President's Weekly Letter, Champions SoCal BNI

Wooooooo, CHAMPIONS!!!!!


Well we will start the last weekly letter of of 2010 with an image montage from the VERY talented Ms. Carla Buchanan, my wife of over 31 years, recent graduate of FIDM, future small business owner and visitor to the Champions SoCal BNI chapter this morning! I hope you enjoy the images!





The room was splendid with holiday decor, several Santa hats, and visitors, visitors, visitors! We inducted our 32nd member in the person of Dan McCoy from Paul Davis Restoration. Welcome to the Champions Dan! We know that you will be a welcome addition to our trades and real estate group.


The Champions welcomed the aforementioned Carla Buchanan with Carla Buchanan Designs, Steve Pitchford from Search Optimizers, Doug Symank from Priority Plumbing, representing himself as a general contractor was Joseph Lynch, Jack Tafreshi who will blaze a new venture in 2011, and Patty Deloera a real estate investor. Returning for his third visit was Jim McCracken of UFirst and subbing for Gary Lorge was Cody Hicks...whew! That is a lot of non stack day visitation! A VERY special guest in the person of Dawn Revelle, from Spark of Love and the Fullerton Fire Department was present to collect the toys that the Champions donated. Dawn also collected something much more meaningful...but more on that later.


EC Moment:
Jim Sando, complete with his own custom Santa hat educated us with the theme, when did someone do something special for you and tied the message in to the season of giving. After all as BNI members we aspire to the motto "givers gain".


SMMs and Tabasco award:
Bill Edman, quack, quack, confessed in the Stand and Deliver that a certain member (Jim Sando) has schooled him on the quality of his "asks". Well if Mr. Sando consults small businesses (and we know he does) as well as he counseled Bill Edman...we will have many more Tabasco winning small businesses. Bill's SMM was spot on...the opening was catchy "definition of insurance", the message flowed to the specific ask for an introduction to Gary Cooper from 3D Instruments in Anaheim and Bill quack, quacked before the bell rang him back into his seat! Steven Stakley sang his moment as did Greg Beck, but Bill's was clearly the best IMHO!


Keynote Pitches:
Rosanne Grigsby from Grigsby Bookkeeping and Rutger Hensel from Branding Personality delivered two very fine Keynotes today...the last of 2010. Rosanne described her "desire" which resulted from overcoming personal adversity to graduate from college and licking cancer. She takes the same tenacity into her bookkeeping assignments. I loved the color squares that Rosanne blended into the pitch...very visual. Well, we can win an IPad if we refer the most biz to Rutger in the first three months of 2011. Rutger expertly explained SMM, SEO, Google ad words, SMO, and how the whole lot of them combine to create a great online marketing strategy. Rutger and his lovely wife Marieke have quite a passion for the auto industry and have great success stories for transforming their branding through social media.


Stand...or should we say kneel and deliver?
The Stand and Deliver portion of the meeting was eclipsed by Clay Colwell kneeling in front of his soon to be bride, Dawn Revelle...that is correct, the same Dawn that was at our meeting to collect toys! Well, she collected a whole lot more as we witnessed. The moment was special for all of the Champions and I know that Dawn and Clay will never forget where Clay "popped the question". Greg and Rosanne were quick to point out that both Dawn and Clay are in line for the joint tax filing benefit...gotta love the tax folks! Best of luck for a VERY happy life together, you two! Clay also doubled down and won the Champions Spark Plug Award...but who else?


Spark of Champions:
The Champions chapter donated many, many toys for the Spark of Love campaign. We should be very proud of the giver's attitude that filled the room with toys today. I am confident that many children will have a merrier Christmas because of the giving!


The meeting was adjourned with a quote and a wish. The quote: "If your holiday spirit is not in your heart...you will have a tough time finding it under a tree." The wish: to all Champions, friends, and loved ones, have a VERY safe and sane Holiday season!


Presidentially Yours,

Allen