Chairman’s blog Thursday 12 December 2024

For those whose spirits are not uplifted at Christmas time, today did little to help so far as the dull and drizzly weather was concerned. However, we EBFers are made of sterner stuff and despite one or two ‘cry offs’ 22 members and one visitor greeted the new day.

The Performance League

After one week Toby Acton is out front with 75 points followed by Matt Barry with 64 and Paul Booth with 63. As there are only two weeks in this month and we have the distraction of Christmas looming let’s try and finish off this coming week with some good numbers.

Education Presentation

It was Stuart Smallcombe this week and his was a warning to us all to remain alert in the event of a cyber-attack. His metaphor was of the hackers being thieves in an orchard. They find it easier going for the smaller trees with the low hanging fruit. Little and often can be lucrative. The weakness of all small businesses are not passwords or any such thing but the person sitting at the screen. So how do we protect ourselves;  be vigilant, educate yourself and your team, keep systems updated, use passwords sensibly and backup data,,,,, what could possibly go wrong!

The 60 Second Round

Nick Cooke was the stand-in for last week’s winner. After assuring us that he was…. ‘more than just steel beams’, he settled down to do the adjudicating.

And so we got matters underway. Matt Barry appears to have had a sort of approach by a dictator from Equatorial New Guinea. He declared himself willing to act for dictators, provided it’s legal. If anyone can make him a referral to that bloke who’s just left Syria and is now living in Russia, you might win the prize of referrer of the year.

At a more mundane level Mike Skinner is looking to provide a refresher package for people looking to spruce up their websites. Talking about sprucing up websites, Catherine Foley can also provide assistance in correcting badly written text or proofreading what you are looking to put on there.  Ben Golding is looking to refresh the cost of your energy. With the price cap changes on the 1st January 2025, switch and save was his message.

If you are looking to get a mortgage next year Clara Downton indicated that rates were stabilising and it might be worthwhile having an initial discussion with her over which your needs are.

Stuart Smallcombe was next on his feet and it became obvious that his education presentation was only a warm up for his 60 seconds. If you had been disturbed by the threats to your cybersecurity he can provide you with a suite of safeguards that will do the job for you. If there was to be a theme for our meeting Stuart had effectively introduced it. James Humphreys indicated that he could help deal with insurance in relation to cybersecurity issues and Scott Griffiths pointed out the proper hosting of a website included covering cybersecurity matters.

Leann Reason gave us an interesting insight into colour coordination of rooms and in particular recognising that the way a room is facing, the way the light strikes it, are all things that can alter how a colour looks when it is finally applied to the walls. Beware of the undertones!

Vincent Goode claimed that his tagline was really an acronym. Unfortunately it was one that could not be explained in a mere 60 seconds. Full marks for inventiveness.

Work wise, Dave Roberts had experienced four seasons in one week; He has had to take out, upgrade, fit out, rebuild and rewire.

Tina Walker, gumshoe extraordinaire has found herself working for a Private Eye. She also provided us all with a Liberty Executive ice scraper. It is unlikely however that this prompted Paul Corrigan to talk about the freezing up of outside pipes and the need to have proper insulation. He brought props to illustrate and as a result of this he won the Oscar. I would not be surprised if Nick Cooke contemplated insulating steel beams. His award rounded off a good round!

Meeting Secretaries Report

Scott Griffiths thanked those who left reviews as requested last week and reminded us that next week requires Santa Jumpers, Secret Santa presents and the need for us all to ensure the only apologies for absence should be sent to Scott or myself rather than posted generally. When the weather is dour, the temperature cold and the mornings dark we need no discouragement!

This week there was no presenter and we had a very enjoyable Q&A session. It always works well and this week was no exception.

The meeting closed with the anticipation of tomorrow night’s annual EBF dinner.