Chairman’s Blog – Meeting Thursday 10th January 2013
Second meeting of the year and 29 in attendance which included guest, Joe Garcia, an electrician. Also new member Richard Finken of Anthony Batty – Insolvency Practitioners for his first meeting although those of us in the Finance Power Group know him as a regular attender.
In David Plumley’s absence Paul Booth stood in as Education and Development Officer.
Scott Griffiths took the Education Slot and warned those of us whose profiles on the web site fall short in some way. Could you all make sure you check with the EBF web site and indeed clarify anything with Scott as far as information is concerned. Your co-operation will be of great assistance in getting the new web site up and running as quickly as possible.
Not only was the turn out good, but the 60 second round was more than vibrant, it was throbbing.
Last in and therefore first up was Geoff Todd who discarded his luminous jacket once he had warmed up.
Alan Shaw was quickly into action. Those of you who missed last week had the benefit of his continued exposition on bridges of London, in particular London Bridge being the gift of Henry VIII to one of his mistresses who was charged with its maintenance and upkeep (hence “London Bridge is falling down – my fair lady”) yes – you are right, she didn’t maintain it very well and it fell down. I think the point is, if you have a bridge that either needs building or maintaining, do not get a woman to do it, but go to Alan Shaw.
The theme was New Year’s Resolutions kept or unkept. Mike Moisley declared that he had not read my blog, but I think a New Year’s Resolution came out of it all to do so. Mike, if you read this, please make a comment which will signify that you have kept your resolution to date.
Kevin Brooks vowed to lock up his van and Nick Cooke to look up an old relative (I think it was that way round).
Jamie Harrison gave us 5 reasons why we should look to recommending her Company’s renewable energy products. It looked as if she would be outdone by Tina Walker who indicated that she had 10 reasons for why people should use her services, but she only reached number 6 – to be continued. Her New Year’s Resolution was to regularly attend a health farm, regularly clean her car and then go the extra mile, presumably the former enabling the latter.
Kim Douglas’ Resolution was not to leave things to the last moment and why her services assisted people in avoiding this. I will come back to this particular resolution later on in the blog.
Graham Thurston had a religious theme. Apparently he has recently carpeted a church and this is not the first one that has received one of his floor coverings. Personally I am in favour of the old sack cloth and ashes and prostrating oneself on a cold stone floor. Somehow comfort doesn’t rest easy with the religious ethic.
Jason Nortey resolved to lend more money and John Probert said he didn’t do New Year’s Resolutions, but if he did they would probably be the finest in the world. In fact he reminisced about his resolution to successfully give up smoking in his dim and distant past and there we were – the scene set for Brian Painter. He had eased us in gently last week with a rather relaxing and pleasant 60 seconds. All of that early season goodwill now disappeared. This week his statistics related to tar. Any smoker worth his salt apparently takes in about a litre of tar per annum and if enough of them were laid side to side coughing up their insides as smokers so frequently do there would be enough tar to surface the M1. This analogy seemed to please him and prompted more dire warnings and vivid explanations upon the effect of smoking. It really was business as usual and I had no hesitation in awarding him the Oscar.
Brian in fact was obliged to leave early to catch a Client who was about to fly off on business. I assume it was something to do with the fear of flying, but I suppose that is confidential.
All in all an extremely lively and enjoyable 60 second round.
It was Kim’s turn to do the 10 minute slot and despite her resolution apparently had not adequately prepared it. Nonetheless it was a good 10 minute presentation and hopefully we can all find her some more business.
The referral round maintained the standard of the meeting. Almost £28,000.00 worth of business passed and in excess of 40 referrals.
A really great meeting. Undoubtedly the numbers always assist to create a lively atmosphere. Let’s see if we can have a really good attendance next week. See you all then.