JCI Dublin - Junior Chamber International Dublin

From 12th October to 14th October, JCI Ireland was celebrating his 50th anniversary at Cobh with Jaycees from all over the world was there Australia, Finland, USA, UK, Canada. During this weekend, each delegate could appreciate the quality of preparation done by JCI Cobh to make this event unforgettable in our memories. The location and food were excellent, the program intensive but varied (Trainings, Business seminar, sightseeing, parties…) and very friendly ambiance.

JCI Ireland National Convention 2007 – 50th Anniversary JCI Ireland in Sheraton Hotel, Cobh, Co. Cork

On 12th October 2007, JCI Cobh hosted the 50th JCI Ireland National Convention 2007.

Brief History of Junior Chamber International (JCI) Ireland,

Junior Chambers Cork and Dublin formed Junior Chamber Ireland on the 14th of May  1957 in 27, South Mall, Cork in the presence of the world president, Ira Kaye (USA) and R. Goldberg (Belgium) JCI VP. The organisation was, at first, treated with great suspicion but after the opportunity given to its first members of explaining the ideals of the organisation it was fully accepted by the community.

JCI Ireland was affiliated to Junior Chamber International in 1958 and has provided the international organisation with two World Presidents, Joe Murphy in 1984 and Kevin Cullinnane in 2005, a number of other international officers, hosted World Congress in Dublin in 1970, three European Conferences, in Dun Laoghaire in 1959, Killarney in 1975, Wexford in 1981 and the European Presidents’ Meeting in Wexford in 1990.

In the fifty years that have passed since its foundation, JCI Ireland has provided opportunities to many thousands of young Irish business people, entrepreneurs and leaders. Its alumni include Government Ministers, Judges, CEO’s of Semi-state bodies and captains of industry. While Ireland has changed much since 1957, the ethos of the organisation, to provide opportunities in the areas of community, business, individual development and internationalism to young people between the ages of 18 and 40 remains the same.

At its peak in the 1970’s and 1980’s, JCI Ireland had over sixty branches and 2,500  members all over the state and, while it may be less influential now than it once was, the opportunities which it provides to its members remain the same and the National Organisation remains committed to creating a better future by crating better leaders.

National Convention - 1st Day

The National Start on Friday at 1pm with a civic reception at Cobh Town Hall. The mayor of Cobh, Councillor Paddy Whitty, gave a warm welcome to all delegates, especially World JCI President, Mr Scott Greenlee, and JCI National President Ms Karen Sweeney.

After National Executive committee Meeting and National Council Meeting,  we had JCI Ireland Causus and Elections for 2008. During these elections, Catherine Laffey has been elected JCI National President 2008 and Orla Ryng has her Deputy President.

Then we had the JCI Tri-partite Debate Final. JCI Ireland, JCI Scotland and JCI UK competed on two topics. JCI Scotland won the competition.

The end of the evening was the Maritime Festival of colour. Everybody was wearing fancy dress “Pirates of Caribbean”.  And we had lot of fun. During this Maritime Festival Ms Karen Sweeney has been made senator number 67600. 

National Convention – 2nd Day

On Saturday morning, Matt Hutcheon and Lindsey Fair give us trainings:

The birdhouse business, in one short hour, participants will get to experience all aspects of managing a small business, from budgeting, contingencies, planning, manufacturing/assembly, delegating tasks, marketing & promotions and sales. Working through a complete project from start to finish, and having to deal with forces beyond their control, participants in this session will see imedialtly the implications of their business decisions and become aware of the board range of considerations they must always keep in mind in running a small business. As the natural competitive juices get flowing between teams, this program is not only valuable learning medium, but incredibly entertaining as well.

Assembling Success, do you have what it takes to lead your team to victory? Successful organisations depend on quick-thinking leaders, an ability to recognize strenghs and weaknesses of team members, and plans that allocate resources for maximum efficiency. This fun and fast-paced session has teams competing to design and execute an assembly line, get quality products to market more quickly than the others while facing unique challenges associated with the abilities of each team member. The lessons illustrated by this exercise can easily be transferred to any type of business, committee or organization. Team-leaders will have their decision-making and communication abilities tested in a hectic environment – how will you measure up?

These two training has been followed by a Business Seminar: “Towards a better Ireland - Lessons from the Celtic Tiger Era”

Chairperson:  Kevin Cullinnane
Panel Members:  John Farelly, Fr Peter McVerry, Senator Dan Boyle, Kathy Sinnott MEP

In the Afternoon, delegates went to the Historic Cobh’s “Queenstown Story” and “Titanic Trail” walking tour.

In the evening, we had the Golden Jubilee Gala Banquet and the Awards Ceremony. JCI Dublin won awards for the two entries they had, “Friendly Business Award” as Best Business Project and “Kevin Guerin” as Most Outstanding Member.  Also Kevin Guerin got his certificate for accomplishment of “7 steps to success”. 

National Convention – 3rd Day by Anthony Moran

Two members Anthony, Kevin, from JCI Dublin met up in the room after a hearty breakfast and a very few hours of sleep after a long night of partying. We got 4 hours of sleep, someone mentioned that “that no sleep until Dublin was the orders for the weekend and we lived up to that part of the deal”. Other JC Ireland chapter leader joined in the session as well.

World President Scott Greenlee opened up training session in a lively style saying that the future of JCI Ireland was in our hands, and we had a responsibility to do a good job.

Scot Johnston then took over the rest of the training session “What does success look like in 2008?”. He gave us interactive exercises to get us off are seats. We saw Ronan being shot dead in a mock duel, where we learned to watch out for breaking down in communications. Then Orla Ryng and Kevin Guerin play shuttle cocks and this was “good communications” and keeps the door open all the times.

Ideas for planning for the future were important and setting dates is vital to having a goal to achieve success.

When there are no plans done then the plans are to fail as mentioned by Scott Johnston, which are true words that we hope not to learn this year.

We then brainstormed in two groups swapping ideas to improve each other chapter to get members to enjoy JCI more and membership growth was a key objective to aim for by all.

Scott showed us how to network members and make sure that they feel welcomed, also how to not let them feel alone in group introduce them to all in the room.

He also told us to always show JCI in a positive light and that it is an organisation of opportunities which can be applied to the rest of your life.

We also need to find out from members want they want to do in chapter and also try our best to accommodate these needs.

To conclude, Scott taught us that each member is very valuable and always try and hold onto members, as great things can be achieved by positive promotion of the chapter. Junior chamber is “Skills for Business, Skills for Life.”

For closing the National convention, we had The Outstanding Young Person (TOYP) Ceremony during the lunch. JCI Ireland TOYP 2007 is Derek O’Keeffe.