Chairman’s Blog Thursday 21st November 2013.
19 present, no visitors this week.
Despite the low turnout there was a buzz about the pre breakfast networking which carried over into the meeting.
The Ed Slot was delivered by Brian Painter who reminded us all of the importance giving testimonials, not only to the recipient but also to the members and visitors hearing how well any particular individual has performed. Remember when writing your testimonial, to quote the Pilgrim, “…it’s not War and Peace…” he might have gone on to say, something pithy preferably. Scott Griffiths also chipped in with the suggestion that we should not only produce the testimonial in written form to the meeting but also post it on line through the various social media/EBF Website.
The Performance League was dominated by the ghost of Jason Nortey. After two weeks he is way ahead of the field with over 300 points. There are two weeks left when he will not be present to give us all a chance to catch up and not create the embarrassing situation that the winner and all his points came from the first meeting of the month.
And so to the 60 seconds round…
Acronyms abounded. Those of you who were listening intently will know what the difference is between SSS and SSD. For those who were not listening so intently here is the answer. SSS is “Scene Setting System” which Ian Buckley introduced to us. It produces different levels of lighting, creating mood effects and even if necessary incorporating music. And where does all this take place; apparently in the kitchen. What we must ask ourselves is whether this will help with the preparation of Spag. Bol. SSD was introduced by David Plumley and means “Solid State Drive” a storage device that will enable your lap top to start up quickly but is less reliable, you need better backup, is this worth bothering with we might ask ourselves..and David might tell us. It all goes to show that not only are acronyms irritating and useless but often the products they are describing can be viewed similarly.
Mike Rogers was suggesting that if you had £40,000 kicking around he could arrange a mortgage for you on good terms to enable you to invest in a Buy to Let property. Eyes started glazing over that this point, could it be that those with £40,000 knocking about are probably too old to get reasonable terms on mortgage. A.k.a. Michael Alexander Rogers as he signed himself in this week managed to get us all going with his declaration that he “did” mortgages which prompted certain others at the end of their 60s to confirm that they did “not do” mortgages. Such was the mesmeric effect of this approach that I suspect comments to this Blog will also contain disclaimers from the rest of us regarding mortgages.
In reviewing the rest of the 60 second round I am drawn to carpets. Why is this? …the answer does not lie with Graham Thurston, although he did intrigue us all with the lady running a fashion show who wanted a new carpet on top of an existing carpet that would be down only for 5 hours and then taken up again. Those in the carpet trade would call that “a good lay”…but I digress, the thoughts of carpets sprung from the Alan Shaw contribution. He described visiting “ one of Fosters Hotels”, these I believe are the architectural equivalent of “Bates Motel”. The said hotel apparently charges £1,500 per night and sports black carpets suitably speckled and marked to give the impression that someone has thrown up over it. Suddenly the comparison with Bates Motel becomes more realistic.
The 60 Second round had something in it for everyone, not least the silver surfers. Michael Adelizzi spoke of converting a bathroom into a shower room for an old couple. I am sure there can be complications of bathing as you get older but who would want to stand up and get washed when you can do it lying down, particularly as old age approaches. In the meantime Howard Bullock chipped in with a good news/ bad news story. The good news is that if you have a serious illness you will get an really excellent rate on annuities, the bad news….
As always it was left to Richard Reed to lift our spirits and our minds from our humdrum existence, to a contemplation of faraway places with names that evoke thoughts of bright sunshine and warm surroundings. This week it was Australia, with a self drive holiday which can be extended to include different town and/or a longer period of time. Quote of the week “…you can upgrade anything…”. Suddenly that 9 days in Australia could be nine weeks in an equally warm climate where they don’t wear corks round the rims of their hats and drink copious quantities of rather dubious lager our of tins.
Although Alan Shaw won the Oscar and is always good value for the award I was particularly taken by Dean Caldon’s approach by giving top tips for landlords. By the time he had reached the 10th top tip he had effectively and fully sold his services.
With a very entertaining set of 60 second presentations ringing in our ears it was probably appropriate that Brian Painter should explain how he applied his hypnotherapy skills to a lady suffering from tinnitus.
Richard Reed, having transported us to exotic climes brought us down to earth with his Synergy Team Report for the Business to Consumer Group. Its Monday meeting overran by ¾ of an hour so engrossed were we with the topics under discussion. He passed around the meeting the leaflets that are going to be distributed around unsuspecting households in the Brentwood and Billericay area. All in all the Business to Consumer Group is excelling itself and is the place to be on the 3rd Monday in very month at the George and Dragon. The success of this group in no small part has been down to the leadership of Richard Reed.
This weeks 10 minute presentation came from Terry Maylin who brought everybody up to date with the development of T M Law to its present structure, coupled with an outline of the work that T M Law is looking for. This after a 60 second presentation when he had owned up to having had a failed mediation, the first in 40. This was however another good news/ bad news story in that, if the bad news was that the mediation failed; the good news is that on behalf of the client he will now be able to go on and give the other side a good kicking (legally speaking). Its what’s known as a win win situation.
We seemlessly slipped into the referrals and testimonials round. We are in the 2nd week of our month and with recorded business of £49,221 we have surpassed last month’s record breaking returns and have recorded in excess of £200,000 with the rest of the month to go. We do punch above our weight!! What we now need is a little more weight. This can be achieved in two ways:
1. Better Attendance – 1/3 of the members were missing this week, although last week showed good attendance, the previous 2 weeks were similar. If you do not turn up, not only do your fellow members not receive the benefit of referrals from you but, perhaps more importantly, you lose out by being out of their minds and therefore what would otherwise be a knee jerk reaction to make you a referral doesn’t happen
2. Alan Pegg’s category as Contract Cleaner has now been reopened; not only should all of us be looking for a replacement for him but may I ask you all to devote just a few minute of your waking life to consider what other visitors you can attract and invite to the meeting. The Web Site publishes a list of vacant slots.
Let’s see if next week we can have a full house and lots of visitors, because the real reason for turning up is that it is a very enjoyable morning with a lot of banter coupled with a really good breakfast.
Splendid, said Casper. 🙂
Cracking meeting again everyone, really enjoyable. Thanks to Terry Maylin for his 10 minutes, proving that you really don’t want to be on the opposite side of any dispute with TM Law…they are good, really good! Look forward to seeing you all next week.
A lively meeting and plenty of business passed. Members who don’t, won’t, can’t or CBA to attend, how about sending an apology to Aidan or Scott?
It was a bit strange without Jason and sorry that I had to leave before Terry’s 10 minutes. See you all next week.
Another excellent meeting with the “trades” really excelling themselves by the great value of business being passed. The inconvenience of getting up early to attend is completely offset by the business benefits, warm welcome and good banter.
PS: anyone want to go skiing?
PPS and Mike Rogers does mortgages.
Thanks to Brian for the valuable Ed Slot this week. Thanks to all who contribute to that part of the meeting.
Next week I expect everyone to have done some research on W. Edwards Demimg as I may make brief mention of one of his “points” in the Ed Slot. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehMAwIHGN0Y
Excellent lively meeting despite the fact only 17 left when I gave you all 10 good reasons to recommend us at TM LAW – the most important which I left to last is that we make a great cup of tea!