Another full house for Caterham BNI!.  Warm welcomes to Simon Porter subbing for Stephanie Owen and Sandie Lloyd.

Apologies from Liz Copeland and Helen Foreman – Tapley, who was to sub for Liz but taken ill overnight, herself. There’s a lot of it about, as they say.

Sue Ambrose’s Education Slot followed the pattern of reports from Kate Bellinger, Mark Thornhill and James McLoughlin on the Member Support Program training held on Wednesday last. It appeared to have worked for them all, apart from the food!

The 60 second challenge:
Sue’s challenge for next week is to introduce at least one song title from an Elvis Presley record. For younger members Elvis was a rock and roll legend (Born January 8, 1935 – died August 16, 1977). He starred in 33 successful films, made history with his television appearances and specials, and knew great acclaim through his many, often record-breaking, live concert performances on tour and in Las Vegas. Globally, he has sold over one billion records, more than any other artist.

In case you are worried there might not be enough song titles, if we stick to the official recordings made for his two record companies, plus the songs recorded for films and TV, the figure is 698.There are instances of songs being officially recorded twice for one reason or another (e.g. Blue Suede Shoes, Love Letters, You Don't Know Me, One Night, Loving You, Ain't That Loving You Baby, Big Boots, Frankfurt Special) that would take this figure over the 700 mark.

As he will be away next week, on an exciting holiday thanks to James Mcloughlin, Graham Hathaway managed to slot a few in to his 60 seconds this week and it won him The Star Speaker Award.

Visitors' Day:
Clive Wilson thanked everyone for their support at Visitors Day and helping to make it such a success. The Visitor evaluation forms were most interesting and quite complimentary. The support for the evening MSP was also much appreciated. Scott Georgiades is currently leading referral giver for January, closely followed by John Gooden.

10-minute Speakers:
Speakers for the next few weeks are:

Our 10 minute speaker this week was no shrinking violet, and it was another cracking presentation from Nic Howard. Nic’s passion for his business shone throughout his presentation and it was great to hear someone follow one of the BNI most preached guidelines – Be Specific. Nic certainly told us exactly what sort of referrals he was looking for (clients who want Nic to tell them how their gardens should look, not the other way round), and the ones he doesn’t want (cheapskates on minimal budgets and not prepared to invest in their gardens should head for the nearest garden centre, on their own)

Nic showed us some more of his fabulous hand drawn designs, a work of art in their own right, and talked us through some of the many different projects he has undertaken. His portfolio of photographs was breathtaking and records all of the jobs he has completed in the 4 years he had been a member of BNI.

Our thanks to Nic for a great 10 minutes.

The winner of the Door Prize from Nic was Mark Hynes.

Membership renewals:
The following members are due to apply to renew their membership before March 1st:
Edward Davies
Scott Georgiades
Stephanie Calthrop-Owen
Sue Ambrose
Ashley Stevenson
Rick Perrin

Please remember all renewals have to be approved by the membership committee so get your renewal forms from Liz Copeland and submit them ASAP.

Events:
John Gooden mentioned The Big Breakfast 4th February 06.45 Bridge House Hotel Reigate, this will be a huge networking event followed by a video presentation from Ivan Misner. As of last night only two members have registered to attend.

Go Karting John has sent out an e-mail to muster a team, we now have a full team but need supporters to cheer-on the team.

Arena Events - further details to follow on this one.

The thought for the week from Liz Copeland:

There is no point at which you can say, "Well, I'm successful now. I might as well take a nap."

Carrie Fisher

Have a good one.