JCI Barnsley has been going for 62 years now. In that time, we’ve had quite a few presidents and April kicked off with us celebrating our history at our annual Past Presidents Dinner. It’s always nice to get the views and opinions of people who have been there and done it already, as they undoubtedly come up with ideas and solutions to problems you’d never have considered on your own. I also find it fascinating how JCI Barnsley has changed and re-invented itself throughout the years, whilst still keeping true to its core values. From day one to now, JCI Barnsley is about young active citizens making a positive impact on their local community. You can read more about the Past Presidents Dinner here in the blog by Charlie.

Since the last Banter, we also handed over the Easter Eggs we had been collecting for the Barnsley Hospital Charity. Altogether we collected 82 eggs, all of which helped brighten up the Easters of children who had to be in hospital over the holiday. This is the first of four projects we’re working with the Hospital Charity on this year, the next being their Rainbow Run on the 18^th May where we will be helping out by manning one of the paint stations. It should be a great day and if you want to come along and throw powder paint at the runners, just drop me a line.



April was the first time this year that all the local Presidents and Deputies got together for National Council. This time it was held in Leeds, so just a short hop up the motorway for Tracy and myself. It was a great weekend with some really productive discussions and interesting training sessions. The next time the National Council will meet is in August for the UK AGM, so we need to make the most of these meetings as they are so few and far between. More about the weekend can be read in the article from Tracy here.

Our training for the Yorkshire Three Peaks continues and a group of JCI Barnsley members headed up Pen-y-ghent, the first of the three, for a training walk. It was a glorious day and everyone seemed to enjoy it, even though most of us got slightly sun burnt. You can read more about the training walk here in the blog Ian has wrote about the day.

It’s been a really busy year so far and it doesn’t seem to be letting up. May is packed with events both from JCI Barnsley and other JCI chambers around the region. We have our New Members Night on the 21^st at Aroma Café in Barnsley, The JCI Yorkshire Public Speaking competition in Bradford on the 27^th and we have another Dodgeball training session on the 16^th. Hope to see at one of them.

That’s all from me for now as I need to go practice the Tango and the Cha Cha Cha, but more on that next month!

Ben Hawley
JCI Barnsley President