JCI London Magazine February 2014

Issue 2February 2014

THINK POSSIBLE GALA

BE INSPIRED BYALEXANDRA SPENCER

THE ROAD TO THE BIGGEST EVENT OF THE YEAR

JCI London Issue 2 February 2014 4

CONTENTS

8 Meet Alexandra Spencer Get to know the community director & see how her braveness can inpisre you

16 The Biggest Event of the Year The long road to getting everything ready - what the team has to say

18 Traveling in the UK Inpiration Day kicked off the year with members from all over the UK

22 Training yourself to be better Two members talk about their experience with JCI Achieve & Impact

28 Event highlights in March What is to come - upcoming events

Getting started & coming together

26 T as in Tallinn, Twin & Travel? Happy Birthday to our twin Tallinn be part of it!


As this year’s marketing director I am extremely happy how this year has started. I could not be happier with the feedback I got for our first newsletter and I am grateful for the kind words that were said about this project. I really am feeling the JCI love and I was happy to attend the JCI UK Marketing Academy in Birmingham at the end of February. I was able to meet fellow UK members and marketing directors. It was a good opportunity to exchange ideas and get to know what other chapters are doing.

Overall this month has flown by and due to the preparations for the annual dinner, the Think Possible Gala, there was always something to do. I hope that you enjoy this issue and I am always in preparation for the next one. What I can tell you for sure is that the March issue will be even bigger as there is not only the Gala going on, but also the AISEC and JCI London Dreamcatcher’s Day and JCI Canary Wharf will have its official affiliation party at the end of the month.

Have fun exploring what happened in Febrary.

Svenja Koeppe2014 JCI London Marketing Director

Word from the editor

Inpiration from the presidentDexter's favorite quote of the month

JCI London insp!re Issue 1 January 2014 4

MEET ALEXANDRA SPENCER Get to know our

community director


Name: Alexandra Spencer (Spence)

JCI position: 2014 JCI London Community Director

Why and when did you get involved in JCI London: As a former member of AIESEC as a universi-ty student, I knew I needed a place to go as a professional where I could continue my de-velopment, surround myself with motivated and inspiring people, and be a part of a global community. When I secured a job in London in 2011, the first person I emailed was the JCI London President asking how I could get in-volved.

Occupation: Medical Recruitment Consultant

Biggest Personal Achievement: The most recent would be quitting my job, fundraising £1500 and securing a new job be-fore volunteering and backpacking in Brazil for two months last year.

Describe JCI in three words: Opportunity, Impact and Growth

Describe yourself in three words: Powerful, Compassionate and Tenacious

Favourite inspirational quote: Most recently whilst preparing for a speech I received the following advice from Annik, the owner of PONY Express Speaker Training,

“Consider this the next piece of pain towards

your masterpiece”

A funny/inspirational story that you want to share:During my trip to Brazil last year, I got a little closer to nature in the Pantanal (the largest wetlands in the world) than I’d planned. After waking up incredibly early to watch the sunrise, I left my room to find my guide pointing at a bat on the floor scrambling towards me. Feel-ing groggy and definitely not thinking clearly, I thought it would be good to pick it up. Un-surprisingly, it did not agree and proceeded to sink its teeth into my hand. The rest of my morn-ing was spent in the car finding a hospital in the wilderness for the first of 5 rabies vaccines I would need to rectify the situation. Definitely not one of my finest moments.

What are your plans as the 2014 JCI London Community Director: We are currently focussing on two broad are-as that are both prevalent, difficult to talk about and touch each of our lives in London: Home-lessness and Cancer. Every person who walks through the streets of London will have seen someone sleeping rough. 1 in 3 people will be diagnosed with cancer at some point in their lives. As active citizens, we have a unique op-portunity and a moral obligation to create posi-tive change in our community.

Get in touch with Alexandra: Email [email protected], Tweet @Spennis or Connect at www.linkedin.com/in/spenceral-exandra


In May last year at JCI European Conference, I won a complimentary registration fee worth $600 to attend the JCI World Congress 2013 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil from November 4-9. With my regular voluntary work here in London, I knew that if I could afford to go, I would want to spend more time in Rio working in the community. I took the brave decision to hand in my notice at work, as I saw this as a sign to begin a new challenge and to get out of my comfort zone. After fundraising £1500 and with a bursting rucksack, I set off for Rio de Janeiro on 2 No-vember 2013. Project Favela are a small enterprise based in the largest favela in South America; Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro in Bra-zil. For 1 month, I taught English and ran art classes in a small school. The owner of the charity has employed 4 young adults in Rocinha and together, they have set up an online Favela tour business (http://rocinhafavelatour.com/) so that they can run their own sustainable tourism business, providing an income possibility that wouldn‘t have been there before. Learning English is imperative to the success of their business and to communicate with their clients. The art school was set up by a man in Ro-cinha for kids living in the favela, but unfortunately as he was very ill, he was unable to run the classes anymore: Which is where volunteers like myself got involved. Every week day, kids of all ages would drop in and we‘d make Christmas themed decorations, presents and cards for their family. The rest of my time in Brazil was spent travelling all around the South: Being hosted by a Professor of nursing, meet-ing JCI Florianopolis and JCI Sao Paulo, trekking through the Atlantic Rainforest, the Pantanal and plenty of beach, Couchsurfing, hostelling... What a phenomenal learning and life enriching experience and country: I can’t wait to go back!

Alexandra‘s adventures in Brazil

We were truly inspired by her

THink Possible gala Soraya Bowen, Matt Beavan, Ola Szaran and Svenja Koeppe are the core team in charge of making the 8th of March a memorable and en-tertaining night. We took on the challenge back in December 2013 and have been planning away since then.

Step One was finding the perfect location to hold the event in that would not be too big or too small. We looked at locations such as the Lon-don Bridge, the London Zoo or even the Tower of London. These all looked great but we never felt that they were perfect for a JCI London gala dinner. The Tower of London for example would not allow loud music and the event would have ended too early. We wanted to find something that would allow us to accommodate around 300 people and have an after-party at the same loca-

tion. When we looked at the Grange we loved everything that it offered. A five star hotel with nightclub to ourselves for the evening as well as state of the art AV equipment.

Having the location sorted we were able to start planning the rest of the dinner. We knew that we had big shoes to fill as last year‘s annual dinner was held in the House of Parliament, but being in the shadow of St. Paul‘s this year we will hopeful-ly live up to the standard. Moreover we wanted to make the dinner bigger and bolder this year. Not only more people were invited to the dinner, but also we were also able to get Michael to deliver one the first big talks about Google Glass. Organ-izing the event has truly made us think possible.


meet The Team that took on the challenge


What the team has to say

Gettting started on the event I thought I knew what I was getting into as I helped organise the European Capitals Meeting in Berlin last year, but London is very challenging when it comes to finding a location and an audience sin-ce the city has so much to offer. I am happy to be part of the team though as I am keen on taking on challenges. - Svenja

Working on an event of this size is like a rollercoaster; it is fast, scary, makes you feel very uncomfortable, but in the end it’s a lot of fun...and you get to enjoy the ride with some really great people. Loved every minute of it. - Ola

The size of this year‘s annual dinner meant that we had to advertise the event outside of JCI. We attended networ-king events and parties where we had to overcome our fears and sell this event to people. This was new for me and it helped me grow and understand sales - Matt

This is my first gala dinner in JCI. It is a constant learning process and after planning this event I am sure that if I ever get married I would organize my own wedding in less than 6 months - No Problem. - Soraya


by Matt Beavan

Inspiration day in Barnsley proved to be an early 4am start to catch the meandering London night buses to London St Pancras for the train to Barnsley. Inspiration day was hosted by Ben Hawley of JCI Barnsley and began with the awarding of the certificates to the twenty individuals who had completed the “Pound a Day Challenge” for Save the Children. The National Board for 2014 intro-duced themselves and their roles for the coming year. Past President Emma Eastwood discussed the exciting news that more JCI chambers were to be set up in the coming year. President for the year Kate Senter emphasised the mission statement for JCI UK was ‘play your part’ Everyone was encouraged to be active and to achieve their personal goals through the organisation.

The day emphasised how JCI was a National organisation and people had a productive time exchanging ideas with other members of the chambers. A brainstorming session also occurred where JCI members looked at how the values of JCI 2014-2018 applied to their organisations.

A number of inspirational talks occurred throughout the day:

John Sanderson delivered the first talk, and discussed how he had succeeded in his life by failing a lot. He had re-signed from numerous jobs. Failed to set up his own busi-nesses, and had rejected the opportunity to work on X fac-tor when it was first set up. He did however recognise that passion should always come first, and only then will money follow. His ultimate success in being the CEO of his own company, having studios around the world and working on the sound effects of computer games, is that he keeps put-ting himself into an environment of constant change. He left the audience with a formula for success: Self Discipline + Self Motivation = Self Esteem

INSPIRATION DAY 2014

Coming together from allover the UK


Graham Parker was the second speaker who had come from a mining background and had broken his legs in a car accident that required 12 years of recovery. As a re-sult of this he realised that sometimes in life you will be powerless, and that reliance may be on other people. Ul-timately his endeavours in raising over £70,000 for charity and trekking the Andes he realised that Life is not a dress rehearsal, you need to listen to your own voice...and follow it. What does your voice say?

Impact & Achieve with JCITwo participants tell us about their experiences

Egle Valeikaite

I first heard about JCI from a close friend of mine who suggested I join. After attending a few events as a newbie, I was advised to partic-ipate in the Achieve & Impact workshop which was held on a Saturday morning and how glad am I that I went.

Not only did I get to meet other new JCI mem-bers, but also have the chance to find out more about the organisation itself.

Never mind Saturday, the workshop organis-ers achieved a great success in attendance. We even had someone who flew from Malta especially for the workshop!

During the two part seminar, we were thoroughly guided through the ideology and principles that stem from JCI’s history. JCI’s mis-sion to provide development op-

portunities that empower young people to cre-ate positive change had been delivered year after year for more than a century. I could see the enthusiasm in our workshop trainers. JCI has given even more: aspiring to teach others of what they learned themselves.

The interactive model of a workshop meant we could all get a taste of what it’s like to be a part of a team-effort based project.We had to discuss the most prominent local commu-nitie’s problem in groups and find a cause by simply asking “why”. That way we were able to peel down the issue to its root cause and come up with a solution to eradicate it. Finally, each group presented their own proposals, which were: culture rejuvenation centre for people to integrate and thus eliminate loneliness and al-ienation; workshops on how to be happy and make people smile more and support small businesses in order to prevent new betting shops springing into the market.

The workshop truly delivered what it promised and even more. It not only explained how JCI works and what opportunities it holds, it also inspired us to act and become ac-

The training ispired us to act & become

active citizens



tive citizens of the world, be it on a national, international or an individual level.

Adedunmade Onibokun

JCI London has been organising great events and trainings; we have also succeeded in raising thou-sands of pounds for buying malaria treated mosquito nets which will be delivered to families in Tamale, Ghana later in the year. It’s been an awesome experience and it gets more exciting when you think that it’s just the begin-ning of the year. Recently, on 25th January, 2014 we had

the JCI Achieve and Impact training sessions at London Bridge. Every JCI event is always unique and special, so I was super excited to attend. It was also nice to see members of JCI Canary Wharf there too.

One of the questions Soraya and Sarah asked the partici-pants at the JCI London 2014 Achieve and Impact session was “what is our greatest val-ue”? That worth, merit, or im-portance that stands every one of us out from the crowd. My greatest value is my unsatisfiable urge to contribute to social growth and development, I derive fulfil-ment from knowing I am not only living but con-tributing to making the world a better place, naturally in JCI, a worldwide network of young individuals dedicated in service to humanity, I find like minds and through this active citizens framework we actualise this dream together.

The room was filled with really nice and friendly faces and in no time Soraya had written down a long list of incredible values which repre-sented the contributions of everyone, wow, the energy was amazing. Attending JCI Achieve helps you learn the values of JCI, that faith in God gives meaning and purpose to human life; that the brotherhood of man transcends the sovereignty of nations; that economic jus-tice can best be won by free men through free

enterprise; that government should be of laws rather than of men; that earth’s great treasure lies in human personality and that service to humanity is the best work of life.

The trainers, Soraya Bowen and Sarah Beck-with conducted the training amazingly. Each participant had a great time, role playing on identifying the various challeng-es in our communities and coming up with great ideas on how to mitigate them was one of the many high-lights of the training, as usual networking was great, plus the lunch and opportunity to get together for drinks at the local pub later in the evening was amazing. I made a lot of new amazing friends which I look forward to see-

ing at other JCI functions and events. It was a brilliant way to spend the Sat-urday and I had an incredible time. A very special shout-out to the organis-ers, they did a great job.

The JCI Mission is to provide devel-opment opportunities that empower

young people to create positive change and our Vision is to be the leading global network of young active citizens. We believe young people have the power to change the world and we take action.

Trainers Soraya Bowen and Sarah Beckwith

The room was filled with really nice &

friendly faces

Happy birthday

Tallinn


our twin turns 25 and

you are cordially invited

The i r i n v itat i on to you :JCI Tallinn is all grown up and we are celebratingour quarter-a-century Birthday from 15-18th May 2014 in Tallinn. We are glad to invite you, as our favolite Twinning chapter, to join with us for this marvelous event.Please be prepared to visit places you normally would not go to :)

It means 3 days of fun, new Estonian innovative start-ups, showcasing new technology, gepsing in Tallinn and of course the best from JCI Tallinn people.

For Saturday, 17th of May we will prepare JCI Tallinn Birthday meeting and last but not least will be grandiose 25th Birthday Party.

Once again shortly:15 May Arriving/dinner16 May Special program for our guests and a warm up party in the evening17 May Birthday meeting and 25th Birthday Party18 May Brunch and bye-bye hugs

All this only for 119 EUR till 13th April. Fee includes special program, transportation, lunch and party entrance on Friday; full program on Saturday, including lunch and dinner.If you are able to come only for Saturday, the fee would be 59 EUR.Fee from 14th April is 149 for all event and 85 for Saturday only.

Please register here (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1AwNnAwJlVWpHOJx-zQwXQGjqX-b7eSZUrqFADzUWXl2c/viewform)

JCI London Issue 1 January 2014 12

What is a twin?The JCI Twinning Program formally links two or more JCI Local Organizations who are inter-ested in collaborating. Twinning partners learn, exchange ideas, forge diverse connections and gain a unique perspective on the world as they participate in joint cross-cultural projects. Twinning leverages the JCI global network to gain a deeper understanding of international cooperation.

JCI London has five twins: Paris, Tallinn, Berlin, Copenhagen and Stockholm

Tallinn became a twin of JCI London on the 27th August 1991 after Estonia declares its Inde-pendence from the USSR

Planning on going? Contact our international director Benjamin and we can get you in contact with others that are going.


Event Highlights in March

Business Development made simple!

During this training session you will learn the es-sentials of business development.

This will help you if you are:. an entrepreneur. a business development executive or manager. a salesperson. anybody that want to grow your business

More details to come soon. any questions, get in touch with Rafael: [email protected]

Trained by Ricky Khotari and Rafael Tselikas

19.03

Dreamcatchers Day

Do you have a dream, an aim for the future? Or no clue what to do later in life? Well either way, the London Dreamcatcher’s Day will of-fer a great program for all of you! Be inspired by exciting speakers, cool workshops or by meeting other people in a similar situation to yours! Our Day will give you the chance to prepare better for future, gain skills, but espe-cially get enthusiastic for it!

We promise to offer you great hours of differ-ent activities - and that for free!!! Plus…the chance to network with speakers, trainers, and other professionals!

More information available on http://www.lon-dondreamcatchersday.com/

09.03Presented by our partner:

JCI Canary Wharf Quarterly Leadership Awards & Affiliation Party

JCI Canary Wharf invite you to join us at our Affiliation Party to be held on Tuesday 25th March 2014 at 6.30pm at the exclusive Attic Bar located on the 48th floor of the Pan Pen-insula building in Canary Wharf.

Join us for cocktail (or two….) whilst you gaze over the stunning Canary Wharf skyline. If you’re not scared of heights, dare to venture onto the terrace and take in the breath-tak-ing views of the O2, Greenwich and beyond. We will also be recognising our members who have stood out and made a huge impact in building the chamber this first quarter. All JCI UK mebers and Non-members are welcome to attend. We have a limited number of early bird tickets available for £15 (stand-ard ticket price is £20). Your ticket includes 2 cocktails and light snacks. We look forward to welcoming you to what promises to be our biggest and best event yet and the first of many more to come.

25.03

Netwoking

every

month

27th March 2014

Next issue coming March 2014

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JCI London Magazine February 2014

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Transcript of JCI London Magazine February 2014