Chairman’s blog Thursday 5th December 2024

An ugh! and yuk! morning weather wise but at least we didn’t have to scrape the windscreens free of ice. From walking through the doors to our venue I knew that things could only improve….. And they did.

The Performance League

Final placings for the month showed Terry Maylin on 286 points, Scott Griffiths with 356 points and well clear of the field was Matt Barry with 494 points. But for Scott’s performance last month it might well have been record-breaking. At least 2/3 of us also passed the benchmark for the month so All in all, a good month.

Education Presentation

On the basis that he had brought a television screen with him, Toby Acton was remarkably reluctant to own up to being this week’s presenter. He was finally persuaded to entertain us with Ikegai. Students of Japanese culture of course recognise its meaning of ‘reason to be’ or ‘true purpose’ and was illustrated on the screen by 4 circles that could grace any competitive organisation to either the Olympic Games or Audi cars. In fact they represented the four aspects which, if present, will lead to a very successful business. If you are good at it, love it, the world needs it and you get well paid for it; you would only turn up for EBF if you like getting up at 5:00 AM in the morning.

Membership Matters

Renewals – Leann Reason and Melissa Jackson have rejoined us for another year

New member induction- Dave Moore and Paul Dulieu were both inducted, Paul for the second time. What we now have are two Daves and three Pauls.

The 60 Second Round

Paul Dulieu was standing in for last week’s Oscar winner, Mike Skinner and announced his category as Celebrant. Over the coming weeks we will come to learn exactly what that means.

Matt Barry was next and he gave a 60-seconds which could have been used by both Howard Bullock and Vincent Goode, as it was a celebration of Howard’s new brochure that had been produced by Vincent and designed by Matt. EBF synergy at work!

Vincent Goode however had different plans for his 60 seconds. To the background tune of ‘sleigh bells’ he announced and showed non-denominational orders of service and I think he wanted to us to know that he can do this and much much more.

Paul Corrigan, illustrating his tagline, explained how at busy times they were big enough to cope with both inquiries and jobs but they are small enough to give you a great service. Clara Downton also gives a good service and felt that things were looking up slightly after all of the uncertainty surrounding the general election. Catherine Foley is not affected by General Elections. The English language is above such buffeting and she gave us a wordy… or was it worthy illustration of her talents.

With the New Year in mind Toby Acton was suggesting that we should review the past year, looking at what you have done and then think about what you should now do in the future

Almost in anticipation of Melissa Jackson’s 10 minute presentation, Terry Maylin was able to report a successful outcome on behalf of a client chasing a debt which was finally repaid rather promptly following the service of a Statutory Demand and his clarification to the debtor of the potential consequences of not paying. This effort was ultimately rewarded with the award of the Oscar but before this was done there were one or two further offerings worthy of mention.

Blake Hammond managed to get the word ‘Christmas’ out of his mouth but little else, Jane Malyon was calling for last orders if you want one of her hampers as a Christmas gift. The thought of last orders put her in mind of the funeral music that she wanted to have when finally laid to rest, which surprised no one as being a familiar song about tea that ended cha cha cha. Howard Bullock did not need to promote his brochure further but was able to offer his company services to ensure maximum protection as far as possible in relation to the upcoming taxation on pensions.

Finally in a round that did include lots of props, finally Scott Griffiths produced an illustration of his proposal documentation for building websites and explained how it worked.

A very positive round

This weeks statistics and points of note

Scott Griffiths rounded up the month of November with confirmation of 53 referrals passed and £47,000 worth of business recorded.

10-minute presentation by Melissa Jackson

Her children are called Ashleigh and Chloe and her dog is called Wilson. Most revealingly, she can play the bagpipes.

Despite the above and the desire to retire at 60 and travel, she made a pretty good job of giving us the background to her career to date and the sort of things that she can do for members referrals in relation to insolvency services. Let’s get out there and find her some!