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Today I collected a car load of clothing and textiles from one of our JCI members towards our recycling campaign for Guide Dogs for the Blind.

We all, I'm sure, have bundles of clothing, bedding, curtains, shoes, handbags, belts and soft toys in our wardrobes, cupboards and attics - things we'll never use again. 

Taking the time to clear out these items not only gives a sense of satisfaction in knowing you're clearing out, but will also, if you donate them to JCI Reading, help to raise money for Guide Dogs for the Blind! 

Collect together all your unwanted clothing items as detailed above and contact me at clare.f@jcireading.co.uk to arrange handover. They'll be added to our ever increasing piles of sacks ready for collection on 20^th January 2012 - so hurry, let's make a good start to our 2012 Guide Dogs for the Blind 'Name a Puppy' campaign. One full sack of clothing could add as much as £5 to the campaign depending upon the weight, so every last item counts! 

By Clare Franklin

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Stamps - they appear on envelopes everyday, yet we hardly give them a second thought. It is in fact the case that they can be collected and traded in for cash for charities, such as the JCI Reading 2012 charity, Guide Dogs for the Blind.

With Christmas post, there's been many more stamps to collect and my box of stamps is looking healthy, having received at least a couple of envelopes a day! It takes me little or no time to carefully tear off the stamp, leaving a border of paper and they take very little space to store - keeping them in an envelope is perfect! Contact me clare.f@jcireading.co.uk to arrange handover of your stamps throughout 2012.

I've even asked my family, friends and even my work colleagues to collect their stamps for me. Remember too that organisations receive post too - set up a box where the post is opened for stamps to be saved and make it known to colleagues they can add their own to the collection.

All stamps can be collected as all are valuable. Do keep your eyes open for all foreign and UK pictorial stamps which are of particular value and attract extra funds for charity.

Happy collecting! 

From Clare Franklin

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December's workshop entitled 'Branding and Communication: It's not what you say it's how you said it' raised a question for me - of what relevance was it to me? As an employee of a firm already with branding in place did I need to know about communicate a companies message throught it's brand?

Still with questions in my mind, I signed up, knowing that JCI Reading trainings were always of use, whether it be a nugget of information that I didn't know before, or the learning of knowledge and skills that I may draw upon in the future. After all, JCI Reading is all about 'Tomorrow's leaders today!'

The workshop presented by Wesley Buss of Yewtree Marketing, also a JCI Reading member, covered many aspects of branding and communication, a topic I had not given much thought to previously. Out of what was all round an interest and thought provoking workshop, the topic of Communication Management presented itself as one of great relevance to me. Being an Associate Solicitor, BNI Oracle Member and JCI Reading Board Member, the amount of communications I need to be doing often causes me worry and stress as I have no way of managing them.

Now armed from the workshop with an understanding of all the communications that I am expected to do as well as those that I want to do, from JCI Minutes, BNI Visitor Invites, work marketing campaigns and many more, I set about listing them all, their frequency and identifying the steps that I need to put in place to make such communications easier to complete and in turn easier to keep up with.

Now as I work on setting up my Microsoft Excel spreadsheet 'Communications Dairy' I realise how from a workshop I went along to as it 'might' hold something of interest, has in fact given me a much needed tool that as it develops will change the way I handle, plan and complete communications, bringing calm to the otherwise busy and sometimes unordered thoughts of 'I must do that', 'I must email them' and 'I forgot to send that this week'.

Therefore I would encourage you to look at all future events with an open mind as to how they can help you, for I am sure there will always be something.

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At the Board Meeting I was excited to put my ideas to the group. This being JCI I knew they would not be laughed down and that any comments would be creative and helpful. I wanted my board colleagues to buy into the idea, after all whilst I myself was committed to the plan, there were certain tasks that I could only achieve with JCI Reading's supportive team behind me.

So there it was - my idea was out there - Guide Dogs for the Blind - a national, well known and established charity, a visible charity as guide dogs are often seen out doing their important work, a charity appealing to all motivations, adults, children, disabilities and animals.

My fellow board fellows were supportive and encouraging, passing the resolution to adopt the charity for 2012, even offering forward ideas to consider and questions to ask of the charity at the now inevitable meeting that was to be arranged.

So, there it was, my goal to raise funds for Guide Dogs for the Blind was out there I had personally committed to it and told others, it was recorded in the minutes of the meeting.

Knowing that I had written down my goal gave and shared it with those around me gave me an immediate sense that I would achieve it.

Now, came the exciting and challenging task of planning how I would reach that goal, the steps I would need to take and the making sense of the muddle of ideas that was jumbled inside my head - I felt like I could do anything, and my JCI Reading friends were there to back me up.

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Taking the decision to step away from my role of Personal Development Director and more recently Events Co-Ordinator for JCI Reading was not an easy one. Balancing the comfort of a familiar role, doing similar things and practising recurring skills or stepping into an unknown role that has not been fulfilled in JCI Reading for some years to take on the Charity functions within the Chamber.

The move for me was my personal desire to undertake charity work and also to learn and acquire new skills.

The first challenge was to be the seemingly easy task of choosing the charity, which in practice turned out to be one of great difficulty

• Could those from outside the immediate locality be motivated to help?
• What would form a widely appealing subject to ensure maximum buy in?
• Was the charity well known enough to create and hold support?
• What would other members of the chamber think?

I did my research, mind mapped my ideas, created my proposal and went to the JCI Reading Board Meeting

What would my fellow members think and would they agree with my idea for JCI Reading's Charity of 2012?

Clare

My next post will be on Wednesday.

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At last nights JCI Reading board meeting it was suggested to me (by Steve) that I write regular blogs to help me share something that I am passionate about.

Having thought about it on the train home I want to try to create 'my story' through the blogs. Describing my journey as I take on and embark upon what is for me, quite a marked change in JCI roles. From something that became second nature to me, to something that is going to challenge me in finding out new things, doing new tasks, researching, holding and organising new events and potential dealing with new and varied events.

I hope the blogs that you will read over the coming months are Okay. I haven't written many blogs as in the past, so hopefully by writing more they will get better and better. I've started the beginning of my story and I will try to encompass 'JCI themes' such as the safe environment, the support we give each other, the asking other for leads and help, the skills/contacts that come to us with the hope that it demonstrates what we're all about.

As with everything I do I want to learn to do it right so please give me feedback, comment on the blogs on the site, ask us questions. We may not answer them straight away, but we will try to answer them or ask one of our other members to answer them.

I hope you enjoy reading these blogs.

Clare

My next post will be published on Sunday.
If you are on facebook a really easy way to be notified is to 'like' the JCI Reading facebook page. ( https://www.facebook.com/JCIReading )

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