...and I don't mean myself ;)

JCI UK recently had the honour of hosting the 2012 JCI World President, Mr Bertolt Daems, from the Netherlands, 9-10 February 2012.

Among other we took the President to meet youth in Stratford, London, who proudly claimed "JCI changed my life!", to meet the Deputy Director of the Commonwealth Foundation, meet members both in London and Sheffield, help distribute donated duvets and pillows to a shelter project in Sheffield and even go on a morning run (or walk) with the JCI Sheffield Running for Nets team.

Hosting a JCI President (that's their real title, I am the "JCI UK President", the World President is simply the "JCI President") is always fun. Its also always a lot of work. But in the end, it is always a great experience and an honour.

As the National President I was expected to be the host and to accompany the President on his travels across the UK. So in addition to all the events and meetings it is also an opportunity for two people to get to know each other and (hopefully) get comfortable with each other.

I am personally very interested in the process of people getting to know each other, of people becoming friends. The President had no choice but to spend the two days with me, and so we better get comfortable, quick. 

As you can see in the picture, we made friends and I must testify that the President is an incredibly inspiring person. I think that all the members who heard the President speak will agree with me. President Bertolt has true passion behind what he does, he has brilliant ideas for where the organisation should go and the impact it needs to make in its local communities in order to make a difference, and he also listens to members and is willing to spend time understanding what they are doing on the ground.

There are some blog posts coming about what the President did while in the UK, so I am not going to spoil the surprise. I personally got to spend two days with an amazing person and I am both happy that I got this opportunity and sad that it went a tiny bit too fast.

Yours,

Solveig Malvik
2012 JCI UK National President
Senator #70867