Where is January going?! I feel like I blinked at New Year and suddenly it's nearly February. But WOW, what a few weeks it has been!

We had our first Council meeting on 8 January and I was blown away by enthusiasm the team have to make JCI Sheffield even better this year. I won't spoil all the surprises but we'll be rolling out a buddy scheme, putting on great training and doing all kinds of exciting things to support our charity of the year, SAFE@LAST. We're also determined to sponsor as many members as possible to experience the national and international aspects of JCI. Council meetings are generally held on the first Wednesday of the month - just drop me an email if you'd like to join us!

On Tues 14 Jan we had our official 2014 launch at The Showroom. I was delighted to see so many members there - not just from Sheffield but from across the region and the UK. We challenged everyone there to tell us how they wanted to "Be Better" in 2014 and we got some great responses. Our plans for the year will take their steer from these goals so we're currently arranging fitness based socials, time management training and LOADS of opportunities to improve your confidence. We also signed up our first new member of the year - welcome Becky Stanyard - and presented Neal Stirk with a well deserved Star Member award for January.

Last Friday I had my first top table, chain event at JCI Barnsley's annual dinner. It was a real celebration of a fantastic 2013 lead by Charlie Pearson and I'm so inspired by incoming president Ben Hawley's plans for 2014 - National Three Peaks in under 24 hours anyone?! The evening including youth theatre performances, internal awards, a new senator (congratulations Debbie) and, I'm told, a fair amount of whisky courtesy of their Scottish twins! It was brilliant to see so many JCI Sheffield members there supporting the region.

Then last Sunday a few of us made a flying visit - quite literally! - to the JCI Ireland AGM hosted by our twin chamber JCI Mayo at Knock Airport. As you may know JCI Mayo's founding member and 2012 local President, Derek Reilly, is JCI Ireland's National President this year and he has some amazing plans in place. Our twins, as always, made us feel hugely welcome. If you're not already booked to visit them over St Patrick's Day - DO IT NOW! Accommodation is sponsored by JCI Sheffield so you just need to pay for flights.

Proving there really is no rest for the wicked, I had a meeting with our Events & Training Director, Hannah, on Monday night - check out our upcoming events - and the JCI Yorkshire AGM on Tuesday. Here, JCI UK Community Director Katie Ogley took on the extra challenge of becoming Yorkshire Regional Group Chair and let me tell you, we in are in for an INCREDIBLE year with her at the helm! We're really lucky to have such a strong region in Yorkshire and I would urge you to pop over to see our neighbours at one of their events soon. Perhaps open mic public speaking with JCI Barnsley?!

Last night saw our first training session of the year, the now infamous Goal Setting with Jon Colman of Red Vanilla (and generous JCI Sheffield patron). We've held this every January for the last few years and it gets incredible feedback every time. One of the best things about Jon is that he doesn't just encourage personal goal setting, but shows us how we can support each other to achieve them. I loved seeing all the tweets flying round after and of course reading my next batch of Be Better goals!

But the month is not over yet! We still have Networking Wednesday, featuring special guests from SAFE@LAST, coming up on Wednesday from 6pm at Fitzwilliam & West. Why not pop along and see how you can get involved?

Have a great weekend anyway and thanks again for helping to make my January such an incredible month!

Ilona Alcock  - 2014 JCI Sheffield President  - ilona.alcock@jcisheffield.org.uk