Chairman’s blog Thursday October 2024

Today we were 21 with two visitors, Catherine Foley for the first time and Joshua Ayettey for the second and last time before he is inducted as a member.

The Performance League

The first week’s figures were in, with Scott Griffiths out front with 124 points followed by Matt Barry and what is now becoming the ever present Paul Corrigan.

Education Presentation

Scott Griffiths produced a relevant and informative piece on AI.

What is it for? Content creation and content summary

What can it do  Provide trust worthy output but it sometimes makes it up. Warning be careful what you put in, particularly confidential information

Top tips regarding content

1. personalise every question. The more you put in the more you get out
2. don’t be afraid to refine your requirements e.g. make it more funny/shorter
3. CHECK IT

New Member Induction & Existing Member Renewal

It was an upbeat Terry Maylin who announced the pending admission to membership of Joshua Ayettey. It also gave members an opportunity during the meeting to make comments on the induction process that Joshua will be put through next week. Fear not Joshua, suggestions of strange rituals were totally inaccurate. You will be fine, provided you turn up in overalls!

The 60 Second Round

Jane Malyon was last week’s Oscar winner and, no doubt with the assistance of AI, produced a ditty flaunting the cheese board that was part of one of her hampers. As usual, she was not at risk of getting out of her comfort zone over her delivery. Toby Acton however emphasised the importance to him of getting his business owner clients out of their comfort zone as they look to develop their businesses. Certainly there is no comfort zone to be found for mortgage brokers in the current volatile pre budget season and Clara Downton urged perspective mortgagees to contact her if they were anticipating dipping their toes in the mortgage market in the near future.

Chris de la Prida for once was not tantalising us with the promise of good value escapes to sunnier climes. Rather he was issuing a warning. From the 10th November 2024 the production of a passport on exit or entry to our fairland will require not only the production of a passport but also facial recognition and fingerprints. Boris didn’t tell us anything about this when campaigning for Brexit.

Vincent Goode had a simple message. He’s looking for barristers chambers. They need business cards, presentation folders and all sorts of items that he is ready to provide.

Ben Golding can save you money if you are with any other provider than utility warehouse. Stuart Smallcombe ’s boast is that he can provide Internet services to anywhere, including a field

Terry Maylin and I were singing from the same hymn sheet. We were both dealing with pending regulation that is on its way with our new governments Renters Rights Bill and Workers Rights Bill respectively. There are changes on their way, not all of them pleasant. Half the battle however is being aware of what those changes are likely to be, for which you will probably need the help of us at TM Law. Howard Bullock was also warning against the follies of trying to defeat Inheritance Tax regime by putting your house into your children’s names. There are schemes that help mitigate Inheritance Tax but this is not one of them! Consult him if you want to find out legitimate ways doing this.

None of the above presentations won the Oscar however. Jane made the award to Neil Bellham for his upbeat message of taking on bookings from anyone, of any persuasion, who needs his Chefy services in the approach to Christmas. Do it soon however!

Question and Answers session

Whenever we are short of a 10 minute presenter this format of teasing information out of our fellow members who have just delivered 60 seconds is always a success. Today was no exception. And it seamlessly led into our referrals and testimonials section

Finally, before we dispersed, Paul Corrigan brought us up to date with his plans for our Christmas do and even rewarded us with a Solitaire shopping bag. What’s not to like…..