Chairman’s blog Thursday 28th August 2025

It took until the final week of the school holidays for us to be hit by absences. To all of you who have managed to get away in this last week, enjoy! The 16 of us left to keep the networking wheels turning were greeted with bright sunshine, an upbeat atmosphere, and the anticipation of Jane’s big bash this coming Sunday.

A culinary observation, toast is the new granola.

The Performance League

The three front runners all way out front. Stuart Smallcombe has 254 points and Terry Maylin 353 points, both scores potential winners in any normal month but Paul Corrigan is out front with 529 points. Not only is this a record but there’s still a week to go. Scott Griffiths also remarked that it has been a totally consistent performance to date with scores across the board. I will save my full congratulations until next week’s monthly totals finalise the August league.

Education Presentation

On the back of a stunning collection of performance league scores Toby Acton more than maintained the standard. When you are networking and asked what you do, have a pithy response that will stimulate interest. Toby used our resident stooge, Paul Booth to help illustrate. He was at pains to point out that we should be looking to ‘tweak the inquirers nosy buttons. You want to be able to stimulate interest and get them to come back for more information. A great launchpad for the 60 second round!

New Member Induction & Existing Member Renewal

Terry Maylin had reason to be upbeat. There are a couple of renewals in the pipeline and a new member induction in prospect as he was able to report that Sally Waters has now been approved full membership and when she returns from her operation she will be inducted. Don’t let that put you off from returning Sally, it’s not painful. We wish you a speedy recovery.

The 60 Second Round

Sarah Smith was standing in for Catherine Foley as adjudicator, who was one of the many holiday makers this week.

This week we had a theme which slightly overtook the messages that were being given as we recited nicknames that we had all experienced. It went from the mundane to the sublime. Sarah Smith of course was ‘Smithy’ and Jon Foster was ‘Jon boy’.

There was the ironic; Toby Acton was ‘curly’ and the convoluted; Paul Booth was ‘bladder’, arrived at from snake bite, adder and finally bladder.

Leann Reason had acquired ‘Sonic’ through a haircut.

By way of a quiz, who was ‘Worzel’? Who was first known as ‘Fred’?

There are of course the contemporary nicknames off Smalks, Ben Ben and dot Scott that really need no introduction but, as if he hasn’t got enough points already this month, Paul Corrigan was the Oscar winner with ‘Poo Poo Pants Paul’ Given the total lack of serious content this week it is hardly surprising that Sarah used nicknames as the criterion for the award.

10-minute presentation by Paul Corrigan

To cap it all off, the ‘Paul Corrigan month’ expanded into the 10 minute presentation. He took us through his life to date with a series of photographs that illustrated his….. Dare I say it.. ‘Journey!!’. To be fair, he did not use the term, but it was a pleasant run through that will help us all know him better….. Or rather 16 of us. Congratulations on a good performance Paul. If there was such an award, you would definitely be member of the month.

Referrals and Testimonials

This has been a record-breaking month, not only by Paul Corrigan but also business passed being well in excess £100,000.00 so far and lots of referrals too. The final figures will be available next week, but it would be fair to say that we are in rude health.