The Circle was pleased to welcome back as adjudicators, two past Presidents, Desmond and Hilary Stephens, last night.  They reminded us of former years' activities when meetings were well attended by  a range of occupational groups, all keen to develop and refine their public speaking skills.   The current President, yours truly, welcomed them to the meeting and outlined, for participants, the requirements of the practice skills and the timings involved.    Then Desmond spoke about the kinds of things he and Hilary would be looking for in an effective speech.
He referred to the five 'p's' that's to say - voice projection, pitch, power, pause and poise, and of saying something the audience can relate to. The speaker should move on to the main body of the speech, progressing to a well-rounded finish.
 
Suitable primed members, had four minutes maximum to address their chosen topic.  That first task completed, the Extempore titles were distributed and ten minutes given for preparation with maximum time of three minutes.  Surprisingly, this activity saw more spontaneity, so obviously less time to ponder what to say, was an advantage here.
 
The adjudicators gave helpful opinions and pointers as to how particular speeches could be improved etc.  The President then thanked Hilary and Stephen for the most valuable awareness -raising of techniques to improve our public speaking skills.  Our Secretary presented them with a token of thanks and the meeting finished with some refreshments.
 
Next week's activity on Monday 30th November, will be on the theme of Debating techniques and once again, we will be pleased to see new people come along, whether to observe or participate.

Members and guests at the Circle were intrigued by an exercise involving question asking and information giving last night. They were individually given the task of selecting the name of a well-known character randomly, and describing him or her, as if they were that person, for up to thirty seconds.  The audience then asked questions to which replies could only be yes or no.  Powers of astute logical deduction, were dazzlingly in evidence, or maybe not?  The winner was determined by the longest time taken to guess who they were.   

Afterwards the topics for next weeks prepared speech adjudication were  distributed.  For those of you who couldn't make it along last night, here they are: 1.The love of money is the root of all evil?

2.Health is wealth.   3.I couldn't live without...............4. Has Society progressed?     5.My ideal address.   6.Can we believe what we read?

Hoping to see you all next week.  Just a reminder that we hope to go out for a meal to La Scalinis on Monday 7th December, so please be in touch with our Secretary for more details if you wish to be part of the group.

Last night members enjoyed a stimulating and informative discussion on the above topic.  Discussion was wide-ranging and views were exchanged as to why language changes - does this represent progress or decay etc.?  We wondered if English was more elegant in Shakespeare's day? We discussed why people can't use 'correct' English?  We considered whether the use of modern technology i.e. word-processing software meant that quality of writing tends to deteriorate, that people can spontaneously write things 'off the top of their heads' on texts, emails, and social media sites that they later regret.  Is it fair to say, that their writing would be better crafted if they had to sit down with pen and a blank piece of paper.
 
I learnt a few new phrases last night - how many do you recognise?  Nimbyism, TINA, Dinky, info-tainment, emogee...........: <  ))
 
Next week at the Circle we will be practising skills of information gathering, asking and answering questions with skill and precision etc.   Again we would be delighted to see more people come along on Monday 16th November from 7.30pm, whether to observe or participate.