What is twinning all about?
Twinning in general
Friendship across borders
Twinning is an international co-operation between JCI local organizations. It’s a way to make internationality accessible to every member of the local organization. The purpose of twinning is to create connections between local organizations, to visit, to get acquainted with culture, to learn about the activities of others and to exchange project and event ideas. All of these contribute to positive change in line with the strategy as we better understand others, and on the other hand, we can develop ourselves and our local organization in a better direction through new doctrines and ideas. Joint projects and visits also provide an opportunity for friendships and valuable contacts. With current means of communication and travel, distance is no longer an obstacle, and Twinning is easier than ever.
Twin with a Finn helps the local organizations find each other
The twinder of local organization life
Finding a friendship local organization has been made easy. Just fill out the form where you tell about yourself and the Twin with a Finn will take care of the rest. When we get in touch with a local organization that meets your wishes, we will be in touch by email.
After successfully submitting the form, you will receive an acknowledgment in your email and the Twin with a Finn team will be in touch with you over the next few days. There may not be a suitable local organization available for you right away, but we will keep your contact information for a longer period of time so that we can get the database up and running.
Twinning, multitwinning or some other
Building a friendship network in pairs or in bundles
Twinning activities can be bilateral normal twinning or multi-local organization joint multitwinning. Often twinning meetings are organized alternately throughout the year and contact is also maintained between the actual meeting weekends. The aim of the twinning activity is to get acquainted with the activities, culture and get new ideas from another country. At its best, Twinning creates new business partners, collaborative projects and lifelong friends. There are multiple ways to collaborate with a your twinning partner, and not all of them require travel, although that is warmly recommended.
We got a match, how to proceed with your Twinning partner
Follow these steps to get your twinning started
- Once you have received an email from the twin with a Finn team, you are encouraged to arrange a joint remote meeting with your potential twinning partner. This will allow you to get to know each other better and think how you could start building cooperation forward.
- At the beginning of the twinning operation, it is convenient to agree on a pre-twinning time. This allows both local organizations to assess each other’s compatibility before writing the actual contract. During the pre-twinning period, there is an opportunity to get to know each other and learn if your expectations are met. It might be start of a life long friendship or might learn that your chambers might not be the best matches. Both outcomes are fine.
- After the first acquaintance, you can together decide to move forwards with twinning activities as partners or to withdraw from the process. During pre-twinning, it would be ideal to visit each other and exchange news and information on a regular basis to get the most out of the episode. Often, for example,VP INT or a separate Twinning Officer is the best way to take a Twinning project forward. At the beginning of the actual Twinning activity, it is possible to enter into a formal twinning agreement. However, this is by no means mandatory.
Twinning agreement
Formal voluntary friendship formalization
Once both local organizations have decided to officially start twinning together, it is possible to create a official Twinning agreement. The agreement can be signed between the local organizations at any desired event, but the official agreement can also be signed at the JCI European or World Assembly.
If you would like to enter into an agreement in the latter way, please contact you national international officer. He will help you contact the JCI headquarters and you can request a formal Twinning Agreement certificate. JCI headquarters organizes official ceremonies and they will guide you through the steps. It is worth making sure that the participants from the both chambers are present at the event. After the ceremony itself, it is good to hold an event between the chambers (coffees, prosecco, etc.) where the chambers can celebrate the contract and get to know each other better. But first you really have to find your twinning partner. Just click to the link at the end to complete the form.
Case example
Multitwinning that has lasted for over 10 years
Many wonder what Twinning is in practice. JCI Tammerkoski from Tampere, Finland is a great example how twinning project has led into 10 years collaboration and real friendships.