Chaucer's blog

Associaton Of Speakers Clubs National Finals 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:24:41 +0000

Congratulation to our victorious Ian Price who win third place in the Topics Contest.
Chaucer SC won the Fraser Trophy for being the Club to enlarge its membership by the greatest percentage of all ASC Clubs in the last year. Congratulations to our president Will Warren for spearheading a successful recruitment drive.
Chaucer rules!!!

Club Meeting 16th April 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:18:48 +0000

A slightly challenging meeting as our numbers were down due to some known absences and apologies and the enforced emergency landing of a Virgin Airlines plane at Gatwick in the afternoon.
In true Chaucer spirit a full programme of 3 speakers and a great Topics session (by Phil Lennard) provided an interesting and stimulating evening. Jim gave us an advanced level speech on his recent trip to Moscow, Adrian attempted his B4 (Gestures) and Diana passed her B3 (Mean What you Say). Evaluations for the evening were provided by Peter and Jim.
Carol took her first opportunity as General Evaluator, well done, and Simon mastered the lights, a very successful evening all round.

Club Meeting 2nd April 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:14:16 +0000

We had a packed and enjoyable evening last night. Diana passed her B2, (Mean What You Say, evaluated by Jim ) as did Phil his B5 ( Use of Voice, evaluated by Ian ). Will successfully completed his trial B10 (Masterpiece, evaluated by Pete ) and is now ready for the real thing with an outside evaluator. Stewart chaired the topics session, which was evaluated by Suzanne, her first topics evaluation. Rachel chaired and Will gave the general evaluation.

Club Meeting 19th March 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:09:58 +0000

Wonder woman Carol, took the chair, completed her B7 speech (Use of notes) and delivered a full and fascinating topics answer. Pete evaluated Carol’s speech. Simon completed his B2 (Mean What You Say) and Stewart his B6 (Vocabulary and Word Pictures), both evaluated by Jim. Pete delivered a stretching and interesting topics session, evaluated by Stewart. Nick rounded off with the General Evaluation. Thanks to Beverly for time keeping.

SE District Competitions 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:05:19 +0000

Congratulations to our Ian P on winning the topics competition – he will go on to the national finals in April – and Pete on coming third in the speech competition.

The event was chaired by Ian who will be continuing as SE District president for a further year.

Kent Area Competitions 2012

info — Sun, 29 Apr 2012 14:00:51 +0000

President’s Trophy; awarded to West Kent SC for having the most members

Speech Competition; Aly Harrold (West Kent)
2nd Doug Weale (Thanet SC)
3rd Pete C (Chaucer)

Evaluation Competition; Bernie Morgan (Thanet)
2nd Nick R (Chaucer)
3rd Ian P (Chaucer)

Topics Competition; Ian P (Chaucer)

Kent Area Committee;
President; Cliff Earle (West Kent)
Vice-President; Will Warren (Chaucer)
Secretary; Trevor Kenning (Thanet)
Treasurer; Stewart Thomson (Chaucer)

Kent Area Debate 5th March 2012

info — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 11:07:55 +0000

We had a very successful first ever Kent Area Debate, with two teams of 4 speakers picked from each of the three Kent clubs (Chaucer, Thanet and West Kent). The proposition was that ‘This House believes that political correctness regarding the payment of bonuses is killing British industry’. The proposition, led by Stewart, won the Judges award for the more cohesive team. Frances, from Thanet SC won the Judges award for the best presentation overall, she also being a member of the winning team. The proposition won the debate, on a vote of the audience, by 10 to 9.

Congratulations to all who took part, which included the audience in the debate from the audience section.

Our thanks are due to all the organisers, especially Will and Phil, and the leads from the other clubs. Thanks also to Cliff, our Kent Area President, for acting as chief judge and the other judges from each of the clubs. I am sure that this will become a fixture in our calendar.

Our next meeting is on 19th March at the usual time of 7.45pm.

The South Eastern District competitions are on the day before, Sunday 18th March at the Hilton Maidstone. All are welcome – standards are always high so come along to hear first class prepared and impromptu speeches and evaluations. Good luck to our competitors.

Club Meeting 20th February 2012

info — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:59:59 +0000

Numbers were down, but nevertheless those attending had a great time – it a lively and enjoyable evening and I think most of us learnt something. As part of President Will’s Business session, we had a debrief from the Kent Area competitions on Sunday. Phil gave us a B5 (Use of Voice) speech evaluated by Stewart and Suzanne repeated her speech (B5) which had been evaluated and unanimously passed by all competitors (unprecedented in the last 20 years) in Sunday’s Kent Area Evaluation competition. Julie chaired an imaginative topics session on the weather, evaluated by Will. Pete gave us the General Evaluation. It

Welcome to Kim, who joined us as a guest last night – we hope to see you at future meetings.

Club Meeting 6th February 2012

info — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:52:56 +0000

This is to report on our meeting last night. Despite the weather, we had a busy meeting with a full agenda. Jim chaired the meeting in his inimitable style. Our President Will presented a packed business session. Please remember the Area competitions at The Russell Hotel Maidstone on 19th February. Do come along and support our contestants. A car pool is being organised. The Kent Area Debate is taking place at the Kent & Canterbury Club on 5th March.The President’s Dinner will be held at the Kent & Canterbury club on 18th May 2012.

Last night, Adrian gave us a B4 (Use of Gestures) speech entitled ‘Sign Language’, Tom his B2 (Mean What You Say), and Julian his B1(Ice-Breaker), ‘Why I am what I am’. I, Stewart and Jim evaluated the speeches. All speakers passed their assignments and are pressing on to their next speeches. Rachel chaired the topics session. She presented a typically thought provoking and mind stretching session, which had some members realising just how long three minutes can be !!!

Birthday boy, Pete, evaluated the topics session and Will gave us the General evaluation.

Thanks to Carol for keeping the time.

Club Meeting 30th January 2012

info — Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:47:54 +0000

We had a fantastic “extra” meeting last night with 3 of our newer members delivering excellent speeches. Firstly we had Diana who gave us a unique and interesting take on “Desert Island Discs” then Beverley took the stage with a magnificent and poignant speech entitled “Life” and last but not least Simon delivered a thought provoking speech entitled “It is in the unexpected or neglected place you will find the lobster”. Our three speeches were evaluated with great elan by Pete, Jim and Stewart. Phil took his first impromptu speaking session with gusto- lots of fun intermixed with some pretty challenging topics for our most experienced members. Julie evaluated the topics with panache and Will did the general evaluation. Great meeting had by all with 16 attendees and it was lovely to see Leon make such a welcome return to the club. Our next meeting is Monday next Feb 3rd- be there or be square!