Come with me and you will have a blooming marvellous insight of my EDC experience. I had the privilege of participating in the EDC ACADEMY on Growth and Development 2017. What an awesome opportunity, we arrived in Basel Switzerland for the weekend’s long intensive but fun training. We then left for a city called Lorräch which is on the German side of Switzerland. We had a good representation across Europe. During the training, we had various opportunities to learn, engage and share our experiences in our respective home Chambers. One of our assignments with my new friends from France, Iceland, Sweden and Switzerland together known as "The Incredible Ponys" related to Mental Health. This is a subject that's key to all of us and it is SDG #3 on Health and Well-being. I was able to share with the group one of the projects that I am currently supporting known as The Green Ribbon CAMPAIGN which is run by The Lord Mayor of the City of London. #endtgestigma, @LMappeal. So many members resonated with the Campaign and have promised to share the message about #endtgestigma with their members when they return home. This is clearly one of the great example of how impactful the EDC ACADEMY is. It opened a platform for dialogue about Mental Health and as matters stand, it is clear that this is a global issue that requires our critical attention. There were many more very interesting subjects of discussion where there was plenty of knowledge sharing. My TIP to the my fellow JCI UK members is to cease the moment and endeavour to attend as many academies / training programmes as you can as well as being more visible and engaged. My TOP, I personally enjoyed the Academy and I am looking forward to implementing some of the skills and tools shared during our training and potentially to embark on creating relations with my Local Community and thus accelerate momentum in JCI Greenwich. The truth is we all face the same challenges especially when it comes to Membership retention in our Chambers however there are still ways and mechanisms to retain the right Member. By the way, the icing highlight at the Academy was that we were graced by a visit from our current World President Dawn Hetzel, Past President Chiara Minali, our EVP Jonathan Borg, JCI EU representative Christopher Hurst, to mention but a few who were all in town for the European Convention 2017 in Basel, Switzerland. They all briefly shared their experiences and thanked us for our participation. Our duty now is to pass the Barton to those Members that were not in Lorräch. We also recorded a video about President Dawn Hetzel’s campaign on Impact i.e.: - “I Am JCI. You Are JCI. We Are JCI.” Having served as a Membership Growth & Development Director in London, it was quite clear that all the Chambers are faced with similar issues with regards to Membership Retention. Millennials are now the largest generation and we will need to engage them a lot more, please see the Generations table below. Having participated in the EDC Academy, and on my Mission to create positive change, I will continue to serve as a Jaycee in Greenwich and London as well as promoting this great platform, JCI and hopefully inspire more Youth on my journey who can in turn become very Active Citizens in their Local Communities and the Globe at large. Many thanks to the Chairperson Annalisa Schembri and her Team for pioneering such an engaging, empowering, effective and strategic programme which is aimed at promoting growth and development in our National Organisations. Please look out for the following international programmes, the EUKHT, the Media and PR ACADEMY which are due to take place sometime in 2017. See link for more details, it's not to be missed. • EUKHT Brussels (8 -12 October 2017) https://jci.cc/ourevents/eukht2017/registration • MEDIA & PR Academy, Italy (4-7 October 2017) http://www.jciprmediaacademy.org/ Contact prma@jciitaly.org By Immaculate BiRungi 2017 International Director, JCI Greenwich