I had a lovely weekend attending my first NOM2NOM event with the JCI UK Team from the 8th to 10th of April 2016. The weekend took place in a small town nearby Eindhoven, a must visit destination for nature-lovers and those who would like to escape the stress of the city. JCI UK has twinning partnerships with the national organisations of the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. A total of 32 members from the 4 countries participated in the event which aims to maintain and strengthen existing relationships between JCI national organisations. 

The weekend started on a Friday afternoon as delegates were greeted, shown their accommodation and then invited to join the drinks reception that was taking place in the main hall. During the reception, I had the chance to get acquainted with the Swiss team and was pleasantly surprised to find out that JCI Switzerland is in the process of implementing the Know How Transfer project to their members the chance to shadow member of parliament in Bern this coming  September. The Swiss Know How Transfer programme is a benchmark of a programme run by JCI Europe in Brussels and I am delighted to say that JCI UK is working on a similar proposal that would enable our members to experience politics first-hand in Westminster!

We had a knowledge sharing session on a Saturday morning where Sarah and Ben gave tips  on how to write an award proposal; I personally found the presentation extremely informative and couldnt hep taking notes which I had summarised as follows:

• Apply: familiarise yourself with the applications process
• Fill in the forms: make sure that you included all the paper work required
• Take a lot of photos and videos: do this throughout the project 
• Tell a story: connect the dots for the jury 
• Explain why you have chosen the project
• How you are going to do it: talk to us about the process you have used
• And prepare yourself to win: get ready for celebrations!
   

Saturday afternoon focused on team building as we were given the chance to compete in teams against each other. The activities we performed in that afternoon were reminiscent of past training/activities I did when attending various leadership academies with JCI; the bottom line was that together, we can always have fun, learn and make an impact! Sunday morning we bid farewell to our lovely hosts and we started the journey back to the UK. Another memorable event added to my JCI CV :)

If you like to learn more about any of the topics mentioned in this blog, please feel free to email: abdulkader.aljandali@jciuk.org.uk