Chairmans Annual Review (2024/2025)

Introduction

Let me start with a conclusion and let me then explain how I got there. It has been a good year ending on this our 12th anniversary. We’ve had stability derived from a successful venue and the maintenance of our core membership. We have seen overall business increase and our membership has also shown a substantial increase over the year. There is plenty to look forward to.

That is my conclusion, now let me explain how I reached it.

Membership

At the beginning of last year we had 25 members; now at the start of 2025 we have 30 members with at least another one in the pipeline.

We started the year with irregular attendance, particularly over the summer months and our membership dropped to 25. And then with the loss of Chris de la Prida and of great significance Brian Painter, long-serving member, director and social secretary……….We were down to 23.

I cannot let this annual review pass without a more detailed mention of Brian. He was always Immaculate both in dress and his ability to extend his 60-second presentations to at least double the normal allocated time. He regularly regaled us with tales of the unexpected. The unexpected extended from both the complaints that his clientele exhibited to the miraculous outcomes brought about by his hypnotherapeutic ministrations. We shall continue to miss him.

There followed a remarkably successful call to arms in relation to the attraction of visitors. We have during the autumn of the year recruited Andy O’Neill, Catherine Foley, David Moore, Jon Foster, Kory Martin and our old friend, wearing a celebrant’s hat Paul Dulieu. We continue to attract many visitors most of whom seem to want to come back.

I know that I say this every year, but with some optimism I urge you all to keep the visitor numbers up. Again, at risk of saying the same thing every year, ‘The more bums on seats; the more referrals’.

Synergy teams

Coupled with the revival in membership numbers has been a renewed revival of our Synergy Teams.

Jane Malyon continues to inspire the Business to Consumer meeting which is now a regular feature once a month after our regular breakfast meeting. Jane runs the meetings well with a regular interesting topic for discussion coupled with comprehensive minutes letting those who did not attend know what they were missing.

The new kid on the block is Leann Reason’s Property Group which has successfully had its first meeting, pulling together existing members and several of our new members.

There is also the prospect of the Finance and Professions group reinventing themselves. They have changed their location, meet in Billericay one evening a month and are planning to get to the professional and financial existing members and along with the Property Group attract visitors that will hopefully help boost the group’s and EBF’s membership.

Financials

Last year total business past amounted to £567,662.00.  This year there has been a substantial increase in excess of £200,000.00 to £765,687.00.  And as Scott Griffiths, our master statistician points out, our continued COVID recovery shows a fourth successive increase in our turnover bringing us back in line with 2017 and 2018 in numbers. All of this is not just window dressing, although it is that as well. Although we all have occasional charitable instincts which have been demonstrated from time to time, it is the business done between members that gets us up in the morning…… early, and makes pleasurable Thursday mornings worthwhile.

Other points of interest

One of the reasons, quite rightly, Paul Corrigan was voted member of the year is that he successfully took up the mantle of Social Secretary and at relatively short notice organised our excellent Christmas party and supervised one or two other events. Again, as I regularly point out, social events amount to more than two of us getting together to pursue social interests which might not necessarily attract the general interest to the group at large but help provide inter reaction between us as members. That helps us all to get to know one another better and thereby encourage us to do what we seem to be doing pretty well anyway, and that is passing business between ourselves. Enlist Paul’s help for any such event

Finally therefore, not only do I commend this annual report to all of you but it is with renewed optimism that I look forward to and even more successful 2025/2026  that now stretches before us.