6th July - Castles Removals presentation - Peter Varrall gets the members involved with a 'Generation Game' style presentation - Ryan Holah (Roofing-Gutters), Darren Beeching (Painter-Decorator) and our BNI AD Roger Howes rise to the challenge - packing an expensive picture. The winner was Roger Howes who received a bottle of champagne

The Fab Five celebrate together after completing the ‘honda pilots’ course	Katie, BGB, Neil and Mark spot Roger lurking in a tree, and carefully take aim…	Mark ‘Pigeon Slayer’ Hughes scores a perfect 30/30 in the laser rifle shooting
Looks can be deceiving – this innocent-looking jeep has been modified to turn the ‘wrong’ way!	This ‘warrior’ resorts to pulling faces in a Dodd vs Dodd stand-off (Crazy Katie takes no prisoners though!)	BGB is convinced he did the right (or is that left?) thing!
Motorhead Mike does ‘one potato, two potato’ in a bizarre attempt to explain to Roger what’s happening…	Seemingly unaware that the ‘blue mushroom head’ look was never cool, BGB indicates to Motorhead that it’s safe to sit down with his trademark ‘Hand of Quad’ gesture	enlarge score sheet And the winner is… BNI!

Friday 11th June saw seven members of Deal & Sandwich BNI get together for a fun-filled day of team activities at Arena Pursuits, Flimwell, East Sussex (www.arenapursuits.com). And what a day it turned out to be…

On a day that seemed, at first, to promise nought but torrential rain, Chapter Director, ‘Mad’ Mark Ansell, lead his merry band of fearless followers to (relatively sunny) Flimwell to compete for inter-Chapter glory in the Arena Pursuits!

Upon arrival at the spectacular 250 acre venue, our courageous CD rallied his troops, which consisted of the following characters:

1. Mike ‘Motorhead’ Anderson
2. Neil ‘The Man With The Plan’ Hornsey
3. ‘Crazy’ Katie Dodd
4. ‘Balls Out’ Bryan G-B
5. Mark ‘Pigeon Slayer’ Hughes
6. ‘Shaky’ Shaun Hopper

(Note: Nicknames became apparent after the events!)

In an unexpected turn of events, The Magnificent Seven soon became The Fab Five, as Mark and Shaun selflessly volunteered their services to another Chapter that lacked the requisite numbers (well done you guys!).

And so, in true BNI fashion ‘open networking’ was well under way by 7.30am. The coffee flowed freely, and the biscuits were quickly devoured as members sought to ‘boost their energy levels’ before the trials of the day began.

Ten teams of five competed in events designed to test individual skill, as well as co-ordinated team efforts. Even so, as individual scores were ‘averaged out’ within each team, the spirit of the collective prevailed – together we stand!

And so it was that The Fab Five embarked on an adventure that was to take them quad biking through the picturesque Ribena Orchards, laser rifle ‘clay pigeon’ shooting by the dark woods, reverse-steer jeep driving through the deviously-designed obstacle course, careering and wheel-spinning in the wild ‘honda pilots’ and finally across a canal in a raft of their own making! Phew!

It just wouldn’t be BNI without a healthy dose of competition. So, substituting PALMS for scoresheets, we tracked the progress of each Chapter:

1. Surbiton secured 1st place with 30 points – well done!
2. Deal & Sandwich took the silver medal with 28 points – woohoo : D
3. White Cliff ‘Warriors’ trailed in 3rd place with 27 points… - boohoo :’(

Of course, at the end of the day each team succeeded in taking part – winners, one and all!

Pic courtesy: Laurie Philp

27th April - Nigel Stevenson, Membership Co-ordinator receives 'Ambassadorial' status. Nigel will be working with other chapter leadership teams in the area and his Assistant Director, Roger Howes helping to promote the BNI

13th April - 2 new members join the chapter: Lesley Footman (Florist) and Katie Dodd (Utilities Warehouse) make it 5 ladies in the chapter - one of the highest proportional representation in BNI!

Cllr. Bill Gardner, Worshipful Town Mayor of Deal visited the chapter and addressed everyone saying 'what a well organised morning' and 'wished the chapter every success' in view of the difficult times we are experiencing

Mayor Gardner was chauffeur driven to our venue and attended in full regalia enjoying a 'wealthy' breakfast with Business Leader - Deal and Sandwich

Pic, L/R: Cllr. Bill Gardner, Worshipful Town Mayor of Deal, Carol Wilkinson (ST), Mark Ansell (CD), Nigel Stevenson (MC)


Pic courtesy: Laurie Philp


6th April - new leadership team take over. Well done Neil, Tony and Bryan. 6 months of excellent team leadership and admin, good luck to Mark, Carol and Nigel [see flowchart] as the chapters six monthly changeover takes place. Over the past 6 months we've seen a 20% increase in membership and with BNI's new 'cash for members' drive starting this week the new leadership team hope to double the number of new members.

Peter Varrall wins the chapter 'Endeavour Award' for his help and support over the past 6 months

Serita Boxall (Martha Trust) and Neil Hornsey (CD) handing over a cheque for £100.00 plus the contents of the collection box, a mix of donations and fines collected over the past few months by members and going to a very good cause. www.marthatrust.org.uk The Matha Trust is our resident charity and BNI Deal/Sandwich work closely with the organisers supporting their money raising events throughout the year. In return The Trust has placed orders with members, a working example of 'givers gain' - Thanks Serita from all at BNI and good luck with 2010   Pic courtesy: Laurie Philp

Nick Cunningham makes it into Spring 2010 'Success Net' (BNI national publication) - see: PDF/page 10 "Value those visitors - Visitors add value to chapter meetings in a host of different ways. For Nick Cunningham, a plumbing and heating engineer from Sandwich and Deal Chapter, a visitor brought business worth many thousands of pounds both for his own organisation and for others in the chapter – and resulted in a new member too." Nicks overall business from our adopted charity: www.marthatrust.org.uk £300.000! see Nick's website

8th March: Latest stats: 5576 chapters worldwide passed 6.2 million referrals worth £1.6 billion.

Jan 2010 - 2 new members join us this month. John Dorries (driving instructor) and Gary Jenkins (melaleuca well being products). We wish them every success in the coming months

21st Feb: BNI see 21% increase in referrals [more]

Latest News and Events
[archive 2008 :: 2009]

Up and coming events

July 2010 - Raft Race (see last years event)
August 2010 - Annual BBQ

In Brief...