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Well what a week JCI Reading has had. I'm exhausted but like all JCI Reading activities its been fun and full of challenges!

First of all beginning of the week there was the scramble to collect in payments and food orders in readiness for the Guide Dog pub quiz we're hosting next Tuesday at Walkabout in Reading. Unbelieveably the quiz sold out a whole 13 days in advance. Then it was off to place one massive food order - 39 burgers - can you believe it, plus other menu tems too! Anyway with room hire paid, food orders placed and boomerang drinks discount cards in my pocket I left feeling we were a huge step forward. 

Out and about on Wednesday I popped into Vue in Reading town centre who donated two pairs of free cinema tickets as prizes for our raffle quiz. 

Wednesday evening saw the close of another round of Ebay auction bids and the evening was spent wrapping up the items, leaving me with a tidy pile of parcels. Now, let me think - in these were a man's blazer, a lady's trouser suit, a girl's denim jacket, a girl's denim dress, girl's cargo trousers, girl's tops, easter cards, notecards, pashmina, a cd single and a girl's cardigan! All in all these items alone raised some £22 profit all of which goes to straight to JCI Reading's account for Guide Dogs for the Blind. 

Thursday, being the fourth Thursday of the month was training evening. We were very pleased to welcome Soraya from JCI London to talk to us about how to run good projects. I was especially keen to hear this talk as I have very little project management experience, not having opportunities to develop such skills in my day to day job. I later found out that the training was Soraya's first workshop that she had delivered - not that you would have guessed - she talked us through the stages of a project and the important recording process. This workshop is going to be invaluable for this year as the Community activites of the chamber develop. 

Now it's Friday evening, my JCI Reading week is by no means over. My husband's brought home a large bag of used postage stamps that all need sorting and trimming, it's a free listings weekend on Ebay which will give me another opportunity to advertise many of the items that friends, family and colleagues have donated towards our huge fundraising efforts. What have i got to put up this weekend - teddies, ladies' clothes, books, notecards, jewellery, alsorts in fact!

Of course the big job of the weekend will be getting the final arrangements in place for Tuesday's quiz. It's odd because organising these sort of events are hardwork and can be stressful - but I really enjoy it! There's the float for the raffle to organise, raffle tickets to buy, seating plans to arrange, outstanding ticket payments to follow up, gift aid sheets to put ready and lots of other things to collect together. 

Finally I'm hoping to harness all the support that attendees to the quiz are giving us on Tuesday by letting them know how they can help us further. This could be by collecting stamps for us, donating unwanted clothing, linens, cuddly toys, shoes, books, cds, dvds, game discs and good condition bric-a-brac. Desktop publishing is always a challenge for me, but the beauty of JCI Reading is that once you have something in draft there is always someone, like our president Steve Wells, who will look it over and put my efforts right.

Well, there's a particularly busy week in JCI Reading but it shows the different opportunities that are on offer for members in any one week for them to choose from. 

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Travelling to Birmingham was well worth the time and effort to get to the JCI UK launch event for the year it truly was an 'Inspiration Day' for Sreenivas Midatala one of our newest members.

It was a great oppurtinity to meet people from various backgrounds and it was very  inspiring to know how JCI has helped or had an effect on professional lifes of individuals.

I also learnt about other training events that are organised at various JCI chambers  in UK which of my interest in self development.

In all JCI UK as whole has lot to offer , and now I belive that I have taken one small step to make a difference.

To find out more about JCI and how it can help you please come along to one of our 'How JCI Reading Can Help You' sessions, the next one is on Thursday 9^th Feb

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We've now booked our launch event for our 2012 Guide Dogs for the Blind year long campaign. 

Our pub quiz will run on Tuesday 28th february 2012 at Walkabout in Reading town centre. The quiz is open to absolutely everyone, so start asking your family, friends, colleagues, business contacts, neighbours and get your team or teams booked asap as places are limited. 

Booking the quiz, like any project has involved challenges that had to be overcome. As I experienced when I was Personal Development Director, getting venues to book us for venues is very difficult because we're a smaller community group and cannot afford to pay up front large deposits, so we're grateful to Walkabout for helping where others could not. 

Anyone wanting more information, wanting to book a team, wanting to donate a raffle prize or wanting to know more about JCI Reading should contact me, Clare Franklin, on 0118 9605792 or email me on Clare.f@jcireading.co.uk 

Download the flyer for the quiz at www.jcireading.org.uk/events/2012-02-28

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