Chairman’s Blog Tuesday 20th August 2013
Jim Henshaw stood in for Scott Griffiths as Meeting Secretary and Paul Booth for Brian Painter as Education and Development Officer.
Paul delivered the Ed Slot on inviting visitors with what appeared to be a litany of “don’ts” . At EBF we try and avoid such negative thoughts but it is fair to say that when you invite a guest you should not play up the 6.15 start every week even thought my alarm call at 5.pm does produce some satisfaction on beautifully sunny mornings. Although he did not let on this week to what they were, I think the message was “accentuate the positives” when inviting guests. Whether such advice was necessary this week is another matter.
We had 3 guests Russ Clements a Health and Safety consultant, Dawn Hepden consultant with Avalon Trustee Company and Lara Murray a solicitor. well done Ann, Jim and Stuart respectively, 12 in all in attendance.
And so we entered the 60 seconds zone; Jason, as always, was preaching a clutter free car. There followed Robert Mayes and Nige Kirby both sporting knees legs and otherwise shorts. Robert Mayes, a pair something akin to the Stewart Tartan and Nige Kirby, something akin to the cloth that on a temporary basis stops leaking pipes whilst you fix them.
Whilst Robert Mayes told us about tiling, Nige Kirby told us of filtering out trace elements (the technical term I think was “crap”) If Nige and Robert had a synergy with shorts, Jim Henshaw and Anne Clarke both flirted with political correctness. Jim, selling private medical insurance told of the strains on the National Health System brought about by an aging population, a rising birth rate and yes.. you got it, immigration. Anne on the other hand advertised the Ladies Lunch that Redwood Clarke are promoting. Yes…that’s right… no blokes.
The only other synergy in the 60 seconds that I could discover was my warning to make sure that you had a Lasting Power of Attorney in place before you are off with the fairies and Dawn Hepden, one of our guests, who was selling funeral plans that enabled you to plan for life after you had been off with the fairies.
Somewhat understandably, Jason one the Oscar for his clutter free 60 seconds.
It was Anne Clarke’s turn for the 10 minute slot. When she rattled off all of the people that they currently employ, it made me realize what a success story Redwood Clarke have been. They joined EBF 2 years ago, one person providing bookkeeping services and with a certain amount of assistance from EBF they are a thriving business. We can feel comfortable recommending them as providers of very reliable services and Anne, with typical thoroughness explained exactly the areas that they cover. If you dropped off to sleep you probably needed their services and if you stayed awake and heard the warnings about fines, getting them to assist with your bookkeeping appeared a no-brainer.
A referrals round ended a meeting that had been excellent in many ways, not least the numbers of guests but also the general development of the meeting.
I look forward to a good turnout next week with more visitors.
Good meeting as always, networking is about being patient ,and you get out of it what you put in, things come to those! , be positive, Rome wasn’t built in a week.
Or a day