Chairman’s Business Networking Blog Thursday 3rd October 2013.
Today was the first October meeting of “New Member November in October”. It was therefore entirely appropriate that there should be no visitors.
However there were 24 present in all, Alan Shaw arriving just in time to catch a breakfast.
Talking of breakfasts, those who looked carefully, either on the buffet or on their plate after they had deposited their egg, would have noticed a lot of double yokes. This means that we got better value for our breakfast than normal and as an omen promised of only good things to come during the meeting.
I am pleased to report that T M Law swept the board as far as winning the Performance League and the Jolly Good Egg of the month competition.
The Ed Slot was delivered by Mr Plumley, upon his return from holiday and his brief encounter with Robert French. He declared himself always to better at the beginning of the day whereas his wife was opposite. This must create some problems for our learned Education and Development Officer. He then went on to talk about doing lists to keep on track with what you should be doing on a day to day basis and using the email as a crucial tool, but not a time waster.
We effortlessly swept into the 60 second round. Alan Shaw told of a tower in a house which apparently classed as an extension rather than a protuberance. Marcelle Saad was, amongst other things, looking for WAGS. Michael Adelizzi was looking to provide a wet room that had a floor that was like a giant shower tray. Richard Read I thought was suggesting that Sky was better in January. Of course it became clear that he meant Ski.. holidays and he was wanting you to book one of those rather than watch television (on Sky that is).
Kevin Radford starting talking about an old relic, chanced his arm a bit by then referring to Brian Painter but took the precaution of nominating Brian to do his 60 seconds immediately following, giving him no time for retaliation. Our Pilgrim however had more important things on his mind. A client who would get up 6 to 9 times a night and all but 2 of them were false alarms. I wasn’t quite certain what his problem was, I get up six to 9 times a night and none of them are false alarms. Never mind, once Brian had finished with his man’s sub conscious he became a “twice a night” man and no doubt was eternally grateful. All of this put me in mind of Michael Adelizzi’s wet room again.
Howard Bullock explained to us how he had “de-risked” a Portfolio; this immediately created for me, an image of a bottle containing some sort of scouring liquid being shaken very rigorously. Apparently it is the Financial Services equivalent.
Although there was no poetry this week Mike Rogers was poetic, he talked about visiting Doreen in Bethnal Green, Ken in St. Albans and the man in the caravan who wanted to live in Jaywick. David Plumley, slightly hung over from his holiday no doubt, talked of HRT. In fact I think I misheard and it was RT but I cannot for the life of me remember what that stands for. By then he was “show casing” the domestic side of his business which as you will recall is rather niftily names “Brentwood Computers”. It was Jason that took us away from technology and introduced us to his Fat Max Tool Box. The said box was introduced as his “new friend” and he then proceeded to open it up and show us what was inside.
We then struck an international theme. Ed Crocker told of a Russian Company that wanted peat delivering. Apparently this was months ago but they have just been paid. Graham Thurston spoke of Greece in North West London, yes that is Greece not grease, although no doubt there is plenty of that there as well, This inspired Kevin Brooks to complete the international scene by explaining about a caravan holiday in Newquay. He apparently woke up in the middle of the night to hear running water. The rest, for those of you who were not there, I will leave to your imagination.
Although we have only just entered October, Scott told us we were only 81 nights from Christmas and Tina Walker once again offered to do our Christmas cards and even went so far as suggesting presents also. This really is an offer we ought to take up, I am already compiling my list of friends, the box of cards and the envelopes and will be handing them over to her in the next week or so.
We had to wait for the whole meeting before Terry Maylin was able to tell how he metaphorically clubbed a debtor to death in extracting money for a client, which approach always wins nods of approval from a meeting that I am convinced contains more than one fascist.
The Oscar was however won by Jason or rather his new friend, Fat Max. So that’s, tool boxes 1 human beings 0 .
The 60 second round had no sooner drawn to a close than Chris Sadler was before us with the 10 minute presentation which was shown on screen and very well illustrated his skills as a photographer. He showed a photograph that he had “produced” that won him a prize. It was only after the rejoicing had ceased that he was told that that said prize was to exhibit in Harlow. He then told us of the portraits, the events and commercial photographs that he takes. The highlight was his revelation was that he can photograph a tile to more effectively advertise Michael Adelizzi’s products. It is hoped that he didn’t have to touch the tile up.
The referrals and testimonials round was characterised by the first four people giving their contribution and then leaving, but they did all have good excuses. It is just that their absence made the room echo slightly and I can only think that the effect of the double yokes was starting to wear off. However the round was very effective and revealed 14 referrals and £60,265.00 worth of recorded business, which is a really excellent start for the month.
Despite my valiant attempts to end the meeting there, we did have a reality check, announcements and reminders and a Speakers Prize.
The principal announcement related to our up and coming Christmas meal. As you know it is on the 21st December 2013, and Terry would like to hear from not only those who are coming but also those who are not coming, so that he has a clear idea of numbers to finalise the booking as best he can at this stage.
Unless we have a membership of latent transvestites I would urge you all to get some visitors in during the month of October for obvious reasons.
I look forward to seeing you all next week.
