Chairman’s Blog, Thursday 1st September 2016

Good turnout, 22 in all.

We inducted the Flying Bee in the guise of Alan Heggie, his first day as a member. Welcome Alan.

Terry Maylin, still standing in for Scott Griffiths, announced the winner of the Performance League this month and by way of a very pleasant change it was Jill Willis; congratulations  Jill who narrowly pipped Nick Cooke.  Jill was on holiday but Nick was present in his truly biblical self.

Stuart Smallcombe presented the Ed Slot.  As a result of business coaching they now do a 90 day review of how they have done in the previous 90 days and what their plans are for the next 90 days.  It is all about setting targets.  Having goals to aim for.  A well-presented Education Slot.

As usual, with a good turnout, there was a buzz to the meeting which led to a lively 60 second round.

Richard Reed had the offer of a lifetime being a flight to New Zealand and a cruise.  He sought to illustrate the value of the offer by asking Carmel what she would pay only for flights to New Zealand which were the equivalent of the cost of the flight and cruise itself.  He also received support from of all people Alan Shaw. It cost him and his wife over £2,000 each to go on a celebrity cruise.  I didn’t realise that the celebrities had to pay!!!

In the meantime Jo Jones needs help in promoting things through her website and brought up the question of testimonials, this is something for us all to consider.

From the School of Whimsy came some pretty down to earth efforts from Alan Shaw who is looking for building schemes to advise on and Brian Painter who managed in one client to get a panoply (I believe that’s the collective adjective) of phobias.  A lady brought to him her daughter who was basically frightened of everything.  He has dealt with the blood, the snakes and something else I cannot remember.  Next week its injections and lack of confidence.  So far everyone on message.  We were saved however by Nick Cooke; some bloke  wanted to knock a wall down and felt that Nick was the only person to do the job because, from looking at his photograph on the website, he liked the cut of his jib.  I think the plan is to put Nick Cooke’s photograph on everybody’s website.

So much for the School of Whimsy.  The Naughty Table also was back in action and fully stocked.  Howard Bullock is looking for people in their fifties.  Mike Rogers on the other hand told a very interesting and informative story of the pigeon in his garden that had lost its memory.  He picked the pigeon up and stuck it on the fence in the hope that it would remember that in order to get down from the fence it would have to fly.  This apparently didn’t work.  It occurred to me that he might bring it in to our next meeting and give it to Brian.  I assume that pigeons have sub-consciousness; whether its nine tenths of their brain or not remains to be seen but it must be worth a try.

David Plumley declared that he had lots of aunties but he knew the one he liked the best. It was all rather technical for me.

It was Steve Roach to explain that Phoenix FM has 2 birthdays.  I do not know which the official one is but recently it was the 20^th for their first broadcast.  Many happy returns.

When Alan Heggie rose to his feet, being last up, I was obviously having difficulty by that time with my hearing.  I am sure he said that he had route called the Whiskey Way.  Maybe that was simply a threat to whisk you away… heaven knows, but he neatly rounded off the 60 second presentation.

Dean Caldon won the Oscar last week but was not around for the end of the 60 second round and the award was made by Kim Redwood-Lee. Kevin Brooks was the recipient, selected for emphasising the importance of proper schedules of work being drawn up for all building jobs.

The ten minute presentation was Matt Barry’s first.  A very well presented, polished performance that gave us a full breakdown of the work that he does both at the high end and the lower end.  We wish him well in Copenhagen, and whilst he is away there should be an opportunity for us to try and find business for him.

And so we moved to the end of what was a very successful meeting.  Unfortunately I will not be with you all next week but I wish you well and look forward to seeing you in 2 weeks time.