Posts Tagged ‘Active Citizenship’

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TOYP Awards Ceremony

Thursday, November 4th, 2010

It was such a pleasure last night to listen to the stories and inspiring words from the JCI Ten Out Standing Young People (TOYP) of the world. In a time around the globe when we are bombarded with negative news about how bad things are and so much negativity listings to their inspiring stories was refreshing.

It is so important for Ireland and the world to make role models of people who are making a real difference in making the world a better place to live in. I find it hard to believe that people like Wane Rooney gets paid in excess of €200,000 per week and he is idolised while sometimes it is so hard for people like our great TOYP winners to get recognised.

Read about this years TOYP winners here http://www.jci.cc/news/home.php?news=16861

JCI TOYP Winner Melanie Hennessy

This week I would ask you that if you come across someone who is doing something good to make a difference that you tell them you appreciate what they are doing.

I was so proud of our TOYP winner Melanie for the great work she is doing in Nepal when she gave her heart felt speech at the awards ceremony last. It made me so happy to be Irish and a JCI member who can help encourage great young people who are making a real difference in the world.

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JCI Ireland is Growing

Friday, October 29th, 2010

It has been quite a while since my last post and so much has happened that I am not 100% sure where to start. The big news that I am delighted with is the fact that JCI Ireland is now growing and we have 4 branches in start-up phases. JCI South Leitrim, JCI Ennis, JCI Clonmel and JCI Dundalk and we also have interest from Tralee chamber of commerce who is considering getting a branch up and running. If you know anyone in these towns please tell them about the new branches and get them along to an event.

It makes me so proud that I will be able to tell people this and also that we had two branches affiliate at the start of the year while I am in Japan at the JCI World convention next week. I am so looking forward to representing Ireland in Japan and meeting all the great JCI friends I have from around the world.

Since my last post we have also had our National Convention in Malahide. This was a great event and there were so many highlights for me from the weekend. We had the final of the JCI Ireland Friendly Business Awards, 70’s fancy dress karaoke, splendid training sessions, keynote speakers, reimagining Ireland as a better place, JCI Cork winning all the awards in their first year as a branch, the launch of Active Citizenship week and the tripartite debate. All of this mixed in with great fun, great people and a sense that as JCI members that we can make a difference.

We had JCI Ireland Active Citizenship week where people from all over Ireland got down and dirty and got stuck into being Active Citizens. The JCI World president visited us on the Tuesday of Active Citizenship week and we brought him to Dublin, Limerick and Galway where he was interviewed by RTE about our world TOYP winner.

Like I did at the JCI European conference in Denmark I am planning on blogging quite a bit from Japan so as to give all the JCI Ireland members a feeling of what is going on in Japan so expect to see quite a few blog entries from me over the next week.

Regards

Mark

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Good news all round!

Saturday, September 18th, 2010

The past few months have been hectic and I have not been blogging as much as I had hoped to be at the start of the year. Just going to do a quick update entry now to bring you all up to speed with what has been going on in the latter part of the summer for JCI Ireland.

  • The great news that one of JCI Ireland’s TOYP winners Melanie Hennessy has been named as a one of the JCI Ten Outstanding Young Persons.      It is great when we can highlight the great work being done by young Irish Active Citizens.  
  • JCI Galway hosted president’s day in ST Brigit’s gardens just outside of Galway City. The gardens were splendid and a great day was had. In the morning there was a great training on selecting herbs while National Executive had our board meeting. In the afternoon there was a great training on setting goals.
  • The last few months has seen loads of work going into planning for Active Citizenship Week 3rd – 10th of October. www.fifty-ways.com this will be launched on the Sunday of our National Convention in Malahide and we will have Mary Davis, Richard Bruton talking about the importance of Active Citizenship at the launch.
  • JCI Fingal have been working around the clock to organise this year’s National convention from the 1st – 3rd of October. The highlights of the weekend will be the JCI Friendly Business Awards on the Friday night, training by some excellent IMI trainers on the Saturday, debating the Gala dinner and the launch of Active Citizenship week.
  • I was in Leitrim this month for the launch of JCI in Leitrim and this was great for me. I love it when I am asked to speak to new people about JCI.
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A thought on leadership & Education

Monday, July 26th, 2010

Hi Everyone,

I have really enjoyed listening to this video and would love your opinion on it. Statements like  You have a mind and you have other people, start with those and change the world!

Bennington president Liz Coleman delivers a call-to-arms for radical reform in higher education. Bucking the trend to push students toward increasingly narrow areas of study, she proposes a truly cross-disciplinary education — one that dynamically combines all areas of study to address the great problems of our day.

What do you think? Are wo doing the right thing with Active Citizenship week? http://www.fifty-ways.com 3rd to 10th of October!

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Three Young Active Citizens

Saturday, July 17th, 2010

I was heading into town on Thursday evening and there were three young girls about eight or nine on my street with a little table selling stuff. I went over to it and they were selling chocolate bars and sweets.

They asked me did I want to buy something and that the money was going to a good cause. I asked them what the cause was and they told me all the profits were going to help the people that were affected by the Haiti earthquake.

Needless to say I was delighted as this is the same cause the JCI Dublin are currently fundraising for here in conjunction with UNICEF.

http://www.unicef.ie/jci.aspx

I paid €10 for a bar of chocolate and the young girls were delighted and I was so happy to see some young active citizens on my street and budding TOYP winners.

This was a great example to me that sometimes we can overcomplicate things and that it can be good to just get out and do something simple like selling chocolate bars.

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JCI Galway & European Employment Circus

Thursday, July 15th, 2010

 European Employment Circus visits Galway Arts Festival

 
JCI Ireland will be displaying at the European Employment Circus  at Nimmos Pier in Galway this weekend, to promote jobs, skills and opportunities from local to European level. The EU is looking to help its citizens tackle the current crisis by finding new employment perspectives and by addressing issues that are on everyone’s agenda: jobs, unemployment, skills and equal opportunities.
The fair, themed as a circus tent, is a fun and accessible way to bring the opportunities of Social Europe to as many people as possible. This is a great example of Active Citizenship in action and is a good warm up for Active Citizenship week in October. http://www.fifty-ways.com

 
Let your children enjoy the clowns and jugglers while you find out more about what JCI & Europe can do for you.

Opens 1.00 pm

Traditional Irish music entertainment from 4.30-6.30

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2010 sees more volunteers and fewer politicians!

Monday, June 28th, 2010

JCI Ireland survey shows that Irish people believe active citizenship starts with volunteering!

A survey conducted by JCI Ireland shows that 16% of Irish people believe that volunteering is a more representative act of active citizenship as opposed to joining a political party, where 0% voted in favour. The survey was conducted to mark the announcement of JCI Ireland’s Active Citizenship Week on October 3-8th 2010.

(more…)

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JCI European Conference in Aarhus

Thursday, June 10th, 2010

I landed in Copenhagen last night at 21:00 and had a nice walk around the city. It was raining a little and I did not expect that but I guess I should have checked the weather.

This morning I got the 7:50 fast train from Copenhagen to Aarhus and really got to see the splendid countryside of Denmark. There were many lovely lakes and lots of great bridges.

Five of the JCI Ireland delegation are staying in an apartment that is just around the corner from the conference Centrex and hotel. International director Marie did an excellent job finding the accommodation and everyone is delighted with the find.

The opening ceremony saw acrobats performing death defying feats on stage that really amassed everyone. As national president I was called up on stage as the Irish chief delegate and they had a short presentation on Ireland.

The night then kicked off in style with the first big party of the week and the beer was flowing freely. The price of beer in Denmark is quite expensive so everyone was delighted with the free bar that is included in the price of the conference ticket at the parties.

Up early tomorrow morning and off to general assembly where we will start to make some decisions on the direction of JCI in Europe. I hope to get some good ideas on launching branches around Ireland from my fellow JCI National Presidents.

Mark

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JCI Ireland TOYP

Tuesday, June 8th, 2010

Last weekend saw members and non members from around Ireland attend the national TOYP awards. This was an excellent event that has gone from strength to strength over the last few years. I was so proud to be able to present awards to this years seven outstanding young people. I would like to really thank Michelle and her team for doing a splendid job in organising the event.

I am just sitting in the Airport now typing up this post getting ready to jet over to Denmark and attend the 2010 JCI European conference. I love the opportunity to get to European and World events to meet up with my JCI international friends. I hope to do some video blogs from the conference so you can experience some of the good times also.

　

We are going to do a marketing campaign at this years JCI Ireland national convention that is being hosted by JCI Fingal on the first weekend of October. I am hoping that we can tempt some of our good international friends over for a great weekend. This years convention theme is “Leading Together“

I would like everyone to keep new branch launches at the front of their minds an also Active Citizenship week

www.fifty-ways.com

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European President’s Meeting in Riga 3

Saturday, February 20th, 2010

 

This is my final post from the EPM in Riga and I have had a great time here with Louise and all my International friends. 

Louise has been busy taking note of all the upcoming international events that our JCI friends from all around Europe  are running and you can find them all the calendar in the JCI Ireland website http://www.jci-ireland.org Please have a look at these events and promote them to members and non members alike. These international events are a great opportunity to learn from friends and it is also a great opportunity for us to share our experiences. 

I have volunteered to be on the European committee that will help to make suggestions on what JCI Europe would like the European Union to do in relation to Active Citizenship. All the European presidents and there deputies were very impressed with our work in Active Citizenship in Ireland and I would like to congratulate you on that. 

It is now time to party and we are all going night clubbing tonight in this beautiful city Riga. I would like to thank the Conference Organizing committee in Riga for an excellent EMT. Our flight is late tomorrow night and as long as the snow stays away for a few hours I hope to see some of you during the week.Mark

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