What a year it’s been!
As we welcome our new
JCI Winnipeg President, Natasha Fisher, we reflect on our Past President’s
commitment to JCI this past year.
Danelle Hueging served
as 91st President of Junior Chamber International Winnipeg, the
first Canadian chapter of JCI, established back in 1923.
When I first joined
JCI, I heard the phrase “one year to lead” coined for the first time. A good
catch phrase, I thought. Well, that’s changed. Working with Danelle on JCI
initiatives has amplified my definition of what “one year to lead” means for
me, for our members and for our community. This note is my attempt at
showcasing that fact.
Here is a quick
rundown of JCI accomplishments, under Danelle’s leadership …
Having been sworn-in
on Dec 7, 2013 at JCI’s signature Winter Gala, Danelle quickly got to work on
getting her board ready for new challenges in 2014.
Her impact began
manifesting itself as she mingled with her peers in St. Louis at JCI
USA’s Local President's Summit, early in 2014. Representing Winnipeg and
Canada, Danelle studied successes in other chapters in order to bring back
fresh ideas on how JCI Winnipeg could shape its potential for positive change
in Winnipeg.
Then,
she scheduled a Local
Officer Training (LOTS) session with other JCI chapters in Canada’s Prairie
Region. We all benefited from this weekend to learn, connect with fellow
members from Western Canada and to bond as colleagues.
The
bar was set; Danelle quickly focused her attention on supporting a variety of
initiatives and projects offering professional development opportunities to our
membership, visibility and influence for the chapter and opportunities to have
positive impact in our community.
Here
are a just few of them…
Bold Winnipeg Caucus
As
President of JCI Winnipeg, Danelle served as Ex-Officio Member on the Winnipeg Chamber
of Commerce Board of Directors. She joined the BOLD Caucus, along with 26
other community leaders to help shape the BOLD platform. Simply put, the platform
captured the creativity and passion Winnipeggers have for our city in an effort
to inspire innovative thinking and ideas among all mayoral candidates for the
2014 Civic Elections.
Leadercast Winnipeg
The
best one day leadership training summit of the year! Participants heard from
current and influential leaders from all walks of life. JCI gathered over 100
people for this inaugural event that drew keynotes speakers Sachit Merah and Hon. Kevin Chief who spoke on the
theme 'Beyond You'.
JCI Winnipeg’s Effective
Speaking Workshop and Competition
Following
in Natasha Fisher’s footsteps as Effective Speaking Champion of the Americas, JCI
Winnipeg organized professional development workshops for effective speaking and
saw member Katrina Hueging defend Winnipeg’s title as Canadian champs at JCI
Canada’s National Convention in late September 2014.
Read news
stories on Natasha Fisher’s bid for the World Title in Effective Speaking - Natasha Fisher’s
public speaking skills are taking her around the world.
JCI Winnipeg to become
bilingual
Following
the World Trade Centre Winnipeg’s lead, JCI Winnipeg has decided to invest
resources in becoming bilingual in French and English. A key partnership was
achieved with Jeune chambre de commerce de
Québec (JCCQ), Québec City’s local JCI chapter. With their assistance, we
successfully secured funding for the initiative. We have since become members
of the Chambre de commerce francophone de
Saint-Boniface (CCFSB) and have a new bilingual website scheduled for
launch in early 2015.
Community Clean-up – Fort
Rouge Park
Danelle’s
strong sense of community energized JCI’s membership for our annual Community
Clean-up event. Community members and small business sponsors worked hand in
hand with JCI to clean up Fort Rouge Park. Rain or shine, Danelle took the helm
and mobilized us for some for positive impact in our community.
JCI Winnipeg’s Annual Golf
Tournament
With
help from member Joel Mabon, JCI accomplished a little fundraising and
redefined the term #funwithpurpose. The day was spent among new and past JCI
members, along with JCI Senators, friends and family having fun on the links
while raising funds for JCI’s many community initiatives. Danelle took this
opportunity to connect the past and current members for an afternoon of
fellowship, where success stories from JCI Winnipeg’s long history were shared.
2014 JCI Canada National
Convention
JCI
Durham was host to 2014 JCI Canada National Convention which took place Ajax,
Ontario. Danelle did not hesitate to maximize the opportunities that presented
themselves at this annual event. After submitting a copious amount of projects
and initiatives for awards in the weeks leading up to Nat Con (as we call it),
Danelle accompanied the JCI Winnipeg delegation to JCI Canada’s General
Assembly, participated in many training sessions and promoted JCI Winnipeg’s
achievements at multiple networking events organized by JCI Durham. Her hard
work paid off as JCI Winnipeg was recognized in 4 different categories. Danelle
also took every opportunity to promote Natasha Fisher’s bid for the World
Effective Speaking Championship Title and raised over $600 for her travel
expenses. And finally, Danelle accepted a new role as National Vice - President
for JCI Canada.
Danelle
Hueging finished off her year to lead by supporting 4 stunning projects; JCI’s Trick Or Eat
Halloween Food Drive, JCI’s Charity Toy
Drive, the Santa Claus Parade
Day events, and a new collaboration with Junior achievement of Manitoba. She also accompanied Natasha Fisher to JCI World Congress 2014 Leipzig, Germany in November 2014.
All
of these projects take an impressive amount of coordination, skill and dedication.
Danelle brought this to each and every meeting, every member Mixer and at every
event where she represented us. She also knew how to bring it out in all of us.
She successfully mobilized us to take on innovative projects, to invest our
time for greater causes and to commit to bringing our best. She has helped our
board, our members and our community become better versions of ourselves, and
all this within her year to lead.
Witness
to Danelle’s enthusiasm and dedication, my belief that we can achieve positive
change in our community, as a group and as an individual, continues to grow.
Speaking
on behalf of all of those you've reached this year, thank you for being
involved, for being fearless in front of new challenges and for believing in
our ability to make the world better.
To
quote Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed
citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
All the best in 2015 as a JCI Canada National Vice-President.
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