Archive for December, 2011

The Annual Club Speech Contest

The President, Howard Herbert opened the meeting  and introduced Peter Wilson, who would chair the Club Speech Contest and Barbara Cresswell from the White Rose Ladies Speakers’ Club who would judge the speeches.

There were seven entrants and the speeches were varied and interesting. Each speech must last for a minimum of six minutes and not exceed eight minutes otherwise the contestant would incur penalties. The speakers were as follows:

 The order of speaking was decided by lot.

Barbara Cresswell gave a very helpful and constructive summary and announced that the winner was Neil Wilson and the runner-up, Jocelyn Brooks both of whom will go forward to the Area Speech Contest to be held in York on 15^th January 2012.

Jan Millar planned the Topics session which had a very seasonal flavour. Club members had to give their reasons for being considered for various jobs associated with Christmas such as Santa’s little elf and Rudolph the reindeer.

Mavis Cryer evaluated the Topics session and Howard Herbert thanked Barbara Cresswell, congratulated the winner and runner-up, wished everyone a happy Christmas and closed the last meeting of 2011.

President Howard Herbert opened the latest meeting of Wetherby Speakers Club which was chaired by Peter Wilson. The first part of the meeting was taken up by the Club’s Annual Topics Contest. Members were asked to speak for three minutes on a variety of topics based on modern phrases in current use, without any preparation time. The topics included “Silver Surfers” and “Spin Doctor”. All those taking part spoke to a very high standard. The winner was John Holian and the runner up was Chris Clissitt. Both will represent the club at the Area Topics Contest to be held in York in January.

John Holian then presented an unusual session based on the TV Programme, Dragon’s Den. Speakers were given ideas for various business ideas and were given a few minutes to prepare their presentations to the “Dragons” asking for funding for the idea. This led to some humorous presentations on ideas such as “An Exercise Machine Based on Dog Walking”. The session was evaluated by Caroline Boom. Neil Wilson then gave valuable advice on how to improve the member’s speaking abilities while explaining his views on the evening as a whole.