A Meeting of Cocktails and Discipline

A turnout of 22 members (once Alan Shaw had decided to sign in) and  visitor Clive Wales from the alliteratively  named Surrey Sash Services.  Ought to have the word “Super” in there somewhere.

Education Presentation

David Plumley’s Ed Slot dealt with the 60 second presentation but purely in the context of making sure that it only lasted 60 seconds.  Mike Rogers, our senior timer, threatened sanctions on anyone who went over time of either a. only 30 seconds to be allowed next week or b. a punch in the face.

The serious and important point made by David Plumley is that as our numbers grow the consequential numbers that attend the meeting make it essential that we do not overrun the 8.30 am finish time by extending the 60 second round any longer than necessary.

The 60 Second Round

Mike Rogers was first up and set an example by speed speaking his 60 in laying out all the various criteria that different mortgage lenders adopt in assessing their potential mortgagors.  He manged to get it all in.

Jo Eastwood was next and “talked” cocktails.  This was a prelude to her 10 minutes where she was to “make” cocktails…..more of this later

Michael Adelizzi boasted 21 years of his shop being opened and how it started out as almost entirely as a tile shop and that he currently looking to further boost sale of his tiles.

Often the School of Whimsy can be seen as indulging in presentation extension, but frankly there was little of whimsy about its principal adherents.  Brian Painter was on message helping people  with fear of flying.  Alan Shaw was getting drawings done at the last minute to satisfy local authority requirements.  Nike Cooke was not with us.  I look forward to something more fussy and fluffy from these members next week.

For a lawyer Terry Maylin was pretty upbeat, although he normally is.  His message was that debts and debt collection is worth perusing through the courts and he illustrated how.

Stuart Smallcombe does mobiles…..now there’s a thing.  If Stuart does mobiles Howard Bullock does employee benefits and John Hammond does electronic candles.  Is there no limit to the talents of our members.

Richard Reed, the admirable Richard Reed, kept his presentation within the 60 second boundaries and still managed to tell us of 21 nights in Cyprus for less than a grand.  Half board in a half decent hotel.  If only I could spare the time.

Jill Willis laid before us a number of things that she has done this week which included;

6000 words of blog.

3 emails

4 case studies

It’s only the partridge that was missing.

Matt Barry not only confined himself to 60 seconds but also got to eulogising the power point and its versatility.

Equally surprisingly terse and to the point, John Freeman boasted 9 expanded doors and warned us to look out for rot.

Paul Booth picked up on the Jill Willis thing by listing what he had done this week.  He started off with an Irish actor.  His name I caught but had never heard of…I would probably recognise the face.  He then went on to deal with a sound engineer, the South African couple who wanted to immigrate, so intent was he on hitting the 60 second limit the rest of it was a bit garbled.

So the 60 second round ended having received a high degree of discipline from its members.

This weeks statistics and points of note

13 referrals

£5,500 of business acknowledged,

1 visitor

Meeting closed at 8.33 am

The 1-2-1 Chart

Paul is administering the 1 2 1 chart and gave us a short reminder of what was required and Scott Griffiths declared there would be some sort of prize at Christmas when everybody’s efforts will be assessed.  Whether there was any extra points for those of us who get big silver stars rather than small ones will remain to be seen.

Recruitment

The current team will be marking the start of their tenure with a visitors day next week so let’s have a good turnout both from members and hopefully  visitors.

10 minute presentation by Jo Eastwood

Jo Eastwood spent the whole of her 10 minutes and more…mixing us cocktails. What with the popping of corks, the stiring of iced liquid, the beating of mint and the glug of drink being poured, I have definitely listened to worse 10 minute presentations and she sent us all away with smiles on our faces.  We have all also been inducted to the dark arts of cocktail making with particular reference to Gin.

I was reminded how things to appear to have come full circle. William Hogarth’s Gin Lane  drawing in 1751 depicts the nightmare vision of a central London Street condemning the craving for Gin by depicting the poor drinking themselves to death.  A baby is dropped,  addicts slump in the street, a building tumbles and corpse is dumped in a cheap coffin.  Not only did Hogarth draw Gin Lane but he also drew Beer Street; I don’t think we should let any of this put us off.

Meeting Summary

This week saw a real attempt to get the meeting finished by 8.30am.  The 60 seconds discipline was responsible for this feat, fortunately almost blown by Jo Eastwood’s mesmerising 10 minutes of cocktail mixing.