Dear JCI UK Members, Senators and Friends.

What a fantastic month (and a little bit) it has been, I almost don't know where to start:

• I attended and spoke at JCI Doncaster's Presidents Dinner, held in the very prestigious Mansion House
• We had a National Executive Board meeting
• I joined four JCI London members in Tallinn for an amazing European Capitals Meeting
• By telephone, I joined in with the National Convention planning meeting
• I participated in the European Conference in Tarragona
• I have travelled 5768 miles this month on behalf of JCI UK
• In between the travelling, I managed to celebrated my Dad's 60^th birthday by having a big BBQ with all my family - we had a cracking day J

European Conference - Tarragona
Our  feet have only just touched down after an amazing JCI European Conference in Tarragona.  With 31 JCI UK delegates and 39 British Senate, the Union Jack was flying high and proud all week!  With our JCI UK merchandising, we were certainly noticeable!

I cannot describe the feeling I had walking out onto the stage at the Opening Ceremony, representing the UK; it was a really proud moment, as between you and I, the UK delegation were definitely the best there!!

No matter what time of day it was, morning, noon, or night, there was a UK delegate in sight, either on their way to a training session, sitting in on General Assembly, networking with new friends they have made, or just generally looking fantastic in their Union Jack party wear. Thank you to each of you for making the Conference so fantastic for me.

Sandra Pilarczyk of JCI Sheffield represented JCI UK in the JCI World Public Speaking competition. In her speech she referred to herself as a coffee bean, which are considered to be an important export for some countries.  Well, I think she is an important import for JCI UK, as she was fantastic, and no I'm not just saying that because she said some really nice things about me in her speech!! There was great support from JCI UK at the competition, and we were all so proud of her, well done Sandra.

We  entered 13 awards to Europe this year, Debbie Tills - JCI UK Administration Director, has managed the whole awards process, and has done a fantastic job, so a very big thank you to her. Before the official Awards Ceremony JCI UK held a 'not the Awards' ceremony where JCI UK members were recognised for achievements during the course of the Conference, from the best networker, to the most fresh faced, and of course the first UK member to 'get their kit off' well how else do you swap a JCI UK t-shirt for a JCI Switzerland one?!

I am so pleased to say that we came home with two European Awards, JCI Leeds won the UN Millennium Development Goal award for their Nothing But Nets Calendar, and Claire Dempster from JCI Leeds was crowned the Most Outstanding Chapter President (51 - 100 category).  The UK delegation went crazy when these awards were announced, and again it left me with this most incredible feeling. A massive congratulations to JCI Leeds for their double win.

On behalf of JCI UK, I would like to thank Carrie Green - JCI UK International Director, for all of her hard work both before and during the Conference to make sure that we all had a fantastic time. She made sure people knew where to be at what time, she sent out regular updates of events, she organised a fantastic JCI UK dinner on the Tuesday night which really gave a kick start to the Conference, a brilliant lunch with our friends from JCI Ireland, JCI Malta and JCI Scotland, and a drinks reception before the Gala Dinner. Carrie Green, you are a superstar!

European Capitals Meeting
I have also been lucky enough to have gone to Tallinn for the European Capitals Meeting since I last wrote. This was a fantastic experience, every speaker had me sat on the edge of my seat, from learning about the ID card system they have to how you can set up and register a new company in just 18 minutes. There were some fantastic tours organised too which meant that we got to see so much of the city, from the Power plant, to the old prison, and to top it all off, boy do the Estonian's  know how to party!

I am pretty well known for gate-crashing Senate bars, but this was the first time I have been able to go legitimately.  Sso I took full advantage. The JCI London members treated me as if I were one of their own, which was really lovely, they even invited me to their twinning lunch with JCI Tallinn - so thanks guys. To find out more about that please check out Alex Membrey's Blog posted on the JCI UK website.

Qualified Trainers
JCI UK has two new CNT qualified trainers, Solveig Malvik, JCI UK Deputy National President, and Emma Eastwood from JCI Leeds. The dedication that both Solveig and Emma have to JCI UK is amazing, both of them completed the courses at Area Conferences, Solveig in Manila last week, and Emma at European Conference this week. Thank you to both of you for your hard work, as training, in my opinion, is a big key to the success of JCI. Congratulations to you both on your new recognised training status.

New recruit to the Board
As you know, we have been looking for an assistant JCI UK Website Manager for a while now....... well the search is over. I am very pleased to welcome Soraya Bowen from JCI London, to the team. Soraya has so much passion for our organisation, and really is an engaged, and active citizen. Having Soraya on the team does mean that we are going to be able to continue with the next phase of launching local chamber websites sooner rather than later, which is fantastic, as I know we have several chambers ready and waiting to launch theirs. I personally am really looking forward to working with Soraya.

Membership numbers
JCI President Kentaro Harada has declared the month of June as an Impact month, and we are all being encouraged to introduce a new member to this amazing organisation. The membership recruitment programmes that you are running are really working.  We have seen significant membership growth so far this year and I know that there are more new members evenings being planned for the coming month.  I really do believe that we are turning a corner, so let's see if we can hit the 500 member mark by the end of June.

I think you can tell that I have had a great month, and I really do hope that you have too.  Do let your local council members and/or National Board know how you are getting on - its good to talk J.

I can't wait to see what happens in June!

Cheers

Alli

JCI UK National President
allison.cowell@jciuk.org.uk
Senator # 70323