Hello and welcome to ISSBA’s July newsletter! This year is flying by but we have lots to share with you.
Firstly, I’d like to personally thank everyone that attended our AGM and Networking Event on 28th June. It was fabulous to be able to hold this event in person after being online for a few years. If any members didn’t manage to attend, the minutes are now available to read on the website – you’ll need to login first as they are only available to ISSBA members. We were delighted to announce our new Charity of the Year – more on that later! Huge thanks to our sponsor for the evening, Innovation Labs at University of Suffolk. They were the perfect hosts and looked after us extremely well. They have so much more on offer to help the local business community than most people realise so it was fantastic to hear about it all first hand. You can find out more on their website.
Our ABE Team rarely rests and planning is already well underway for Anglia Business Exhibition 2024 which will take place on 8th May at Trinity Park next year. Read our ABE2024 update here.
Booking is now open for our July networking event which will take place at Bucklesham Grange, Ipswich on 25th July. Thank you to Bucklesham Grange for kindly sponsoring this event, it will be fantastic to see the luxury facilities they have on offer. Book your place here.
As mentioned above, we announced our new Charity of the Year at our AGM in June and we are delighted to be supporting Lighthouse Women’s Aid for 2023-24. Read our July Member of the Month piece to find out more about the amazing work that they do.
Would you be interested in joining the ISSBA committee? If so, let us know on mail@issba.co.uk. We are a friendly bunch and usually meet once per month (via Zoom currently). As well as having a say in how the organisation is run, this is a fantastic opportunity to build your profile in the local area. Get in touch if you’d like to know more.
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!
Graham Barton, ISSBA Chair