Review of the Year
In March 2006 I took over the Chair of the Central Lancashire Business Club from Keith Ellison and now, four years later, here I am writing my last Chairman’s article for the newsletter. Keith was a hard act to follow and I hope that you feel that I have come close to the standard he set.
Looking back over those four years, the last one as Joint Chair with Steve Ward, brings back many memories but above all else I remember, and I am grateful for, the help, support and friendship I have had from so many of my fellow club members. To mention individuals would inevitably result in me accidentally omitting someone so I would just like to say a huge collective thank you to everyone.
Looking back I think the major events of the last four years are easy to identify, namely the change of name for the club, moving to an electronic version of the newsletter and, above all else, our 25th anniversary celebration.
During this last year we have had a series of excellent speakers covering a very wide variety of subjects.
In March we were privileged to listen to Annick Morris. In 2001 22 years old Annick received a “Child of Achievement” award and with typical modesty said that she felt that there were others who deserved it more. Annick told us about and demonstrated equipment that enables blind and partially sighted people to work in business. I certainly felt very humbled by Annick and I am sure that all those present felt the same.
April brought a presentation by Alan Childs the North West Regional Director of PFEG. Alan explained how PFEG (Personal Finance Education Group), an independent charity, helps schools to plan and teach personal finance relevant to students' lives and needs. Their mission is to ensure that all young people leaving school have the confidence, skills and knowledge in financial matters to participate fully in society.
Club member David Baker of Perrite Ltd was our speaker in May. David passed on his considerable knowledge of tendering for public service contracts for which we were all very grateful. The rules and regulations involved in bidding for public sector contracts are, to say the least, very complex yet David managed to explain everything in language that we all understood.
In June Martin McKenna-Evatt used his scriptwriting skills to emphasise how important it is not to form incorrect opinions of the people in your team. The team exercise we all completed was not only great fun but also an eye opener in the widely differing scenarios each team developed.
Rob Molyneux of Avalon Health, one of our club members, told us how to get fit for business. Rob, who has worked with many high profile businesses and sports personnel stressed how important
exercise, nutrition and stress management are in enabling us to cope with our busy business lives.
Following the summer break our speaker in September was Dr John Brazier. John a Doctor of Traditional Chinese medicine, Oriental medicine practitioner (Thai & Japanese) and a practitioner of modern Western complementary systems is the founder of the Oriental Body Balance system. He told us that he believes that a healthy life is based on being able to diagnose & treat mind, body & spirit.
October brought an interesting presentation by Lee Dickinson of Green Pass Driving School. Lee not only explained the importance of good driving skills every day but also informed everyone of the changes and developments in driving legislation, and how to ensure you stay within the law.
The corks were popping in November as we enjoyed our annual wine event. To refer to the evening as wine tasting would be doing an injustice to club member Brian Wilding of Chordale Wines. Brian’s superb knowledge of everything relating to wine makes this annual event more an educational journey through wine and wine making, much more than just wine tasting, although that element of the evening was very enjoyable, as always. See you next year Brian.

December brought the opportunity for four of our members to tell us more about their businesses and the goods and services they offer. We enjoyed presentations from Paul Hindle of Lumenata Lighting Design who explained how energy efficient lighting can save considerable costs for businesses, John Thompson of Utility Warehouse who explained how he can make significant savings for people on their utilities costs, Mike Ridley of Resolution Opportunities who explained how the use of Innovation Vouchers has helped him to develop his new business, Life’s Address Book and Jake Bridge of Complete Logistic Services who explained the complex transport legislation that faces all businesses who operate their own transport and the consequences of failing to comply with the law. Thank you to all these members for giving us an entertaining and informative evening.
Following our January break February certainly saw us finish the club year with a bang. Mark Cannon, a solicitor with Napthens and a local vicar gave an hilarious presentation covering both sides of his working life during which he also explained the importance of having a well written will, stressing that a badly written will can eventually be very costly. Everyone present felt that Mark could add a third vocation to his portfolio, as a comedian.
All of our speakers give their time free of charge to entertain and inform us. I would like to say a huge thank you to each and every one of them.
Through the year we also enjoyed a number of excellent social events.
In August we celebrated the clubs 25th anniversary with a formal dinner at Shaw Hill Golf Club. We were privileged to have Edwin Booth, Chairman of Booths Supermarkets, and his wife Ann as our guests of honour. The fact that Edwin, the current Lancastrian of the year, agreed to attend was a huge honour to the club and all our members and I would like to thank him very much. To see the
chairman of a major company singing Happy Birthday to the club whilst wearing a glove puppet was became a lasting picture from the night.
Pre dinner entertainment was provided by the excellent Solo Players String Quartet and our after dinner speaker was the hilarious Norman Prince, former front man of the Hoghton Weavers and local broadcaster. Norman certainly showed his skills of observation, highlighting the funny side of every day occurrences.
The dinner was attended by 75 people representing 45 local businesses and it proved to be an excellent show case for the Central Lancashire Business Club. Thank you very much to all the people who worked very hard to make this event such a success.
The fact that the club is still going from strength to strength after a quarter of a century is a tremendous testament to both those who had the forethought to form the club and to all those who have been involved in the club since. Here’s to the next 25 years.
In December we had our annual Christmas dinner, held this year at the Lancashire College. As always Steve and Ann Ward worked very hard to ensure that we all had a very enjoyable evening, thank you. You never quite know what is going to happen when you attend the Christmas dinner as Steve and Ann always plan a few surprises. This year we were entertained by Laura Worden whose excellent singing was the highlight of the evening.
My final thanks must go to you, the members, for actively supporting and promoting the club, without you the club would not exist. Thank you very much.
As we reach the end of another club year and the end of my period as chairman / joint chairman I look forward to an exciting year to come. I am a firm believer that an organisation such as the Central Lancashire Business Club needs a regular change of officers to ensure a constant flow of new ideas, essential to ensure a healthy growing organisation. Without pre-empting the vote at the agm, based on the knowledge of the people who have so far agreed to stand for the officer position, I know we are in for an exciting and eventful year ahead. Make sure that you are part of it.