Chairman’s Blog – Meeting Thursday 13th December 2012
29 present – a very good turn out and the meeting had a buzz about it.
The Education Slot was delivered by Geoff Todd. To borrow the phraseology of the Bard of Hadleigh we were treated to one of Toddy’s terrific tutorials. There seemed to be a couple of messages delivered by our horticultural and our arboricultural buddy, namely don’t chop down trees unless you know that they are yours and never trust a Client. I am perhaps overstating the case.
One notable absentee was Alan Shaw and I was despondently resigning myself to a certain lack of whimsy, but no such thing.
Nick Cooke described how he had on a couple of occasions this week made his Clients happy. Suzanne Riches made us all definitely feel happier by assuring us that short of tripping them up or throwing a snowball at them and making them fall over clearance or otherwise of a car park would not render the employer liable for accidents that occurred in snowy and icy conditions. Kevin Brooks explained how setting fire to a tree by some of his workmen made everybody laugh, but the true litmus test of happiness was the near jocularity that Mike Rogers brought to the proceedings by a declaration of happiness that he has moved house, had a lot of work to do and did not want any referrals. Just when we thought things couldn’t be more unusual Chris Sadler declared his change of name which made me suspect that Mr. Van-Sadler, although a relative new comer, felt the weight of the missing Alan Shaw and needed to do his whimsical bit.
There were also some interesting groupings. The 2 Nicks (Cooke and Morgan) spoke one after the other. The 3 Mikes (Moisley, Rogers and Adelizzi) were only prevented from speaking one after the other by the intervention of Dawn.
Marcelle Saad offered a way of making ourselves happy by buying stones that were sparkling and even Brian Painter deserted his frequent habit of describing a painful death by cancer by declaring that an hour of hypnosis was far better for you than 7 minutes with a doctor and unnamed drugs that might make you feel slightly light headed, but would probably cause you to grow 2 heads.
It was probably because of this rather unusual and Alan Shawless 60 second round that I totally missed out Graham Thurston. With the vision of his plum pullie registering in my mind I cannot really understand how I missed him, but miss him I did. Standing behind his chair with both hands in full view he delivered a rather jovial piece which won him the Oscar.
In passing it should be noted that in addition to Graham Thurston, Mike Rogers, Kevin Brooks, Nick Morgan, Jason Nortey and Graham Wright were all wearing pullies of some sort or other. It all sharpened the anticipation of next week and the garish pullover competition..don’t forget to do your worst.
In the absence of Charlie Coppin who has moved to pastures new and for whom we wish every success there was no 10 minute presentation, but instead a Q & A interaction which is always interesting and justifies its inclusion from time to time in our meetings.
Business passed and recorded totalled £11,801.00 with 26 referrals. All in all a very steady meeting with us all anticipating next week.
Don’t forget:-
1. The pullie.
2. A secret Santa present suitably wrapped, to be handed in when you arrive in exchange for a ticket that will give you an opportunity to receive one of the presents. As these presents will be anonymous make sure you buy something nice, you might receive it yourself (our version of “do as you would be done by”).
3. Brian Painter’s lateral thinking quiz so get your heckling caps on for this rather irritating, but entertaining event.
See you next week.
