Surrey Business Club

SBC AGM & CHRISTMAS DINNER
We returned to The Barn Restaurant at Newlands Corner for our AGM and Christmas Bash, to be welcomed with Jean’s customary hospitality.
AGM
Our famous ‘ten-minute’ AGM actually lasted more like twenty minutes, but was suitably informal, and ably chaired by the Committee’s Richard Jones. The minutes taken by Martin Evans are included below.
Lovely grub…
Jean did us proud with a full three-course Christmas menu with unlimited wine and orange juice (separate glasses!) and even threw in coffee afterwards – magnificent value at £6 a head all in, for those who brought along a guest.
The festive spirit was much in evidence at what, for most of us, is the first in a series of naughty but nice Christmas blow-outs.  The hilarity and jovial conversation flowed with the wine and we ran a little short of time for Denis Fuller to deliver his entertaining illustration of the role of body language in public speaking. Luckily, he’s agreed to present it at a future Club meeting, which we look forward to.

[Thanks to Peter Searight of www.theremarkablestudio.com for the great photos!]

Quiz Time
 The traditional Christmas Quiz was hosted by Keith Grover – here are the Q&As for anybody to use, with Keith’s compliments!
Quiz Questions & Answers
1. Which river does Rome stand on? TIBER
2. Which South American country was named after a European city?  VENEZUELA
3. What’s the popular name for London’s Central Criminal Court?  OLD BAILEY
4. What was the maiden name of Jane Austen’s ‘Emma’?   WOODHOUSE
5. What was Quink an abbreviation for?  QUICK DRYING INK
6. Which American animator was one of the Monty Python Team? TERRY GILLIAM
7. Contrary to popular belief, brides do not walk down the aisle to the altar. What do they walk down? THE NAVE - aisles are along the sides
8. Parker and Barrow were the surnames of which famous couple? BONNIE AND CLYDE
9. Which town was the scene of the gunfight at the OK Corral? TOMBSTONE, ARIZONA
10. What is 1999 in Roman numerals? MCMXCIX
11. Name the eastern-most and western-most state in the United States. ALASKA & ALASKA. The Aleutians cross the 180 degree line of longitude and are in both the eastern and western hemispheres.
12. If a violinist broke her G-string, she would have three strings left. Name two other notes to which any of them is tuned.      E (mi ) A (la) D (re)
13. What is the more common name for Ethylene Glycol? ANTIFREEZE
14. Which actor is known as The Muscles from Brussels?  JEAN-CLAUDE VAN DAMME
15. Which world-famous crime has a potential 324 different combinations?  CLEUDO (the murder of Dr Black)
16. Who sang a hit song about Baker Street in 1978?  GERRY RAFFERTY
17. What was the name of the donkey in Winnie the Pooh?  EEYORE
18. Which country has the lotus flower as its national symbol? INDIA
19. Who had a number one hit with ‘Shaddap You Face’?  JOE DOLCE
20. Who was King of England at the time of the gunpowder plot?  JAMES 1
21. Which character in a Yellow Pages ad wanted to buy his own book on fly fishing? J R HARTLEY
22. What does CNN stand for? CABLE NEWS NETWORK

Minutes of Surrey Business Club Annual General Meeting
held at the Barn Restaurant, Newlands Corner, Surrey
at 7.30 on Tuesday 1 December 2009-12-08
18 members and partners attended and Richard Jones chaired the meeting.
Apologies were received from Deryck Svensson (in the West Indies) and Linda Haynes (in Australia).
1. The minutes of the 2008 AGM were available in printed form and were agreed as an accurate record.
2. Keith Grover gave the Chairman’s Report starting with the good news that, despite the present economic climate, the Club was solvent and that all the necessary changes to the constitution had been agreed. The bad news was that membership had continued to decline, down to 36. A major cause for this was the huge increase in the number of networking organisations operating - more than 50 in Surrey alone - many specialising, with 7 for women only. Having so few members presented two particular problems: finding catering establishments willing to hold meetings for the small numbers that attend meetings, and attracting good speakers for those meetings. But, as the longest standing business club in the County, the Committee were determined to soldier on.
3. Ian Kent gave the Treasurer’s Report for the year to 30 August 2009. This showed a significant reduction in fixed costs, largely due to Deryck Svensson’s offer to provide the Club’s website maintenance free in return for Webskills taking over use of the Club’s surreybiz.net URL. With a subscription income of £2,900, the Club was left with a surplus for the year of £2,500. This then raised the question as to what to do with the money. Ian reported that the Committee had decided to use it to continue providing a really good meetings programme.
4. Keith Grover listed the members of the Committee, all of whom were eligible for re-election. Paul Cawthorne announced that he would be standing down due to the pressure of other commitments. No volunteers coming forward, the remaining Committee members were re-elected ‘nem. con’.
5. Under Any Other Business, Richard Jones was pleased to report that, as a result of the Club website’s inclusion in the Webskills “Surrey-Online”, he had gained some new business. So the system does work.
    Ian Hamilton suggested that some of the Club’s surplus could be used to provide Honorary Life Membership to deserving members such as past Chairmen like Tony Greenman and Stephen Lewis, staunch supporters like Richard Butcher of Business Link and good speakers with a record of two or more presentations to the Club.
The meeting closed for members and partners to partake of the Barn Restaurant’s excellent Christmas meal.