Solihull Speakers Club

www.solihullspeakers.co.uk
Formed 1962
Founder member of the ASC in 1972

Solihull Speakers Club offers you the opportunity to learn and practice skills to enable you to express yourself clearly and persuasively. This is carried out in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

ASC - ACHIEVE SPEAKING CONFIDENCE

WE WELCOME SPEAKERS AT ALL LEVELS

FROM BEGINNERS TO THE MORE EXPERIENCED

Solihull Speakers Club is one of around 130 clubs across the United Kingdom making up the Association of Speakers Clubs. It is a founder member of the Association of Speakers Clubs, the ASC. The Solihull Club was actually formed in 1962.  In 1972 we became chartered to the ASC. In 2002 we celebrated  our 30th anniversary which was, in a way, our 40th anniversary.

Solihull Speakers Club was originally an all-male club. Mary Smith, Past President, was one of the first ladies to join and indeed was at one time the only lady. Things are very different now.

Solihull Speakers Club is affiliated to the National Association of Speakers Clubs , a non-profit making organisation, which has, as its main objective, the provision of support and guidance to its members in the art of public speaking. For more details see ASC Aim .

Solihull Speakers Club offers you a 10 stage Course in Communication and Presentation Skills

You know the feeling - dry mouth, legs like jelly and clammy hands. Then your heart beats faster and panic sets in as you face up to ....... your most pressing engagement.

It could be -

            best man at a wedding

            an after-dinner speech

            a job interview

            a sales presentation

- in fact, any social or business occasion that requires you to address an audience.

Some people sail through with ease, but most would admit to an attack of nerves before standing up in front of an audience. It's a daunting task!

Making a speech in public should not be looked upon with dread; with careful planning and rehearsal, you can speak with confidence.

Solihull Speakers Club offers you the opportunity to learn and practice skills to enable you to express yourself clearly and persuasively. This is carried out in a relaxed, friendly atmosphere.

Our structured programme can guide you from 'making a start', to delivering a 'masterpiece' speech.

Throughout you can -

Go at your own pace

Take as long as you need

Develop confidence

Develop your own style

Solihull Speakers Club meets alternate Wednesday evenings at 7.45pm at the DOWNING HALL, Knowle, Solihull

September to June

VISITORS ARE ALWAYS WELCOME

Click for a Map showing location of Downing Hall, Knowle -->> Downing Hall

Our Programme for the 2007/2008 season is shown below.

JOIN US AND YOU WILL SOON BE READY TO "SAY A FEW WORDS" ANYWHERE, ANYTIME

For the 2006/2007 Season the Officers of Solihull Speakers Club are:

For more information please complete Online Form or contact:

Mary Smith..............................01564 772981

or  e-mail to Solihull Speakers

STOP PRESS NEWS

SOLIHULL TROPHY CONTEST 2008 WINNERS FOR THE 5TH SUCCESSIVE YEAR!

Solihull Speakers Club has won the Solihull Trophy Contest this year for the 5th consecutive year, making this run an all-time record. The Club has now won the Trophy 11 times since the contest began in 1983.

All 5 Clubs in the South Midlands Area competed in this annual contest. which is run by the Solihull Club. The judges were Peter Sterry (Past National President from Nottingham Speakers Club), and 3 members from Stourbridge Speakers Club; Melvyn Evans, Sylvia Gwynn and Pauline Noon.

It could be said that the theme this year was about road safety, with the 3 speech titles; "Stop",  "Look" and "Listen".

The Solihull Team was led by Tina Harris as Chairman, with the 3 speakers: Elaine Shiels ("Stop"), Lorraine Mathers ("Look") and Chris Freville ("Listen").

In his summing-up, Chief Judge, Peter Sterry, declared Solihull a clear winner because of their excellent speech construction and the whole discipline and bearing of the Team in the way that each paid full attention to the person speaking. The Team looked relaxed and happy to be taking part.

SOUTH MIDLANDS DISTRICT EVALUATION CONTEST 2008 RUNNER-UP

District Evaluation Contest Runner-Up: Elaine Shiels

In the District Evaluation Contest Elaine Shiels from the Solihull Club was runner-up. This was a tough contest, because the speech to be evaluated was a very advanced assignment (No.9 Audience Rapport), as assignment that all but one of the contestants had tackled themselves in their own club. Normally, in the interests of fairness, a lower assignment would have been used. Setting a No.9 assignment made it almost inevitable that the most experienced speaker would win, as was the case.

...and yes, it was 2 winners in a row with Tom Foulerton winning the same contest last year 2007!!

SOUTH MIDLANDS AREA SPEECH & EVALUATION CONTESTS 2008 WINNER & RUNNER-UP

Evaluation Contest Winner: Elaine Shiels

The South Midlands Area Contests were held at Knowle Village Hall on 8th February. Held between all five Clubs in the Area, these are the second round of our National Contests. The event was chaired by the Area President, Peter Smith.

Solihull Club member, Elaine Shiels won the Area Evaluation Contest, which involved evaluating a speech entitled "Trumpet Voluntary" given by Lesley Ann Wadsworth. The speech concentrated particularly on Vocabulary and Word Pictures. Elaine gave a friendly, constructive  evaluation but advised Lesley Ann to repeat this assignment with a view to further improvement.

Alison Bennett was our representative in the Speech Contest. Her speech, entitled "Out of the Ashes" covered the recent tragedy of a local school badly damaged by fire. Alison herself teaches at the school, so the story was based on fact. This could have been a simple narrative but Alison cleverly crafted a well-constructed speech. She graphically described the scene of devastation, the emotions of all concerned, and the inspired determination to carry on keeping the school open with minimal interruption to studies. All this was done despite the project exam course work being destroyed. A truly heart tugging speech that held the full attention of the audience throughout. Despite her best efforts she was not the chosen winner.

We wish Elaine good luck as she goes forward to the next round, the District Evaluation Contest in March. If she wins that, she will go forward to the ASC National Finals, following in the footsteps of our very own Tom Foulerton who was 2007 National Winner. Two winners in a row would be some achievement.

ANNUAL DINNER 2008

Our annual dinner is always well attended and is run in such a way as to provide some lucky members with the opportunity to deliver a formal after-dinner speech with a toast, and for one member to act as Master of Ceremonies, armed with gavel and block! This time that onerous task was efficiently and willingly undertaken by Elaine Shiels, Club Vice President.

President, John Martin, delivered a toast to the ASC, followed by the Chief Guest, Brian Micklethwaite from Wolverhampton Club who responded on behalf of the ASC.

Then Club awards were presented by the Chief Guest, Brian. These included the winners of the 3 Club Contests – Alison Bennett (Speech Contest), Elaine Shiels (Evaluation Contest) and Vanessa Pritchard (Topics Contest).

One prestigious award is the  for the Most Improved Speaker Award of the year. This is always a surprise announcement. This year it was presented to Breeda Reaney. Breeda has shown great progress since joining us this year and is a worthy winner. Our congratulations go out to her.

Two more speeches followed. Sarah Frend from Solihull proposed a toast to the guests. Bryan Cottrell replied on behalf of the guests. Bryan has an unassuming style of humour which always entertains, inducing almost painful laughter especially after a large meal!

SPOUTERS STUMP CONTEST 2008 WINNERS YET AGAIN!

Solihull Speakers Club WON the Spouters Stump Contest for the second time in a row. This Contest is one of the inter-club contests held throughout the year between the 5 Clubs in the South Midlands Area.

The Solihull Team was made up of Chairman: Claire Laland, Speakers: Sarah Frend, Mary Smith and John Martin. The speech titles were set as "Shake", "Rattle", and "Roll", good titles that offered plenty of scope for variety,

Under her set speech titled "Shake", Sarah recounted her frightening experience of an earthquake in Germany. Mary with "Rattle" gave a convincing argument that children were noisy because, as babies, they were given rattles to play with. Mary finished with the stirring slogan, "Join my crusade to ban the rattle!" How would John cover "Roll"? Well, what else but the tradition of rolling the cheese downhill. Sheer madness.

Claire was highly praised by the judges for her well-tailored chairmanship not spoilt by speaking too long between speakers - a common fault with chairmen who love the limelight and tend to detract from the performance of the team as a whole. Claire's was a well-balanced, steady, apposite performance.

HISTORY & Past NEWS Items

Click Item for details....

 INFORMATION

Further information about Solihull Speakers Club  e-mail  Membership@SolihullSpeakers.co.uk  

FROM BEGINNERS TO THE MORE EXPERIENCED

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