Thompson Jenner LLP Firm News June 2010
Welcome to the June edition of the Thompson Jenner LLP newsletter. With summer here at last, it’s time to catch up with all the latest news from around the firm.
Exeter Office News
Congratulations Shelly
Shelly Northwood is delighted to announce she is expecting with the baby being due in October. We wish her well.
Exeter TJ girls sponsored night walk.
Andrea Newman, Claire Churchill, Clare Harvey, Rachel Hodgson, Kate Greenway and Beck Phillips all took part in the recent ELF 10 mile night walk. They had to complete a warm-up routine, which needed them to be well co-ordinated, with Judi Spires before being let loose. This year’s new longer route took the girl’s over the Millennium Bridge and along the river, with a cuppa, bar of choc & banana at the Wyvern Barracks pit stop before the final hike up over the by-pass to Sainsbury’s before returning to the Arena. They were rewarded with another cuppa and an egg bap - which Rachel managed to squirt all over her arm & hands instead of eating!! Great fun was had by all with the challenge being completed in approx 3 hours.
Thank you to everyone at TJ who sponsored the girls, a total of £105 was raised from the office together with some individual sponsorship, which will benefit a very worthwhile cause.
Maternity leave
Claire Salter has now gone on maternity leave with a farewell lunch taking place at the Waterfront. We wish her and Darren well with their soon to arrive baby.
Baby News
Congratulations to Lucie Pennington who has had another baby boy, Mason, born 23rd April and weighing in at a healthy 7lbs 2ozs and around 3 weeks early. Mason will be a baby brother for Cody.
Steve’s presentation at Sandy Park
Following Steve Wadham passing all his final ACA exams last December his new member presentation by the ICAEW national president Martin Hagen took place at Sandy Park.
Outside decorating
The winter weather has taken its toll of the front of the Exeter office with large lumps of paint falling away from front porch. So some decorating is underway giving us the opportunity to also get some brand new company signs made.
Bookkeeping move
Rachel Hodgson has moved from the front office, where she has worked for three years, to work in bookkeeping. We wish her the best of luck with her new role.
Malcolm Weaver’s retirement
Malcolm Weaver retired on the 21st April after clocking up almost 49 years of service with the firm. He joined the Exeter office at the age of fifteen in May 1961 where he has continued to work until his retirement.
Malcolm qualified as a member of The Institute of Taxation in 1976. As we know in recent years he has worked in the tax team alongside fellow Tax Consultants Jane Hughes and Sally Pursey. Both were very sad to say farewell to Malcolm and said that he had been a true friend as well as a fine work colleague and would be sorely missed especially when it was his turn to make the tea.
As many will know Malcolm has always been a keen football fan and is an Exeter City season ticket holder and trust member. He was a founder member of the Thompson Jenner five a side football team, although he declined to elaborate on this being the modest chap he is. He has also enjoyed playing squash, tennis and table tennis.
At a special retirement lunch, at the Waterfront restaurant on Exeter quay, attended by partners and staff, Malcolm was congratulated on his achievement and thanked for his loyal service. On behalf of everyone Peter said that the firm was extremely grateful to Malcolm for giving such loyal service over the decades and that Malcolm’s achievement is unlikely to ever be beaten! Malcolm was presented with a card, parting gifts from and a cake baked especially for the event was passed around whilst toasting Malcolm’s good health and best wishes for the future.
Malcolm's retirement lunch photos
Malcolm’s main plan for retirement is just to enjoy his free time. In his farewell speech he said he’d made many good friends over the years. Probably the biggest difference he’d seen was the number of staff employed. When he joined back in the early 60s there were just two partners and seven staff whereas there are now seven partners and over sixty staff. He also said he was he was particularly looking forward to not having to allocate his time by filling in timesheets every day- a task he will clearly not miss! All our best wishes go to Malcolm for a long, happy and healthy retirement. We’re sure he will keep in touch.
Exmouth Office News
FIRE!
Many thanks go to Jodie Zberowski, with help from Jason Simons, for making sure that all our fire procedures and assessments have been kept up to date.
Staff News
Both Elle Packer and Claire Vosper have recently returned to work on a part time basis following maternity leave. Welcome back both of them.
John Marsden held a brief leaving do at the Grove on the 13th May and we finally said goodbye to him after 30 years working for the firm. Paul Lewis didn’t waste any time in bagging John’s old room, so that he could have a sea view (more like glimpse!) from his desk.
Now that Claire Vosper has returned, Amber Dolby is permanently moving back to Exeter from 7th June to be in the front office. We are grateful to Amber for being so flexible on switching between Exeter and Exmouth offices, and will miss her – although hopefully she will be able to provide occasional cover for holidays etc.
Cycle ride
Tim Green and his wife Judy decided that for their holiday this year they would cycle from the South of France to the Channel coast (some holiday that?). They then decided they would see if they could raise some sponsorship for Charity.
Tim would be delighted for any contributions that will be split between ‘Shelter Box’ and 2 African Charities that support a health centre and orphanage in Kenya and Namibia respectively. The ride is being undertaken through the local Cyclists’ Touring Club Anyone who needs more information, please contact Tim or look on: http://www.lkjh.biz/index.php?title=Tim_judy_charity_ride where you can see the planned route and more details.
Tennis
The Annual Exeter v Exmouth Tennis match was held at the Tennis Centre in Exmouth at the end of March, with Exeter retaining the trophy. The format was doubles pairings over six games with the aggregate of games being the only deciding factor. Despite Exeter being hot favorites and reigning champions, there was a scare in the first round of games with Tim Green & Ruskin Wilson defeating the (supposedly) strong pair of Mike Hart and Paul McCarthy 5 -1, and Paul Carnell and Jason Simons holding Neil Sear and Gary Salter to a 3 – 3 draw. This meant Exmouth were 8 – 4 up after the first round. The second round saw Exeter draw level with a reverse of the first round score and then with a 7 -5 victory in the third round the trophy was once again in their sights. A comprehensive 9 -3 score in the final leg sealed the title once again, although it was close enough for Exmouth to be encouraged to try again next year!
The competitors discussed all those dodgy line calls over a meal and a pint or two in the pub afterwards. Many thanks go to Simon, Tim and Neil for arranging the evening and to Tim for booking and organising the regular tennis sessions.
Golf
The regular golf season kicked off after Easter on Tuesday nights and the competition has been better than ever. Scores are higher and handicaps are dropping like never before so it will be extremely tight to see who can take the title, which Emlyn Harris is certainly not giving up without a fight. Paul McCarthy has started playing which has made the Think IT rivalry with Andy Newall very interesting!
Other News
LLP
Thanks go to all members of staff who helped with the increased workload associated with the changeover to LLP status. Hopefully the paper mountain is coming to an end soon.
We also greatly appreciated the patience and cooperation of our clients in responding to the many letters and requests during our change.
Think IT
Thompson Jenner’s sister company, Colleton Computer Solutions, have a new name - Think Information Technology trading as Think IT. The firm has a new logo and literature and has rebranded it’s web site.
Think IT’s first newsletter is also now ready to download as a PDF file:Think IT Summer Newsletter 2010
The newsletter will bring you up to date on the name change and other topical IT articles on software you may be using or considering.
Rugby
Anyone watching ‘Spotlight’ on the BBC recently would have seen Neil Curtis extolling the benefits of Exeter Chiefs promotion to the premiership. Our name and advertising board were also prominent in the background feature.
TJ Summer staff outing
This year’s annual TJ summer staff outing will take place on 17 June. As last year the morning will be in Topsham for some team activities with lunch at the Turf later.
Marketing Activities Worth Pointing Out…
Web site
You may have noticed the TJ web site has been rebranded with the Thompson Jenner LLP logo and the Think IT company information and logo.
We are always striving to keep our site up to date and to help with this we will be introducing a new operating platform later in the year. The changes will see an improved content management system that will give us improved modules for sending mail shots, uploading news, and the ability to create new pages.
Networking and Events
A follow on Thompson Jenner seminar with leadership speaker Guy Arnold entitled ‘the principals of effective selling’ was held at the Buckerell Lodge hotel in April. Attendees at the afternoon session were taught a few powerful principles of effective selling to take away and use within their organisations. The response and feedback collected from the seminar has been excellent and another is planned for the autumn.
Earlier in the year, Thompson Jenner exhibited at a very successful Exmouth business event at the Devon Cliff, Exmouth.
TJ will be running an early morning budget breakfast seminar at the Buckerell Lodge hotel on the 23 June. Geoff Fraser, our head of taxation, will be presenting of the key announcements that came from the previous day’s budget.
If you would like any information on this or any other Thompson Jenner events please contact Robert Munday on 01392 258553 or email rmunday@tjexeter.co.uk
The next issue of the TJ firm news will be published in September.
