Archive for October, 2013

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 10.10.13

Thursday, October 17th, 2013

 Mavis Cryer deputised for President Niki Boersma and chaired the latest meeting of Wetherby Speakers Club. The first speech, by Chris Clissitt, was entitled “Forward, Back and Roundabout” which proved to be a highly entertaining commentary on various events which occurred in Chris’ life during the last week. The purpose of the speech was to allow Chris to practise speech construction, which is one of the 10 skills of Public Speaking covered by the Club’s Speakers Guide.

 Jan Millar then experimented by repeating word for word a speech entitled “The Survival of the Fittest” given by another speaker 20 years ago, to test out whether or not it is still relevant today (which it is).  Peter Wilson and Terry Ryan offered constructive advice to the speakers on how to improve their performance.

 Howard Herbert then chaired a topics session where members were required to speak for three minutes without preparation on a variety of one word topics. Although this sounds like a difficult challenge all the members responded brilliantly, included visitor Tom Howley who performed to a high level of skill. Jeff Denton evaluated the topics session.  Scott Stephenson then completed an enjoyable evening by giving a General Evaluation, summing up the meeting as a whole.

Change of date for Speech Contest

Friday, October 11th, 2013

The club Speech Contest will now take place on Thursday 5th December, the same evening as the Topics Contest. It has been moved from 7th November.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 26.09.13

Wednesday, October 2nd, 2013

The meeting was opened by the President, Niki Boersma and after short business session, the gavel was passed to Neil Wilson, the Chairman for the evening who announced that a committee meeting would take place at the end of the formal proceedings.

 Niki Boersma was called to the lectern to give her speech which was to be evaluated specifically for her use of gestures. The speech was entitled First Kiss and was well constructed with a good mix of humour and serious content. Niki used gestures which were varied, appropriate and enhanced the speech and this was emphasised by Jocelyn Brooks when she gave a full evaluation at the end.

 Peter Wilson decided to produce an impromptu speech, a very difficult assignment to undertake. He was asked to choose one title from three suggestions and had ten minutes in which to prepare the speech. During the time Peter was out of the room, the chairman led a discussion on some of the techniques used by speakers at the recent Party Conferences.

 Peter had chosen the title Always look on the Bright Side of Life and gave an interesting speech which kept the audience enthralled. Mavis Cryer, in her evaluation spoke of the excellent techniques employed and her admiration that an impromptu speech could be delivered so expertly that it appeared to have been carefully prepared over many days rather than just ten minutes.

 Mavis Cryer chaired the topics session which involved members speaking for two minutes on the possible origin of a selection of Nursery Rhymes. This proved great fun and gave the participants the chance to use their imagination to the full.

 Jeff Denton presented a thorough general evaluation of the conduct of the whole meeting which was then closed by Niki Boersma.