On Saturday 26th April JCI UK's Presidents and deputies met in Leeds for a packed weekend. The idea of the weekend is to have a bit of training, share ideas and have the first national council of the year.  

The training sessions for the weekend included: 
· Tips and common mistakes when writing awards;  
· The risk of financial fraud in JCI and what controls could be in place to prevent this;
· Roberts rules in preparation of the national council meeting;
· Membership retention; and
· Website forum in which discussions took place on how the website could be improved.  


Tracy with Kay, Birmingham president and Jenny, Cambridge President

The first national council of the year took place on Saturday afternoon.  This meeting is where national board report to the presidents and deputies and key decisions can be made.   The highlights included:  

Shade Aid
Katie Ogley the National Community Director told us about Shade Aid in conjunction with Flamingo Creative, which will be the next JCI UK community project. We will be collecting used sunglasses until the end of July to then donate them to Africa. 

European Conference
The countdown is on until European conference in Malta.  Debbie Worthington, the National International Director devised a pub quiz on Malta which Ben and I won. 

National Training Academies
JCI UK is running two fabulous academies, the public speaking academy and LEAP (leadership excellence in action programme). The public speaking academy is on 10^th and 11^th May in Birmingham, places are still available at £59. LEAP is on 29^th to 31^st August in Birmingham and costs £125 until 22^nd June (this price includes food and accommodation!) What a Bargain! 

And announcement time...
JCI Barnsley expressed an interest to Bid for the National Convention in 2015.  

Just before the weekend closed the group split into presidents and deputies.  The deputy session was run by Drew Charman, National Deputy President. We had a quiz on countries in Europe for an icebreaker, discussed challenges we have come across so far and the big plans to celebrate JCI's 100th Anniversary next year. So watch this space!

It was great to catch up with friends from up and down the country.  A big thank you to JCI Leeds for hosting and entertaining us on Saturday evening with alcohol and curry!

Tracy Anderson
2014 Deputy President