At our meeting on Thursday 2nd February we invited a guest speaker, Paul Laidlaw of H & H Auctioneers and of TV fame, to share his knowledge and experience of auctioneering with us. He gave a most interesting, amusing and informative talk on his profession and then joined enthusiastically in the rest of our meeting. This was in preparation for our following meeting on 16th February when the theme for the evening was a Mock Auction. None of us had done this before, so we needed an expert to show us how it is done!
Our Mock Auction (with mock money!) got members to bring an object to 'sell' and make a sales pitch for it before President Christine Shuttleworth, our 'Auctioneer,' invited bids. The objects were very varied and so were the sales pitches, some of which were even true!
Our members' experience of speaking varies from a month or two to nearly thirty years, but as this shows, we never stop learning new skills and often discovering some quite unexpected abilities.
Carlisle Speakers go Auctioneering
Workshops 21/1/12
Saturday, 21st January saw Carlisle and District Speakers Club trying out a new venture. In response to requests for some general training on Public Speaking, the club organized some business-based workshops at Morton Community Centre.
Christine Shuttleworth, club president, welcomed more than 20 people to the workshops on Chairmanship, Presentation and Impromptu Speaking skills.
The workshops, aimed at providing tips on improving techniques on Public Speaking, as well as suggestions to reduce stress and anxiety of this number one fear in life today, were warmly received with comments such as, from one participant from a voluntary organization:
“A brilliant course, I really enjoyed it, I am taking away some positive tips & skills I can go on to use”.
Many would like more sessions like these and the club will have to think about how these might be financed.
Susan Trafford, Education Director said that, “Training for skills in Public Speaking is often low on an employer’s agenda, but employees with excellent speaking skills increase opportunities for maximizing the marketing potential of any organisation, promoting their products, be it a car, increasing take up of a project, or informing the electorate of a change in policy”.
“Training of this type is difficult to source locally at reasonable cost, so we were delighted to be able to provide an afternoon of training that has been so well received.”
The workshops were attended by people from the public, private and voluntary sectors.
At the end of the afternoon all those attending were able to practise their newly acquired skills choosing whether to speak from the stage, or use a microphone, maybe for the first time.
The afternoon was rounded off by a demonstration of a Speech by Gordon Little entitled, ‘Breaking the Barrier’, a personal account of achieving public speaking competence.
As well as attendance certificates, participants were given tickets enabling them to attend the Border Area Speaking Competitions, to be held next Sunday afternoon, 29/1/12 at Morton Community Centre.John's Masterpiece
The meeting of Carlisle & District Speakers Club held on Thursday 19th May was a special occasion because member John Harris succeeded in the final assignment from the Speakers Guide, his Masterpiece speech. In this he demonstrated mastery of all the preceding assignments, covering all aspects of public speaking skill. He was assessed by two of the Club's most experienced evaluators, both of whom have gained recognition at National competition level, and we all congratulate John on this important achievement.
"Deceptive" Victory for Carlisle Club
The annual Gavel Competition for Speakers Clubs in Border Area was held on Thursday 12th May at Morton Community Centre in Carlisle, the home of Carlisle and District SC. It took the form of the panel game "Would I Lie to You?" The Clubs from Annan, Carlisle, Cockermouth, Stranraer and West Coast took part; each entered a team of three players, except Cockermouth who entered two teams to make up three 'heats,' and in the finish the best liars were Carlisle & District. It must have been our honest faces that did it! It is a bit disturbing to find one has such a reprehensible talent, but a win after the lapse of quite a number of years was very welcome. Everyone enjoyed the evening, and this format proved very successful. Especial thanks are due to David Heaton of West Coast SC, the new President of Border Area, who put an immense amount of work into devising untrue but plausible claims for the contestants, to supplement their true but (but unlikely) stories.
Christine Wins at District
Christine Shuttleworth, pictured after winning the Border Area Topics competition, has won again at the North Western District competition held on Sunday 6th March. North Western District comprises 18 Speakers Clubs in Border, Greater Glasgow and Argyll & Clyde Areas, and as overall winner Christine will now compete at the National Conference in Edinburgh on 15-17 April.
Margaret Hunt, our other winner at Border Area level, was runner-up in a very tight finish in the District Evaluation competition. Altogether the six Border Area competitors won two first and two runner-up places.
