeds

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