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Another exciting month in world of JCI Leeds!

Great Bar of the Month at Mojo at the start of May! I remember when I used to live in Manchester and attending the Mojo there. Great music, beers, great nights! Attending Mojo in Leeds was a chance to relive that spend some time catching up with friends .

We had a very well attended training session on Emotional Intelligence presented by local businessman Richard Norman (of Brand Yorkshire, Recruitment 200 and The Commerce Intelligence Group to name but a few) who has been very supportive of JCI Leeds.

We also had our first business tour which was of Drax Power Station. Nearly 20 people attended what was an insightful and educational tour of the biggest coal-fired power plant in the UK and which currently provides 7% of the UK’s electricity (see! I was listening!)

There was June’s Bar of the Month at Wardrobe which was another social highlight but I had to miss it sadly...because I was at the JCI European Conference!

This was my first European Conference and it did not disappoint! 1,700 attendees flocked to Tarragona in Catalonia to hear speakers, take part in training, sight see and, most importantly, PARTY!

Considering yours truly had put himself forward as the person to help lead the UK delegates to the after parties I obviously had to partake in the various social events that happened (would be rude not too!).

The Belgians and Germans knew how to throw a party and a particular highlight was the UK being clapped in by the Germans when we arrived doing a conga!

The highlight of the trip has to be that JCI Leeds won two European Awards! Immediate Past President of JCI Leeds Claire Dempster won best local president of a medium sized chamber in Europe and our Nothing But Nets Calendar won a UN Millennium Goals award! Well, we certainly celebrated! Not only that but JCI Scotland also won two awards making it a great night for all! : ) Now for World Congress in Brussels! : )

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It’s been another busy month for JCI Leeds!

We had a great Bar of the month at Distrikt where we had huge turnout of members and non-members.

I then attended JCI Cambridge’s Business Skills Day which was followed by President’s and Deputies Day. At the National Council Meeting, JCI Yorkshire’s bid to host the JCI National Conference was approved and Solveig Mlvik was also voted in as Deputy National President of JCI UK.

The following weekend the JCI Scotland National Conference in Aberdeen. Fantastic event with a great turnout from the Yorkshire regions. As always, the Scottish hospitality was amazing.

The training session for the month was Extempore (off the cuff public speaking) where Emma Eastwood (Past of JCI Leeds) delivered the training. A great deal of fun was had by all!

24 April was Global Malaria Day and you should have received our save the date email for our “Fashion Bites Back” Charity Fashion Show which aims to raise funds for Nothing But Nets. 

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It’s been another busy month for JCI Leeds this month.

So what’s been happening?

First, there was Bar of the Month at BRB. Great turnout with a private room. The cocktails and the pizza were flowing!

Next there was JCI Presenter at The Mint Hotel. For those who do not know, Presenter is a course to help develop your public speaking skills and we had 10 JCI members taking including Sheffield’s Deputy President and a new member of JCI London. A great day was had by all with everyone delivering a great presentation at the end. Thanks again to Emma Eastwood and Adam Woodhall for their excellent training.

We then had our second training event of the year which was Top of The Tree Leadership Training delivered by David Marsh of The Blue Water Partnership. Wrigleys Solicitors very kindly providing the venue for the event. Insightful session which generated a lot of discussion.

I attend Regional Forum in Bradford which is the gathering of the local presidents from Yorkshire to discuss their chambers, events and regional events. A large part of the evening was spent working on JCI Yorkshire’s bid for JCI UK National Convention which will be submitted this weekend. If any JCI Leeds members are interested in being on the committee, please do get in touch.

The JCI UK Marketing Academy is taking place this weekend. Sadly, I could not attend but JCI Leeds are being very well presented by member Hazel Kajese. I will be attending JCI Barnsley President Vicky Savage’s birthday celebrations this evening though.

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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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2010 was a great and successful year for JCI Leeds under the leadership of outgoing President Claire Dempster.  I personally had a fantastic time attending the European Academy in Sweden, organising the Annual Business Lecture, posing naked for a calendar, travelling to Japan for the World Congress and attending the UK National Conference in London (where I captained the winning team at the National Debating competition!) to name but a few things!

I'm very much looking forward to my year as president of JCI Leeds this year but was does 2011 bring?  First and foremost will be our launch event which will be held at the Mint Hotel (formally City Inn) on Thursday 27th January 2011.  This will be a fantastic opportunity for members and non-members to learn a little about JCI Leeds, meet the council team, find out about upcoming JCI Leeds events and share a drink.  Everyone is welcome.

Our business events are being revamped to make them different and a little bit unique. More details to follow!  We’re also going to be a bit more social this year so on top of our usual bars of the months, we’ll be looking to organise bigger group events.  I am also introducing a chance for businesses and individuals to become patrons of JCI Leeds.  This will give current members the opportunity to represent JCI Leeds at international events.

There is also another large scale Nothing But Nets project in the pipeline which will be taking the work done for our calendar to another level.  I’m also hoping to take large contingent from Leeds to both the JCI European Conference in Tarragona, Cataluña (cocktails on the beach!) and the JCI World Congress in Brussels, Belguim.

So where will you find more information? On our brand spanking new website launching later this month.  Watch this space!

I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as I can during the course of what will be an exciting and no doubt memorable year!

Anil Champaneri
President
JCI Leeds

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It has been another successful year for JCI Leeds and it has been a great honour for me to lead the 2010 team. JCI Leeds has a very active, engaged membership and over the last 12 months we have achieved a huge amount.

Our members have taken part in two volunteering weekends in the Lake District; travelled to international events in Sweden, Denmark and Japan; hosted a hugely successful business lecture about social media; produced a charity calendar, held our annual dinner and all on top of our regular programme of training, business and social events.

This year our hard work has been recognised with a number of awards, at a regional level we won most outstanding: marketing and PR programme; regular publication; current member (Sarah Jane Robertson); new member (Gerogie Abbott); trainer (Emma Eastwood); training programme; business event (annual business lecture); president (me!) ...and overall most outstanding chamber!

We then went on to convert four of these to national awards, including most outstanding regular publication; current member, new member and trainer which is the icing on the cake!

As I have already mentioned one of our largest projects this year has been the Nothing But Nets calendar. Thousands of JCI members around the world have committed to raise funds to donate one million bed nets by 2015. Your fellow members bravely wore ‘nothing but nets’ to feature in the calendar with the target of raising £10,000. If you have not already bought your calendar or would like to buy one as a Christmas present for friends, colleagues or family you can do so online at www.onecalendaronelife.co.uk.

Thank you all for being a part of our successes in 2010 and I hope you are looking forward to working with the incoming president, Anil Champaneri and his team and that you embrace all the opportunities that 2011 brings you.

Finally, I would like to wish you and your family a very Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Yours sincerely,

Claire Dempster
2010 President
JCI Leeds

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