Its Easter holiday time, and yet we had an overall turnout of 25, 23 Members with 2 visitors.
The Performance League
After appropriate introductions, Scott announced the current leader of the Performance League. It’s Saj Sreedharan.
Education Presentation
Stuart Smallcombe, as usual, gave the food for thought which is always good quality. His message was simply that you should make your mind up as to whether you are going to be a generalist or a specialist, and that he did not believe that you can be both.
The 60 Second Round
Scott Griffiths was awarding the Oscar and so kicked us off. He spent his time talking Smush. Slightly puzzling…
Apparently, by way follow up to Scott, Marcelle Saad explained the effect of Artificial Intelligence on the diamond trade which was an interesting insight.
Ben Golding for 60 seconds became the Easter Bunny, a magic egg and a magic card and the upshot was that the Easter Bunny was capable of providing you with all of the benefits that are similar to what Utility Warehouse does. He seemed to be really swapping the pig for the bunny. Must be distressing for the pig.
Mike Rogers produced 2 reasons why he loved his job. He turned innocent savers into homeowners and he has been dealing with 5 year fixed rates which will run out a year after he has retired. Surely EBF has more than 4 years left of him.
Terry Maylin and Dean Caldon pondered the governments declared intent to abolish Section 21 Notices (no fault eviction). Landlords do not despair, there is a long way to go and advice is available from both of them that will help mitigate what might be future disruption.
Kevin Radford AKA the Bard of Hadleigh was less poetic and more dramatic. He rejoiced in “The Game of Thrones” being back and then speculated that Insurance premium for the castle where the King of the North dwells might be. It turned out to be in excess of 6 Million. I know that being specific as to preferences that you are looking for can be helpful but this particular wish was probably slightly ambitious.
Having taken on board Stuart Smallcombe’ s message regarding general or specialist approach to our business, John Freeman stood up and demonstrated how it is always the exception that proves the rule. If ever there was a general specialist he is an example.
Richard Reed talked about a family concierge service which apparently is “high end” in making the sort of detailed arrangements that you would not get from anyone else.
Vincent Goode once again confirmed that he has been going since 1983 and like many people approaching there later life lists can be important. He then told us, by use of a list no less lots of stupid questions that he had received. He does however do exceedingly good printing.
Jill Willis is producing a programme of work shops to help business “get out there”. Watch for an email she is going to send out for us to share with those who we think might benefit from these workshops.
John Hammond, who is all about security, is trying to stamp out senseless acts of violence. His example was a man who stabbed his mother because she put too much milk in his tea. How CCTV cameras can help a reasonable reaction to unreasonable behaviour I do not know.
Brian Painter was back to the evils of smoking. He mentioned DDT, Arsenic and Cyanide. Allan Turing, Himmler and Rasputin apparently all died of poisoning from these various poisons. Whether they all smoked was not clear.
The Oscar was awarded to Kieran Peaty. He explained about expanding his business, diversifying into commercial and industrial areas. It ticked all the boxes for a 60 second presentation. Well done Kieran.
One of our visitors was a one time member Nigel Kirby who is to plumbing what Tiger Woods is to golf. He gave us lots of historical facts about plumbing. Amongst other things he mentioned the significance of a gentleman named Crapper to the development of the modern toilet. He was apparently beaten by one Harrington but I guess, to use his name instead of the aforesaid Crapper would have involved a much more clumsy use of slang in relation to matters lavatorial.
This weeks statistics and points of note
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23 Member present
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2 Visitors
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23 Referrals
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£15,520.00 recorded business
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Oscar winner Kieran Peaty
10-minute presentation by Richard Reed
Our travel guru surrounded by congratulatory postcards from all parts of the globe took us through the story of the development of his business and received the verbal accolades of many of the members who have used his services and have had reasons to be pleased to have done so.
Sartorial Note
What an array of gaudy and multicoloured socks. Messrs Plumley, Goode and Kirby all flashed their ankles and the light generated was stunning. It is also fair to say that as socks go, they were all in exceedingly bad taste.
Really great ed slot from Stuart. I’m not sure though whether John Freeman is a general specialist or a special generalist. Very illustrative 10 minutes from Richard and well done to Kieran for winning the Oscar. An honorary mention to Kevin for his Game of Thrones themed 60 seconds!
bit of both Toby 😉
A most delightful meeting as per usual.
Thank you for a specialist education slot Stuart.
Well done to Kieron on winning the Oscar, unlucky Ben! 🐇
Good to see visitors, especially ones that show off their socks…
Lovely presentation from Richard, just need to save up for New Zealand.
Have a fantastic Easter 🐣 and see everyone next week.
Great presentation from Richard, shame Brian nipped out for a Harrington and missed the first 5 minutes…
More colourfuls socks will be displayed by yours truly next week. Mr Supersocks, you had better get your act together.
Happy Easter Bunnies to all 🙂
Great 10 minute presentation Richard and good Ed Slot Stuart. Poor Percy Pig missed out this week to Benny Bunny!! Have a fab Easter break and see you all next week.
Thank you for all your positive feedback about my Ed Slot, if I do say so myself, it was the best we’ve seen this week!
Have a great Easter x
What a great meeting this morning!
Really good ED spot from Stuart and Richard gave a fantastic 10 minute presentation.
It’s always brilliant so many referrals being past around the members and always great to have a few laughs too!
Move over Peter Rabbit, here comes Benny Bunny!! 🐰
Have a great Easter everyone and see you all next week 😀
A great photographic effort Scott. Would Anna Marie have done better. Prettier perhaps
Aiden, I’m sorry I was not on hand to “Ben – efit” the photographic effort. But Scott’s output definitely instigated a chuckle!
Stuart’s ed slot took me back 27 years when we first started and we were looking to write what ever we could . Well done stu . Im not sure about the sock showing all those white legs made me think we had been invaded by white walkers. Excellent meeting as usual with plenty of laughs but also plenty of business done.
I was also honoured to be allowed to sit in the hallowed naughty seats .Thank you Dean & Stuart
Great to see Nigel and Christine our visitors.
Loved the GOT twist on your 60 seconds this week Kev, nice one 😊
Good to see the visitors this morning and Nige we really need a plumber. Kevin Radford was robbed in my opinion, sorry Keiran. A very chilled 10mts this week I thought by an excellent travel consultant. Have a great Easter everybody.
PS: not sure about the “Easter Benny” but I did get the Chocolate Egg.
Thats me Richard . Ever the bridesmaid never the bride. I thought Kieron deserved it.
Excellent 10 minutes from Richard, and great ed slot from Stuart as always! Great meeting everyone, and watch out for details of my PR School Publicity Course early next week. It’s on the 24th May, 1.30pm – pencil it in if you think this could be for you.
I thought the whole meeting and the blog was rather splendid: well done evly bludy! I’m going to open my Easter egg now..
Great meeting, nice to see everyone again. I will try and get to a sinagy meeting if thats ok? If someone coild send me a reminder that would be good.
Nige
Great meeting heading into Easter, really enjoyed it, hope you all have a good Easter break 😊
Excellent blog by the way 😊 well done Richard, Kiron, and Stuart!