I'm not sure there are words to explain just how proud I am to be your president right now! At this weekend's JCI UK national convention we picked up an amazing FOUR awards and a certificate of merit! That's a phenomenal achievement and one that is thanks to each and every member, trainer, partner and supporter who have worked together over the year.

The awards were...

Most Outstanding Personal Skills Development for our Be Better programme. We challenged all members to tell us how they wanted to "be better" this year and then devised a training programme to support your needs and goals. This has included putting on two or three training sessions or business talks each month - huge thanks here to our Events & Training Director, the amazing Hannah Woodcock, and all our speakers for giving up their time for free! We also sponsored members to attend national and international events, and supported our members to become trainers themselves.

Most Outstanding Economic Development project for our partnership with RISE Sheffield, a city wide graduate internship scheme for SMEs supported by the Council, both our universities and private companies. The impact of graduate unemployment and underemployment has been incredible and we're proud to have supported over 100 interns with free trial membership.

Most Outstanding Member - congratulations Ryan Pilkington!! If ever there was a member who truly embodies the "Be Better" spirit it is Ryan. I have been so privileged to watch his personal journey this year - from a student too shy to attend Network Wednesday, to an active international jet setter running his own fashion design business and blog. Keep your eye on this one!

Extempore Champion - having won the JCI Yorkshire off the cuff public speaking trophy earlier this year our Membership & Engagement Director, Gareth Carson, pulled out all the stops to win the national competition. Congratulations!

Our Deputy President, Mark Smith, was also awarded a certificate of merit in recognition of the efforts put into preparing for 2015. Don't forget to join us at our AGM on 10 December where he will officially take the chains of office.

As if ALL of that wasn't enough, the rest of JCI Yorkshire basically swept the board with awards or certificates of merit in just about every category. And if there had been an award for best cheering I guarantee it would have gone to the Yorkshire tables! An absolute highlight for our region was seeing Katie Ogley awarded with a senatorship (the highest honour JCI can bestow) in recognition of her dedication. Well deserved Katie!

So how do you top that?! Well, who knows, perhaps we'll be lucky enough to pick up an award at the World Congress in Germany next week? Regardless I know it will be a brilliant event and that you guys, our wonderful JCI Sheffield members, will keep making me proud.

Thank you so much and keep on being better!