Archive for May, 2014

New President and the committee for 2014/15

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

At the AGM on 15th May Jocelyn Brooks was elected President for the 2014/15 season. Jocelyn has been a very active Publicity Officer for the last two years. She was responsible for the creation of the pull up banner which is displayed not only at Speakers Club meetings and contests but also at Jocelyn’s many outside assignment speaking assignments.

The Immediate Past President, Niki Boersma, has taken over the role of Publicity Officer and Jeff Denton has stepped in a Vice President. Other positions are unchanged.

The new season will kick off on Thursday 11th September at the Days Inn.

This is the full committee:

President: Jocelyn Brooks

Treasurer: Neil Wilson

Education Director: Howard Herbert

Secretary: Peter Wilson

Social Secretary: Mavis Cryer

Publicity Officer: Niki Boersma

Webmaster: Chris Clissitt

Vice President: Jeff Denton

Club report for Wetherby News – 15th and 29th May 2014

Saturday, May 31st, 2014

The Wetherby Speakers’ Club began its traditional summer break at the end of May and so the Annual General Meeting took place on Thursday 15th May.

 This year there was a great deal to discuss and decisions were made for the new season beginning in September. Club officers were elected as follows:

 President: Jocelyn Brooks

Treasurer: Neil Wilson

Education Director: Howard Herbert

Secretary: Peter Wilson

Social Secretary: Mavis Cryer

Publicity Officer: Niki Boersma

Webmaster: Chris Clissitt

Vice President: Jeff Denton

 The final session on 29th May was chaired by Chris Clissitt and there were two excellent speeches both aimed at passing the assignment ‘Mean what you say’. Scott Stevenson’s speech was entitled In the Public Way which looked at the British Public School system and Rob Harrand also demonstrated his enthusiasm in his speech Science is Awesome!  Jocelyn Brooks and John Holian were the evaluators and both speakers passed the assignment.

 For the topics session, Chris Clissitt  chose sayings all containing the word ‘Blood’ having that very day been a blood donor. The topics were interesting and amusing and ably evaluated by Jeff Denton. Niki Boersma gave a general evaluation of the whole meeting.

 Niki then handed over the Presidency of the Club to Jocelyn Brooks who thanked Niki for the excellent way in which she fulfilled the role of President over the last two years. Niki has given a great deal to the Club during that time and will be a hard act to follow. The new season will begin on Thursday 11th September 2014.

Club members at the 2014 AGM

Silver at National Evaluation contest in Glasgow

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

Chris Clissitt was runner up in the National Evaluation contest in Glasgow on Sunday 27th April, an improvement on his previous appearance in this contest in Cardiff in 2012. The winner was Michael Ronayne of Wimbledon SC who has now won all three national contests. Funnily enough the Cardiff 2012 winner was also from Wimbledon SC – Katherine Inglis.

Clive Dawson did the Area proud by finishing 2nd in the Topics contest on Friday while Ramana Sundara gave an excellent speech on Saturday afternoon but was unfortunate not to gain a place.

Lindsay Dutch handed over the National Presidency to Margaret Robertson of Western District but not before chairing the ASC AGM with great aplomb, good humour and professionalism. The AGM was one of the smoothest and best run that I can remember.

Club report – Wetherby News 1.5.14

Wednesday, May 7th, 2014

The Wetherby Speakers’ Club was delighted to welcome Eric Ovenden from Tempo FM who stayed for the whole of the meeting and interviewed many of the members. The Club is waiting with excitement to hear the recording in the very near future.

 After opening the meeting, the President, Niki Boersma, asked Chris Clissitt to give a report on the Association of Speakers’ Clubs Annual General Meeting that took place during the last weekend in April in Glasgow. It included, also, the National Speaking Contests and the Club members all congratulated Chris on coming second in the Evaluation Contest and winning a further trophy to add to his collection.

 Howard Herbert was Chairman for the evening and he ran the meeting with confidence and humour. John Holian gave a fascinating speech on the topic of the Happiness Index and everyone agreed that this competent speech surprised many with some interesting financial details. Jan Millar with her usual aplomb and vast knowledge of speaking gave a thorough evaluation of John’s speech.

 After the break Niki Boersma chaired the Topics Session during which each member had two minutes to give a mini-speech on a variety of subjects all around the theme of Days Out. Peter Wilson evaluated the Topics Session giving praise as well as carefully considered developmental points for each speaker. The whole evening was finally evaluated by Jocelyn Brooks and, in closing the meeting, Niki Boersma reminded everyone that on 15th May it will be the AGM of the Club.