As I sit here writing this I can't quite believe it is nearly August and I've only 5 months left as JCI Barnsley President. My incoming speech at Januarys annual dinner seems like only yesterday and in other ways it seems a life time ago.

Our chamber has developed and grown so much and I try to take the time to stand back and admire what active members we have in JCI Barnsley. We have more than doubled in size in 6 months (108% growth), are running a fantastic personal development programme and have had some brilliant planned and impromptu social nights out. We've held a business tour of a local brewery (would you expect any less of JCI Barnsley??), hosted JCI Yorkshire Big Supper and participated in JCI Yorkshire Extempore including having 2 member in the final. To top it all off we met HRH Duke of York to celebrate our 60^th Jubilee this year, not bad for a small chamber from Barnsley!

Our members have been highly active, the majority of our events are attended by over half of our members. We have new Directors on board our council team who are striving to make the chamber stronger. We've been to European Conference in Germany and have a group ready and raring to go to this year's National Convention in Belfast to extend their circle of friends and their development.

We have become active on Twitter, some would say I'm addicted! We've a JCI Barnsley mascot in the form of Piggers who also has his own Twitter account, and attends events too. Our Facebook fan page and search engine optimisation results show we are getting our name out there into the wider community.

We have received great feedback and praise from our fellow UK chambers on just what a small chamber can achieve in such a short space of time. I've been fortunate to personally receive lovely emails and messages from our senators and past presidents commenting on how well my president year is going and for me that makes it all worthwhile, to know that I am continuing on the JCI way of doing things and strengthening our chamber.

The second half of my year is going to be interesting and a challenge on a different level as I am relocating back to my home town of Birmingham. I'm taking up an exciting new challenge in Birmingham working on the Virgin Media contract for my current employers, Carillion Facilities Management and am looking forward to being nearer to my family and friends after 7 years in Yorkshire. I am also sad to be moving away from so many great friends I have made inside and outside of JCI but know they are definitely all friends for life.

In order to continue technology is going to play an even bigger part in the chamber, Skype at council meetings! I will still be attending as many of our weekend events as possible and remaining the first point of contact with our Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and email followers but our midweek events will be hosted by my wonderful council team. I am also looking forward to still attending JCI UK Presidents training weekends and National Council meetings to see all the wonderful friends I have made within JCI.

I'm looking forward to kicking off the annual dinner season in September, bringing the chamber together for JCI Yorkshire Regional Awards in October to celebrate just how far we have come, and how much our members have grown. I already feel like a proud parent, watching their child take their first steps and for my 2012 new members seeing them taking their first JCI steps makes me feel very proud.

One thing for sure is that I am still 100% committed to JCI Barnsley, pushing it forward and increasing our membership with the introduction of more active members.

Here's to a fantastic second half of the year, GO TEAM BARNSLEY!!