Wimbledon Speakers Club

London Area Speech Contests 17th February 2010

Camden Speakers Club hosted a magnificent finals night.  It was wonderful to see all the London area clubs so well represented.  It created a vibrant atmosphere for the club contestants. A fantastic evening of public speaking turned into another fantastic evening for Wimbledon in particular, as between them Katherine and Michael won each of the 3 contests.  Speaking contests take up only a very small part of the year, but they give our speakers the opportunity to test themselves in a more challenging environment and they are excellent for bringing all the clubs together .  Nevertheless both Katherine and Michael will appreciate being back in the friendly ‘home’ surroundings of a normal Wimbledon club evening next week.



Wimbledon Speakers 9th December

WSC meeting 8 June – the penultimate

Our latest meeting – the penultimate meeting of the year – was a lot of fun and a great success! Sally chaired the evening – it's always a great pleasure whenever she is in the chair. Sharon performed the topics chairing and managed to fit everyone in – albeit with a few one minute topics slots towards the end. The theme for the topics was a book called Change the World for a fiver. The book is full of hints and tips for – you've guessed it – changing the world – including bath sharing, tree saving and bus travelling. These were then followed by more topics along a favourite theme. Joseph performed a very adept account of his favourite way to say I love you – Let us count the ways it was brilliant. Another favourite favourite topic was Michael's favourite coloured m and m. Is there nothing that he can't speak about? Fortunately for us, the answer is no. The best topic as voted for on the night was Jill who gave excellent advice on why we should smile more. Jill should certainly be smiling by winning our special Debra topics trophy two weeks running. The topics were evaluated by Katherine who gave a wonderful analysis – lavishing praise and points for improvement accordingly. What a star!

Katherine mentioned again the main event for July – our annual WSC dinner on Friday 1st July. Tickets are running out very quickly – as usual – so please forward your menu choices and cheques to Suzanne as soon as possible please – by the next meeting would be great. Any donations to the raffle would be gratefully received by Sharon

In the second half we had our usual speeches section and what a treat that was for us all. Three wonderful speeches and all passes – so congratulations to Godwin, Suzanne and Eileen.

Godwin's speech was titled Credit is good for you. Godwin only recently passed his level one icebreaker speech and he's already on to level three having passed his level two last week. The aim of the level two is mean what you say – and the key themes were inner strength, self credit and winning. We were delighted to have much praise given to us as the speech evolved. Of course noone is adverse to a few compliments but all the credit must go to Godwin for such a fine speech. He is rapidly becoming a true asset to the club and an inspiration. We can't wait to hear your level three speech Godwin!

The next speech was given by Suzanne. All we can say is wow, wow and wow again. The title of Suzanne's speech was Superheroes – a level four speech where the focus is on gestures. The speech started with a quote from Bonnie Tyler's classic I need a hero – this must surely be a first. Suzanne's performance was truly remarkable and covered a wide range of themes from Shrek 2 to Hercules to Superman. Not to mention the Wonderwoman quip – fighting for her rights in her satin tights – and the memorable impression of the female hero and her bullet defying bracelets. Class. The gestures were incredible and were provided with humour, energy and style – it was very entertaining and a pleasure to see and hear. Well done Suzanne!

Our last speech of the evening was performed by Eileen with a level five speech titled It ain't what you say (it's the way that you say it). The aim of the speech is Use of voice and it is easy to see that Eileen's voice is the tool of her trade as we embarked on a verbal rollercoaster with her – up – down – fast – slow – with and without pauses – high and low – relaxed – high pitched and then soft and heavy. A wonderful and interesting speech. Special congrats to Eileen who, having passed level 5, is now halfway through the manual and is really setting the pace, performing many of these recently.

Many thanks to the evaluators – George, Joseph and Michael

General evaluation was given by Peter who gave a concise version of the evening's events as well as providing a “for one night only” humour slot. Both were very well presented and in Peter's usual flamboyant style which we so warmly appreciate at the club. Thank you Peter

Join us next time for our last meeting of the year on Wednesday 22nd June for our special pick and mix event where roles for the evening were raffled at our previous meeting. It's going to be a little bit different and a little bit special and there will also be a bit of a surprise! We look forward to seeing you there.

WSC meeting 8 June – the penultimate

Our latest meeting – the penultimate meeting of the year – was a lot of fun and a great success! Sally chaired the evening – it's always a great pleasure whenever she is in the chair. Sharon performed the topics chairing and managed to fit everyone in – albeit with a few one minute topics slots towards the end. The theme for the topics was a book called Change the World for a fiver. The book is full of hints and tips for – you've guessed it – changing the world – including bath sharing, tree saving and bus travelling. These were then followed by more topics along a favourite theme. Joseph performed a very adept account of his favourite way to say I love you – Let us count the ways it was brilliant. Another favourite favourite topic was Michael's favourite coloured m and m. Is there nothing that he can't speak about? Fortunately for us, the answer is no. The best topic as voted for on the night was Jill who gave excellent advice on why we should smile more. Jill should certainly be smiling by winning our special Debra topics trophy two weeks running. The topics were evaluated by Katherine who gave a wonderful analysis – lavishing praise and points for improvement accordingly. What a star!

Katherine mentioned again the main event for July – our annual WSC dinner on Friday 1st July. Tickets are running out very quickly – as usual – so please forward your menu choices and cheques to Suzanne as soon as possible please – by the next meeting would be great. Any donations to the raffle would be gratefully received by Sharon

In the second half we had our usual speeches section and what a treat that was for us all. Three wonderful speeches and all passes – so congratulations to Godwin, Suzanne and Eileen.

Godwin's speech was titled Credit is good for you. Godwin only recently passed his level one icebreaker speech and he's already on to level three having passed his level two last week. The aim of the level two is mean what you say – and the key themes were inner strength, self credit and winning. We were delighted to have much praise given to us as the speech evolved. Of course noone is adverse to a few compliments but all the credit must go to Godwin for such a fine speech. He is rapidly becoming a true asset to the club and an inspiration. We can't wait to hear your level three speech Godwin!

The next speech was given by Suzanne. All we can say is wow, wow and wow again. The title of Suzanne's speech was Superheroes – a level four speech where the focus is on gestures. The speech started with a quote from Bonnie Tyler's classic I need a hero – this must surely be a first. Suzanne's performance was truly remarkable and covered a wide range of themes from Shrek 2 to Hercules to Superman. Not to mention the Wonderwoman quip – fighting for her rights in her satin tights – and the memorable impression of the female hero and her bullet defying bracelets. Class. The gestures were incredible and were provided with humour, energy and style – it was very entertaining and a pleasure to see and hear. Well done Suzanne!

Our last speech of the evening was performed by Eileen with a level five speech titled It ain't what you say (it's the way that you say it). The aim of the speech is Use of voice and it is easy to see that Eileen's voice is the tool of her trade as we embarked on a verbal rollercoaster with her – up – down – fast – slow – with and without pauses – high and low – relaxed – high pitched and then soft and heavy. A wonderful and interesting speech. Special congrats to Eileen who, having passed level 5, is now halfway through the manual and is really setting the pace, performing many of these recently.

Many thanks to the evaluators – George, Joseph and Michael

General evaluation was given by Peter who gave a concise version of the evening's events as well as providing a “for one night only” humour slot. Both were very well presented and in Peter's usual flamboyant style which we so warmly appreciate at the club. Thank you Peter

Join us next time for our last meeting of the year on Wednesday 22nd June for our special pick and mix event where roles for the evening were raffled at our previous meeting. It's going to be a little bit different and a little bit special and there will also be a bit of a surprise! We look forward to seeing you there.

Wednesday 25 May – AGM and Speakers night

Wow, what a lot we packed in to our latest meeting – the usual topics, speeches AND our AGM!!!

Kicking off with the AGM, the outgoing officers reports were approved and the new committee were elected. Our new committee are as follows:

• Suzanne – President

• Katherine – Vice President
• Richard – Treasurer
• Tim – Publicity Officer
• Sally – Educational Director
• Jenny – Secretary

After the AGM we heard two great speeches – the first by Eileen – a level 4 speech – with the title “Roast Beef, Yorkshire pudding and a side order of Curry” (though it could have been a whole hsot of other dishes). It was a great speech, as confirmed by Peter's excellent evaluation and it was, of course, a pass.
Next up was Michael's advanced level 1 titled “Decision time”. Advanced level speeches are no easy feat. We can only imagine it would almost be like doing an extended topic!! You do have a bit of preparation time – but ten minutes is not nearly enough. That said, we would hardly have known that Michael hadn't been preparing his speech for weeks!!!  It was very very good indeed and evaluated excellently and passed by Sally.

After the break we moved to the topics. Here, the aim for the topics – given by Katherine – contained two words in the title, We had school reports, hiding places and childhood heroes, and many more…

The simplest topics are often the easiest and do make for the best topics. The audience was highly entertained by the speakers. Oonagh gave a very thorough evaluation of the topics and did a most fantastic job!!

Another great night, chaired by Katherine – who carried the evening beautifully. It was great to see so many new faces and members from other clubs. We look forward to seeing you next time for our special Pick and Mix event where speaker, timing and refreshment roles were won via a raffle at our last meeting. This is one night not to be missed.

Please remember to keep Friday 1st July free in your diaries for the Annual WSC dinner.

Also, if you did not receive a questionnaire about summer social events, please contact Sharon and she'll send one to you.

Until next time friends – have a great bank holiday weekend and enjoy the Sun (……..while it lasts). Sharon

Wednesday 25 May – AGM and Speakers night

Wow, what a lot we packed in to our latest meeting – the usual topics, speeches AND our AGM!!!

Kicking off with the AGM, the outgoing officers reports were approved and the new committee were elected. Our new committee are as follows:

• Suzanne – President

• Katherine – Vice President
• Richard – Treasurer
• Tim – Publicity Officer
• Sally – Educational Director
• Jenny – Secretary

After the AGM we heard two great speeches – the first by Eileen – a level 4 speech – with the title “Roast Beef, Yorkshire pudding and a side order of Curry” (though it could have been a whole hsot of other dishes). It was a great speech, as confirmed by Peter's excellent evaluation and it was, of course, a pass.
Next up was Michael's advanced level 1 titled “Decision time”. Advanced level speeches are no easy feat. We can only imagine it would almost be like doing an extended topic!! You do have a bit of preparation time – but ten minutes is not nearly enough. That said, we would hardly have known that Michael hadn't been preparing his speech for weeks!!!  It was very very good indeed and evaluated excellently and passed by Sally.

After the break we moved to the topics. Here, the aim for the topics – given by Katherine – contained two words in the title, We had school reports, hiding places and childhood heroes, and many more…

The simplest topics are often the easiest and do make for the best topics. The audience was highly entertained by the speakers. Oonagh gave a very thorough evaluation of the topics and did a most fantastic job!!

Another great night, chaired by Katherine – who carried the evening beautifully. It was great to see so many new faces and members from other clubs. We look forward to seeing you next time for our special Pick and Mix event where speaker, timing and refreshment roles were won via a raffle at our last meeting. This is one night not to be missed.

Please remember to keep Friday 1st July free in your diaries for the Annual WSC dinner.

Also, if you did not receive a questionnaire about summer social events, please contact Sharon and she'll send one to you.

Until next time friends – have a great bank holiday weekend and enjoy the Sun (……..while it lasts). Sharon

11 May Meeting – Chairman's Notes

Click the title to see meeting notes – Play with those wedges for a complete listing of Danny Baker's favourite advertising slogans, notes on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the probablilty of a game of scrabble for answering the question to the meaning of Life, Universe and Everything….

Last night's WSC Meeting – 11 May, Sharon Ward's write-up

A great time was had by all at our last speakers meeting (11th May), Tim was an excellent chair – although the presence of the laptop made us all wonder what kind of weird and wonderful topics we might be in for. In fact, nobody could have guessed – Tim chose for the topics section words based on a game of SCRABBLE played by Craig and himself the night before. And the game was displayed on the laptop for the speakers to see. Very creative and innovative, and certainly very unique. Suzanne commented in her topics evaluation that she wished that she had thought of the idea herself, as did we all Suzanne.

Take a simple game and some short words and you'd think that it would be easy…….Not so, the topics were actually quite tricky – even some of our most able members struggled a little bit. But all topics were very funny and informative, nevertheless. For those that weren't there – the words that were given for the topics were yarn, crawl, collar, jilt, painter, gift, equals, fume and tied……How do you think you[base ']d fare? Suzanne, as topics evaluator, gave a very clear, concise and amusing account of the topics in her own charming way. Dishing out compliments and recommendations alike, it was a great summary of the events thus far. Katherine in her business event closed the first half, drawing our attention to the up and coming social event of the WSC – the end of year dinner. This will be held on 1st July and all are cordially welcomed. This will be the 7th Annual dinner, an evening which just gets better and better and better. An event definitely not to be missed!

The fun carried on after the break with three very good speeches by three very special members. First up was Godwin with his level one icebreaker speech, titled My first speech. It was a very charming and expressive speech where Godwin pondered about hotspots, championed the ASC manual and explained just why he couldn't and wouldn[base ']t say no to Katherine. Godwin also mentioned that he came along to the club to get some tips for a wedding speech he has to make. Godwin, we welcome you to the club and think your first speech was a great success – we very much look forward to hearing more speeches from you in the future.

Following that was George, another Level 1 icebreaker, with his aptly named speech title – 0 – 60 in six minutes. We didn't realise that George was 60. In fact there's quite a lot of things we don[base ']t know about George such as him being an Egyptian Greek, that he was born in an army tent and that he is a self confessed trammy ( He quoted “A trammy I am and a trammy I always will be”)…… by the end of his speech we were certainly more well informed. A great closer to a speech, and perhaps one of the most memorable closes we have ever heard [base "]In coming to Wimbledon Speakers, I came to Paradise…… via the tram – I am in Paradise and I am XXXXXX well pleased to meet you all”.

Well done to you George for providing such an entertaining insight in to your world. And what a world it is.

Last but not least was Alan – who has motored through the manual at a rate most rapid. He performed his level 5 speech – use of voice – with his usual confidence and gusto. This time it was an informative speech, titled Rate Tarts. Alan described to us a very legal method of er…… lets just say….. making the most of your money. Useful advice, very well presented and very enjoyable to watch and hear. We look forward to hearing your Level 6 speech very soon Alan.

Evaluations followed with Jenny evaluating Godwin, Chris evaluating George and Sally evaluating Alan. Chris is a new evaluator and was exceedingly good [^] a special mention must be given for his evaluation of George, as providing useful feedback to an already well established speaker is no mean feat, but Chris carried it off with style and aplomb. Well done!

In two breaks to the normal routine, the speeches were followed by more chance to hear some great topics – this time under the theme of advertising slogans. Winner of the topics section was Sharon, who was shocked, stunned and totally amazed. There was also an impromptu raffle – we don[base ']t half do a good raffle in this club. But this was a raffle unlike no other. Not only were standard prizes available – chocolate cup cakes, ear plugs and baked beans – roles for the last meeting of the year (Wednesday 22nd June) were also up for grabs. The aim was to give as many people as possible a chance to get involved, from speaking – to timing – to making the tea. The demand for the tickets saw an unprecedented reaction from the crowd, with everyone rushing forward for their chance to win a prize. How it looks next time with the roles being “won” rather than being requested remains to be seen, but we are sure it will be a brilliant occasion up to Wimbledon's usual high standards.

Closing the evening was a general evaluation from Frank, of Bromley speakers fame. We were very lucky to have Frank join us and hear a wonderful evaluation of the evening's events as Frank unravelled for us the high points and the low points of the night. A brilliant summary, where the compliments and suggestions flowed – it was certainly useful to have an evaluation from a very experienced speaker from the local network. Frank, you are more than welcome to come and join Wimbledon speakers whenever you like – we warmly welcome you to our club.

Thanks to Tim, Suzanne, Katherine, Frank, Richard, Michael, Jenny, Chris and Sally and congratulations to all the speakers for providing such great entertainment and passing your respective levels

See you all next time, May 25th for another speaking evening, Wimbledon style!

How to Chair a Wimbledon Speaker's Club Meeting

Recommendations for how to Chair a WSC meeting, by Sally.

pdf format (for print), HTML version (for screen viewing), OPML (for compiling your own agenda). OPML is a standard format used by Outliner programs.

Outliners are useful for planning agenda, speeches, articles etc. – WP programs such as MS Word and Appleworks have some limited oulining functions – this one is written using RadioUserland. Further background at outliners.com.

11 May Meeting – Chairman's Notes

Click the title to see meeting notes – Play with those wedges for a complete listing of Danny Baker's favourite advertising slogans, notes on Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the probablilty of a game of scrabble for answering the question to the meaning of Life, Universe and Everything….