The Speakers Club (ASC) national Conference Glasgow 2014

Delegates arrive - View of floor 0 from floor 1 Radisson blu hotel

On the bus on the first evening on the way
to the Glasgow City  Chambers

This weekend I attended the Association of Speakers' Clubs' national conference in Glasgow (you may remember my post about the national conference at York in 2010 )


(Here is a link to the ASC website that has lots of resources and info, and here to Craven Speakers Club)


At the conference I was surprised  to find how many people have belonged to the ASC for many, many years -- until I realised I was no longer a newbie myself... Indeed, the date at the bottom of the Craven Speakers Club website reveals I have been a member for nine years now.

I looked at my own copy of the ASC manual -- and discovered the evaluation of my first speech was January 2005 - thank you Mavis for doing this - and thank you other people for writing up later evaluations. It does show I have improved. I don't look down at my feet any more (I hope)

In the Glasgow Civic Chambers watching
the Topics Competition

And ("phew") - I finally attempted my "masterpiece" (the level 10 speech) last month and passed.. So I just got it in before the end of my tenth year. (It was entitled "Falling in love with lichens", and I was evaluated and assessed for it at Bradford Speakers Club, having used the same speech in our speech competition the previous week at Skipton)


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Well, back to the conference:

We were based at the Radisson Blu hotel.  But on the first evening we went to a reception at Glasgow City Chambers and watched the topics competition.

 The Topic given for the Impromptu speech was "Spring is in the air"

 The Runner up was Clive Dawson from our Eastern Region (of which Craven Speakers  Club is part). He led the topic round to leaving wild parts in your garden for nature - which was a good call to action.

Clive and his trophy and certificate

The reception

A selfie at the Galsgow City Chambers Ladies' rest room

Saturday morning was the AGM.

The 2014 ASC AGM

The 2014 ASC AGM

A group of us went to lunch at the travel agent next door - who were busy promoting a cruise

In the afternoon we had a seminar on development and publicity about the ASC.

Sue who organised it had expected 30 and was very pleased with the large number that turned up.

I brought some photocopies of my article Twenty Top Tips for Successful Publicity Posters and some posters for our club and the Table top sale on 10 May in Skipton.

Seminar

In the evening there was a Meal

Demonstration of Scottish Highland Dancing before the ASE Meal on 26 April at Radisson Blu hotel

The highlight for me was the Evaluations Competition.

 A gentleman gave an 8 minute speech "25 years of the internet" _ A really good summary I thought to getting up to date and to looking back back on the 25th Anniversary of the start of the World Wide Web.

Then eight people, the winners from each of the 8 Regions in Britain each had to evaluate the speech. (Without seeing what the other people did)
The speech was a level 6 speech - being assessed for "Vocabulary and word pictures"
But I thought it was not a suitable speech for doing a word pictures talk  There are so many long words involved in describing the computing - html  (hypertext markup language) http, etc, that to add other descriptive  and emotional phrases would have made it too complicated.


The evaluations varied - The first two people passed the speech and praised  the extremely few (well I though one actually) word picture /simile that he gave -(that  Tim Berners-Lee  finding and sorting files was a bit like playing the game Happy Families.)


The following speakers were more critical and several suggested that he repeat the exercise using a different topic. They also tried to give illustrations of how he could use more vivid language.


I enjoyed watching how the different evaluators approached the topic. I was glad to see also that experienced evaluators could come up with different ideas about whether a speaker should move on to the next speech or not.

A quick reminder of the grand City Chambers

Sycamore buds will not open till 16th April - I say on 14th - and other notes

I have this theory that the main tree leaves start to come out - the buds start to burst on 16th April - well around Settle anyway, and where the majority of the trees are sycamore - then one month later by 17th of May the sycamore trees are fully out, and are giving lots of shade. (Ash takes quite a bit longer)

Well we have had a mild winter and a mild March .. so I wondered of the tree leaves would come out earlier.

The sloe is just starting to come out on the 1st April -
View from Castleberg Crag/Gardens in Settle

View of St John's Church Hall from Castleberg on 1 April

Sycamore tree by Ribble on 1 April - no leaves

But look what is growing at the base of the tree - Syntrichia latifolia!!!

These buds are breaking on 11th April - but that's down at Settle so maybe that does not count.

The sycamore trees outside my house
on 12th April have leaves swollen waiting to break

However at Ripon on 14th April there are sycamores with unbroken buds.
The tree on the right is horse-chestnut but the tree on the left is sycamore,

And on our walk to the river Skell at Ripon on 14th
all the other shrubs may have been starting to
come out but the sycamore was not coming out.

It's great to get out and see the flowers.

Wildflowers of Ingleton Churchyard Walk - 24 May 2014

(Note there will be a similar walk on 20 June 2015)

Ingleton Overground Underground Festival 2014: 24-26 May www.ogug.co.uk

Wild Flowers Of Ingleton Churchyard 

Sat 24 May 6pm

Short walk round Ingleton churchyard led by - Doris Cairns Doris will display her book of watercolour paintings of the wild flowers of the Ingleton Churchyards followed by Light refreshments. Free/donations

Venue: 

St Mary’s Church, Ingleton

Left: Maidenhair Spleenwort, Ivy-leaved Toadflax 

and Wall Rue. Below: Early Dog-violet

Flowers of the Settle Carlisle Line: Illustrated Talk - Ingleton -24 May

Ingleton Overground Underground Festival 2014: 24-26 May www.ogug.co.uk

Illustrated Presentation

Flowers of the Settle Carlisle Line 

Venue: St Mary’s Church, Ingleton

Sat 24 May - 7.30pm- 8.30pm: Doors open and refreshments from 7pm

by local botanist - Dr Judith Allinson

£5.00 / Donations to St Mary’s Church and the Rainforest Fund.

Judith and members of Craven Conservation Group took part in survey work in the 1980s when the line was under threat of closure

Other posts relating to the Settle Carlisle Line

Carlisle Mosses - (Superb Syntrichia part 1) 24 Feb 2014

Ribblehead Station Carol Service 2012

Settle Water Tower on Settle Carlisle Line 18 Feb 2012

Settle - Carlisle line - snow, hoar frost and shopping 8 Feb 2012

Ribblehead Station Carol Service 8 Dec 2011

Ferns of Ribblehead Viaduct - 26 July 2009

Mosses Beginners Course 24 May Chapel le Dale Church Ribblehead

Ingleton Overground Underground Festival 2014: 24-26 May www.ogug.co.uk

Discover the Secret World of
Mosses

Absolute Beginners’ Workshop at
Chapel le Dale Churchyard

2pm-4pm Sat 24 May

Join Judith Allinson
of Craven Conservation Group to learn tips to help you identify a dozen of our common big mosses. Absolute Beginners Welcome. Hand lenses available for loan. Judith has large paper models to explain the structure of different species. Cost: £10-00 (includes coffee/tea and hand-outs) Indoor session in St Leonard's Church  followed by short walk in churchyard. Booking requred  - 01729 822138 info@craven-conservation-group.org.uk

Lichens: Beginners Workshop 24 May Ingleton N Yorks

Ingleton Overground Underground Festival 2014: 24-26 May: www.ogug.co.uk:

Discover the Secret World of Lichens

Beginners’ Workshop at
Ingleton Churchyard
10am-12pm Sat 24 May

Lichens under a hand lens: see the beautiful shapes and colours.

Join Judith Allinson

of Craven Conservation Group: First, for an indoor session in St Mary’s Church-room, introducing the structure of lichens and showing some lichens brought in on twigs. Second, for a walk to test the newly written Lichen Trail around the churchyard. Hand lenses provided. Learn tips to help you identify different species. Cost: £5-00 (includes coffee/tea and hand-outs)

Booking necessary: 01729 822138 info@craven-conservation-group.org.uk

A poem on the web about lichens

An oasis of flowers - 35 wildflowers in flower in Birmingham car park edge -and it's still only March

Red Clover leaves near the road

On 28 March, The day before the conference in Birmingham on "Joy in Enough" - about ecologically sustainable economics - run by Christian Ecology Link -  I took time to explore ..

..the narrow strip of "grassy" bank opposite the church, between the main road and station car park.

What a find!


It wasn't just grass - It was a myriad of brightly coloured flowers and mosses  (and some grass)

Maybe I should be  concerned that so many species of wildflower can be IN FLOWER before the end of March - (Climate Change?)
 By the time I have finished looking at the tiny pieces I brought home - I realised there were 35!

Maybe the plants don't have the same kudos as Arctic Alpines that have been in this country since the end of the last Ice Age, as do some flowers near where I live...

Maybe I should be intrigued that so many are "introduced" have only been in our country for a few hundred years..

But the are all wild, not brought here by a the council or car park gardener (unless someone emails me to tell me differently)

Corn Salad (Lamb's Lettuce) - Valerianella locusta - seen close up
(Click on the pictures to see them bigger)

They are in flower - and providing nectar/pollen for insects.

And delight for humans if only they would look!!

Look!   Look!   Look!

Thank you for the flowers. That is what gave me Joy at this Conference.

Spring Whitlow-grass

Rocket -- Eruga vesicaria (possibly subsp sativa?)

The Rocket is growing below the big advertising hoarding.
 It should be advertising the diversity of wildflowers here.

Some will have spread in along the railway line system,
such as this Oxford Ragwort (first recorded in England in 1794)

)

Oxford Ragwort

Dandelions are coming into bloom this week - providing food for Insects.

Coltsfoot is still out

Coltsfoot 

We are looking towards Carrs Lane Church Centre,
and the Travel Lodge beyond.

Small Melilot

Armenian Grape Hyacinth
(very much like a garden escape)

Veronica persica  Common Field-Speedwell

Forget-me-not

I explored high and low during my stay

- from the Market near St Martin's Church and the Chinese pagoda garden in a roundabout (Shepherd's Purse and Pineapple Mayweed added to the list)

- to the Secret Garden at the Summit of the Library .

but only found a handful of wildflowers struggling to get in amongst the planted plants and wood chip.

I'll be adding the list shortly.

Ingleton churchyard Lichens- all the Sites

Here are the seven sites we are going to visit, (marked with white and red numbers on the picture below).. both on this web tour of Ingleton Churchyard, and on the workshop on 24 May 2014 as part of Ingleton Underground Overground Festival. 10am-12pm

Poster for Lichens Workshop on 24 May at Ingleton - please download and display


1. The lichens on the cross but just lower than this picture (this post)
2. The lichens on the wall in the foreground to the left of this picture
3. The lichens on several graves near to this one:-
4. The lichens on the flat slab of this table tomb
5. The white lichens round the door to the church
6. The lichens on the branches of the tree
7. The lichens round the back of the church

The top of the gravestone below has the grey foliose lichen "Parmelia saxatilis" once known in some areas as "Crottle" or "Stony Rag" that can be used for dying cloth or Easter eggs.

 

Menu of other Lichen posts on this blog 

Top Ten Tips on Museums and Nature - from YNU Conference at York 2014

Terry Whitaker and Sharan and Peter Flint and I went to the annual conference of the Yorkshire Naturalists Union from Craven Conservation Group. Thanks for driving us Sharon. We parked at Park and drive. Other people came by train as the venue was next to the station.

Museums and Nature: the Modern Perspective

Yorkshire Naturalists’ Union Conference 2014

22nd March 2014, Conference Centre, Royal York Hotel, York

The people attending were naturalists from some of the 43 natural history societies in Yorkshire that are members of the YNU, plus some curators and volunteers from museums.  Int the coffee breaks and lunch breaks I met individuals  interested in Wasps, Bees, Fungi, Mites, Plant Galls,  Birds, Higher Plants, Beetles, Butterflies, Aquatic Plants, Molluscs, Mammals, Geology, Conservation volunteers and a host of other groups.

The papers that were given at this conference are eventually going to be put on the web. They will make useful reading.

Here are just some of the most interesting points I learned:

1. Always make sure your specimens are well labelled including..  (A.N/B.E)

Who collected it: you - (make sure it is labelled with your name - if all your specimens in future get handed to a museum  en block, your name may not be with each specimen. Who knows, one of your specimens may be new to science so then it is important to be able to credit it to you.)
Date
Location name
Accurate grid reference
Vice County
Habitat - what plans or animals it was growing with
Name and who identified it to this name.  If you don't know its name, don'e worry, some expert later may identify it.

2. Make sure you arrange some power of attorney, and that it is written down what you wish to happen to your specimens and records.  (A.N)

People there an relate many cases where specimens, records and important photographs have been  binned/lost when a person has to go to a care home suddenly or when a person dies.

3. If you have natural history specimens you wish to bequeath to a museum, make sure the naturalist at the museum and the senior management of the Museum know and want it


4. It costs £30 per cubic foot per year to keep museum material in storage.  (A.N)

.

5. Most of the Museums in Yorkshire have lost the posts of permanent natural history curator and taxonomists.

6.  We don't have a "national museum" in Yorkshire, but we have three museums with "accredited status": Leeds, Sheffield and York.   (A.N.)Sheffield (Local/ Derbyshire).  York (Yorkshire)  Leeds (National).

7. There are many other museums in Yorkshire: including Scarbourough, Doncaster, Keighley, Huddersfield,  Sand Hutton.  (And I can think of many more )

8. The Yorkshire Philosophical Society was founded in 1822 and dealt with material from Kirkdale Cave near Kirby Moorside. It opened the Yorkshire Museum, York in 1830 in time for the Inaugural meeting of the British Association of the Advancement of Science (Now changed name to BSA) in 1831. (Sarah King who has been  the Curator of Natural Science at the Yorkshire Museum for four months gave a talk)

9.. There are many ways to send in your natural history records online (which can then be fed to the NBN Gateway). However a plea was given by the vice-county recorders of  Lepidoptera to send your data direct to the vice-county recorder of the group (whatever the group).  If it goes onto one of the more general websites (I-Spot, even the YNU website), the data still gets fed to the county recorder, but it takes them much more time to check the record.

However it is better if the same record gets sent in twice (or even three times) than not at all.

10. You can find out more about the YNU at www.ynu.org.uk  The  AGM will be held in November at Malham Tarn. The VC 64 Field Meeting will be held at Austwick Moss and Lawkland moss in July.

More pictures from the conference room.