What a fantastic night we had yesterday at the West Herts Speakers 15th Anniversary Celebration Meeting. The outgoing club President - Chet Thaker - treated us to a trip down memory lane with major events that happened in 1996 - the year the club chartered - and this was followed by Colin Donald who gave us a glimpse of what things were like in those early days. He told us how on his second meeting at the club he was immediately given the role of VP Education!! We owe a gratitude of debt to still being able to have our meetings in this location and it's partly down to Colin having looked after the Hamster of the Chief Exec of the NHS Trust (true story).The food and drink that members brought was yummy and plentiful so thanks to everyone who brought along stuff to make it a memorable night.
We also some past members come along to the meeting last night which and is great to see them back amongst us - they were Chris Shinn, Sandra Lawes, Valerie Barnes-Lewis, Madhu Kundu and Trudi Kleanthos. Like Colin, Madhu was also one of the founding members of the club and he also told us about the kinds of things they had to do in those days to recruit new members.
We had speeches from Andrew Ross, Frances Pardell and Elizabeth Hendry with the award for Best Speech going to Elizabeth Hendry. As well as winning this award Elzabeth completed her 10th speech from the Competent Communicator manual and was awarded her badge acknowleding this accomplishment. She managed to do all 10 speeches in 12 months - well done!
Best Table Topics Speaker was awarded to Ronit Gerber and Best Evaluator was awarded to Stuart Beattie.This was the last meeting for the current team of club officers. Thanks to the outgoing officers for all of the effort and hard work throughout the year: Chet Thaker (President), Elizabeth Hendry (VP Education), Rob Saunders (VP Membership), Gwendoline Alderton (VP Public Relatons), Stuart Beattie (Treasurer) and Colin Donald (Seargant-at-arms).
Chet handed over the President's bling and gavel to the incoming President - Gwendoline Alderton - and Gwendoline welcomed the new officers: Trevor Springall (VP Education), Frances Pardell (VP Membership), Chet Thaker (VP Public Relations), Stuart Beattie (Treasurer), Rita Mascia (Secretary) and Colin Donald (Seargant-at-arms).It was a great night with a great atmosphere and with the usual high energy and lots of laughs. Look forward to seeing you all at the next meeting - July 13th.
