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.