Carlisle & District Speakers Club were the hosts of the annual Conference of Border Area of the Association of Speakers Clubs, on Sunday 27th January at Morton Community Centre, Wigton Road, Carlisle. All five Clubs in Border Area - Annan, Carlisle & District, Cockermouth, Stranraer and West Coast - took part in the Area Annual General Meeting, at which National President of the Association Graham McLachlan and North West District President Margaret Robertson were our honoured guests.
Area President Susan Trafford, of Carlisle & District SC, was re-elected for a second year, and David Heaton of West Coast SC was elected Vice-President.
As the Area Secretary Jess Sinclair and Treasurer Richard Hunt, both of Carlisle & District SC, were willing to continue serving they were reappointed to those roles.
After the A.G.M. representatives from each of the Clubs competed in the three disciplines of Speech, Evaluation and Topics. The Speech winner was Wendy Brown of Cockermouth, with Runner-up Jess Longrigg of West Coast. Evaluation was won by Margaret Hunt of Carlisle & District, with Runner-up Davidson Bell of Cockermouth, and the Topics winner was David Preshaw of West Coast, with Runner-up Robert Higgins of Stranraer. Winners and Runners-up will all compete again at the North West District conference on Sunday 3rd March in Lockerbie.
Carlisle hosts Border Area Conference
40th Anniversary of the Association of Speakers Clubs
2012 has been an important year for Speakers: it marks the 40th anniversary of the foundation of the Association of Speakers Clubs, the 30th of the launch of Carlisle Ladies Speakers Club and the 10th of its becoming the mixed club it now is, Carlisle & District Speakers Club.
Amid all the changes and turnover we still have three of the original Founding Members from 1982:
Christine Shuttleworth, Jess Sinclair and Margaret Hunt, all active and whose experience is of the greatest value to all of our members.
Topics Competition Result
Our annual Topics competition was held at Morton Community Centre on Thursday 15 November. It had been deferred from the 1st November because of the number of entries in the Speech Competition at that meeting.
A 'Topic' is an impromptu speech of three minutes to be given on a subject handed to the speaker as he or she walks into the room; preparation time is only as long as it takes to reach the point of delivery, so it is literally a test of one's ability to think on one's feet.
The winner was Margaret Hunt, who now proceeds to the the Border Area competition on 27th January 2013. Many thanks to our Judges: Yvonne Spencer and Eileen O'Reilly, both former members of our Club, and Ella Atherton.
Club Competition Night, 1st November
Our Club's annual Competition Night was at Morton Community Centre, Wigton Road, Carlisle. Six members took part in the Speech competition and three in Evaluation, where they successively evaluated a speech given by our Guest Speaker David Preshaw of West Coast Speakers Club.
The winner of the Speech competition was Susan Trafford, whose speech was titled 'Anomalies,' and the runner-up was Jill Simpson, speaking about 'A Perfect Loaf.' Margaret Hunt was the Evaluation winner.
Many thanks are due to Chief Judge Peter Hodgson of Cockermouth Speakers Club, assisted by Cathie Forbes and Esme Forbes of Annan SC, and to our Education Director John Barrie for all his hard work in organising and chairing the event. Peter was very complimentary about the high standard of the entries, and John pointed out that the majority were recent recruits to the Club, so still at an early stage of their development as speakers.
The winners will now progress to the Association of Speakers Clubs Border Area competitions to be held on Sunday 27th January 2013, again at Morton Community Centre, where the five clubs in the Area will compete to send Area representatives to North West District in the spring.
Inter-Club Debate, Thursday 4th October
At our meeting on Thursday 4th October our Club welcomed West Coast Speakers Club for a debate. The motion to be debated was "The school leaving age should return to 15." West Coast Club, represented by Anna Wilson and Jess Longrigg, spoke for the motion and Carlisle & District, represented by Richard Hunt and Ella Atherton, spoke against it. The debate was a friendly competition, taking the place of the usual format of prepared speeches. We were delighted to welcome past members and friends as guests in addition to our 'official' guests from West Coast, and our larger-than-usual audience clearly enjoyed the occasion. The audience put some tough questions to the debaters, and finally decided by ballot after the Chairman Susan Trafford had closed the debate that West Coast were the winners. Many thanks were given to Susan from all sides for her hard work in organising the occasion; watch for a repeat competition in later seasons!
