Warm welcomes to returning Visitor James McCloughlin of Travel Counsellors, who has now submitted an application, and Phil Levy subbing for Stephanie Owen.

Excellent Education slot from Sue Ambrose targeting our Visitors Event. Don’t look for Members or push for Membership – that will follow automatically, or not. BNI is not for everyone or every business area, but those Visitors cannot fail to be impressed with what they see, and more importantly be impressed enough to pass a referral or two, or three, or four……….Remember that Visitors are our top contributors for referrals over the past 12 months.

For anybody that missed it here is the most wanted poster of trades or professions that we compiled last year:

Every Member MUST know people in these categories and as the invitation will be a personal “come along and see” one it should not be difficult to entice at least one Visitor per member. It is important to start targeting now and to let Clive or myself know who you have invited. If you would prefer the invite to come from BNI Caterham let us know.

60 seconds...
Refreshing to note that Frances nearly had to wear the gong out for the 60 second slots – it shows that more imput is being applied in to detail. Just a bit more practice in timing needed. It is also important to vary the presentation with a new angle or a new feature of your business, or even a tale of a recent job. Star Speaker Award went to Ashley Stevenson.

Reports...
Clive’s Membership Co-Ordinators report told us that we have passed 1223 referrals in the last year and that our show me the money total is now over £110K. We also have had 64 Visitors in that time. Keep those cards rolling in and let the total grow. He also appealed for information for the Chapter Website Members pages from Sue Lucas, Patrick Cunningham, and James McCloughlin. As a test of how good our website is try “Googling” your name or your trading name and see where BNI Caterham website ranks you. It works and it’s brilliant.

The Committee will now meet after next weeks meeting and, hopefully, be able to approve financial support for the Visitors Event – it’s a great hook to be able to say, “Come and have a breakfast on us”

10 Minutes...
Liz Copeland gave us the Speakers List for the next 6 weeks:

Liz then introduced this week’s speaker Clive Wilson. Interesting to learn that Clive has been a website guru for 8 years, having previously been a railway engineer, a Metropolitan Police technician and a pre-press Studio Manager. Also encouraging to hear that he had once rescued an elderly lady from a blazing building. There are far too few superheroes, these days!

Clive’s skill in designing and implementing websites has been self taught, and is all the better for that. His experience is based on practical application and he has learnt the hard way.

Among his many clients (including Caterham BNI) are Bliss, a premature baby charity, Luxo, a Norwegian lighting company, Praktica, digital cameras. Clive is also, justifiably, proud of the work he has undertaken for Caterham Members.

Clive specialises in building cost effective, flexible websites tailored to suit individual needs. He can provide content management, to enable the user to edit the site, and e-commerce to sell on line.

Everybody needs a website, if only to validate that they are a serious business and with 25,000 new domains being registered worldwide every day it’s vital to be up there. If you are not your competition will be!

Clive went on tell us about website statistics and Google ad words plus a fascinating conspiracy theory about Google and the CIA. Check it out – there’s a chilling video “Secrets of the CIA”

At the end of his presentation I don’t think any Member could doubt Clive’s thorough knowledge and professionalism about what he does and how he does it. As a result we can all have no hesitation in referring Clive to anyone seeking website help.

Referrals...
Referrals were lively as ever and an encouraging increase in “Show me the Money” cards. The reality check threw up one to be chased and one that had gone through.

Liz was able to confirm no renewals imminent and John Gooden reminded us that we have our very own MSP Training, at Surrey National, on Wednesday January 23rd at 18.30 (including a buffet supper), and of course our Visitors Event on Tuesday January 22nd

Nic Howard won the beautifully wrapped door prize.

Finally, the thought for the week:

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

Ralph Waldo Emerson
(1803-1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet