So that this blog gives every member the facility of tracking back over the year to find out what the weather was on any particular Thursday I hereby declare that it was drizzly and that daylight was approaching when those of us who turned up at 6:00 AM piled into the venue. Although there were only 17 members actually present, Mike Skinner had very effectively created a link with Ben Golding who attended the meeting as an image on a phone and the voice through speakers. Very effective it was too as he gave us the benefits of announcing his presence when the leadership team was introduced, giving us 60 seconds at the end of the round and participating in the referrals and testimonials round. Before you ask, no, this is not something that we can set up to avoid you turning up in the flesh.
The Performance League
Scott Griffiths and myself felt fairly pleased with scoring over 300 points to be third and second respectively but well out front was Matt Barry with 440 points. Great effort Matt. Slightly better than your attempt to attend the meeting today but after such a successful month who can begrudge you a lay in.
Education Presentation
Scott Griffiths’ realisation just before the meeting kicked off that he was responsible for this week’s Ed Slot in no way detracted from the effectiveness and clarity of his message. His subject was the profile page that we all have on the website. His message was that we check it, look at it through the eyes of a potential punter and talk to him about making sure it was up to date. Nobody could question the relevance of his message this week.
The 60 Second Round
Spurred on by an atrocious performance last week by a lot of members trying to get 120 seconds out of a 60 second time slot, there was the prize for the Oscar as usual but also a prize for the member whose presentation was closest to 60 seconds or below. In the face of this extra competition our worthy timekeeper, Vincent Goode, only dinged the bell at 60 seconds, no 50 second warning. To make up for the reduction in physical effort upon are worthy timekeeper he had to keep a note of the timings and of course the winner was one of those of us who prepares their 60 seconds and therefore one of us who knew in advance how long they were expecting to take. Yes, it was Terry Maylin. He was also the adjudicator for the Oscar in the absence of Ben Golding in the flesh, as last week’s Oscar winner.
At risk of breaching a grammatical no no………So how did we all perform this week……
The 6th of April is of course the beginning of a financial tax year and Paul Booth took advantage by proclaiming his availability for preparing tax returns and Terry Maylin brought us up to date with the new minimum wage limits and the damages bands for discrimination claims.
John Freeman likes painting; Brian Painter is on the lookout for more clients with phobias as exemplified by the lady who planned her driving routes in order to avoid roundabouts.
Toby Action had been to an Elton John concert and frantically wove into his presentation as many song titles emanating from our favourite Rocket Man. Although there was an element of waxing lyrical on Toby’s behalf he was outshone by Mike Skinner who penned a little ditty promoting the effective use of videos on websites.
It was Nick Cooke who produced the quotation of the day, namely a definition of what was simple. Yes you guessed it, “taking down a wall”. talking of walls, Hadrian’s Wall finishes up at its eastern extremity close to Newcastle. Wallsend is the rather imaginative title of the town that is found this point. Newcastle also happens to be the extent of Mike Hickson’s most geographically far flung client, the nearest being next door to his offices in Billericay.,
Jane Malyon is always in high spirits and this week she produced miniature bottles of various of the same which she was selling off at the bargain price of five pounds a shot. I didn’t see whether anybody took her up on it.
Finally we had Ben Golding’s contribution. He had apparently spoken to a young mum yesterday and ended up saving her £1000. It’s amazing what you can do from a holiday venue like Crete.
10-minute presentation by Vincent Goode
Vincent Goode was this week’s presenter and his bio sheet revealed a wind up being people who start a sentence with “So”. Along with Lewis Capaldi I have committed the sin already in this blog. If anyone wants to explain the circumstances in which Lewis Capaldi has been in breach of this stricture you may put it in the comments to this blog. Vincent then went on to produce an excellent presentation involving the judiciously use of Paul Booth as interruptor and questioner. In the history of printing he didn’t get past Thomas Caxton because of the interruptions which enabled him to reveal the intricacies of his business. Entertaining as always.
Referrals and Testimonials
£11,500 worth of moneys recorded was part of the statistics that produced a lively round that always makes for a good ending for the meeting.
Sorry I didn’t make the meeting today. Have a lovely Easter everyone!
Well done on attending virtually from Crete Ben Ben!
Great reminders Scott about the profiles on the website
Very entertaining 10 minutes Vince
If I had known beforehand about the timing of our 60 seconds I would have made sure it was exactly 60 seconds instead of 59.57 seconds 😊
Great meeting, top 10 minutes Vince (and Paul)
Well done, Paul on your “off the cuff” questions regarding your assistants presentation, very quick thinking! The seating today was akin to a teenagers first dance, girls on one side of the room apart from a few interlopers (surely not trans!) and boys opposite. A splendid meeting, enjoy the weekend.
Well done Matt on being on top of the leader board!
Thanks to Scott for the ed slot – I will get my updated profile over to you asap!
Great 10 minutes Vincent and well done to your helper Paul, and a huge shout out to Ben who joined us virtually from his holiday in Crete. That just goes to show how great these meetings are, Ben didn’t want to miss a meeting even though he was on holiday!
Another good meeting despite numbers being a tad on the low side but its that time of the year isn’t it? But hats off to Ben who despite being abroad was still able to attend the meeting. Great advice re up dating our website profiles from Scott in his Ed Slot and a terrific ten minute presentation from Vince. Great blog from Aidan as always.
It goes to show if you can’t make the meeting in person go virtual BenBen in Crete can you please bring the sun back with you? Great Ed Slot Scott and fab 10 minutes from Vincent with his helper Paul. I hope you all had a great Easter see you Thursday.
Great meeting and it was good to be accompanied by Ben Ben from Crete Crete