Archive for February, 2012

Wetherby Speakers Club report in Wetherby News – District Contest 19 Feb

Thursday, February 23rd, 2012

Chris Clissitt of Wetherby Speakers Club scored a spectacular double triumph at the Association of Speakers Clubs District Competition in York, to reach the National Finals in Cardiff in April. The Association runs competitions in three categories – Speech, Evaluation, and Topics – and Chris came out on top in both the Evaluation and Topics Contests.  Evaluation is the art of analysing the strengths and weaknesses of a speech and offering constructive advice to the Speaker in a friendly and helpful manner. All Contestants had to evaluate the same speech, which was delivered by Rosalie Harrop of York Railway Institute Speakers Club.  Rosalie’s descriptive and humorous speech was about the gruesome twosome Burke and Hare and their escapades in stealing bodies for medical research. Chris gave a comprehensive examination of the speech and fought off competition from other evaluators from all over the North East.

Entrants in the Topics Contest spoke for 3 minutes on the subject “The Great Outdoors” with no prior warning of the title, and no preparation time.  This was a challenging scrutiny of the contestants’ ability to speak off the cuff and Chris earned a well deserved second win of the day.  The Speech Contest was won by Helen Tait of York RI Speakers Club.  Good luck to both in the National Finals.

Wetherby News club meeting report 16 February 2012

Saturday, February 18th, 2012

President Howard Herbert opened the meeting on 16th February which was chaired by Caroline Boom. Tim Hunter gave the first speech which was a practice for a Business Presentation about his Internet Radio venture called ProgYes.  The second speaker was Peter Wilson whose speech was an assignment to help develop Audience Rapport. The speech was entitled “Living On The Edge” and was about how to approach our later years in life through involvement in the University of the Third Age (U3A).  The final speaker was Jocelyn Brooks who gave a highly descriptive account of a visit to India and the Himalayas entitled “The Gods Are On Fire”. Howard Herbert, John Holian and Jeff Denton assisted the speakers by offering constructive advice on how to improve the speeches.

John Holian then chaired a topics session where members were required to speak for three minutes without preparation on a variety of topics which had a common theme, which John did not announce until after the topics  – the titles were all related to the names of Life Assurance Companies (eg The Life of the Royals, Abbey Life etc). Peter Wilson evaluated the topics session.  Peter Ryans then summed up the meeting as a whole in his role as General Evaluator.

Wetherby News club meeting report 2 February 2012

Sunday, February 5th, 2012

The meeting was structured differently on this occasion and after the President, Howard Herbert had opened the meeting he handed over to the Chairman for the evening, John Holian who, in his role as Education Director for the club, had devised a new and interesting format.

John divided the members into two teams. Working as a group, each team had to prepare two speeches which were delivered alternatively by two volunteers from each team.  The first speech from Team A was given by Chris Clissitt on the subject ‘Money Talks’. The second speech was by Howard Herbert of Team B who spoke about ‘Home is where the Heart is’. Ann Wickert then represented Team A with ‘Reality TV’ and the first session ended with Scott Stephenson’s speech ‘1970s – The Golden Age’ for Team B.

After the break Neil Wilson and Jocelyn Brooks from Team A evaluated the speeches of Howard Herbert and Scott Stephenson respectively whilst Mavis Cryer and her colleague, Jan Millar, from Team B evaluated Chris Clissitt and Ann Wickert.

This novel and challenging departure from the usual format was enjoyed by everyone and the evening ended with a new member, Michael Cardis introducing himself to the group before John Holian handed the chair back to Howard Herbert who closed the meeting.