A whole month off work! It sounds relaxing doesn't it? Well the first two weeks of my months sabbatical have been a mix of some relaxation and some crazy days of travelling the UK visiting local chapters. I am so proud of the inspiring action that all of our members are taking. So where have I been so far?

I finished work on the afternoon of Friday 22nd February and immediately caught a train to London for the JCI London annual dinner at the House of Commons. What an amazing way to start my travels! The event was a huge success and I very much enjoyed seeing all of the local chambers awards being given out as well as rousing speeches from the outgoing president Simon Bucknall and incoming president Eyad Hamouieh.

Next morning I caught a flight to Malta for a few days rest and relaxation. Don't worry though, I still managed to fit in a dinner with the national board of JCI Malta! Did you know that JCI European conference in 2014 is to be hosted by Malta? That's right, after we jet off to Monaco and Brazil this year we can start looking forward to a trip to sunny Malta. From what I saw whilst I was there the event will be one to remember.

I arrived back in the UK on the 1st March and headed straight to a lunchtime meeting in London with the national president and deputy national president of AIESEC UK. We are in the process of agreeing a partnership between the two organisations so watch this space for more information.

With no time to pause I was back on my travels to Southampton for their members evening. This was a huge success and I even got to do my first ever live radio interview. The energy in the room was fantastic and it ended up being a quite late finish! As the evening progressed we were joined by most of the JCI UK national board arriving for our board weekend. It was great to see the team meeting the local members and sharing their stories with them.

The weekend board meeting was fantastic. There was so much energy and passion amongst the team. We also got to meet an apprentice at Costa Coffee that had benefited from their apprentice scheme- and she will be joining us at the European Conference! Using the academy that JCI Southampton built in association with Costa I even had a go at making my own coffee (see picture).  I think that I will leave it to the experts in future!

Tuesday 5th March saw me attend a fantastic business morning hosted by JCI Barnsley. This was really interesting with some great presentations by local businesses. The delegates seemed to really be enjoying it and the event was great for JCI Barnsley's profile. That afternoon I attended JCI Reading's local council team meeting. They are holding an event every Thursday including socials and training events and have fantastic plans to work towards their fundraising target of £5000 for guide dogs for the blind.

The next morning I had to head into London for a meeting with another organisation that may be interested in working with JCI and then it was off to JCI Cambridge's local council meeting. The team was buzzing with energy and have some fantastic speakers lined up and a real passion to work to assist their local charity for the year Mind.

A night in Cambridge and then off to deliver debating training for the members of JCI Portsmouth. It was such a fun session there with great participation from the attendees. Some healthy debating was had and I even managed to resist the large pile of Easter eggs that the chamber were collecting for their charity Rainbow.

Check out my next installment to hear about my weekend in Aberdeen and more! Keep Inspiring Action!