27-29 April 2018 is the 2018 national Association of Speakers Clubs Conference. in York.
it is eight years since it was last held in York.. and here are pictures from 2010
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| Left: The Park Inn Hotel; Right rowing boats on the Ouse. |
The national Speakers Club (ASC) Weekend Conference and Competitions
York 2010
impressions of a “Newbie”
Could you make a speech yourself?
Do you know in the UK there is an organisation with over 100 clubs where people meet fortnightly to learn how to make a better job of giving speeches? – whether as beginners, learning how to get over their nerves and just say a few sentences – or as ace speakers.. entering competitions .. such as the ones I attended this weekend.
It is the first time I have been to an ASC (Association of Speakers Clubs) Finals and Weekend Conference - Would you like to hear about my trip there, to York? - You may if -
1. If you are a person who attended the conference - so you can enjoy reminiscing
2. If you are a Speakers-club person who missed the conference – so you can see what you missed
3. Most important – if you are a person who doesn't know anything about speakers clubs but who might become more interested and take the plunge in a local club – I recommend it!
Five years ago I joined Craven Speakers Club in Skipton, Yorkshire, and became “hooked”. (Craven is the name of our area – our group of 15 people are not at all craven – indeed, after a attending a few meetings, however shy initially, our members all become very brave. Well braver.)
What happens at a Speakers Club? Members of speakers clubs practise giving mini-prepared speeches and three minute unprepared “on the spot” speeches, like the radio programme “just a minute”. Then the more experienced members evaluate the speeches. They give really helpful tips showing how presentation can be improved, such as:
“More pauses - ”
“Look at the audience -”,
“Gestures- Don't clutch the lectern – don't wave your arms around all the time – but do use gestures to illustrate points.”
“Use more word pictures- similes, more adventurous vocabulary” etc”.
We learn from seeing other speeches analysed and by preparing speeches ourselves with the aid of a helpful manual. Skipton is a small friendly club and each fortnight there is opportunity for nearly everyone to perform or carry out some job if they wish, from operating the lights to manning the raffle, from delivering a speech to evaluating a session.
There are Speakers Clubs throughout the country linked within The Association of Speakers Clubs:- 115 clubs in England, Scotland and Wales..
We all have annual competitions in our club and the winners then go onto competitions at Area level and District level and then the finalists from the eight Districts compete at the National Conference. This year the conference was being hosted by our District – the Eastern District - which has nine clubs and stretches from us in Skipton, via Bradford and Leeds and York all the way up to Newcastle.
Now I just love going to our local meetings, but have not had much interest in the area and district meetings –due to time constraints and distance. However when the National Conference was to be held in our district, and when I could see how much it meant to the more experienced members of our club, who had been looking forward to it over a year in advance, I changed my work arrangements specially so that I would be free to go this weekend, the 23rd April 2010.
So, after a hard morning sorting my calendar and other last minute jobs,: .. Friday afternoon found me driving the two hours from Settle to York, wondering if I would find somewhere to park close to the hotel without having to pay more than £10, and hoping I could be helpful to my club and region by carrying out my allotted job of helping steward the tombola.
The traffic built up.. and up..and the roads became more and more urbanised as I progressed east, away from quiet Settle and Skipton. More and more stressful - Would I get caught by speed-cameras as a struggled to remember whether I was in a 20, 30, 40, or 50 miles an hour zone? I kept braking every time I drove over those wretched white lines with a yellow box nearby. I had chosen to go via Ilkley, Otley and Tadcaster. (Should I have gone by train? – but no – then I would have been stuck with no transport at night.)
Two years previously I had travelled with ASC friends to the same Park Inn Hotel. It is on the bank of the River Ouse in the centre of York. It was to an ASC meeting to hear Archbishop John Sentamu who was then the “ASC Speaker of the Year”. I approached York along the A64. Would I would miss the turnoff as had one of our members who had overshot and almost reached Scarborough? (I have to include this - it is part of the folklore of our club). I turned off, one turning too early, but no matter, it brought me safely to the same NCP Carpark just before the station that we had used on that occasion – and arriving at 4.05 pm meant that I would only have to pay £2-40 the night rate. The car parking man was helpful and friendly
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| The tombola stand |
Relief!
I was here.
Yes, I was needed on the stand, and would just have time to go and find a bite to eat in York before starting at 6pm. It was nice to have a roll and be needed. Sorry, I mean a role. I actually bought a packet of chips and tomato ketchup. And I found a superb shop called “Hawkins Bazaar – because life is too serious” Selling tricks, optical illusions and fun games -more of that on Saturday. Back to the conference for my stint on the tombola stand.
“Five tickets for £1-00. Roll up, roll up. Lots of valuable prizes. Tickets ending in five or nought.” Eileen showed me a box of spare prizes for situations when we could not find the relevantly labelled prize. Our stall was at the top of the entrance stairs we saw people as they stepped up, and we welcomed them.
At 8pm the topics competition started. Over 200 people packed into the large hall to watch ..
The eight contestants were introduced and then all except the first person, taken out.
The topic that each person had to speak on was ...
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| The Eight Topics Speech Contestants |
“ Happy returns”.
It was fascinating to discover the different interpretations each speaker gave for this topic especially as each had not heard the previous speakers.
How many different themes can you think of based on “ Happy Returns” – apart from the obvious “Many happy returns” for a birthday?
…. (Long pause while I let you think)
As each person stepped up on to the end of the very wide stage they were told the title. I scrutinized each speaker as they were being told. Their composed, smiling expressions did not change. If it was me I would be grimacing or rolling my eyes, or closing them as I desperately tried to think of something vaguely relevant to this topic. If they were following the standard recommended advice, they would be thinking up an aim for their speech, a punch line finish and a punch line start, all as they stepped up onto the stage, and walked to wards the chairman who showed them a card with the words HAPPY RETURNS.
“Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen...” The first speaker started and the time keepers set the two clocks going to time the speech – It should be exactly 3 minutes long. The speakers could see the lights but the audience could not easily see the lights which was a shame – if the speaker over runs or under runs they are penalised. I find, as member of the audience, that watching the lights adds to the excitement. Will the person manage to keep going for thee minutes? Will they get carried away and overrun... and as the time is nearly up, how are they going to finish?
Well, did you think of eight variations on Happy returns?
1. The first lady spoke about bank interest rates. “We are not getting happy returns a the moment,” she sadly said, which brought a supportive laugh.
2. The second, Dilwyn, spoke about Biggles – I am still not quite sure of the link – was it that there had been lots of Biggles annuals so that Biggles was now very old – hence lots of birthdays. Or was it because Dilwyn liked to read Biggles books. Or was it because the aircraft returned safely. (I have since been onto the internet – yes there is one book “Biggles fails to return”. Anyway Dilwyn waxed lyrical about Biggles Books. He had a strong Welsh speaking voice with lots of pauses and drama and we enjoyed hearing him.
3.The third, a lady, started talking about the people unable to return to the UK by air because of volcano dust but then switched to the upcoming Football Competition in South Africa and hoped “our boys” would win and so have a happy return. (She won!)
4. The fourth talked about returning to places you had been before – but that returning to the past too much is not wise and it is better to look forward. A car has a big front windscreen, but only a small mirror for looking backwards – It is more important to look forward. (This one came second)
5. The fifth - a lady with dark hair - Can someone remind me of her slant on the subject?
6. The sixth, a man, talked about why a person would be happy to return to the UK from Australia or Canada
7. The seventh talked about leaving things on trains, and about their sentimental value and the relief if the item was returned – that struck a chord for me.
8. The eighth talked about buying birthday cards that were small enough to fit into you jacket pocket, got onto shop lifting and then somehow got onto “Manual Handling Regulations” (MHR).
Eight different interpretations of the one phrase!
Scattered amongst the audience were eight judges with forms to fill in for each contestant – I really admire the judges – a three minutes speech, 30 seconds silence afterwards to write notes, then another two minutes of so whilst the next contestant entered and put on a microphone – how did they sort it all out!!!
They had 15 minutes to confer, then the chief judge came back and gave a report on how the topic speeches could have been improved in general and announced the three winners. All eight were winners in that they had all won their regional competitions.
The contestants were videoed, and if I send off for the CD, I can watch them all over again.
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| The three topics winners receive their trophies (Order: third, first, second) |
Saturday
I'll keep Saturday short – unlike the AGM
Saturday morning was the AGM. I won't go into the business- someone, somewhere, will write up the minutes. We were introduced to the new committee. It was going to be a 2 ¾ hour session with no breaks. Someone asked for a break but we were told just to take comfort breaks when we individually needed one. After about an hour and a half I decided that I needed one ..and having got the flavour of the AGM, had seen the new committee, and was very grateful for the committee for doing the work for the ASC, I escaped into the sunlight.
I spent two hours in the sun exploring York. A quiche and a mushroom and beansprout salad in an ancient church used as a restaurant sustained me and then I walked beside the river, watching the oars-ladies in their rowing boats. I visited the Observatory in the Museum Gardens which has a telescope built in 1850. I watched the people sunbathing in the gardens. I reached an open area of grassland beside the river. . Then I returned ...via the Hawkin's Bazaar. 
In the afternoon I watched the speech competition.
I attended the dinner with speeches. The food was tasty – Lamb shank - established to be British lamb after we had politically asked the waiter.
There were some well thought out speeches. The new Chairman's son gave a speech – He had just joined his local speakers club last year, so was full of enthusiasm about speakers clubs.
Yes, pleased though I was to have seen the committee, heard some superb speeches and heard the judges comments, the best part was to have met people from other ordinary clubs from all over the country and to know they are enjoying their regular club meetings as much as I do.
So find out if there is a local Speakers Club near you! Invite your friends to it! Join - and may be you will enjoy it and have many happy returns.
http://www.the-asc.org.uk/
And if you live near Skipton: http://www.craven-speakers.org.uk
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