President Niki Boersma opened the first meeting of the new “season” at Wetherby Speakers Club and welcomed Tom Howley as a first time visitor. Niki then introduced Peter Wilson who chaired the remainder of the meeting.
The first speech, by Jeff Denton, was entitled “Friend or Foe?” and posed the question as to whether or not Computers actually help or hinder. The purpose of the speech was to allow Jeff to practise the Use of Gestures, which is one the 10 skills of Public Speaking covered by the Club’s Speakers Guide.
Peter Ryans then brought his experience as an Accountant to bear on the thorny subject of Taxation in his speech “More Tax Anyone?” This was a “Mean What You Say” speech where the speaker is required to choose a subject that will allow him or her to speak with great feeling and enthusiasm. Neil Wilson and Howard Herbert assisted the speakers by offering constructive advice on how to improve their performance.
Chris Clissitt then chaired a topics session where members were required to speak for two minutes without preparation on a variety of topics all linked by one overall theme. The theme Chris close was tha the topics were all titles of booker Prize winning novels. Tom Howley joined in the fun by telling the meeting something about himself and also displayed his considerable apeaking skills by taking a topic. Jeff Denton evaluated the topics session. Niki Boersma then completed an enjoyable and busy evening by giving a General Evaluation, summing up the meeting as a whole.