This year has seen JCI Barnsley celebrate our 60^th anniversary and my main objective for the year was to increase membership and to spread the word locally about the benefits of just what JCI could offer the people of Barnsley. Membership growth has been fantastic with the chamber increasing by 125% in 2012 and 1300% new member growth compared to 2011.

Our members are engaged and participating at events on a local, regional, national and international level which makes me so proud as President to be able to reflect on their growth and development. We had members attend European Conference in Germany this summer and a group who attended Belfast for UK National Convention.

Members have thrown themselves into Extempore and Public Speaking competitions and to be honest, any other opportunity that JCI has offered them. For the first time in many years we launched a full personal development programme for members and the people of Barnsley, centring around building confidence through a number of key training sessions on to name a few, networking, setting goals, top 10 tips for confidence and public speaking. The sessions have been well attended and given us an opportunity to work with local trainers who have donated their time to deliver these sessions.

JCI Barnsley is the social chamber, we love to have nights out, pub of the month events, our annual pub/train crawl was attended by 22 people this August with some of those already wanting to book for next year! This year's new annual event, JCI Triathlon was a huge success and fiercely fought between Team President and Team Deputy, with the 3 sporting events followed by a good old fashioned social night out, 12 hours later members arrived home!  Team President triumphant!

This year has also seen the chamber launch an attack on social media, promoting our events through Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. Targeting our followers on these platforms to engage them, and direct results turn into attendance at events and also new members!

We were also privileged to be invited to meet HRH Duke of York as part of the Queen's Jubilee celebrations, and presented with a certificate to commemorate our 60^th anniversary. This was a fantastic event and we were 1 of only 3 local businesses to be presented to HRH so a very unique JCI experience!

Our success has been showcased on a regional and national level this year winning-

JCI UK Most Outstanding Growth & Development Programme

JCI UK Certificate of Merit for Most Outstanding New Member- Charlie Pearson

JCI Yorkshire Most Outstanding New Member- Charlie Pearson

JCI Yorkshire Most developed the most- Ian Bragger

JCI Yorkshire Most Outstanding Social Programme- Triathlon (Ben Hawley)

JCI Yorkshire Most Outstanding Personal Development Programme

JCI Yorkshire Most Outstanding Growth & Development Programme

JCI Yorkshire Certificate of Merit for Most Outstanding Local President

I would like to thank all our members, senators, past presidents, patrons and the local community for supporting our campaign this year. I would also like to thank the BJC Foundation for supporting us with a grant to help us achieve some of our objectives this year, to build the chamber and make it stronger for another 60 years to come.

Personally this year has taken me on a journey, with highs that I could have only dreamt of when I started my reign as President. I've made friends for life within the chamber and further afield and have grown and developed my skills. 2012 has been amazing! #jcibarnsley2012diamondchallenge