June 2011 breakfast: Media Megastars, Sheep – and Another Vinegar Tip

June’s meeting was back at the Rugby club and Celine’s breakfast attracted 30 attendees. The five who didn’t make it plainly don’t know what they’re missing.

Thanks to the efforts of Alex Cameron and Kizzy Riley, who are now also Town Members, we will soon be the stars of our very own video.  It will be edited and put out on YouTube so expect an update link once it’s all done.  Fame at last!

Our Hon Sec instructed members that the theme this month was “sheep”, and the prize, a bottle of Black Sheep Yorkshire beer, went to Allan Scott, of Newsletter Genie, for this, following his introduction:

“…..our clients don’t have to do ANY of the hard work
Which is why most commercial newsletter programs are just pulling the wool over your eyes.
The yarn they usually spin is that they’re easy to use.
Which is fine if you happen to be a baa-rilliant copywriter.
…And a ewe-niquely talented designer.
…And a ram-bunctiously accurate coder.
If you’re not, you can still produce a ewe-sable newsletter.
But our clients tell us it takes them so long that they don’t need to count sheep when they finally get to bed.
So today I’m looking for any company that wants to send emails to their entire flock – er, contact base.
Because with Newsletter Genie they won’t get fleeced – and that’s why we’re good ewes for their business.”

While we’re waiting for our video to be ready if you want a laugh check out the extreme sheep LED Art video on the Black Sheep Brewery website:

http://www.blacksheepbrewery.com/fun-stuff/

Continuing the sheep theme Simon Burton of 8CW’s latest tip may be useful – if you’re breeding sheep:

Year 1 male-female lambing ratio: 50:50
Year 2 male-female lambing ratio: 75:25
Year 3 male-female lambing ratio: 100% female

The secret? One cup of vinegar in a gallon of water per day!

Simon also reported that after about nine months of conscientious tweeting he’s seeing the results in work flowing in – something for us all to think about.

Jonathan “Rudyard” Steel of Gipping Press ignored the sheep theme completely to give us his version of the Kipling poem “If”.  Space being limited here’s the first verse to give you a flavour:

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and driving you insane;
Put your faith in us when others doubt you,
To give your clients joy is our main aim……”

And there was more, including invitations to the Gipping Press open day on July 20, which this year will include some partner trade stands as well as refreshments and a prize draw.

There was a huge variety of businesses represented at the June breakfast, covering everything from gifts and decoupage cards to motorbike courier services that saw an urgent delivery doing 3000 miles in five days to Naples and back.

Business consultancy, media marketing, surveying, insurance, mental well being, IT support, banking, graphic design, photography, insurance, home cleaning, travel when it’s about time you took a break, an estate agency for businesses when you want to retire and a funeral service when the time comes. That’s just a representative selection of the enterprises available at a Stowmarket Chamber networking breakfast.

All this, humour and a great breakfast – it has to be worth getting up early for once a month.

Chairman’s report – complete with Queen Bee

Peter’s Queen Bee flew in very briefly to reinforce the message that there is now an affordable “Town membership” for those who do not need the full Suffolk Chamber services.

It must have worked because we had three more sign-ups and half a dozen requests for membership forms.

The recent referendum on the proposed merger of Babergh and Mid-Suffolk District Councils turned down the proposal although the two districts are working closely on sharing some services that will cut costs

Before she buzzed off the Queen Bee introduced Debbie Ball, complete with mayoral bling, who was the five-minute speaker for the breakfast.

Anyone with any feedback or comments for future activities and issues they feel the Chamber should be involved in should contact Peter:
peter.avoca@talktalk.net

Debbie Ball

Stowmarket’s newly-appointed mayor, and owner of the igneous activity centre for adults and children in Needham Market, emphasised her passionate commitment to improving facilities in Stowmarket.

It had come about in part because of the difficulty she had had in finding a suitable venue for Igneous in the town, and eventually, having failed to find anywhere and settled on Needham Market,she told us she had “picked up the phone and told the county council what I thought”.

Next thing she knew, Debbie was a town councillor and within three years has become the mayor.  She pledged that this year would be all about working for Stowmarket, which has a “big year” under way, with the new Morrisons under construction, the John Peel Centre developing and other new buildings going up, although negotiations are still ongoing about the regeneration of Ipswich Street.  However, Debbie felt that this was the year when potentially Stowmarket town centre could turn the corner.

There are plans afoot for developing igneous further, and Debbie emphasised that the centre was not only for children.  In fact the adults can be rowdier than the children as was the case with a recent 30th birthday party complete with a number of grown adults hurtling round the building on space hoppers!

Dates for your diary

July’s breakfast meeting is back at the Golf Club so make sure you turn up at the right place:

Next Meeting:

July 15 Golf Club

phone: 01449 770965
e-mail: secretary@stowmarketchamber.org.uk
website:
www.suffolkchamber.co.uk/stowmarket_district_chamber_of_commerce