When a few words say it all!

26/2/08

About a year ago a member in my chapter got up to do his 60 seconds, placed his hands on the table in front of him and just looked about. After a few seconds the rest of the members started to look at each other and shrug, after another ten seconds there were a few nervous laughs and yet the member still stood there, from time to time turning their head from side to side. It was almost half way through the minute before the member spoke and then all he said was, ‘Can’t hear a thing, can you ? Just listen’. Now we all listened and sure enough you couldn’t hear a thing and then the member spoke again, this time saying, ‘That’s because this room is double-glazed. So if you know someone that is fed up with hearing all the noise outside their home then get them to contact ….’

Recently, another member bet me that she would get a standing ovation at our next meeting. In the five years that I have been a member no one else had, so I didn’t see how a new member was going to achieve this at her second meeting. At the next meeting she asked everyone to stand, she then moved to the front of the group and said that she was going to show us a simple warm-up routine. This involved us putting our hands above our heads and slowly moving our arms backward and forward. This we did for a few moments and then she said, ‘.. a bit faster, that’s it, now a bit faster ..’ and guess what? She got her standing ovation!

And then last week I called on a member to do their 60 seconds. He nodded back to me and just sat there reading his paper. After a while he glanced at his watch but carried on reading. This group had all heard the double-glazing story so we all sat and waited, but thirty seconds passed and this member just carried on reading, in complete silence. At forty-five seconds we just didn’t know what to expect. Then at fifty seconds he glanced at his watch again, folded his paper, looked up and said, ‘Don’t waste your time, speak to RBS instead!’ That was it, but he received rapturous applause. And what amazing nerve that took.

The one thing that these 60 seconds have in common is that they will be remembered. Hardly a week goes by without me telling someone the double-glazing story. And on one of those occasions it resulted in £4,500 worth of work for the member and, because I keep talking about these 60-seconds, they keep on working for the members concerned.

So next time you do your 60 seconds why not dare to be different and do something that your fellow members will still be talking about in years to come?