May seems like a good time to remind you all of yet another reason to be an Institute of Directors (IoD) member – free use of airport executive lounges.

If you are a worrier like me, you will allow yourself at least two hours spare to get to your airport of choice, because on the M25 anything can happen.

A flight from Manston would avoid that but sadly no longer looks like an option.

But when you plan for the unplanned and it doesn’t happen, you arrive with two hours to spend with an over-excited and stressed family at a very busy and noisy airport.

Having been upgraded to use of a lounge years ago when a holiday booking went disastrously wrong, I have never looked back and always make sure this is included now.

I can’t remember what went wrong but only how the company put it right. That’s a lesson for customer service there.

You enter a world of tranquility as you leave the echoing of children’s screams and airport Tannoy announcements and walk in to what appears to be a soundproofed secret haven.

It’s the perfect way to start a holiday. I just nip back out to buy a trashy book and I’m ready for anything.

Last month I welcomed Lee Bennett as our branch manager. Her first task is communicating our list of events for the summer, as well as our annual members meeting at the Museum of Kent Life on Thursday, May 22. Please put it in your diary.

Lee has been working with the events team, and we are excited about some of the details we are about to release, and we will be emailing these out to our members.

I had a really interesting tour of the Cummins power generator factory in Ramsgate, and we hope to be able to offer an IoD company visit soon.

The site can offer some very valuable lessons in streamlining, efficiency and staff motivation that would be useful to any business.

I also had my first official visit to the Sands Hotel in Margate. It was a beautiful day with a view to match. We are in conversations to do something there in the future, but don’t wait for us. Get out on the balcony with a glass of something next time the sun is out.

We have held another MD strategy forum with wonderful feedback, and the following week was unofficial car week for me.

I visited Maidstone Audi and Barretts Jaguar, whom we soon hope to welcome as members.

We are trying to engage more often by creating our own Facebook page, so can you quickly look for and ‘like’ Institute of Directors Kent? Feel free to post and comment.