Articles

The Power of Public Speaking – Caroline Green

Sunday, October 22nd, 2017

The following article was published in The Wetherby News on Thursday 19th October following Caroline Green’s visit to our club meeting on 5th October. You can also read the article online here.

 

I wasn’t expecting to be mesmerised by the Wetherby Speakers Club, writes columnist Caroline Green. It promised to be a completely new experience for me, as I knew nothing about public speaking, having successfully skirted around the subject all my life, hoping to muddle through. There comes a time when one has to confront one’s inadequacies and this was it.

You might wonder why I was visiting the Wetherby Speakers Club at all. Let me explain. Peter Wilson, a member, current Secretary and Past President had invited me as a guest. The Wetherby Speakers Club is 40 years old this year.

We met in Linton Memorial Hall and a warm welcome awaited me. Very soon, the meeting got underway, on time. Little did I realise that ‘time’ is the essence of any Speakers Club event. Chris Clissitt, the President and Chairman, opened the meeting to the sound of his gavel striking the table, and then explained in detail what was to happen during the evening. Nothing was left to chance; everything was explained, with no room for misunderstanding.

Each speaker, there were two, took the chair beside the Chairman, was introduced and stepped up to the lectern to speak; timing is a system of lights which the speaker follows. Niki Boersma then delivered an impeccable education session on the important first ten seconds of any speech.

Members of Wetherby Speakers Club at a recent meeting

Members of Wetherby Speakers Club at a recent meeting

When it came to my turn, I realised just how little I had retained, but tried hard to remember. Smiling, openness, pace and engagement with your audience is what I took away from the experience. Later I wished for two things; one was that I had discovered the Speakers Club years ago, and the other, that I needed go back and do it all again.

The break would be followed by a Topic session when each member would be invited to speak for 2-3 minutes on a subject chosen by the Topic Chairman, John Holian; evaluation of the Topic by another member would follow; then evaluation of the evening as a whole. I didn’t realise until the evening was drawing to a close that everyone in the room had a job, or rather several jobs. Each member would be called upon as speaker, evaluator, educator, time keeper or Chairman. Everyone, including me, was on their mettle all evening; if not speaking they would be listening hard, making notes or time keeping.

Enthusiastic applause greeted each member following their stint at the lectern.

The evaluations throughout the evening were, for me, a complete revelation. Evaluation serves two purposes. Firstly, the role of any evaluator, be it speeches, topics or the evening as a whole is to address, again from the lectern, what was good about each element; secondly, the evaluator details what can be improved and suggests developmental opportunities for the future. These opportunities might be suggestions about improving body language, gestures, content or audience engagement. Peter explained to me that the Wetherby Club belongs to the Association of Speakers Clubs, and all the Clubs in the Association work through the Association Guide, gaining skills throughout their time with the Club, always building on what they have achieved so far. On a personal level, the desire to improve is immediate, spurred on by watching, listening and learning all evening. I will never underestimate the power of positive feedback.

The structure of the evening, the courtesy and encouragement of the members, the obvious skills and confidence gained through being a member of this great organisation are available to anyone.

I was full of admiration for what the members of the Wetherby Speakers Club achieve – just chatting to individuals after the meeting was evidence enough of how people had overcome their own difficulties of speaking in a public setting, and how opportunities provided by membership of the Speakers Club had enabled them to conquer those fears and learn new skills.

The Speakers Club meet on alternate Thursdays at Linton Memorial Hall, 7.45 for 8pm. Dates at: www.wetherbyspeakersclub.co.uk/ or phone Peter Wilson on 01937 584597 if you wish to visit for a taster session.

Speaking with a purpose

Saturday, March 5th, 2016

Why do we make speeches? At speakers club it is often to practise a speaking skill, to get better public speaking or simply for enjoyment. But many of us make speeches to prepare for outside speaking assignments at work, to groups or at social occasions.

Bill Mitchell ran a seminar at the club meeting on Thursday 3rd March on Prescription Speaking, an approach which encourages us to make speeches with a broad purpose and a specified objective. The broad purpose is one of four – to inform, to persuade, to entertain or to pay tribute.

The specified objective is read out to the audience beforehand and after the speech they vote to say whether or not the speaker has achieved it.

Bill explained the concept with great lucidity and persuasiveness – he certainly achieved his broad purpose! We heard a demonstration Prescription Speech from John  Holian (he achieved his specified objective) and the event was attended by members from the Wharfedale, York and Bradford clubs as well as Wetherby.

Speech titles galore!

Saturday, September 26th, 2015

“I can’t think of anything to speak about….”  Speechwriters’ block is a common problem.

Thinking of a subject is an obstacle no longer! At the club meeting on Thursday 24th September John Holian ran an interactive speech writing workshop. By the end of the session, the challenge of filling the club programme for the rest of the season had been well and truly conquered!

John showed us how to think of subjects, generate speech titles, use mind mapping to develop the speech, find material and structure the speech. As well as a list of 40+ speech titles for general use, each individual had their own list of a dozen or so speech titles with three ready to develop into full speeches over the coming weeks.

This was an excellent workshop which addressed one of the fundamentals of public speaking, delivered by John with characteristic verve and enthusiasm.

Evaluation and Judging Training Session 5th March

Wednesday, March 25th, 2015

On Thursday 5th March we had a change to our normal meeting at Wetherby by taking advantage of the Education Training Workshop. After our area meeting Area President Peter Wilson announced that as Clubs, Areas or Regions we could have workshops presented by Immediate Past National President Lindsay Dutch in the south and Graham McLachlan in the North. As a proactive club we jumped at the chance to be able to have personal and club development training.

We decided that it would be good to have a workshop on Evaluation and Judging presented by Lindsay Dutch. We invited other clubs in our region to join us so that we could all share in the training.

Lindsay started the session with enthusiasm and energy, he found out about what we wanted to learn and what our challenges were when we carried out evaluations. We were able to discuss problems and issues that each of us had or experienced in the club and all agreed on best ways to enhance our evaluation skills and by this improve our speeches. Many of us had not judged before and the training gave us guidance and confidence not to be intimidated with the process and hopefully we will be able to put the training into practice next year.

It’s great that the ASC have listened to its members and made this training available to us all, there are a vast number of topics that can be chosen from that will enhance your club and you. The main point I will take away from the night is to read and keep reading the Speakers Guide; it is there to help us and we don’t make enough of its advice and resources or at least I don’t.

The training we received will encourage our club and remind us all on how to be better evaluators. The training has reinforced that when we follow the guidelines and put them into practice, together with the tips and skills Lindsay has shared with us, we will be looking forward to a stronger club. It was impressive at our District competition to see one of the attendees put the training to use and to see the improvements in practice as this enhanced the evaluation.

I would recommend all clubs to tap in to the free resource as soon as possible

Niki Boersma, Publicity officer

State of the art super hospital for Yorkshire – After Dinner Speech Contest

Sunday, March 22nd, 2015

Dr Hu (Peter Wilson) receives the trophy from the judge Dr Finlay (Bill Mitchell)

Wetherby has been chosen as the location for a new super state of the art hospital for Yorkshire. At this dinner to celebrate the commissioning of the hospital, five renowned doctors are pitching for the position of Executive Medical Director, responsible for setting the medical strategy for the hospital.

This was the scenario for the annual After Dinner Speech Contest held at the Bridge Inn, Walshford, on Friday 20th March.  Speakers adopted thinly disguised characters and delivered light hearted speeches as they described their plans for this amazing new (and fictitious!) facility.

Congratulations to the winner, Peter Wilson, who made the strongest application for the position as Doctor Hu. The other speakers were Doctor H Lectern (Howard Herbert), Doctor F N Stein (John Holian), Doctor Flopster (Niki Boersma) and Doctor Nope (Neil Wilson).

The MC was Doctor Doom (Chris Clissitt) and the judge was Doctor Finlay (Bill Mitchell).

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

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.

After dinner speech contest – Wetherby News Report 28.3.14

Saturday, April 12th, 2014

On Friday 28th March, a meal was held at the Bridge Inn, Walshford following which there was the After Dinner Speaking Competition. This was a light-hearted evening as five members of the club had to take part in a scenario that had been devised by Chris Clissitt.

 The MC was Niki Boersma and the scenario was as follows:

The recently launched Tyke TV has its roots firmly in Yorkshire but wants to attract a wider audience by purchasing an already well known reality TV franchise. At a special dinner at Tyke’s Wetherby headquarters, reality TV presenters state the case for their programme to be the centrepiece of Tyke TV.

 The people who were trying to sell their TV show to the Directors of Tyke TV were Simon Scowell of The Y Factor, Phil Spawny with Location, Location, Location – as Long as it’s in Yorkshire, Cloudier Ripvanwinklewoman the host of Strictly Come Clogging, Alan Zucker presenting T’Rookie and Drunken Baritone from Braggarts’ Barn. The people taking part were John Holian, Chris Clissitt, Jocelyn Brooks, Peter Wilson and Neil Wilson respectively

 The judge was the National President of the Association of Speakers’ Clubs, Lindsay Dutch and the winner of the Sean Harrison Trophy was Chris Clissitt and the Wetherby Speakers’ Club was delighted that Sean was there in person to present the cup. Chris Clissitt was thanked for organising the contest and Mavis Cryer for arranging the meal.

Eastern District Annual Speech, Evaluation and Topics Contests 09.03.2014

Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

The two Clubs representing the Vale of York Area swept the board once again in the contest held at The Bridge Inn, Walshford Nr Wetherby on Sunday 9th March. The competition was fierce featuring seven of the eight clubs in the Eastern District and the winners were:

 Speech Competition            Ramana Sundara from the York RI Speakers’ Club

Evaluation Competition        Chris Clissitt from the Wetherby Speakers’ Club

Topics Competition              Clive Dawson from the York RI Speakers’ Club

 Those winners will now represent the Eastern District at the Association of Speakers’ Clubs Conference and national finals in Glasgow on the 25th – 27th April.

Wetherby Club wishes all those contestants the very best of luck.

Wetherby Speakers’ Club was also  joint winner with the Wharfedale Club of the coveted Brian Driscoll Trophy for work with young people. Read about it here.

Club report – Wetherby News 6.3.14

Tuesday, March 11th, 2014

Niki Boersma chaired the Club meeting and welcomed visitors from the Bradford Speakers’ Club and, also, two new members of the Wetherby Speaker’s Club. John Holian spoke on the subject The Joy of Reading and this was followed by Peter Ryans whose speech about pets was entitled Make the Right Choices. The speeches were ably evaluated by Peter Wilson and Neil Wilson (no relation) respectively.

 The Topics session was chaired by Jocelyn Brooks and the subjects on which people had to speak for two minutes were selected from days of the week and months of the year. The session was evaluated by Howard Herbert and Philip Solity of the Bradford Club gave the general evaluation of the whole meeting.

Wetherby High School Project

Saturday, February 15th, 2014

Five of our members – Peter Wilson, Jocelyn Brooks, Scott Stephenson, Jan Millar and Mavis Cryer – have been coaching 6th formers at Wetherby High School in their free periods. The sessions have gone down so well that they have been asked to come back and do it all again with a second batch of students.

We are delighted to have such able ambassadors for our Club and Association and proud that they are able to make a difference to young people in our community.  Peter Wilson describes the project in this article (also submitted to The Speaker magazine):

When Wetherby High School contacted us with a plea for help in improving their sixth formers presentational skills we were delighted to assist.  A number of students had given presentations to local businesses and the feedback to the School was that although their computer skills in using Powerpoint were top class, their verbal performance needed attention.

Some years ago we sponsored and judged a speech contest at the school but this arrangement fell by the wayside when the teacher who promoted this moved on. We know that many other Speakers Clubs carry out similar projects in schools, but this time we decided on a different approach. We realised that the Students would benefit far more if we coached them through the first three assignments of Section B of the Speakers Guide, in much the same way we do with our own members. This would enable each Student to receive personal tuition from our experienced evaluators.

We had limited time to act as the sessions had to be fitted in with the students’ free periods and many of them are revising for exams to be taken this year.  Rather than use up their valuable time by talking to them about how to prepare their first speech, we decided to give written guidance beforehand.  Knowing that Students would not want to read too many pages we condensed the main essentials of preparation and delivery into two pages which were circulated to all the Students. By doing this we ensured that at our first meeting we could listen to their speeches and give immediate feedback using our normal evaluation methods.  

We had 22 Students to deal with in two consecutive one hour lessons. To cope with such numbers we mobilised a team of five experienced Evaluators and ran two classes concurrently in separate rooms, then another two classes after a short break. This meant that in two hours each team of two or three evaluators listened to and evaluated up to 11 speeches in which the Students spoke about themselves. The verbal evaluations were then followed up by written evaluations for the Students to keep. This procedure was repeated for the two follow up sessions dealing with “Mean What You Say” and “Speech Construction”. For both sessions we again provided brief written advice to the students to help them prepare.

The level of confidence displayed by most of the students surprised us, as did the variety of subjects chosen by the Speakers. These included “Knobs Versus Handles” about the most convenient methods for opening doors, Media Prejudice, and Autism.  The moral values upheld by all the speakers were a delight.

News of this successful project is now spreading around the school and we have been informed that a further 19 students wish to take part.  It seems that our team of evaluators is in for a busy but pleasurable Spring.  We would encourage all Clubs to do what they can to help the youth of their communities to take their first steps on the road to successful speech making. We know better than anyone what valuable personal assets such skills are. 

When Wetherby High School contacted us with a plea for help in improving their sixth formers presentational skills we were delighted to assist.  A number of students had given presentations to local businesses and the feedback to the School was that although their computer skills in using Powerpoint were top class, their verbal performance needed attention.

Some years ago we sponsored and judged a speech contest at the school but this arrangement fell by the wayside when the teacher who promoted this moved on. We know that many other Speakers Clubs carry out similar projects in schools, but this time we decided on a different approach. We realised that the Students would benefit far more if we coached them through the first three assignments of Section B of the Speakers Guide, in much the same way we do with our own members. This would enable each Student to receive personal tuition from our experienced evaluators.

We had limited time to act as the sessions had to be fitted in with the students’ free periods and many of them are revising for exams to be taken this year.  Rather than use up their valuable time by talking to them about how to prepare their first speech, we decided to give written guidance beforehand.  Knowing that Students would not want to read too many pages we condensed the main essentials of preparation and delivery into two pages which were circulated to all the Students. By doing this we ensured that at our first meeting we could listen to their speeches and give immediate feedback using our normal evaluation methods.  

We had 22 Students to deal with in two consecutive one hour lessons. To cope with such numbers we mobilised a team of five experienced Evaluators and ran two classes concurrently in separate rooms, then another two classes after a short break. This meant that in two hours each team of two or three evaluators listened to and evaluated up to 11 speeches in which the Students spoke about themselves. The verbal evaluations were then followed up by written evaluations for the Students to keep. This procedure was repeated for the two follow up sessions dealing with “Mean What You Say” and “Speech Construction”. For both sessions we again provided brief written advice to the students to help them prepare.

The level of confidence displayed by most of the students surprised us, as did the variety of subjects chosen by the Speakers. These included “Knobs Versus Handles” about the most convenient methods for opening doors, Media Prejudice, and Autism.  The moral values upheld by all the speakers were a delight.

News of this successful project is now spreading around the school and we have been informed that a further 19 students wish to take part.  It seems that our team of evaluators is in for a busy but pleasurable Spring.  We would encourage all Clubs to do what they can to help the youth of their communities to take their first steps on the road to successful speech making. We know better than anyone what valuable personal assets such skills are.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club visit to York RI Speakers Club on 23.01.2014

Sunday, January 26th, 2014

On Thursday 23rd January Wetherby members travelled to York for a joint meeting with York RI and Bradford Speakers Clubs. The meeting was held at York RI Bowls Club, the York club’s new venue. The Bowls Club is more welcoming and spacious than the old room at the Railway Institute, and feels more conducive to public speaking. Must be the walls hung with trophies and pennants or possibly the bar at the back of the room!

 All visitors were welcomed by the York President, Ramana Sundara, and the meeting was chaired by Gerald Haughton. Wetherby members undertook several assignments. Neil Wilson delivered his speech “Face to Face”, Howard Herbert evaluated Rosalie Harrop’s speech “No Place Like Home” and Niki Boersma stepped in as a late substitute to evaluate Bruce Swindells’ speech “Why Should I Change?” and did it so well that she won the trophy for the best evaluation of the evening. Chris Clissitt delivered the general evaluation of the meeting overall.

Vale of York Area Annual Speech, Evaluation and Topics Contests 12.01.2014

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

The Vale of York Area Speech, Evaluation and Topics Contest took place on Sunday 12th January 2014 at the York RI Bowls Club.  Wetherby Speakers’ Club was represented by Niki Boersma and John Holian in the Speech Competition, Chris Clissitt and Howard Herbert in the Evaluation Contest and Chris Clissitt and Jocelyn Brooks in the Topics Competition.

 The winners were as follows:

Speech Competition               Ramana Sundara from the York RI Speakers’ Club

Evaluation Competition           Chris Clissitt from the Wetherby Speakers’ Club

Topics Competition                 Clive Dawson from the York RI Speakers’ Club

 Those winners will now represent the Vale of York at the Eastern District Competitions on Sunday 9th March 2014 at the Bridge in at Walshford.

 Wetherby Club wishes all those contestants the very best of luck

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 9.1.14

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2014

Peter Wilson was the Chairman for the evening and following the opening of the meeting by President, Niki Boersma he introduced the two speakers in turn. Neil Wilson’s speech was entitled Face to Face  and Niki Boersma’s, Home at Last, the speech she was to give at the Area Contest the following Sunday. Evaluations were by Howard Herbert and Peter Ryans respectively.

 The second part of the evening was devoted to the Topics Contest chaired by Scott Stevenson and the subject was Sayings and Proverbs. The Topic session was evaluated by Niki Boersma and Jocelyn Brooks gave the general evaluation of the whole meeting.

Club report – Annual Speech and Topics Contests

Monday, December 16th, 2013

Niki Boersma, the President opened the meeting and welcomed everybody to the Wetherby Speakers’ Club Annual Speech and Topics Contests. Peter Wilson was the Chairman for the evening and Chris Clissitt, the winner of 2013 National Speech Contest, was to judge those taking part in the competition with prepared speeches

 The audience thoroughly enjoyed the range of speeches from those who entered the competition and following a helpful general evaluation of all contestants Chris announced that the winner was Niki Boersma with her speech Home for Christmas and the runner-up was John Holian who spoke about Whither the Weather.

 The second part of the evening was devoted to the Topics Contest. Participants had to speak for three minutes on a given subject without any time for preparation. The audience then had to vote for the winner, which was Chris Clissitt and the runner-up which was Jocelyn Brooks.

 Niki Boersma, John Holian, Chris Clissitt and Jocelyn Brooks will now represent Wetherby Speakers’ Club at the Vale of York Area Speech, Evaluation and Topics Contest on Sunday 12th January 2014 in York. The contest for the two people to represent Wetherby in the Evaluation contest will take place shortly.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 21.11.13

Sunday, December 1st, 2013

On this occasion Wetherby Speakers’ Club hosted the York RI Speakers’ Club at their meeting at the Days Inn at Wetherby Services.

 Amongst those attending from the York Club were the National President, Lindsay Dutch, the York RI President, Ramana Sundara, Vale of York Area President Mary Donahoe and founder member, Clive Dawson.

 Howard Herbert, the Education Director was the first to speak and his subject was astronomy and he was being evaluated by Clive Dawson specifically for his use of voice. It was a fascinating speech and Clive, as a very experienced speaker, gave a very in-depth and helpful evaluation.

 Ramana Sundara presented a highly amusing speech to demonstrate his use of humour entitled Same Species…Different Worlds about the differences between men and women and the evaluation was given by Terry Ryan, who was a previous winner of the National speech Contest.

 Chris Clissitt, this year’s winner of the National Speech Contest, was an excellent Chairman of the whole meeting as was Peter Wilson who chaired the Topics session. Peter chose to give each member one of the new words recently accepted for inclusion into the Oxford Dictionary and for two minutes, they had to speak on the meaning of the word and give suitable examples. This proved to be a lively and amusing session with everyone having to stretch their imagination to the full.

 Lindsay Dutch evaluated the whole meeting and his comments were appreciated by everyone as it was a great privilege to hear what the National President thought about the Wetherby Speakers’, Club meeting. Chris Clissitt, as chairman thanked everyone and commented on the quality of all participants before handing the gavel back to Niki Boersma who, as President, closed the meeting.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 7.11.13

Wednesday, November 20th, 2013

The meeting was opened by the President, Niki Boersma and after short business session, the gavel was passed to Jocelyn Brooks, the chairman for the evening.

 It was a well-attended meeting and Niki Boersma was able to do a practice presentation for 10 minutes. One of the advantages of the Speakers’ Club is the opportunity it gives to members to run through a presentation they may be giving in either a work or social situation and to receive constructive feedback. This feedback was provided by Mavis Cryer who gave a helpful and encouraging evaluation.

 For his impromptu speech, John Holian was asked to choose one title from three suggestions and had ten minutes in which to prepare the speech. John chose the topical subject Spies and he spoke with confidence and insight, qualities which were emphasised by Scott Stephenson in his following evaluation.

 The chairman asked Terry Ryan to talk to the group about a television programme he had seen which highlighted some of the greatest speeches of recent times. This prompted an interesting discussion centred on which speakers were included and which were left out.

 The topics session was chaired by Jan Millar who asked people to draw a card bearing a ‘first line’ around which they were asked to create a story. This proved humorous and highly inventive as Howard Herbert stressed in his evaluation.

 Chris Clissitt gave many useful observations when he presented a thorough general evaluation of the conduct of the whole meeting, following which the chairman finally handed the gavel back to the president who closed the proceedings.

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.

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.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 12.09.13

Sunday, September 22nd, 2013

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.

Report for Wetherby News – National Success for Wetherby Speakers Club

Sunday, May 12th, 2013

The National Conference of the Association of Speakers Clubs was held at Castle Donington on April 26th, 27th and 29th. In addition to the AGM the finals of the Topics, Speech and Evaluation contests took place. The Wetherby Club had two contestants taking part.

 Chris Clissitt of Knaresborough, and a member of Wetherby Speakers Club, won the Speech Contest with a brilliant speech entitled The Problem with Solutionism and was presented with the trophy. This was the third time in the history of the competition that the trophy has been won by a member of the Wetherby Club and the audience was appreciative and delighted at Chris’s success.

 Neil Wilson took part in the Evaluation contest at the same Conference. His was an excellent evaluation and, although he didn’t win on this occasion, he was presented with a certificate to acknowledge that he was one of the eight top speech evaluators in the country. Jocelyn Brooks also gained a certificate of achievement for having completed the speaking assignments in the club manual.

 All together it was a very successful Conference for the Wetherby Club

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 18.04.13

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

The meeting was opened by the Vice-President Jocelyn Brooks in place of the President, Niki Boersma whose car had broken down on her journey to the club meeting. After a short business meeting, the gavel was passed to Jeff Denton, the Chairman for the evening.

 Chis Clissitt was called to the lectern to give his speech which was to be evaluated for his use of voice. The speech was one that he may decide to give in the Speech Contest at the National Conference in Castle Donington on April 27th and it was evaluated by Neil Wilson who will also be taking part in the Evaluation contest at the same Conference. This was good practice for both contestants who are very experienced and fluent speakers. It is the first time the Wetherby Club has had two contestants in the national final and we all wish them well.

 Paul Holmes, a new member gave his very first speech at the club entitled Hurricane and this was evaluated by Jan Millar who was full of praise for his excellent maiden speech.

 The third speaker was to have been Niki Boersma who was still stuck on the A19 so the Topics Session was introduced slightly earlier by Jocelyn Brooks who chose to give each member an opening sentence and they were asked to use their imagination to continue the story for two minutes. This was a departure from the usual format but everyone took up the challenge including the two new members Judith Robinson and Paul Holmes. Peter Ryans once again, with little notice, rose to the occasion to be the Topics evaluator in place of Howard Herbert who was ill.

 Peter Wilson presented a thorough general evaluation of the conduct of the whole meeting which was then closed by Jocelyn Brooks.

Club Report – Wetherby Speakers Club 21.03.13 and After Dinner Speaking Contest 22.03.2013

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

Last week was a very busy week for the Wetherby Speakers’ Club. On Thursday there was the usual club meeting followed the next day by the After Dinner Speaking Contest.

 At the club meeting, the President, Niki Boersma called Jocelyn Brooks to the lectern who was to act as chairman for the evening. There were three speakers, Niki Boersma, Jeff Denton and Peter Ryans. All the speeches were interesting and delivered with confidence and fluency and were evaluated by Neil Wilson, Howard Herbert and Chris Clissitt respectively.

 Jan Miller chaired the Topics Session which was innovative and highly amusing. The theme was ‘The Wetherby Awards Ceremonies’ and club members had to make an acceptance speech for their own specific award. An evaluation of the Topics Session was given by Mavis Cryer and Peter Wilson presented a general evaluation of the whole meeting.

 On Friday, a meal was held at the Bridge Inn, Walshford following which there was the After Dinner Speaking Competition. This was a light-hearted evening as five members of the club had to pretend to be well-known novelists staking their claim to be the writer chosen to feature the Association of Speakers’ Clubs in their next book. The MC was Jan Millar, the judge was Chris Birch and the winner of the cup was Niki Boersma. Chris Clissitt was thanked for organising the contest and Mavis Cryer for arranging the meal.

Wetherby News report 21 February 2013

Saturday, March 30th, 2013

The meeting was opened by the President, Niki Boersma who gave a concise resume of the Eastern District Contests and the Annual General Meeting. She congratulated Chris Clissitt and Neil Wilson, both of whom will take part in the finals at the Association of Speakers’ Clubs Annual Conference at Castle Donnington in April. There was some discussion regarding certain contests rules.

 After a short business meeting, the Chairman for the evening, Peter Wilson called Jan Millar to the lectern to give her speech which was a B2 Assignment – ‘Mean What You Say’. Jan is a very experienced and animated speaker and was ably evaluated by Chris Clissitt.

 Peter Wilson then introduced the debate ‘The damage done to public confidence in the police by recent revelations is irreversible’. With very little time for preparation Niki Boersma was invited to propose the motion and Howard Herbert to oppose. The motion was then open to the floor and a number of speakers took part before a vote was taken and Peter Ryans gave his evaluation.

 Mavis Cryer chaired the Topics Session and she invited members to speak for three minutes on issues that caused stress. Examples were Moving House, Taking a Driving Test and Visiting the Dentist. A thorough evaluation of the Topics Session was given by Peter Ryans.

 Jocelyn Brooks presented a general evaluation of the conduct of the whole meeting which was then closed by President Niki Boersma

Wetherby News report 7 February 2013

Tuesday, February 26th, 2013

The meeting was opened by the President, Niki Boersma who gave a concise resume of the Eastern District Contests and the Annual General Meeting. She congratulated Chris Clissitt and Neil Wilson, both of whom will take part in the finals at the Association of Speakers’ Clubs Annual Conference at Castle Donington in April. There was some discussion regarding certain contests rules.

 After a short business meeting, the Chairman for the evening, Peter Wilson called Jan Millar to the lectern to give her speech which was a B2 Assignment – ‘Mean What You Say’. Jan is a very experienced and animated speaker and was ably evaluated by Chris Clissitt.

 Peter Wilson then introduced the debate ‘The damage done to public confidence in the police by recent revelations is irreversible’. With very little time for preparation Niki Boersma was invited to propose the motion and Howard Herbert to oppose. The motion was then open to the floor and a number of speakers took part before a vote was taken and Peter Ryans gave his evaluation.

 Mavis Cryer chaired the Topics Session and she invited members to speak for three minutes on issues that caused stress. Examples were Moving House, Taking a Driving Test and Visiting the Dentist. A thorough evaluation of the Topics Session was given by Peter Ryans.

 Jocelyn Brooks presented a general evaluation of the conduct of the whole meeting which was then closed by President Niki Boersma