Welcome to our July newsletter. I hope you are all well and managing to stay cool in the heat.
Our AGM was at the end of June and I’d like to thank everyone that attended as well as our sponsors/hosts, Ipswich Sports Club. It was an enjoyable event and we were delighted to introduce our new Charity of the Year, Brave Futures. Sandra Lucas joined us to explain a bit about the valuable work that they do.
Our July networking event was held earlier this month at Suffolk New College’s Rural Campus in Otley. We were treated to a tour of the facilities and enjoyed seeing lots of animals. Thanks to Gaynor, Debbie and their team for their hospitality and also to Offset Films who captured the event on video – click here to watch it.
We don’t do an event in August as it is peak holiday season so we are looking forward to welcoming you all to the Suffolk Enterprise Centre on 23rd September. Book your place here.
Anglia Business Exhibition 2027 will take place at Trinity Park on 12th May next year and exhibitor stands will go on sale on 8th September. In the meantime, if you are interested in becoming an ABE sponsor, please get in touch asap as the earlier you sign up, the more time there is to promote you. Email contact@angliabusinessexhibition.com for more info or read our ABE update to find out more.
Please note that unfortunately we will need to increase our membership fees slightly from 1st August as voted on and agreed at our AGM in June. We have kept the increase as low as possible but we do need to cover rising costs. Thank you for your ongoing support.
Reminder to ISSBA members – if you would like to be included in our newsletter as a Member of the Month, please let us know on mail@issba.co.uk so that we can schedule you in. It is a fantastic chance to tell people about what you do or share some exciting news or updates. Alternatively, if there is anything new or exciting going on in your industry (or just something you think people need to know about), we’d love you to write an interesting and useful article for the newsletter. Rather than a sales piece, you’d be providing valuable info to readers but you are welcome to include your logo, contact details and a call to action if you wish.
Remember that if you are an ISSBA member, you can send us your events to include on our website events calendar. Don’t forget to keep an eye on the calendar to see what is coming up. Email details of your events to mail@issba.co.uk.
Don’t forget our Recommend a Friend scheme, it is great to see ISSBA members benefiting from this. Any current ISSBA member will get one month's free membership for each new member they recommend, plus the new member also gets one free month, so Win-Win! There are no limits to how many referrals each ISSBA member can make as long as you have a current, paid up membership, so if you bring in 12 new members, you'll get a whole year for free!
GoCardless is making the renewal process much easier for many of our members. If you haven’t signed up yet, either let us know on mail@issba.co.uk or keep an eye on your inbox for an authorisation request. GoCardless is a direct debit system fully protected by the Direct Debit Guarantee and means that you never need to worry about forgetting to renew again. By signing up to this you will help your committee save valuable time in chasing renewals, so please, if you aren’t already signed up, please do!
Have a lovely summer and we look forward to seeing you at our events later in the year.
Graham Barton, ISSBA Chair