Spring Is (Almost) Here at West Herts Speakers

From L to R: Frances Pardell and Tom Milliken

There was a distinctly positive theme to last night's meeting, as Jean Doidge paved the way as Table Topics Master with all subjects relating to Spring. The four impromptu speakers all had a lively spring in their step as they explored the themes. Tom Milliken won Best Table Topic Speaker of the night against some very tough competition.

 It’s a very exciting time for the Club as we continue to attract lots of new members and guests. Audree Fletcher was our latest ‘newby’ to deliver her Icebreaker speech, entitled The Crossroads. Audree delivered a very accomplished speech – without notes - and entertained us with her search for the right career and managing new motherhood.
Club President Gwendoline Alderton came one step further to completing her Advanced Communicator Bronze by giving her 4th speech from the Persuasive Speaking manual. She had teased everyone before the meeting, inviting them to meet ‘Arthur’ and then proceeded to persuade the audience to view the other side of a very controversial subject. Only one more speech to go!

With only two speeches during the evening, it was down to the evaluators to make their mark on a voting audience. Frances Pardell, who also mentored Audree as part of the Club’s mentoring scheme for new members run by Liz Burnett, won Best Evaluator of the night, although it was a close call
We also welcomed new member Zulq Khan, who took on his first role as ‘Ah’ counter, and Paul Clayden signed up on the night, so a big welcome from all of us to Paul. We had three new guests, including Matt Adams, the editor of the Herts Advertiser. It was thanks to Matt that we were recently in the paper following our charity night.

The next meeting on February 8th is an unmissable Table Topics Extravaganza. It’ll be a night of fun, entertainment and challenges. Don’t miss it!