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Last night's WSC Meeting - 11 May, Sharon Ward's write-up
By admin | May 12, 2005
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!
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