Hi Everybody

Well that wasn't a bad start to the New Year at Tudor! 37 in the room, a new member inducted and 81 referrals passed. Yes, that is right, Eighty One, if you have been at Tudor for a year or more you will remember meetings when those same digits would have been the other way round.  

The more significant figure is the number of referrals per member per week, with 1 being acceptable, today we made 2.25. In addition of course we had 2 visitors, and it's always great to see Jonathan Hughes, who has just posted a very appreciative comment on his FaceBook page about Mike D's dental ten minutes. That and other Tudor trivia, gossip and chat is on our FaceBook page http://www.facebook.com/groups/273916229298035/ or search for BNI Tudor.

Sounds like a great social programme this month! Curry night as the prize for the Game winning Profumo Affair, and a quiz night at the Greyhound, you'll have got all that separately from Victoria.

Links as promised for Alex Mason  www.justgiving.com/2012everestbasecamp to send her to Everest

www.2012everestbasecamp.wordpress.com to follow her progress… it doesn't say anything about bringing her back!

And for my Project 365 photos www.flickr.com/photos/snappist/sets/72157628611684075/ or on my FaceBook page, although they do look better on Flickr…

Things to do for Tudor this week:

Book a one to one with someone you don't know well!

Invite someone from our top five list, sent out yesterday!

Share your completed referral sheet with your partner / significant other/ mum / family!

Consider making up a second card folder for anyone you know who could be of help with referrals.

And last have a think about which Power Team you should be associated with. Trades? Business Services? Property Services? Health and wellness? Financial services? These are not set in stone, and there is plenty of room for subgroups. Matt will be talking about this next week and how it can boost referrals still further.

Finally, we have now agreed that we will be staying after the meeting on Feb 7th for a session of referral skills, till about 10.30. If you can not make this please let us know asap.

See you next time

Hi Everybody

Not much to say today except a huge thanks to everyone who got into the Christmas spirit today with hats and some very inventive and well received Secret Santa gifts… there are some pics at http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.339528389394619.98363.100000123835946&type=1&l=ebe44fd209

And all my pics from Bardolinos are on the Tudor FaceBook group page, which you can join by searching for BNI Tudor and asking Nikki nicely to accept you… if you are on FaceBook, come and join us, and if you are not, hello! it's nearly 2012!

I will correct and smarten up the contact list you all checked this morning and circulate that separately later for you to print and keep for reference if you wish.

Other than that, have a great Christmas, and a nice break and see you back at Fulwell on January 10th, with loads of referrals and ready to take Tudor to a whole new level…

With kind regards

Hi Everybody

Thanks to everybody for another energising Tudor meeting, 4 visitors, 58 referrals a new member inducted and another, out of the blue, application submitted!

Lee won the Tudor Cup with the best new 'memory hook' we've heard in some time, congratulations to him.

A huge thanks to everyone in the chapter who got behind the idea of the Tudor Game, and made it such a success, I don't think there is any doubt now that The Profumo Affair are the winners from The Tony O Connor Show. The only position that could have changed hands was 3rd, and a very late charge for the line by The Ink Spots Captain with that surprise application form, took it for them from The Queen Vics.  Also taking part were The Lynch Mob.

The individual scores were also interesting, with two thirds of you stepping up to my 100 point challenge for the week, and Alex Mason coming in with an astonishing 295 points (Mark's score was higher but that included a 500 point bonus for an application received)

Having been roundly told off by Victoria yesterday for referring to adult females as 'girls'… I shall mind my language and say that also of interest was the fact that, after the first week when the ladies dominated the top places, there are now just 3 women in the top ten, which is exactly in line with the make up of the chapter. Alright the overall winner was also a lady! (Nikki in case you've been asleep for 6 weeks)

When the captains reach agreement on a suitable prize, I'll let you know, but it will probably involve everybody!

There are three main results from the game, which, as predicted, has produced a resounding win for the whole chapter. In the 6 weeks we have received 4 new applications ( I'm not counting BC refugees for this purpose ) and  3 of those applicants have now been inducted. Our referrals per week have gone from mid 30s to high 50s/60+ and, what may be of the most long term benefit, we have the beginnings of a 'culture' of having regular 1 to 1 meetings, which I really hope will continue, I have already got 1 booked for 2012!

Next week: Secret Santa gifts, we will use name cards, and you will need to find where your recipient is sitting and sneakily place your gift. You may need to resort to swapping gifts around to avoid detection:… Xmas headgear to be worn at all times! If you are not going to be there you MUST make arrangements to get your gift to the meeting to avoid disappointing another member.

Thanks to everyone who chipped in to replace Joy Sibbick's stolen iPod, just another demonstration of the power of numbers, with less than the price of a coffee each we raised £79.

Looking forward to seeing many of you on Friday… Im sure the women will be looking even more fabulous than usual, what are you guys wearing?

With kind regards

Hi Everybody

Well that's the way to do BNI… 61 referrals, 2 new members, 1 application handed in and between the insults and laughter a lot of serious business being passed.

Our 60 second swap day seemed to me to work well, it's one of those marmite things…  Experienced BNIers have strong opinions about whether its a good idea, or a waste of time and your membership fee! The usual main complaint is that it's confusing for visitors, I think our idea of pairing people up got round that, and spotting who had done their homework and who was just reading someone else's words was enlightening.

If there were a prize it would have to go to Tudor's unlikely pair of cross dressers… Chris Stock and Magda Dunne, who took the swap idea to the max by coming dressed as each other!  Anyway its at best an occasional exercise, and thanks to everyone for getting into the spirit of it, where else could you see an electrician talking dentures and a garage owner explaining SEO?

We agreed that we would not be meeting in the first week of January, so after Dec 20th you get 2 consecutive Tuesday lie ins! and back to BNI on Tuesday, January 10th, 2012.

We also agreed to take up David Wimblett's offer to run a workshop after a meeting, around the end of January, preferred topic would be Referral Skills, more on that when we can talk dates etc.

Before all that, we have the last week of the game next week, I haven't seen this week's scores yet, but sounds as though the Profumo Affair could still be beaten, but only just! The fact that we started with 5 teams of 5 and could have finished with 5 teams of 7 (if it wasn't a bit pointless bringing new members in at the last minute)  tells you all you need to know about how it went! We will talk prizes for the winners next week, my vote would be for a meal out, with the winning team not paying, maybe in the dark days of late January when Christmas is just a memory…

Nikki organised a draw for 'Secret Santas', gifts to be delivered on the 20th, max £10, NO alcohol please…  and needless to say if you will be subbed on that day, please make arrangements to get your gift to the meeting! We will also, as ordered by Tudor's Dress Code Tsarina … be attired in festive headgear on that day!

Notable Networker certificates this month went to Nikki for a truly outstanding performance in the Tudor Game, both personally and bringing her team with her. Also Rod Gilson for his, unseen by most but vital, help in getting everything set up for each meeting. The stats for last month show that 7 members gave 10 or more referrals, Victoria reliably top scoring again with 25, Stephen on 20 and Sandra on 15. Money thanked for was an impressive £58,000, which would make our current half million target an easy ask, and as Nikki told us the cards have not yet caught up with the 50 plus referral weeks we are now getting used to. Anybody still think that growing the chapter is a waste of energy

Training! next Monday morning at Kew,

http://www.bni.eu/trainingevents.php?region=6

you need to book and pay online, credit / debit card or paypal, and it's the last chance to gain 50 game points. The deadline for a visitor to put in an application that will count in the game is 9.00am on Tuesday 13th. And of course qualifying 1 to 1 meetings will need to be completed before that meeting! Hopefully we are all now seeing how valuable those are and will continue after the game.

Matt will be circulating some info about power teams in the coming week, and we will see how we can use those to our advantage in the New Year.

With kind regards