Chairman’s blog Thursday 28th November 2024

Another sub-zero morning to contend with but the meeting radiated its own warmth and we mustered 23 people including one visitor. It was also a Greggs morning  and Paul Booth  manfully shouldered the obligation of getting in the food.

The Performance League

Three weeks in, lots of us over the benchmark and Matt Barry out front with 370 points followed by Scott Griffiths with 328 points. Terry Maylin currently lies third with 186 points.

Education Presentation

It was Ben again, posing the question of whether or not our business message is clear enough, with particular reference to the 60 second Round. Three pointers suggested; who do you want to be referred to, what you can offer and how we as fellow members can make appropriate referrals. When you are meeting potential customers/clients don’t just give them your job title. Expand a little as to what you do.

Membership Matters

Terry Maylin produced a wealth of information:

Renewals– Tina Walker and David Roberts have renewed and James Humphreys’ application is in the pipeline.

Newish member– Paul Dulieu, previous member, has applied and been approved by the Board and should be with us next week, when his category can be revealed.

Neil Bellham has been absent of late through illness and he continues to be unwell. Neil we all wish you a full and speedy recovery

The 60 Second Round

Leann  Reason was the current holder of the Oscar and she got the proceedings underway and was followed by Joshua Ayettey who suggested that a consultation will help him clarify how he can transform the property that you are living in that will also be a way in towards getting a referral for what he does best.

Matt Barry referred to the charities that he was working with and how they were a good source of business. This was something that was reiterated by Scott Griffiths later on in the meeting.

Paul Corrigan looked harassed and explained that he has recently been run off his feet. He can report a success however in that his membership of ‘Check a Trade’ has now been resolved satisfactorily.

Andy O’Neill is still spending a large proportion of his working week in the north west. Referrals from us could help drag him back to the south east where it is much drier. Whether this is helpful to a man whose business revolves around water is probably another matter.

Melissa Jackson, whilst frequently overseeing the demise of companies can provide advice and check out companies that might be targets for an acquisition.

Vincent Goode told the story of a wise man who suggested an unhappy woman should bring first her chickens, then her goats and finally her cow into her house. This still didn’t make her very happy but he then advised her to take these beasts out again she was impressed with how much room she had in her house. All of this apparently had a relevance to Speed Print. My question of the week is, what relevance did it have? Answers in your comments to this blog please!

Whilst Vincent was telling us of what might make someone happy, James likewise felt that his business helps people sleep at night. Stuart Smallcombe also allows you unbroken sleep because he is not mis selling his product by conning you into a seven-year contract and John Hammond, through his good quality fire alarm installations and products also helps you sleep at night…. unless the fire alarm goes off during it

Black Friday was always going to raise it’s ugly head. Whilst everybody thought Ben Golding had popped out for a comfort break, in fact he was listening to an announcement from Utility Warehouse who  have produced a Black Friday sale of fixed term lower rates as we contemplate our energy bills rising. Scott Griffiths also felt we should be making use of Black Friday to promote our products although Blake Hammond, who has since August been jumping on the Christmas bandwagon had declined this particular American invention.

No 60 second round is complete without a deep dive into Jane Malyon’s hampers. This week it was a cheese beer and crackers hamper.

Despite all of the offerings hitherto Leann ultimately awarded the Oscar to Mike Skinner for content that was quite simply, better than everyone else’s.

Meeting Secretaries Report

As well as reminding us that being involved with charities does get you work, Scott Griffiths also provided us with the statistics for the month so far. 42 was the magic number. 42 referrals this month and £42,000 worth of business passed.

10-minute presentation by Nick Cooke

This week was the turn of Nick Cooke, structural engineer extraordinaire, was all into steel beams this week. First you have to know the difference between a flange and a web. Then you have to know how he works out the design of the beam it’s span and it’s load. Now you should know that there is a difference between weight and load which is partly explained by the use of kilogramme for weight, as opposed to Kilo something to do with Isaac Newton for load. Two pieces of really useful information; you can use them vertically as well as horizontally making the structure look like a goal mouth and you can also bolt them together which helps when you want to take a long beam up into a loft with a very narrow opening. At first sight not everyone would find the design, structure and size of a steel beam particularly interesting but a plethora of questions followed Nick’s presentation that definitely makes steel beams almost interesting. Definitely his best ever!