This weekend I have been with JCI Southampton for Presidents & Deputies Day and the first National Council of 2012. I was delighted to be asked to brief National Council on our recent success and share best practice ideas to help other UK chambers benefit. I had just 3 minutes to present just what we

 had been doing to find new members, so opted for visual pictures of our Twitter campaigns, our personal development launch and of course, my favourite, the 900% growth of new members from 2011 to 2012 statistic!! On a personal note I was very proud at the fantastic praise and feedback I received from the other chambers.

National Council saw the official voting in of 2012 Deputy National President Emma Eastwood. Emma is a Leeds member and past president and also an all round lovely person and I can't think of a better person to take on the role of Deputy National President this year and look forward to working with her this year. Well done Emma!!

This weekend was a very special one for the city of Southampton as their football team were promoted to the Premiership on Saturday and it was fantastic to see the city celebrating. Well done Saints!

It was also great to meet President of Southampton Chamber of Commerce, Peter Robertson who dropped in on our meal on Saturday night to welcome us all to Southampton and reiterate the importance of the relationship between the Chamber of Commerce and Junior Chamber International. Peter also highlighted the significance of the football team's promotion this weekend and how the injection of cash that the city will receive from this brilliant achievement is of huge importance.

I was accompanied on my weekend away by Piggers who had a fantastic time and features in all my photos, I'm not in any!!! Piggers took his first plane journey, took part in his first National Council and was well and truly welcomed into the JCI family. He advertised various brands over the weekend and was renamed a brand hog! He sampled wine, beer, cider and coffee and still managed to behave himself even when we were delayed at Southampton airport for an extra 2 hours awaiting our flight home! It was great to see the other Presidents also joining in creating photo opportunities for Piggers and he now had even more Twitter followers too!

On Sunday all local Presidts took part in the second Presidents training session of the year. This featured a very interesting and informative presentation about the history of JCI. Who knew we were created in St Louis and started out as a dancing club in the 1900s! From the past we then moved onto looking to the future of JCI and started brainstorming ideas to discuss at the Future Strategy meeting which is being held in Sheffield on 30^th June to 1^st July. Anyone interested in being part of this strategy meeting and helping to shape the future of JCI, please drop me an email.

Throughout the whole morning we were all constantly sharing our successes and failures with each other in an attempt to share best practice, from how to market events, to finding new members and how to support each other as Presidents when the pressure is on to lead the way even when sometimes you aren't sure of the way yourself!

I have to say I found this weekend invaluable to my development as a President and also

 personally. Having a room full of likeminded individuals, all in the same boat to offer support and advice for me, is just what these weekends should be about. 2012 is showing JCI UK we have a cracking bunch of people running our chambers, willing to give their all to help their communities develop and grow and I am so very proud to be part of it.

After the delayed flight finally landed back in Leeds Bradford, I arrived home at 11pm on Sunday night, tired and weary but still determined to keep right on to the end of my JCI road, whether that be in a couple of months when I eventually relocate back to my home town of Birmingham or in 8 years time when I reach 40! I have well and truly been bitten by the JCI bug and to be honest, I quite like it ;o)