25 April 2012

This evening was our annual NOT THE SPEECH CONTEST, so named because it’s not our annual speech contest. It originated to give people a chance to participate in a competition without the huge amount of formality that is part of our annual contest.

We had four contestants on the night, each speaking on a subject they chose from a choice of three topics they were given. Kirsty gave us a speech designed to inform called Blockbuster, which not only gave us information about the term blockbuster but very personal insights into important blockbusters in her life.

Waseem’s speech, entitled Better Protocols, was a very persuasive speech about the need for better protocols in the pharmaceutical industry to protect people from the possible hazards of new drugs.

Matthew’s speech, though designed to inform, was very inspirational in helping us to think that it might be possible for us to go from rags to riches.

And Margaret’s speech, Days of Our Lives, entertained us, moving from her visits to Jamaica when she watched the long running soap opera to what has made up the days of her own life.

After the speeches and the report from Ana, the timekeeper, the judges – Lorna and Rob – retired to deliberate the outcome and the audience too had a chance to vote on who they thought the winner should be. After the break, Lorna gave the judges’ feedback to the audience and gave me, as the presenter, the slip of paper announcing the winner.

Margaret was the clear choice of the judges and we gave a big round of applause to Margaret. Each of the speakers will also have received feedback on the content and delivery of their speeches from specific members of the audience.

Lucy ran a fun session on impromptu speaking where members of the audience took it in turn to choose an object and speak on it for one minute. As usual, there was a lot of laughter and some amazement at how people can think on their feet and come up with such good minutes. Particularly good this time was Julie, who chose a bottle of champagne and told us a sad story of a shopping trip to Tesco in whch champagne did not feature.

We were delighted to have two guests attending, both expressing their enjoyment of the evening and our thought for the road came from Martin Luther King: It is always the right time to do the right thing.

Carole Manship
Club President

PS Please note the meeting scheduled for 23 May has been changed to 30 May!