So, that's the first 6 weeks of 2014 done. To say people say the year can be a bit of a slow start, that doesn't seem to be the case for JCI Barnsley. We've really hit the ground running, and I've been kept busy as president.

We started the year here in Barnsley with our 62nd annual dinner. It was a fantastic night and the team worked really hard to make the evening a success. We had entertainment from the Barnsley Youth Theatre who were fantastic. We really do have some talented youngsters in Barnsley, hopefully some will go on to be members of JCI in the future.

The dinner is the traditional handover from one president to another, and this year was no different with the chain being passed from Charlie to myself. I've a really tough job following Charlie as she was a very good president, so much so that she is taking on the challenge of doing it all again this year in Rotherham.

The annual dinner was swiftly followed by inspiration day on the 1st February. We had over 70 members from across the UK attend, as well as one from Germany. The day was a great success and all the feedback has been positive. Once again, I'd like to thank the members of JCI Barnsley that made it possible and arranged such a great day.

Also in January, we had the JCI UK pound a day challenge that our members joined in with as well as our first training session of the year. To find out all about them, this years deputy president Tracy has written a blog about them here.

Even though it's been a very busy start to the year, the vast majority of it is still in front of us all, so I would like to briefly touch on what JCI Barnsley will hopefully achieve in 2014.

One of the great things about JCI Barnsley is how engaged our members are. I want to keep that at above 90% for the year because without engaged members, there isn't really a chamber. I also want to get members organising events again. This is something we've moved away from but I really want to bring this back.

Charity is a huge part of this year, and we have some fantastic events planned. We're aiming to raise £3,000 during the year to be divided up between our four chosen charities for 2014. The main one this year will be the National Three Peaks Challenge which JCI members will be doing later in the year. More info on our full charity plan will come from Emma, our charity director soon. The first charity we will be focusing on this year is Shelterbox and Kathryn has written a great summary post about them here. They do fantastic work, so please help us support them.

As always, we have a very busy social calendar and have doubled the number of events we're running. To see what our social director Ian has planned, click here and here. As mentioned earlier, our PD courses for the year have kicked off again with a great open mic training session. Jodie has some great training events planned for the year, so keep an eye on the JCI Barnsley website and Facebook page for more details.

I feel we really have got something for everyone this year and I also hope that I'll see you at our events over the coming year.

See you soon,

Ben Hawley
JCI Barnsley President, 2014