[speaker001:] Right, erm, eighteenth of January, er, Department of Finance and Administration Cascade Meeting. Er, Great North House, Northern Development Company. O K Marion, would you care to kick off?
[speaker002:] Yes, O K, erm, I brought what I thought would be a help from last week.
[speaker001:] Did your report back? we didn't have a meeting the first week, did we? Marion? and I wasn't in the last week so I doubt whether
[speaker002:] Do you want one on last week?, It's all there I assume,
[speaker001:] O K, right, O K, yes
[speaker002:] Erm, the quarterly report went out towards the end of that first week, erm, with the annual finance statements, erm, we're ple, quite encouraging because of the erm, S and E enquiries, were actually done on his proportion for once. Only just, but, because er, a hundred and eleven, if the enquiry's a hundred and six or constitutions, which is quite good, and obviously December was really quiet but then that's standard anyway, because, quite possibly not because it was sort of erm, he's shown with an which didn't
[speaker003:] [LAUGHTER] [LAUGHTER] So it's something folded back on one side yes,? []
[speaker002:] I mean it's not that vital to me, but I hadn't
[speaker003:] Yes Yes.
[speaker002:] , but I'm not surprised, so, erm, in our previous visit they did give us
[speaker003:] [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] Then was down in Middlesbrough for a couple of days that week, and er, I think amused everybody by calling it miserable all the time, I dread to think what.
[speaker001:] I told you how he was on the phone that day, I mean, he hadn't the foggiest idea of what, what he was doing or where he was going, I don't know.
[speaker002:] I think he got on er, quite well down there, because he'd spent a few days up here he had a better idea of what he wanted to ask, and what he wanted to talk about and so on, but erm, only because his deadline's and
[speaker003:] do you want to ring?
[speaker002:] Ah, right, I don't, I think it's now been called regional Christmas Day
[speaker003:] Makes a lot more sense, O K At Mercury, he clocked the sponsorship erm, late last year. Right, I must get some literature actually from Barry because as you know, it, it, we can't get it all out of the now,
[speaker002:] Right, oh and Phil went to the Stoke conference on that Thursday and Friday. He got bored silly and considered it a complete waste of time. Which I did try to tell [LAUGHTER]
[speaker001:] Erm, I seem to remember that's the day that East Anglia kind of just disappeared in
[speaker002:] Mm, yes, yes. That's right,
[speaker001:] I was supposed to have a meeting on with erm, a couple of guys from the British Coal Enterprise down in Middlesbrough with, but unfortunately again the weather caught all of them out and they decided not to come, but didn't occur to them to say they wouldn't come, so I sat down there for an hour, and eventually managed to find a phone number and get in contact and the guy was still there, and he said oh no I'm not coming up. This was like quarter to twelve, he should have been there at eleven o'clock. No he got stuck in London the night before because of the bad weather, and he started saying oh I'm sorry I don't think I'm going to be able to make it. Well I said, I was a bit concerned, I said it would be nice if you could let us know and
[speaker003:] Especially since you travel er, er, twenty or thirty to get there. Yes, that's right, yes, I mean until you get there.
[speaker002:] I mean he knew that because he'd contacted me up here and I said well, to make it easier for you we could meet in Middlesbrough, save you coming up from er, Mansfield. I said well, it cuts the, it cuts the journey in half then. I wasn't too happy about that but never mind. Erm, what else, last week I had a meeting with Mike and Yvonne from D T I and Phil. I was looking forward to talk a bit about er, what they're doing er, in the way of seminars and so on this year and how we can tie in with it, and how we're going to erm, actually take over the forum plan for Eurofile. It's typical, they just accepted it all, so it didn't really achieve a great deal, but Mike told me quite a lot of things that I don't really have any idea, or I didn't know about,
[speaker003:] What achievement of financial business will four year plan, will it make anything else? I can't see that they can afford to be a high profile company?
[speaker002:] They're going to erm, they're going to give the money towards running a forum, but not a great deal, and then it doesn't even cost that much, it just really a question of erm, mailshots and twice yearly events or whatever.
[speaker003:] You don't think it'll be once they put the money
[speaker002:] Yes, so it's, you know, it's like two mailshots up once a quarter or whatever, minutes, and I'm paying for a lunch. you're thinking of direct costs, but erm, Phil was going to ask Jeff if he would chair it, and also if he'd be willing, to be sort of editor in chief, of Eurofile, so that was yesterday, and I haven't seen Phil since, don't know what happened with that and went to him that it was a briefing meeting.
[speaker003:] yes
[speaker002:] This individual just about won, in fact it was over by ten past two.
[speaker003:] Yes, Oh I, yes, I can see here, yes, that's only two
[speaker001:] It's more than I saw of him.
[speaker003:] Mhm,
[speaker001:] Why I'm not sure
[speaker003:] Walkies [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] But erm, yes, so I still don't know what's happening with that yet, and I'm waiting also for them to confirm a date for this first sort of Do Business in France seminar, that we're going to help them with, which was originally going to be February, and is now going to be March. We think it was going to be the seventh and the eighth and the ninth, and they've told Newcastle City it's the ninth, but she was meant to confirmed last Wednesday, and she's still not. So erm, I've had a word
[speaker001:] Are export involved in this, I mean it seems quite if they're not?
[speaker002:] Mm, yes, but the trouble is they're not going to be interested in Europe, so they're not, Western Europe. They don't know how useful it would be but anyway, they said there, there's, it's a slightly odd event because it's actually going to be just in the Civic Centre, and er, and kind of tacking on some workshops and things, so I'm going to help her with workshops and have a display stand and so on but other than that, we've not really got any direct input into it, because it is very much, sort of, you know, this is how you do business in France, these are the financial problems, type of thing.
[speaker003:] It's just a good workshop, yes
[speaker002:] Which I was for shying off anyway, because I don't think it's any of our, our business. I'm mean they've got export people that know about that, and E C people one of those things. Yes, that's right, so I said you know, it's on a general level, I said yes, fine. But, er, other people start bringing up sort of problems with the French tax situation on such and such a structure of company or whatever, which is not anything we want to get involved with. So I had a meeting with Dailey to talk about the workshops and so on, so we've bashed out the format and er, and what we think we'd like to do, but it's partly dependent on D T I, because it is their event, and we want to be seen to hijack it. Erm, I had a meeting with Ian and erm,Do, Dorothy. Mhm, and told them that you wouldn't be your present arrangement
[speaker001:] Erm, yes, quite
[speaker002:] They took it remarkably well really, but er, I think there needs to be soft There must be have contingency, because Anne'd go up the wall... over that. You know, I don't know it was sort of well, have a little bit of a boss at Bill then, as a restraining influence
[speaker001:] in the past [LAUGHTER]
[speaker002:] I'm no help either, I did sort of wonder what she'd say but she's. They've been sort of so falsely jolly in the past, it sickens me.