Chairman’s Blog – Meeting Thursday 25th October 2012
24 members present. Photographers, Rosemary Cleave and Chris Sadler, and Interior Designer, Penny Hendersen.
Brian Painter stood in for David Plumley. Our revered Education and Development Officer was suffering from the effect of a dodgy trout…… beware of old ladies bearing gifts!!
Whilst we are on the subject of bizarre excuses for not turning up, I understand Neil Lewer was called out to a burglary that kept him up all night. We assume it was to subsequently assist the victims rather than join in with the perpetrators.
Brian’s stand in role involved him introducing the Education Slot which was delivered by our resident legal rottweiler, Terry Maylin. As it turned out, he produced one of the more memorable Education Slots by emphasising the need to establish trust and confidence between members of the group thereby ensuring not only regular attendance at the weekly meeting, but also attending One to Ones and Power Groups. So memorable in fact that in the 60 second round I counted 6 people take up and make reference to the theme of mutual trust and confidence. A chord had been struck. I think on reflection the Education Slot bar has just been raised.
Talking about the 60 second round, I would hate to give the impression that it was too philosophical. Mike Rogers complained about the unfortunate effect of people handing out one of his old cards. As one of the “old cards” of the meeting we were all moved to update ourselves although he didn’t believe that any of us did.
Terry Maylin suggested we all get our accident claims in before next April on the basis that everyone has several accidents in a lifetime so there is something in making sure that we all have a really good one before next year to ensure that we can proceed through the Courts in a cost effective way.
Howard Bullock, our Clear Financial Advisor, demonstrated his knowledge of carpet making and somehow linked this to financial advice. Graham Thurston steadfastly holding his hands behind his back was unable, however, to demonstrate any knowledge of financial services.
If the Oscar was awarded for perversity Brian Painter would have won hands down… so he has got this bloke lying on his couch in no doubt a suitably hypnotic state explaining something that I thought was perfectly reasonable, but Brian seemed to recognise as a phobia. The moment the aforementioned was driving over 65 mph, if he looked down at his speedometer he started developing all the symptoms of an impending panic attack. So the phycological cure was duly administered. Said under man who previously kept his eyes on the road when travelling over 65 mph and probably did not go much over 70 mph in any event, through his cure became so confident that could cruise at a speed far in excess of 70 mph whilst looking at the speedometer. Now there’s progress!! We should be concerned about referring anyone to Brian who had a fear of flying just in case that phobia is so successfully cured that the patient feels obliged to run to the top of the highest building and thereby attempt what he had always feared. However, the Oscar is not awarded for perversity, it is awarded for clear exposition of your business, who you are, what you do and what type of referral you are looking for. It therefore followed as night follows day that Kevin Radford was awarded the Oscar. He offered a suitably off the wall hark back to Dr. Who and the cybermen from the BBC of yore. Sadly all too many members remembered the cybermen which doesn’t say much for the age demographic of the group, but does acknowledge the importance of being surreal. An excellent effort, but I can’t help but think that Kevin had in mind the person who was awarding the Oscar…..yes you’ve guessed it, Alan Shaw.
Paul Booth was the 10 minute presenter. Still bathed in the glow of his success in winning the “jolly good egg of the month” competition for September, he then went on to remind us that accountancy was no laughing matter. Nonetheless it is rather important for all of us as tax payers to get it right and have the benefit of good accountancy advice.
The referrals round produced an immediate acknowledgement of the usefulness of Paul’s offering. Alan Shaw declared that he was not going to have any more children and Tina Walker realised that she had another reason to be glad that she didn’t have any. Is it possible that accountancy can be the new non-invasive birth control method for the 21st century.
Not that the referrals round didn’t have a serious side, £10,700.00 worth of business was recorded which added to previous weekly tallies this month produced around £87,000.00 worth of business written. This is maintaining the average that will provide a million pound turnover a year, well done everybody.
Finally the announcements confirmed that we have 23 booked for the Christmas dinner at Prezzo in Billericay on the 21st December. Anyone who hasn’t paid their deposit of £5.00 per head please do so asap.
Although we have confirmed the booking for this number if anyone else gets the urge do not hesitate to let Terry Maylin know and we should be able to add to the numbers, but time is running out.
Finally, if I have missed anything out that was notable from the meeting please add it in by making comments to this blog and indeed if you can think of any other businesses that might put you off having children please feel free to share that with us.
May all your Thursdays…