POWERtalk International GB

POWERtalk Pollokshields Meeting 23rd January

2012-01-24T15:58:00.007Z

Our Programme Planners decided that we should have an "Alternative to Burns Night" theme for our meeting. Each of the members were asked to prepare a talk of between 5 and 8 minutes on a subject of their choice and suggestions were Art, Song, Writing, Poetry and Dance.

With such a wide variety of choice, we were treated to an evening which was entertaining, informative but above all FUN. Our subjects were as diverse as a poem in the Scots language of Doric, an hilarious insight into the perils of live television programming when Andy Stewart saved the day by providing an elongated version of "A Scottish Soldier", a poem "To A Scotch Pie" by Tom Green, an appreciation of our Museums and Galleries, Jewellery Design and readings of Thomas Campbell's poem "Lord Ullin's Daughter" and "The Famous Tay Whale" by William McGonagall as well as an attempt to demystify Banjo Paterson's song "Waltzing Matilda.

We are now preparing for our Speech Contest which is being held in the Stirling Room at Pollokshields Burgh Hall on Monday the 13th February - 7pm for a prompt 7.15pm start.
All guests and members of other Clubs are more than welcome to attend.

POWERtalk Pollokshields Meeting 9th January

2012-01-19T20:23:00.004Z

Our Club received a generous gift of a new Microphone from Pollokshields Club Member LL and at our meeting on the 9th January we took the opportunity of experimenting with it.
All of us agreed that it was very beneficial to our speeches and general presentations, although it did cause some hilarity as we got used to the fixing on the head mic as opposed to the lapel version.

Our next meeting will be held on Monday the 23rd January and we are taking the opportunity in our programme to have "An Alternative to Burns" night which will feature pieces by all Club members on aspects of art, poetry and dance.

Please note that our meeting time has changed with immediate effect and we ask visitors to arrive at 7.15 for a 7.30 start.

Our Speech Contest will be held on February 13th and we will post details of this and start times before the event. Everyone is welcome to attend.

HAPPY NEW YEAR.

2012-01-12T11:42:00.002Z

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL.

Eastwood Communicators first meeting of 2012 is on Wednesday 18th January in Rhuallan House, Giffnock, Glasgow at 7.30pm.

The Theme of the evening is "Happy New Year" and will include Poetry Reading by all members. The education session is to be a video by Lorna Sheldon entitled "A Master Class in Presentation".

All members are welcome and any prospective members will receive a very warm welcome.

POWERtalk Pollokshields 2012

2012-01-08T22:25:00.002Z

Happy New Year Everyone,

We at POWERtalk Pollokshields wish you all a happy and successful 2012.
Our first meeting of the year will be held on Monday 9th January at our usual meeting venue,
Pollokshields Burgh Hall. The meeting will commence at 7.15 sharp and you are most welcome to attend.

Iris Gibson is our President and Roz Keenan and her Planning Group have put together an exciting programme to take us through until May and this is published below.

Week 9 9th January - Meeting Theme "New Beginnings"
Inspiration and Topics
Education Session: How to particiate in "Not a Burns Night" tasks
Subject for Speeches: "New Beginnings" (Two Club speakers)
Business Meeting

Week 10 23rd January - Meeting Theme "Art/Song/Dance - an Alternative to Burns"
The evening will be given over to "Not the Burns Night" with all members participating.

Week 11 13th February - This evening is the Club Speech Contest. Speakers to be confirmed.

Week 12 27th February - Meeting Theme "Scotland's Larder"
Inspiration and Topics
Education Session: Word Power Session
Subject for Speeches: "Scotland's Larder" (Two Club speakers)
Business Meeting

Week 13 12th March - Meeting Theme "Celtic Connections"
Inspiration and Topics
Guest Speaker on "Celtic Connections"

Week 14 26th March - Meeting Theme "A Question of Style"
Inspiration and Topics
Education Session: Speech to Inspire
Subject for Speeches: " A Question of Style" (All Club Members participating)

Week 15 16th April - Club AGM - Meeting Theme "Easter Parade"
Inspiration and Topics
Education Session: How to Participate in an Impromptu Session"
Subject for Speeches is a Speech to Inspire (Two Club Speakers)
Business Meeting and AGM

Week 16 7th May - Meeting Theme "Here Comes Summer"
Impromptu Session with participants selected on the night.
Guest Speaker on "History"

Week 17 21st May - Club Outing/Dinner still to be confirmed.

Caledonia Council Meeting

2011-11-28T15:25:00.002Z

Caledonia Council met on Sunday 27th November 2011 in the King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn. This was a well attended, interesting and stimulating meeting.

The first item on the Agenda was the President's welcome and this was followed by the Hotess Welcome and inspiration.

The workshop in the morning was "How to prepare and present a workshop" and this was led by Ruth Maltman. (Ruth is also Division 3 Vice President and a member of Pollokshields Club).
This workshop was lively with all members joining in. Hopefully some members who have not yet presented a workshop have been inspired to try to do this.

Following a delicious lunch was the Business Meeting. This was carried out most efficiently by President Laurence Coates.

The afternoon workshop was a take on "What's my Line" and this was chaired by Rosemary Low. All the participants, Helen Weir, Elizabeth Wallace, Diana Porterfield and Iris Gibson, beat the audience. This was a most entertaining item.

The General Evaluation was given by Ann Wright, President of Eastwood Communicators.

The Vote of Thanks was given by Diana Porterfield.

All the members agreed that this had been a worthwhile and enjoyable day.

A Journey to Japan

2011-11-23T17:00:00.007Z

Eastwood Communicators welcomed friends and members of Pollokshields, Stirling and Rovers Clubs on Wednesday 16th November 2011 in Rhuallan House, Giffnock.

The Theme of the Evening was "Journey to Japan".

The first item on the agenda was Greeting from Caledonia Council President, Laurence Coates and this was followed by a most entertaining, informative and interesting PowerPoint Presentation by Christine McKenna.

Christine also brought many items from Japan for the members to have a look at and some items were included in a Raffle.

Supper consisted of sushi and rice crackers (augmented with the usual cakes and sandwiches). Along with the usual tea, green tea and miso soup was available along with sake.

The evening was enjoyed by all.

The next meeting on 30th November has unfortunately had to be cancelled due to industrial action in Rhuallan House.

All are welcome to the first meeting of 2012 on Wednesday 18th January 2012.

Caledonia Council Meeting, 27 November 2011

2011-11-09T16:47:00.000Z

The next meeting of Caledonia Council will be at the King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn on 27 November 2011.

Tea and Coffee will be served from 10.30 am and the programme will be as follows:

11.00-12.30 Workshop on presenting workshops led by Ruth Maltman DC FITC.
12.30 Break
12.45 Lunch
1.45 Delegates' briefing
2.00 Business Meeting
2.30 What's My Line? A fun item led by Rosemary Low
3.15 Evaluation by a member of Eastwood Communicators
3.25 Vote of thanks by a member of Rovers
3.30 Close

The cost of the day will be £16, including lunch. Members from outside Caledonia Council will be most welcome.

POWERtalk Pollokshields Meeting 24th October 2011

2011-10-25T00:57:00.003+01:00

With Halloween just a week away, it seems that the dark days of October have put a hex on our Club!

Unfortunately this week a number of our members and our guest speaker could not make our meeting due to ill health or prior commitments. Our President, Iris Gibson, was one of those who succumbed but Louise Laing, our Treasurer, took over and ably chaired the meeting.

Undeterred the rest of the Club members all pulled together and we had a very good evening.

Our Inspiration and Topics given by Roz Keenan, were of course all Halloween related and with our guest speaker unable to attend, our newest member, Brendan Keenan, stood in, giving us a wonderful impromptu speech on repainting, and on the general restoration of St. Andrews Cathedral in Glasgow. We learned a little of the art of tromphe l'oeil, regilding and found that Pollokshields has provided quite a lot of artistic imput into the restoration!

Our business meeting was a little truncated but we are all looking forward to our next meeting - Halloween hex duly lifted - on the 7th November at 7.15 in Pollokshields Burgh Hall. You are very welcome to join us then.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

2011-10-21T15:41:00.002+01:00

Eastwood Communicators met on Wednesday 19th October in Rhuallan House, Giffnock, Glasgow. The Theme for the evening was "First Impressions". The passing thought was delivered by Liz Duncan who provided members with a handout of an article on First Impressions.
Morag McLintock provided an interesting and worthwhile education session on the Duties of the Chairman.
The first Speech of the evening was by new member Elaine Carr with a delightful Icebreaker speech entitled "A Fairly Ordinary Life" this was an excellent start, but most members disagreed with the title.
The second speech was by Liz Duncan entitled "A Long Journey"
Morag McLintock provided us with entertaining topics and the General Evaluation was by President Ann Wright.
A most entertaining and enjoyable evening.

The next meeting of Eastwood Communicators is on 2nd November at 7.30pm in Rhuallan House, Giffnock and the theme of the evening is "Betwixt and Between" on humour with a workshop on evaluation by Liz Duncan.

POWERtalk Pollokshields Meeting 10th October 2011

2011-10-11T15:01:00.008+01:00

Last night our Club's theme for the evening was "We're having a laugh, come and join us!" And we did!

Friends from Eastwood Communicators and POWERtalk Stirling came to join us, along with other guests, for a lighthearted evening.

Ruth Maltman was Programme Chair and started the fun off with a very apt joke and followed this by an amusing Topic Session.

Liz Duncan from Eastwood Communicators, Joy Weightman and our newest member, Brendan Keenan, gave speeches and a reading respectively which had everybody laughing along with them.
The second half of the evening consisted of a panel game taken from the popular television quiz show "Call My Bluff". Quiz Master and Club President Iris Gibson led the quiz while the panellists, Eileen Ritchie, Anita Cox and guest from POWERtalk Stirling, Terry McCabe, tried to lead the audience up the garden path - and succeeded admirably.

Elizabeth Wallace from POWERtalk Stirling gave us a considered general evaluation of the meeting and the always effervescent Martha Mackenzie gave the closing thought and vote of thanks.

Our next Club Meeting will be held on Monday the 24th October at the Pollokshields Burgh Hall - 7.00pm for 7.15pm - and you are very welcome to attend.

EASTWOOD COMMUNICATORS

2011-10-06T15:33:00.003+01:00

Eastwood Communicators met last night, 4th October, in Rhuallan House, Giffnock, Glasgow.

The Theme of the evening was Here and Now (Current Affairs)

This was a very lively and enjoyable meeting with an excellent Passing Thought from the newest member, Elaine Carr.

Following the business meeting there was Talking Points by Margaret Loudon.

Following the tea interval the members were entertained with speeches from Helen Weir and Christine McKenna. These were evaluated by Liz Duncan who also led the Topic Session.

The next meeting of Eastwood Communicators is on Wednesday 19th October at 7.30 in Rhuallan House, Giffnock, Glasgow. The Theme of the evening is to be First Impressions and will include an Icebreaker Speech.

CALEDONIA COUNCIL

2011-10-03T17:37:00.008+01:00

The first meeting of Caledonia Council for the 2011-12 session was held in the Redhurst Hotel, Giffnock on Sunday 2nd October.

The first item on the Agenda was a workshop by Liz Duncan on evaluation using videos. This was a lively session and enjoyed by the members.

The business meeting took place and this was followed by a delicious buffet lunch.

Following lunch the Roz Keenan, Region President spoke to the members about region.

The main event of the day was a debate between a team from Pollokshields and Eastwood and one from Stirling and Rovers. The winner was the team from Pollokshields and Eastwood and Helen Weir, Eastwood was the winner of the best individual debater.

The next meeting of Caledonia Council will be on 27th November 2011 in the King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn.

ANGLIA COUNCIL TRAINING DAY.

2011-09-23T16:07:00.002+01:00

The date of the next Anglia Training Day will be on 29th October at the Holiday Inn Stafford.

The morning session will mainly be about Poetry and there is to be an outside speaker and it will include a workshop.

In the afternoon there will be a workshop on using social media to increase club membership and a fun session.

Please contact Lesley Smith for further details.

POWERtalk Pollokshields Meeting 5th September 2011

2011-09-12T16:57:00.003+01:00

Our first meeting of the 2011-2012 session got off to a rousing start last Monday when Installing Officer Liz Duncan appointed the new Board, which comprises:-
Iris Gibson (President); Eileen Ritchie (Vice-President); Scilla Berry (Secretary) and Louise Laing (Treasurer).

POWERtalk Pollokshields Board 2011-2012
with Installing Officer Liz Duncan (centre)

New President Iris Gibson thanked Liz for taking time out of her very busy schedule to install the Board and announced that the theme for the session would be "Celebrating Success" or, in the vernacular, "Wha's Like Us?"

The evening's theme was "Breaking Up" which prompted a wide variety of stimulating topics on that theme. The education session on "How to Structure a Speech" was thought particularly relevant as it would serve old and new members well for the upcoming session and was followed by two very entertaining speeches.

The evening ended with our Business Meeting. The theme for next meeting, scheduled to take place on Monday 19th September at 7.15 at Pollokshields Burgh Hall, is " A Big Mess".
Do come and join us!

Speech Construction

2011-09-06T15:52:00.001+01:00

Before you start on any speech, presentation etc., ask yourself some questions:

Why… have you decided to do this? (For fun, to raise money, to help a friend, a professional obligation etc?)
Who… are you speaking to? What age, sex, profession etc? How many people will be there? What are the common links amongst them, and between them and you?
What… are you aiming to do? Persuade / entertain / impress / inspire…etc?
Where… are you speaking? How big? What are the facilities – lighting, sound system, data projector etc? Do they work? Can you check them out personally? Do you need special advice about it (eg are you on TV or radio)?
When… are you speaking (eg at 10am or after dinner) and how will that affect your audience? How long have you to prepare for this? How long do they want you to talk?
How… are you doing it? A speech / presentation / discussion / debate…etc?

Material
1. If you have choice of subject, think of what you might talk about.
2. Collect your ideas on the subject(s) – lists or mind maps or pictures – whatever works for you. Don't exclude humour. (If you don't know about mind mapping, look into it, it works).
3. Research – books and publications, internet, newspapers, talk to other people; expand your ideas.
4. Decide what material you want to use – but throw away nothing in case you change your mind.
5. Think about/draft a possible order for your material - a logical progression for the beginning to the end.
Introduction
A speech will usually have a beginning, a middle and an end. But before you begin to speak you should be introduced to the group. Write your own introduction, ask the person introducing you to use it.
Write it to enhance your speech and support what you are trying to achieve. So it might explain your qualifications to speak on the subject; make you sound like a person the group can identify with; raise questions you will be addressing in your talk etc.
Beginning
1. If you start with something like ‘Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen’, it gives people time to tune into your voice and it gives you time to get to grips with the microphone / acoustics (if you haven’t has a practice run).
2. The beginning is important, try to make it make it clear, relevant and attention grabbing.
3. How much of your time will you give to your beginning?
Middle
1. There is a balance to a well constructed speech. 3 or 5 main points seem to give it. Decide what they will be and put the rest aside – but throw away nothing in case you change your mind.
2. Consider how to link your main points – a speech should flow, not jump, from one idea to another.
3. How much time is available for each point?
End
1. The end should (rather like the beginning) be clear, relevant and memorable. Sometimes switching your planned end and beginning works well.
2. Make the end clear to the audience – beware of letting them think that you have ended when you have more to say.
3. How much time will you give to your ending?
Review and refine what you have drafted, until you are happy with it.
1. Stand up in your biggest space and read it out loud, listen to it. Maybe record yourself.
2. Are you comfortable with it? Do you believe it will achieve your purpose?
3. Does it sound right spoken out loud? (e.g. isn’t or is not; we or you; short words or long?)
4. Is the timing going to plan?
5. Is there a place for more topical references or humour? (Keep listening to the news).
6. Take any help or advice going.
7. Be ruthless in getting rid of what isn’t working for you, even if you love it.
And some final preparations.
1. Are you using notes? (Why would you not?)
2. Print or write them on – cards? top part of A4 paper? Practise to find what suits you.
3. Ensure that you can read notes in bad light and number them in case you drop them.
4. Give someone a 2nd set, in case you forget or lose them.
5. If you are using IT equipment / pen drives / autocue etc, try to have spares and a run through before the meeting starts.
6. Decide an appropriate outfit for the event – have it clean and ready.
7. Have clear directions to where you are going and plan the journey – recce it in advance?
8. Arrange for feedback on how your speech goes from someone you trust; learn from it.
9. Whatever goes wrong – keep smiling. Audiences are both forgiving and slow to recognise mistakes!

Ruth Maltman, DC, FITC,
POWERtalk Pollokshields

Rovers Carlisle weekend.

2011-09-06T12:46:00.012+01:00

The Carlisle weekend was opened on Saturday morning by our President, Linda Griffin and the first item on the Agenda was the Business Meeting.

The Saturday morning workshop was by Iris Gibson and was on "Lateral Thinking". This had all the members working hard and everyone enjoyed this plus they got some new ideas.

Following an excellent Buffet lunch Margaret Emery conducted the Speech Contest.

The winners were Laurence Coates and Colin Grey.

Saturday evening brought all the members and guests to the Hallmark Hotel for Dinner.

The first item on the agenda was Topics by Margaret Robertson with the theme of Poetry.

Following Dinner, Liz Duncan ran a Lifeboat Contest with such characters as Marilyn Munro, Doris Day, Elizabeth Taylor, Katherine Hepburn and Minnie Mouse. The members entered into the spirit by dressing up.

The winner was Minnie Mouse (aka Ruth Maltman)

The first workshop on Sunday morning was a Writing Workshop by Marjorie Brooke who had all the members inventing characters for a short story. This was very stimulating and hopefully will encourage members to enter the Writing Contest.
Laurence Coates presented an excellent workshop entitled "The Missing Link" to inform members about the Blog. This was very useful to all.

Our lovely President Linda Griffin bids us all farewell at the end of the weekend.

Rovers Carlisle Weekend.

2011-08-31T15:16:00.006+01:00

Rovers have their annual Training Weekend from 2^nd to 4^th September 2011 in the Old Brewery, Carlisle.

Apart from the usual Business Meeting there will be a report on Convention, a workshop on Lateral Thinking, a Lifeboat Contest, the Speech Contest (and don't forget the buffet lunch). Also included is a Writing Workshop and a workshop entitled “The Missing Link”.

Members will gather on Friday evening to visit a Chinese Restaurant and on Saturday the Annual Formal Dinner will be held in the Hallmark Hotel.

Eastwood Communicators

2011-08-31T15:14:00.003+01:00

Eastwood Communicators hold their first meeting of the 2011-12 session on Wednesday 7th September at 7.30pm. in Rhuallan House, Giffnock.

The theme for the evening is Book Review.

Good luck to President Ann and the members of the club.

POWERtalk POLLOKSHIELDS PROGRAMME

2011-08-30T16:39:00.003+01:00

Meetings are held at 7.15pm in Pollokshields Burgh Hall, Glencairn Drive Pollokshields, Glasgow unless otherwise stated.

Our President’s Theme is “Celebrating Success” and each week Members should try and incorporate some aspects of this theme in their inspirations and speeches.

05/09/2011 Regular Meeting incorporating a Business Meeting

President’s Welcome: Iris Gibson

Programme Chair, Inspiration and Topic Leader: Roz Keenan

All Club Participation

Education Session How to Structure a Speech: Ruth Maltman

Speeches theme: Breaking Up (Speakers: Scilla Berry, Iris Gibson)

Timekeeper: Frances Howell

Overall Evaluation: Anne Mason

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Brendan Keenan

19/09/2011 Regular Meeting

President’s Welcome: Iris Gibson

Programme Chair, Inspiration and Topic Leader: Anne Mason

All Club Participation

Education Session on How to use humour in a speech: Iris Gibson

Speeches theme: A Big Mess (Speakers: Roz Keenan, Joy Weightman)

Timekeeper: Martha Mackenzie

Overall Evaluation: Eileen Ritchie

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Scilla Berry

02/10/2011 Caledonia Council Meeting at Redhurst Hotel, Giffnock
Debate and workshop on evaluation.

10/10/2011 Interclub Meeting “We’re having a laugh, come and join us”

President’s Welcome: Iris Gibson

Inspiration, Programme Chair and Topic Leader: Ruth Maltman

All Club Participation

Overall Evaluation: Elizabeth Wallace GB Region Treasurer

24/10/2011 Regular Meeting incorporating a Business Meeting

President’s Welcome: Iris Gibson

Programme Chair, Inspiration and Topic Leader: Iris Gibson

All Club Participation

No Education Slot

Guest Speaker John MacLean on The Supernatural

Timekeeper for Business Meeting Only: Anita Cox

Overall Evaluation: Roz Keenan

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Eileen Ritchie

07/11/2011 Regular Meeting

President’s Welcome: Iris Gibson

Programme Chair, Inspiration and Topic Leader: Martha Mackenzie

Education Session on Use of quotations and statistics: Louise Laing

Speeches theme: Fireworks ( Speaker: Anne Mason, Brendan Keenan)

Timekeeper: Roz Keenan

Overall Evaluation: Ruth Maltman

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Anita Cox

13/11/2011 Caledonia Council Meeting at King Robert Hotel, Stirling

22/11/2011 President’s Function in the Stirling Hall

President: Iris Gibson

Guest Speaker: tba

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Ruth Maltman

12/12/2011 Regular Meeting incorporating a Business Meeting

President’s Welcome” Iris Gibson

Programme Chair, Inspiration and Topic Leader: Frances Howell

Education Session on How to research and prepare for a speech: Anita Cox

Speeches theme: Weather (Speakers Eileen Ritchie, Martha Mackenzie)

Timekeeper: Brendan Keenan

Overall Evaluation: Iris Gibson

Closing Thought and Vote of Thanks: Joy Weightman

19/12/2011 Xmas Party

POWERtalk Pollokshields News

2011-08-26T13:50:00.006+01:00

Meeting dates for POWERtalk Pollokshields have been posted on our
Club website and if you would like to attend a meeting, you will be very welcome.

Our Club President, Iris Gibson, has written a very insightful
piece of her view of the 2011 Convention in Indianapolis. You can view it by scrolling down to "2011 Convention Indianapolis - A First Timer's View!"

Eastwood Club Programme

2011-08-24T14:54:00.001+01:00

The dates and programme details for Eastwood Communicators have now been posted on the club website

Have a look and you are welcome to come along to any of the meetings.

Caledonia Council Meetings

2011-08-18T17:36:00.003+01:00

The dates and venues of the Caledonia Council meetings have now been arranged.

1st meeting in the Redhurst Hotel, Giffnock on 2nd October, 2011.

2nd meeting in the King Robert Hotel, Stirling on Sunday 13th November

Speech Contest on 11th March, 2012 in the Redhurst Hotel, Giffnock.

AGM on 20th May in the King Robert Hotel, Stirling.

The programme for the first meeting is to include a debate and a workshop on Evaluation.

2011 Convention Indianapolis - A First Timer's View!

2011-08-16T12:26:00.010+01:00

By Iris C Gibson,

PowerTalk Pollokshields

Truth be told, I wouldn’t even have contemplated going to Convention had I not won the GB Region Speech Contest – Indianapolis was a long way away and it was going to be very expensive to attend. However, I may never again win the Region contest so, online I went and booked the whole package! I also volunteered to evaluate a workshop session and to be a HAWC delegate and was subsequently appointed HAWC delegate for Boulevard East Club of Northeast Region of America.

I decided to combine it with a holiday at my cousin’s in Salt Lake City, Utah and had a superb time with her for 12 days before flying into Indianapolis. I arrived just before midnight so didn’t get much of an impression of the city, only that it was still hot and steamy. This didn’t bode well for daytime conditions (blessings on the person who invented air conditioning).

PowerTalk International – Incoming Board

The Convention hotel, the Indianapolis Marriott Downtown was one of a line of large hotels that were linked to the huge (and I mean huge) conference centre opposite, by first floor glass corridors. Next morning, I was up and ready for the Training Power Pack session at 08.00 and off I went to the conference centre, where I trawled the corridors for what seemed like hours only to eventually find that everything was taking place in the actual hotel (it helps when you thoroughly read the instructions…..) Fortunately, I met up with a lovely wee security guy called Steve (aged 25, unmarried, looking for a nice girl who likes surfing, biking and Italian food– anyone interested see me for his number) – that tells you how long it took to us to find the Convention. He eventually sorted my location problem out and I got there about half way through the session and at that point, the Convention began for me.

Each day started incredibly early, usually between 07.00 and 07.30hrs. To say that I am not a morning person would be somewhat of an understatement and I found this feature quite a strain on my system. From then on, the working day was usually divided up into business meetings, workshops, briefings for contests and then the contests themselves; luncheons and dinners. The meals were usually combined with “Honouring” events eg. first timers; writing and speech contest (preliminary and final) winners; new Board members; and as a result, I got to be in two of them –noting the presence of first timers was a particularly nice touch as after it, other members came up and welcomed you to your first Convention.

Evelyn Flett and I trying to pretend that the desserts have nothing to do with us!

Days ended between 10.30 to very late. There were entertainment events and parties most evenings but I was so shattered that I didn’t manage to most of them. – I did see a bit of the Elvis impersonator who performed earlier one evening and he, plus his groupie / girlfriend / mother (we couldn’t quite figure it out!) were very entertaining.

There were a wide variety of workshops available and I selected a couple that I thought might be useful for the forthcoming session in my own club and these were involved with change and encouraging members’ participation. The latter was extremely interesting and stimulating and was presented by Mary Wong of Australia. I evaluated at one workshop and assisted Ruth Maltman with her “PIPER”problem solving session which was thoroughly enjoyed by all who participated.

Timings for business meetings were extremely tight. We had four of these, the last two being of particular interest to me as these involved proposed amendments to the Bylaws and Standing Rules - as a HAWC delegate, I would be involved in the voting procedure for these. I’d already received my voting instructions from Boulevard East and there I was, eagerly clutching my sheets and yellow delegate card, ready for voting. Levels of debate were varied but I was impressed on how well the debate was controlled by the Parliamentarian, President and timers. What was not impressive was when, close to the end of the very last meeting, on the last day, a certain delegate stood up to speak against an amendment only for the President to point out to her, that she was speaking to the wrong amendment…. After apologising profusely to the President, this delegate sheepishly explained, ”I’m really tired….” The audience fell about at this and the President kindly shook the delegate’s hand and noted that she knew exactly how she felt! (I did note earlier that I was shattered, didn’t I?)

At meals, I tried not to sit with the same folk each time but moved to other tables to get to know more of them. Everyone was very friendly but I did notice that a lot of the North Americans tended to let others initiate the introductions and conversations. Maybe it’s a cultural thing? The Japanese contingent was brilliant – very courteous and funny. They had little notepad computers with them and used them to translate English into Japanese at all of the sessions. The Antipodeans were a hoot! I was really lucky to have Evelyn Flett and Ruth Maltman there to answer my queries about issues and what to wear (and how best to get enough sleep). I also got to meet an Honorary Rovers member from Japan – here is the Rovers’ contingent(from left to right): Iris Gibson; Evelyn Flett; Ruth Maltman; and Kazuyo Sugitani.

The Cosmopolitan Speech Contest was very interesting – contestants spoke in English (which was not their first language) and I was impressed both by their speeches and their facility with the language. The three Preliminary Rounds of the International Speech Contest took place at the same time and I was delighted to be the joint winner of mine. After the GB Region Conference, I had decided not to use a lectern – for thirty-two years I had taught without any desk or lectern in front of me and using one felt quite artificial. One of the others in my round, a Japanese lady member called Hisako Sogo, gave a super speech on our perception and use of maps – as a Geographer and native English speaker, I was extremely impressed and we were all hugely entertained by it.

There were to be six of us in the Final and five of us had used a lapel mike, standing away from the lectern in our qualifying and preliminary rounds. We were somewhat concerned to find the platform completely taken up by tables and a lectern, with no space for free standing speeches. Apart from limiting the impact of gestures for all, one of the speakers was so small that she could barely be seen behind the lectern! However, the situation was eventually sorted out and the Final went ahead. I drew first place (drat!) - I didn’t get placed but I was delighted to have got that far – maybe next time!

Speech Contest Results

(l to r): Randy Moore (3^rd); Mary Marshall (1^st); Theresia Colbert (2^nd)

I didn’t have very much in the way of free time – trying to go to as many workshops and events as I could. I’d decided not to go on any of the tours on the Tuesday so Ruth Maltman (International VP, Div 3) and I managed to get to the nearby museum of Native Americans – we only had 30 minutes in it but what we did see was really interesting. We’d planned on walking for a while along the impressive, regenerated canal zone beside the museum but it was so hot and humid that we had to curtail that and retreated to a nearby hostelry for a cool drink.

The Indianapolis Mastodon – Elephants get everywhere!

I had to fly home early after lunch on the last day so missed the last training session, cocktail reception and installation banquet which was a pity. After returning home, it took nearly a week to get over the exhaustion and jetlag but I’ve now sent off my Convention Report to Boulevard East and have tidied away all my bits from Indianapolis.

In general, I found Convention both very enjoyable and interesting. Meeting other PowerTalkers from all over the world was stimulating and their views on club issues were reassuring – we’re all trying to increase our club membership and ensure that they will still be going strong in the future. We’re all proud of our clubs and recognise the worth and value of our organisation. The experience of being in the International Speech Contest was really valuable and has boosted my confidence and identified ways in which I might adapt my speaking techniques. I had a fun time meeting lots of interesting people and am seriously considering going to the next Convention in Hawaii 2013 (have bought a very large piggy bank to sit on my bedside table). If I do go however, I’ll have to get into peak physical fitness before I go and maybe send off a request for a later start to the working day…?

Overall views on Convention? – although expensive and extremely tiring it’s fun and definitely worthwhile.

News from Great Britain Region Board

2011-08-14T16:01:00.002+01:00

The GB Region Board met at the Westmorland Hotel where this year's conference took place. We had a very constructive meeting where all members of the team were challenged to go out and visit all clubs in our GB Region.

We are determined to assist clubs in their recruitment drives and to deliver a structured training plan through our Programme and Education Committee chaired by Allan Venables.

We were happy to have Evelyn Flett joining us and giving us the benefit of her experience. Evelyn gave us a full report on this year's GB Conference and brought us a report from the International Convention in Indianapolis, USA. Our GB Speech Contest winner Iris Gibson did well to win through to the finals of the competition. So well done Iris!

The Board are happy to answer any queries that any member may have and we look forward to visiting the clubs in our Region.

The President will be writing to all members of POWERtalk GB Region to welcome them to the new session to come.

We would encourage all members to make use of this blog and promote POWERtalk at the same time. It's good to see and share what other clubs are doing at their meetings.

Well done Evelyn

2011-08-03T15:31:00.003+01:00

Congratulations and thanks are due to Evelyn Flett for being a superb President of Great Britain Region 2010-11. Evelyn worked very hard for the Region during her term of office and was an inspiration to all.

GREAT BRITAIN REGION CONFERENCE 2012.

2011-08-02T16:23:00.008+01:00

Date: 15th - 17th June 2012

Venue: Lytham St Annes

Hotel: Bedford Hotel

Great facilities, great surroundings and a great place to spend a weekend.

Lytham St Annes is the venue for the 2012 Open Golf Championship and the course is only minutes from the hotel.

As you can see from the photographs attached there are lots of attractive cafe bars, tea rooms and shops. Something for everyone.

A very warm welcome is extended to all members - put the dates in your diary and next year look out you spades and pails and have a walk along the prom.

We are confident of being able to offer very good rates for your stay.

Roz Keenan

President Great Britain Region 2011-2012

Caledonia Council new President.

2011-08-01T16:25:00.002+01:00

Laurence Coates, a member of Rovers, has become the first male President of Caledonia Council.

Well done and good luck for the forthcoming year.

WELL DONE POWERtalk POLLOKSHIELDS

2011-08-01T16:21:00.004+01:00

Congratulations to members of Pollokshields Club.

Roz Keenan is now President of Great Britain Region

Ruth Maltman is Division 3 Vice President

and

Iris Gibson managed to reach the finals of the International Speech contest - very well done for someone who has only been a member for two years.

Good Luck to Ruth

2011-07-14T14:37:00.003+01:00

Ruth Maltman, member of Pollokshields and Rovers is currently Division 3 Vice President and is standing again for the same post at Convention. Good Luck to Ruth.

GOOD LUCK TO IRIS

2011-07-10T16:31:00.002+01:00

Good Luck to Iris Gibson the Great Britain Region Contestant in the International Speech Contest at Convention in Indianapolis later this month. Iris flies off on Tuesday to visit relatives before continuing on to Convention.

All members of Great Britain Region are willing you to do well.

A Simple Guide to Newsletters in Word

2011-07-01T22:34:00.000+01:00

POWERwrite

Online, On Paper or Both?

Are people going to be reading your newsletter on a computer screen? If so any web addresses should be hyperlinks i.e. the reader should be able to click on a link to be taken to the web address. If it is to be printed you may want the number of pages to be a multiple of four especially if it is to be professionally printed. One sheet of A3 can accommodate four A4 pages (this is the advantage of the ISO system of paper sizes over the ANSI standard used in North America).

Tick TOC

If you want to use a table of contents insert a TOC field. It will make life much easier for you. Why? because the table of contents is updated Automatically. By default the TOC entries will be based on the heading styles so make sure that you use the correct heading rather than arbitrarily changing the size and weight of the font to match a heading. The page number will be a hyperlink to the item and you can add the \h option to make the entire entry a hyperlink (this is the default in newer versions of Word).

As an alternative to mapping the TOC to headings you can set the \f option to use TC fields. This means that you insert a TC field before any item that you wish to appear in the table of contents.

Add Your Own Style

You may wish to add a style for a particular purpose for example a byline style might use right-justified paragraphs and bold text to display the author of an item.

Columns

Columns can complicate the layout of your newsletter but you may prefer this style of presentation. Use section breaks to separate collimated parts of the newsletter from non-collimated parts.

At the Drop of a Cap

If you leaf through a magazine you will notice that the first paragraph of an article and possibly some of the other paragraphs start with a large capital letter. This is a dropped capital or "drop cap". In word you can format the first letter of a paragraph as a drop cap. Do not use it on every paragraph and especially avoid it on short paragraphs. You might want to use drop caps as a way to break an article into sections.

Pull Quote

That eye-catching quote in your magazine highlighted in large print is known as a pull quote. You can add a pull quote in Word by inserting a text box and choosing a large font style. Format the text box to allow text to flow around it.

Format Painter

If you incorporate a submitted article into a newsletter you can use the format painter to copy the paragraph style from elsewhere in the document. The format painter is a brush found on the home ribbon or standard toolbar. Select a piece of formatted text and then click on format painter. Select the text to be formatted and when you release the mouse button the format is applied. If you want to apply the format to several places you can use a double click to activate the format painter. It then stays active until you press the escape key.

An alternative to format painter is to use Ctrl-Shift-C to copy the formatting and Ctrl-Shift-V to paste formatting to other places.

Take care with formatting paragraphs containing hyperlinks. The hyperlinks will still be active but will have the appearance of the surrounding text.

Compatibility Issues

Somebody’s just got a brand new shiny computer and suddenly you cannot swap files. What’s wrong? The chances are that the recipient is using an earlier version of Word. If you are the sender you can fix the problem by ensuring that you send files in Word 97-2003 document format (Instead of “Save” choose “Save As” from the file tab and find said format in the pull-down list for “Save as type”).If you are the recipient of a “docx” file and your version of Word can only load “doc” files, do not despair; you can download a compatibility pack from http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/open-a-word-2007-document-in-an-earlier-version-of-word-HA010044473.aspx

Pictures

Insert your picture and experiment with the different formatting options until you are satisfied that it is presented the way you want it.

The Devil

… is in the detail so they say and the detail will depend on the version of Word you are using. Use what I have said above in conjunction with the help system to add a little sparkle to your newsletters.

Distinguished Communicator

2011-07-01T21:50:00.004+01:00

Congratulations to Liz Duncan who has joined the elite band of POWERtalk International Distinguished Communicators (DCs). In order to complete Level 5 - the highest on the Accreditation programme - Liz had to pass an oral examination. This she did at the Great Britain Region Conference. There are only 40 DCs worldwide and Liz's award is a well-deserved recognition of the quality of her communication skills. It's also a mark of her diligence and dedication. Well done Liz!

New Member for Eastwood

2011-06-30T12:46:00.003+01:00

President Ann welcomes new member Elaine.

Last night, 29th June, Eastwood Communicators held their summer meeting in the Busby Hotel, Busby, Glasgow. The members had a very pleasant evening with good food and conversation. Elaine, who has attended a couple of meetings, decided to join the club. This will be a great start to the new session in September.

During the evening discussions were held on publicity material and advertising.

The club reopens on 7th September in Rhuallan House, Giffnock at 7.30pm.

Message to Members From The International President

2011-06-27T20:36:00.000+01:00

Members,

As I write this I have 26 more sleeps before the start of Convention that is a really scary thought.

I know that there are members still trying to decide whether to come to Indianapolis or not. Obviously I think you will be missing out on a lot if you don’t, so if you are still deciding make the decision a positive one and book your seat now. We are still receiving registrations so there is some procrastination still going on.

For those members who just cannot make it to Convention you do not need to completely miss out. Blog Master, Wyn Bowler, is ready to launch the Blog; in fact, there is a message from me already there. Check it out and put the address into your bookmarks so that you can see and share what is happening day by day at the Convention.

http://ptconvention2011.blogspot.com/

Those of you who are attending can make a contribution to the content of the Blog by just letting Wyn know what you wish published. Give it to Wyn on flash drive, I am sure she will return it, or clearly written on a piece of note paper.

Well, for me right now, it is back to working on information that the Protocol Chair, Irene Laidley is waiting on.

President

ONE + ONE
Every member recruit a member and watch our membership grow

POWERtalk International Convention

2011-06-21T21:21:00.002+01:00

2011June POWERtalkpackage

Post Conference Excursion

2011-06-21T20:09:00.000+01:00

Approaching Glenridding

On Sunday Morning we headed for Pooley Bridge for an excursion on an Ullswater steamer. It was a little breezy on deck and the clouds looked a little threatening so most of us stayed under cover for the greater part of the nearly hour-long sail to Glenridding at the other end of the lake.

In Glenridding we had two hours to have lunch and look around the village. There were a few small shops, a tourist information centre and obligingly, they had put on a craft fair in the village hall. As it approached time to head back to the pier a few spots of rain began to appear. It remained wet and windy for most of the journey back to Pooley Bridge and so again we mostly stayed under cover.

At Pooley Bridge we said our farewells and headed home in different directions. In spite of the weather I think most people enjoyed the scenery and the chance to relax after a busy conference.

Great Britain Region Conference 2011

2011-06-19T17:06:00.007+01:00

The final event of Conference 2011 was dinner on the Saturday evening after which we were entertained by the Storyteller Laureate Taffy Thomas. We were well entertained with stories and rhymes. For his final story President Evelyn Flett was asked to choose a picture from his “Tale Coat”. She chose a bridge and we were all amused by this tale.

Conclusion on Conference.
This was a great success and a well run and organized Conference as was to be expected from Evelyn Flett.

New Board for Great Britain Region

2011-06-18T15:24:00.006+01:00

On Saturday 11th June, the new Board for 2011-12 were duly elected and installed by Ruth Maltman, International Division Vice President.

The Board are

President: Roz Keenan, POWERtalk Pollokshields
Vice President: Lorna Sheldon, BISC, Lichfield and Rovers
Secretary: Allan Venables, BISC
Treasurer: Elizabeth Wallace, POWERtalk Stirling.

Good luck to the Board for the forthcoming session.

Great Britain Region Speech Contest

2011-06-17T13:50:00.011+01:00

The Region Speech Contest was held on Saturday morning at Conference.

The contest was ably chaired by Nancy Sanderson.

The Contestants await the start of the Contest.

The Contestants were:
Iris Gibson. Subject: Education; Title: "A Passion for Pachyderms"; Purpose: To Inform
Colin Gray. Subject: If at First you Don't Succeed. Title: "Finally Getting it Right ". Purpose: To Entertain
Terry McCabe . Subject: Anonymity. Title:"Anonymous World? " . Purpose: To Entertain.
Margaret Robertson. Subject: A Stitch in Time. Title: "Disentangling the Threads". Purpose: To Inform
Mike Venables. Subject: Every Cloud has a Silver Lining. Title "Invictus". Purpose: To Inspire.

The Winners were:

First Iris Gibson of Pollokshields
Second Mike Venables of Birmingham International Speaking Club
Third Colin Gray of Rovers.

Saturday Workshops at Conference

2011-06-16T11:03:00.010+01:00

On Saturday morning at Conference the members were welcomed by Evelyn Flett, President.

The first workshop of the day was a presentation by Lorna Sheldon on connecting with your audiences. It was entitled “Connect and Deliver!”

This was a very useful workshop on the use of gestures to enhance our speaking. It dealt with overcoming the awkwardness that people feel about what to do with the hands when speaking. Lorna encouraged us to use body language to draw the audience in. The members really enjoyed the workshop and some were given an opportunity to practice incorporating gesture into a short talk.

Following lunch (etc.) there was an interesting workshop by Laura Jane Barnsley on social networking entitled “Getting to Know you”. Laura placed electronic social networking in the broader context of the social networking that has always existed in human society. She pointed out while Facebook and Twitter are relatively new, on-line social networking dates back to the origins of the Internet. She also dealt with common myths about social networking and demonstrated Facebook and Twitter. To make sure that everyone was paying attention we were invited to play Social Networking Bingo – marking off the names of 9 social networking sites as they were mentioned in the presentation.

The final workshop of the afternoon was a Workshop on selling techniques “The What, Who and How of POWERtalk” by Allan Venables.

This was very thought-provoking and the clubs were invited to discuss what we need to do to recruit new members.

Great Britain Region Conference 2011

2011-06-15T12:29:00.011+01:00

The 39th Conference of Great Britain Region was held in the Westmorland Hotel, Orton, Penrith, Cumbria on the 10th to 12th June, 2011.

The President, Evelyn Flett opened the conference with a fun workshop and Debate by Ruth Maltman and Laurence Coates. This was a very lively session and a great start to the weekend.

Following a delicious dinner the awards were announced and presented.

The Latimer Trophy for the member with the most signatures in the Accreditation Book was awarded to Belinda Laversteine from Lichfield Club

The winner of the Hilder Firer Trophy, for the club with the most new members was awarded to Birmingham International Speaking Club.

The trophy was presented to Allan Venables by Roz Keenan, the President Elect of Region.

The winners of the Debate were announced.

The winning Council, The Jenny Wood Allen Trophy, was Caledonia Council and this was collected by Rosemary Low, Vice President.

The best individual debater, The Grace Hutchison Trophy, was Margaret Emery of Anglia Council

Finally the writing Contest awards were presented by Mary Davis in the Absence of Marjorie Brooke, the Writing Contest Chairman.
Poetry to Frances Ferguson

Fiction to Norton Aitkens of Cheshire (Collected by Yvonne Baker)

Non Fiction to Evelyn Flett, Region President.

BISC - Wednesday 22nd June‏

2011-06-14T21:10:00.002+01:00

Dear all

Dear All

Just a quick note to say that our next meeting will be on 22nd June at the Plough and Harrow starting at 7.30pm.

The theme for the evening will be "The Longest Day". Rob Anglin will be the programme presenter and Mike Venables will deliver a workshop in the second half.

Hope you can make it!!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club
P.S Don't forget the BISC summer social which this year will be held on 27th July - venue to be confirmed!

Rovers AGM

2011-06-13T19:31:00.005+01:00

The Rovers AGM was held at Great Britain Region Conference after dinner on Friday 10th June 2012 at the Westmorland Hotel.

The new Board were elected
Linda Griffin, President
Rosemary Low, Vice President
Liz Duncan, Secretary
Colin Gray, Treasurer.

The Board were installed by Iris Gibson.

BISC programme for June and July‏

2011-06-12T21:13:00.002+01:00

Dear all

Great to see so many members at the meeting on Wednesday evening when we enjoyed speeches on the subject of "Who Am I?" from Chris, Josie, Mike and Beryl. Thanks also to Mercdes for delivering her maiden workshop!!

I have also attached the full programme for June, July and August. We have out summer social on 27th July and then have a break from formal meetings in August although we will still be meeting for drinks and a chat at the Plough and Harrow on
the 2nd and 4th Wednesdays that month.

BISC Programme June to August 2011
Very best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Lichfield POWERtalk ITC AGM

2011-06-03T20:30:00.006+01:00

SCAMS

How to Avoid Them

Send me £5.00 and I will tell you how!

Hi all,

What an enjoyable meeting we had last night, despite The Bowling Green not expecting us and the room being in a mess (again)!

Lesley was the presenter and carried out the role with complete professionalism (as always).

Maria’s speech was really good as she continues to maintain a consistently high standard in everything she does.

Chris’s speech was highly entertaining and he continues to impress me every time he presents.

The theme for the evening was “Scams” and Matt, in delivering another speech in the wonderful style that he has, unfortunately had a recent example of banking scams to share with us (don’t worry, there was a happy ending).

I took the free slot and performed a speech “off the top of my head” which I called “Filling the Void” (which it did for approx. Six and a half minutes).

After the break, Debs and Lesley gave us their evaluation feedback and Michael gave us the timings.

With all 9 present being members, we had a quorum for the AGM, which, for AGM’s, turned out to be quite an enjoyable one.

Due to the night moving past so quickly, and 9.40pm already passed, the debate was held over until our meeting on 16 (which will also allow some preparation for the team members involved – not to mention the Chairman (me!)).

A great night was had by all and I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible on Thursday 16 June.

Best wishes,

Paul

BISC meeting 8th June and news of summer social!

2011-06-01T21:49:00.005+01:00

Dear all

I hope you're well. This is just by way of a quick reminder to say that we will meet again on 8th June
at the Plough and Harrow at 7.30pm. The theme for the evening is "Who Am I?" and the programme
presenter will be getting in touch with speakers shortly. In the second half, Mercedes will be
delivering what promises to be a fabulous workshop.

On another note, I'm also writing with news of the summer social. Seasoned members of BISC will know
that we usually hold our summer social in early September. This year, we have opted to bring this
forward to Wednesday 27th July. Location and details of the event to be confirmed but please,
do put it in your diary!

And finally, we had our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday evening and I'm delighted to confirm the
BISC Committee for 2011-2012:

President: Mike Venables
President Elect: Carole Manship
Secretary: Jacqui Francis
Treasurer: Rob Anglin
Webmaster: Ana Perez
Social Secretary: Lyn Hayles
VP Membership: Allan Venables

The new committee will take office from the beginning of August.

That's all for now! Looking forward to seeing you on 8th June!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Stirling Speaking Club

2011-05-29T20:11:00.010+01:00

On Saturday 28th May Stirling Speaking Club held a lunch in the Park Lodge Hotel, Stirling which was attended by members and guests.

The afternoon was chaired by President, Rosemary Low in her usual charming manner and the theme of the lunch was "Scottish Islands".

The speakers were Nancy Sanderson on growing up in Lewis, Roz Keenan on a summer in Arran and Liz Duncan on a trip to Orkney.

This was a most enjoyable afternoon.

BISC AGM Wednesday evening‏

2011-05-23T10:21:00.000+01:00

Morning all!

Just a quick reminder to say that the AGM will be taking place on Wednesday evening at 7.30 at the Plough and Harrow. It would be great to see you there to play your part in electing the new Board and to celebrate the last 12 months.

Following the AGM, there will be a workshop to gather your thoughts on what you'd like to see on the programme over the next year so please, come armed with your creative ideas for evening themes and topics for workshops! Is there a theme that you think would be a great one for people to make speeches to? Is there a skill (either speaking related or elsewhere in your personal development) that you think
would be a good topic for a workshop? Please come along and give us your ideas!

As there is an element of formality to the evening (we do "do" formality when we're required to!), we do require as many members to be there as possible in order to vote for the incoming board. With this in mind, if you know that you will not be able to make it on Wednesday, could you drop me a line to let me know?

Many thanks!

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Persausive Speaking Part 3 - Charm and Hex Words

2011-05-21T18:34:00.001+01:00

To understand persuasive speaking you have to understand the power of words. If an advertisement for a food product claims it is “full of natural goodness” they are trying to make you believe the product is wholesome. The phrase is meaningless but it circumvents laws against making demonstrably false claims.

Words can have emotional resonance that strikes deeper than rational argument. When a tabloid journalist talks about “Frankenstein food” he or she is trying to stir up revulsion at the idea of “tampering with nature”.

Words like pure, natural and hygienic are what I call charm words. Words like artificial, synthetic and “germy” are what I call hex words. The former have a positive connotation, the latter a negative one.

A vitamin made by artificial means is no different to the same vitamin from a natural source. Is it meaningful to describe a soap dispenser as “germy” if it harbours a few hundred bacteria? If it harboured a few thousand the advertisers might have a point.

In a TV studio discussion programme they were talking about whether obese pregnant women should be given a drug hitherto given to diabetics (including pregnant diabetic women) in order to prevent the foetus from receiving too much insulin. One of the panel said that if she were pregnant she would want to make sure that anything she took was “pure”. Pure what? Pure poison?

When I hear words like “chemical” being used a hex word I take it with a pinch of sodium chloride (that’s a chemical commonly known as salt by the way). If you want to avoid chemicals, avoid the sugar and spice and go for the healthy protein of the rats and snails.

To recap, in Part 2 I explained that an Adult-Adult transaction at a social level can also be an Adult-Child transaction at a psychological level. As a persuasive tactic you can appeal to the Child in us through charm words, words that make us feel safe and comfortable or you can use hex words to frighten the Child (scary monsters – hide behind the sofa).

In debating think about the use of words and the resonances that certain words have. Don’t forget about humour. sometimes the charm words that work best tickle the Child.

Persuasive Speaking Part 2 - Transactional Analysis

2011-05-20T22:11:00.002+01:00

In his book, Games People Play, Dr. Eric Berne described ego states as being “a system of feelings accompanied by a related set of behaviour patterns”. He tells us that ego states are categorised as exteropsychic, neopsychic or archaeopsychic. The first resemble ego states of parental figures; the second are autonomously directed towards the objective appraisal of reality and the third are ego states that remain from early childhood.

The expression of the three kinds of ego state may be referred to colloquially as the Parent, Adult and Child respectively.

Berne defines a transaction as a unit of social intercourse. Parents indulge in gossip. Adults solve problems together. Children or Parent and Child play together. These are known as Complementary Transactions. However a Crossed Transaction occurs when one party addresses the other as Adult-to-Adult and the other party responds as Child-to-Parent or Parent-to-Child.

What does any of this have to do with persuasive speaking? In Part 1 I talked about Aristotle’s three types of persuasion. Ethos (moral character of the speaker) is an appeal to the Parent, Logos (reasoned argument) is an appeal to the Adult and Pathos (an emotional appeal) is an appeal to the Child.

Berne points out that transactions involving the activity of two ego states simultaneously (Ulterior Transactions) are the basis of games (games are complex social behaviours with their own rules not necessarily games in the literal sense). He cites the following example:

Salesman: ‘This one is better, but you can’t afford it.’
Housewife: ‘That’s the one I’ll take.’

On a social level the transaction is Adult-Adult but on a psychological level the salesman’s Adult is addressing the Housewife’s Child. Notice that there are two sets of Complementary Transactions here. Berne states that “the first rule of communication is that communication will proceed smoothly as long as transactions are complementary; and its corollary is that as long as transactions are complementary, communication can, in principle, proceed indefinitely.”

Perhaps now you can see why the emotional appeal is particularly powerful. In Part 3 I’ll examine the use of language in persuasion and how we are easily persuaded using words with a positive connotation (charm words) or those with a negative connotation (hex words).

Hands Across The World Chain (HAWC) Delegates

2011-05-19T19:17:00.001+01:00

We are looking for HAWCs. If you are going to the 2011 Convention in Indianapolis, we would like you to soar into action and be a HAWC delegate.

We have a number of clubs that are unable to send a delegate so they rely on a HAWC delegate to represent them. Don’t just sit on a tree branch waiting for things to happen, we need you to be part of the action by volunteering to be a HAWC delegate. At this time we do not have enough HAWC delegates. Some of you will be potential last minute delegates since you might not have registered but you recently won your region Speech contest. For those speech contest winners that will stay for the business meetings, be a part of the action and sign to be a HAWC delegate.

For those alternate delegates for your own club, please contact me if you might be available so that we can work out a process to make you available to be a HAWC delegate once your own delegate has signed up at the credentials desk at the convention.

For those potential HAWC delegates in the Japan Region, please address your request and inquiries to Kazuyo Sugitani, HAWC Committee member in the Japan Region. Please submit format to her and a copy to me. She can be contacted at kksugi@nifty.com and I can be copied at hawc@powertalkinternational.com.

For those attending let’s have fun at the convention but also let’s make sure all the clubs are represented.

Alan Nakano, Chairman

Hands Around the Word Chain (HAWC) Committee
POWERtalk INTERNATIONAL

Persuasive Speaking Part 1 - Aristotle's Rhetoric

2011-05-19T16:06:00.002+01:00

The Greek Philosopher Aristotle defined rhetoric as “the ability, in each particular case, to see the available means of persuasion”. Aristotle’s Rhetoric was a very influential work in the development of the art and now, millennia after it was written, it is still regarded as an important work in the academic study of rhetoric.

Aristotle identified three types of persuasion that a speaker can use:-

Ethos: Persuasion based on the moral character of the speaker,
Logos: Persuasion based on logical argument,
Pathos: Persuasion based on emotional appeal.

By far the most powerful persuader is pathos. If you want to win people over trying to appeal to reason can be difficult as can relying on your reputation – would I lie to you? Emotion will trump these almost every time.

POWERtalk Pollokshields Day Out.

2011-05-16T20:57:00.008+01:00

POWERtalk Pollokshields had their annual summer outing at the end of the 2010-11 session. This year they decided to visit Hopetoun House. This was a most interesting and enjoyable day out with an excellent guided tour round the house followed by lunch in the stables restaurant. The members then had a look at the ballroom before returning home.

The day was enjoyed by the members and guests. A n excellent end to a very successful and interesting year.

Caledonia Council AGM

2011-05-16T20:38:00.010+01:00

Caledonia Council held their Annual General Meeting on Sunday 15th May in the King Robert Hotel, Bannockburn.

Unfortunately the President, Stella Sneddon was unable to attend and her place was able taken by Roz Keenan, Vice President.

The Presentations of the Peebles Cups for the clubs with the most new members and the club with the best attendance at Council Meetings were presented by Ruth Maltman, Vice President, Division 3.

The new Board of Laurence Coates, President, Louise Laing, Secretary and Rosemary Low, Treasurer were installed by Liz Duncan. Helen Weir, Vice President was unable to attend.

Following a delicious lunch Rosemary Low led an interesting and worthwhile workshop on the importance of good introductions.

BISC 25 May Meeting - AGM and your ideas, please!!‏

2011-05-10T17:54:00.000+01:00

To all BISC members - important message

I am writing to you all regarding our upcoming AGM which is being held on Wednesday 25th May at 7.30pm at our usual venue of the Plough and Harrow.

As a membership organisation, we are required to hold an annual general meeting to review the past year, report on the club's finances, agree on on-going membership fees and vote on the new board for the upcoming year. We'll also take a look at some small changes to the club's governing rules.

In true BISC fashion, we try out hardest to keep the formailities to a minimum and we plan that the meeting will take no more than 30 minutes. Following an extended break, I will be running a workshop on gathering ideas for the coming year's programme so please do come along with your ideas for what you would like to see on future programmes.

In order for the motions to be carried, it is important that we have a minimum number of members present. Could I therefore ask you to make attendance a priority if at all possible.

I have attached a number of papers for the AGM itself:

1) AGM agenda and motions, which explains the key items to be discussed.
2) AGM minutes from last year
3) Proposed club bylaws with changes highlighted
4) Proposed standing rules with changes highlighted

In the interests of the environment, we will not be bringing along paper copies of the attached documents so if you wish to have them to refer to in the meeting, please do print your own copies.

Myself and the rest of the committee are looking forward to seeing you on the 26th May. I would be really grateful if you know that you will not be able to attend, you send your apologies to me in advance as we would like to note these in the minutes.

Very best wishes

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Bisc 2011 Agm Agenda + Motions 25 May 2011 Final

Bisc Bylaws for Agm Draft 25 May 2011

BISC Standing Rules for AGM Draft 25 May 2011
Minutes of Bisc Agm June 2010 Final

Accreditation

2011-05-04T10:47:00.002+01:00

REMINDER.

I would like to remind members of the following item from Great Britain Region Standing Rules and would be delighted to receive any applications for this award.

Liz Duncan,

Liz.duncan@talk21.com

LATIMER TROPHY

This trophy for the Accreditation Contest shall be awarded annually to the member who has the

greatest number of assignments accredited in the period between midnight on the first

registration day of the Region Conference in the previous session to midnight on the first

registration day of Region Conference of the current session.

BISC meeting - Wednesday evening

2011-04-27T21:45:00.001+01:00

To all BISC members

Happy Easter to you all! Hope you're enjoying the fabulous weather!

As the countdown to the Royal Wedding next weekend continues, I'd like to invite
you all to hear speeches on the subject of the upcoming nuptials on Wednesday
evening at the Plough and Harrow from 7.30pm.

Hope you can make it!

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Powertalk Pollokshields

2011-04-21T20:02:00.003+01:00

On Monday 18th April members of POWERtalk Pollokshields held their Annual General Meeting in Pollokshields Burgh Hall. A new Board was elected and will be installed at the next meeting.

At the normal meeting Secretary Iris Gibson gave the Inspiration and led the topics.

The Programme Chair then introduced members in Character at a pre Royal Wedding party. This was a lively evening with much laughter. Members had rehearsed their characters well and spoke with authority.

The next meeting will be held in the Loggia Room, Pollokshields Burgh Hall on 2nd May when the new board will be installed. There is to be a guest speaker, Jennifer Reynalds who is a Film Commissioner for Glasgow and she will be speaking about her work. Guests are very welcome.

POWERtalk - GB Region Conference/Training Day‏

2011-04-15T21:57:00.002+01:00

To all BISC members

As I mentioned last night, the GB Conference is taking place on the weekend of 10th June.

Delegates have a range of options for attendance from the whole weekend to just the Saturday - when Mike Venables will take part in the speech contest and Allan Venables will present a workshop.

It would be great to see you there - if you could complete the forms and forward to Carole Manship (carole@bridgemarketing.co.uk) , she will then return the completed forms to the conference organiser.

I shall certainly be attending and hope you can make it too!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Conference Programme

Invitation to Conference 2011

Personal Booking Form
Personal Menu Choices
UllswaterSundayExcursion

Eastwood Communicators

2011-04-15T12:17:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday 13th April, 2011 Eastwood Communicators held their Annual General Meeting and the new Board for 2011-12 were elected. The new Board are

Ann Wright, President
Liz Duncan, Vice President
Christine McKenna, Secretary
Margaret Loudon, Treasurer
Helen Weir, Delegate to Council

Following the AGM Morag McLintock led an interesting workshop on Evaluation. The two speakers were Liz Duncan and Helen Weir and the two evaluators were Ann Wright and Christine McKenna. This was an educational and entertaining evening.

The next meeting will be held on 27th April, 2011 in Rhuallan House and the theme of the evening will be "The Royal Wedding". This promised to be an interesting evening.

Rovers Spring Weekend.

2011-04-14T12:37:00.008+01:00

Rovers "roving"

On Friday 8th April the Rovers arrived at the Salutation Arms, Ambleside for their Annual Spring Weekend. The weather the whole weekend could not have been better and the members enjoyed a most enjoyable stay in the English Lake District.

Members at Hillside.

The Hotel was excellent and the various excursions were interesting and educational. We visited Beatrix Potter's House "Hillside" near Hawkhead on the Saturday morning and after lunch we took a Boat Trip to Brantwood, the home of John Ruskin. Sunday saw members visit Dove Cottage the home of
Wordsworth.Members at Dove Cottage.

Members enjoyed meeting up again and exchanging ideas.

The organiser of the weekend, Rosemary Low, achieved the almost impossible of "pleasing all of the people all of the time."

Daffodils outside Wordsworth's cottage.

BISC Meeting : Did they have news for us?!‏

2011-04-14T09:08:00.000+01:00

To all BISC members and guests at the club meeting last night

A great night was had by all at the BISC club meeting last night where our theme for the evening was "Have I Got News For You?"

Carole expertly guided us through the evening as Programme Presenter whilst Beryl and I gave speeches to the theme.

Thanks to Ernon and Lyn for their evaluations and to Ernon in particular for putting Beryl and I through our paces!

In the second half, Allan gave an excellent workshop on the art of evaluation which enabled us all to have a go at something which seems daunting but is really not too difficult when you get your teeth into it. He also introduced us to the new evaluation forms for the club which he and Beryl have developed.

Mike finished off the evening with an evaluation of the meeting - many thanks, Mike.

Just a quick note to say that the next Anglia Council meeting is on 14th May in Stafford and will packed full of training opportunities in addition to the AGM. Please drop either me or Margaret Wellington (margaret.wellington@blueyonder.co.uk) and we'll book you a place. If you could let us know as soon as possible whether you would like to attend on the day, this will help Margaret and the rest of the team at Anglia Council to plan the day.

Many thanks, everyone! See you on the 27th for our meeting on the theme of a Royal Wedding!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Cheshire Communicators at Congleton Now clubs and societies fair

2011-04-13T14:24:00.003+01:00

The annual Congleton Now event is a great opportunity for Cheshire Communicators to network, market the club and recruit new members. This year, there was also a selection of workshops - including a very entertaining and informative one by Congleton Chronicle Editor Jeremy Condliffe on writing press releases.

The local MP Fiona Bruce (no, not THAT Fiona Bruce) (above left) was there and went home carrying a POWERtalk International brochure in her hand. Perhaps one day we'll persuade her to come to one of our meetings.

We talked to a wide variety of people and were pleased to find a couple of very strong leads. One has already attended a club meeting and clearly enjoyed it so we expect to see her again. The other has work commitments in the evenings but would like to come when he's able and has asked to be sent copies of the programmes for meetings.

A very rewarding few hours

Eastwood Communicators

2011-04-13T13:16:00.003+01:00

On Wednesday 30th March one of the members of Eastwood Communicators, Christine McKenna, gave an excellent Power Point presentation on Japan. This was very interesting and enjoyed by all the members.

Christine also had various Japanese items on show including a cotton Kimono and introduced the members to the Japanese language.

This was an interesting and instructive evening.

BISC meeting -13th April

2011-04-03T11:31:00.000+01:00

Dear all

What a lovely start we've had to Spring, don't you think?

Looking forward to seeing you on 13th April for our meeting when we'll be putting on
our own spin on the theme of "Have I got News for You?"

Carole Manship will be the programme presenter and will be writing out to all speakers, evaluators etc in the next few days.

As you all know, the evaluation of speeches at BISC is central to what we do and one of the most valuable aspects of every evening. But evaluation isn't easy! Therefore, we're putting on an evaluation workshop on the 13th, run by on of our most experienced members,Allan Venables. This is a fabulous opportunity for most experienced members to polish up their evaluation skills and for newer members to build their confidence in the art of giving evaluations.

Really hope you can join us!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

BISC meeting 23 March 2011

2011-03-30T21:20:00.001+01:00

What a fantastic evening on Wednesday, some 12 members and 6 guests, some of whom were back to be with us for the second time....I hope you all enjoyed the evening as much as I did.

I know the smaller room gave us new challenges especially for eye contact and voice control, but my goodness did everyone raise their game to meet those challenges. The atmosphere was great, the energy was just magic and I reckon everyone left on a “REAL HIGH”.

There were some great speeches from, Jacqui, Margaret, Alison, Rob and Mike, plus Vlad in the free slot who seems a natural speaker; the theme of Education obviously got everyone very serious and there were some super examples of speeches to Inform.

Which of course led brilliantly into my workshop on Speeches To Inform, I did promise a handout electronically which were my working notes and these are enclosed...As time was against me I only had the chance to choose the winning team from the group exercise...well done Team 1 for some great seamless “handons” which was the challenge. However there were some special moments that need a mention

Team 1 Vlad and Mercedes painted some wonderful pictures of “bread making” in their countries

Team 2 great idea to take Technology back a 100 years, really creative concept and ideal for the audience...some good handons between Margaret and Jacqui

Team 3, although you missed your “Opening” the 4 contributions were excellent and Ana’s close was the best of the evening

Team 4 – Carole’s “Opening” was the best of the evening and you moved “Literature” into Blogs so interesting twist on the theme

Special mention must go to, Abdi, Lora/Lorna?, Anna, Mack, and Alana who all stepped up to the challenge to speak for the first time and did an amazing job contributing to the 4 teams ...so a special well done to you 5

To all of you who grasped the mood of the workshop a BIG THANK YOU - you all did a super job and the “buzz” as we left our evening illustrated the whole enjoyment factor

Thanks to our timekeeper and three evaluators, especially Josie who stepped in at the last minute and delivered very neat and concise evaluations; I do like Mercedes depth of thinking and ability to assess our learnings in Evaluation and I am sure she will add to the workshop at our next mtg which is on Evaluation, and I liked Lynn’s suggestion that we introduce timings for the evaluators ..again something for discussion during the next workshop which is being delivered by Lucy, our President.

Finally, Ernon did a Great job as Programme Presenter, not an easy task especially around timing with so many speakers, which can impact the time taken up by evaluation, and general chatter of 18 people in a small room. Ernon has an easy style which allows him to add change/flexibility into a programme without an audience noticing - so well done Ernon.

Hope to see you all April 13th, I am sure the programme will be issued next week.

Allan J Venables
Mobile 07766 755149

Workshop March 23rd 2011 Subject

A Passion for Pearls

2011-03-29T16:35:00.013+01:00

POWERtalk Pollokshields met last night in the Pollokshields Burgh Hall in Glasgow for an evening of entertainment and information.

The President Anita Cox welcomed the members and many guests. Martha Mackenzie gave the Inspiration and handed out interesting topics.

Anita Cox then led an Education Session regarding the next meeting which sounded very innovative and quite different.

After a most delicious supper we were introduced to Elisabeth Anne Hughes on her "Passion for Pearls. We were told of the history of pearls and about the different types available. Finally, one lucky member, Iris Gibson, was given the opportunity to find the correct pearls for her. All members and guests were given the opportunity to have a look at all the pearls which Elisabeth Ann had taken along and to decide just what type of pearl suited them.

This was one of a series of different evenings which Pollokshields club has held this year which has attracted a large audience and hopefully some new members.

2011 Convention

2011-03-26T17:15:00.000Z

To: Members of POWERtalk International
From: George VanSickles
2011 Convention Coordinator

RE: Convention NEWS
The members of the 2011 Convention are excited about the series of
packages we have put together for the members of POWERtalk International
for the 2011 Convention to be held in Indianapolis, IN USA, July 23-27,
2011.

Hotel Information:
RESERVATIONS PROCESS & BOOKING WEBSITE
Online and phone reservations will be accepted until 18 June 2011.
A dedicated booking website has been created for your event so you will
be able to make, modify and cancel their hotel reservations online, as
well as take advantage of any room upgrades, amenities or other services
offered by the hotel.

To preview the website, please click the following link:
https://resweb.passkey.com/Resweb.do?mode=welcome_ei_new&eventID=2575226

Phone reservations, or for assistance ( Handicap rooms, etc.) please
call 800-266-9432 and ask for the POWERtalk group rate.

Please make reservations EARLY. We have only a limited number rooms available.

Hotel amenities:
Washer and Dryers available
Ironing boards, refrigerators, available on request

Convention Registration and Meal Packages:
All Spouses and Friends Welcome
Please go to the POWERtalk website and download the Convention
registration form and send in your documentation as early as possible.
We want to make sure that you can take advantage of all the amenities we
have to offer during your stay in Indianapolis, USA. Pass any of this
information on to other members of your club, council or region.

Tours Indianapolis, USA

Accent on Indianapolis – 5 tours (Information and Dates to be announced)
Taste of Indy (Information and Dates to be announced)
Beef and Boards Dinner Theater – Tuesday evening
Golf and Baseball Outings (Dates to be announced)

Workshops
A series of workshops and training sessions have been compiled by our
2011 Programming Team to ensure that your personal development needs
will be met. Details can be found on the POWERtalk International
website. Seating is first come first served, so immediate convention
registration is required.

Volunteer Opportunities
In addition to the quality training, the business sessions, speech
competition, sight seeing and renewing old friendships in a great city
in the midwest, there are several volunteer opportunities available. If
you truly want to elevate your 2011 POWERtalk Convention experience
don’t sit on the sidelines. Volunteer your time and talents while you
are here in Indianapolis. Please eMail me at nikki@indy.net immediately
so we can slot you in.

2011 Member Check List:

Make your hotel reservations today Through the PASSKEY reservation
system or by calling:
800-266-9432.
Vera, our Registration chairperson has a seat for you, your spouse or
best friend at the 2011 Convention with your names on it. Download and
complete the registration form, send in your payment, and we will do the
rest.
Pack accordingly because the hotel has all the amenities so you can
wash and wear and not pay for extra baggage.
Spread the word about your plans for July 2011 in Indianapolis, USA.

Looking forward to seeing you in Indianapolis, USA

George VanSickles
POWERtalk International
2011 Convention Coordinator

Council Speech Contest

2011-03-21T16:07:00.007Z

Caledonia Council held the Annual Speech Contest on Sunday 20th March 2011 in the Redhurst Hotel, Giffnock, Glasgow. There was an excellent turnout of members to support the speakers. There were six contestants - two from each club and all were excellent.

After an excellent contest the judges (Evelyn Flett, Val Munro, Aylyffe Macphail and reserve judge Irene Porteous) decided the winners were Anita Cox and Iris Gibson with Terry McCabe in second place.

Best wishes to Iris Gibson and Terry McCabe in the contest at Conference in June. Anita Cox is unable to attend Conference so Terry McCabe will speak instead.

A most enjoyable day was had by all.

POWERtalk - GB Region Conference/Training Day‏

2011-03-19T21:49:00.002Z

Dear all

I hope you're all looking forward to the Region Conference on 11th June. More information is provided below and attached. This is a great opportunity to meet members from clubs across the country and learn new skills in speaking and presenting.

If you would like to find out more about about the event, please do drop either myself or Allan Venables a line.

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club
Conference Programme
Invitation to Conference 2011
Personal Booking Form
Personal Menu Choices
UllswaterSundayExcursion

POWERtalk on You Tube

2011-03-18T21:41:00.000Z

A video presentation from members of Trends Club, Austria on how POWERtalk can change your life. If you didn’t think that public speaking could be fun the enthusiasm of these ladies might just change your mind!

For clubs in Great Britain see the panel on the right – Where Are We?

7th April Debate at Lichfield Club between Birmingham and Lichfield

2011-03-17T22:31:00.000Z

Dear all

The motion has arrived! Following my email last week regarding the upcoming debate with Lichfield club, Lorna has been in touch with the motion below.

If you're interested in a fiery evening of debate against Lichfield, please do drop me a line and we can start to form the team.

Lichfield have also invited us to chair this year so if you would like to try your hand at this, please do get in touch also.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Speakers' Feast

2011-03-16T13:54:00.003Z

The theme for the Cheshire Communicators meeting last night was 'Food and Drink' - with an emphasis on practical presentations. So a feast of speeches also became a food feast. No sign of the drink though.

The three speakers each tackled the topic differently. Angela gave a hands-on demonstration of her own take on Eton Mess - using tropical fruits, as her roots are in Guyana. She kept up a steady flow of instructions whilst peeling and chopping mangoes etc with a pretty sharp-looking knife. And she still had all her fingers when she'd finished! The results were polished off by her audience with great enthusiasm.

Evelyn had also gone back to her roots - this time to the Lake District. She gave a brief account of the history of Grasmere gingerbread and then, Blue Peter-style, produced a supply made earlier. The recipe came from a well-worn cookbook handed down by her mother. The book wasn't quite in the 'first catch your hare' league but was a bit short on specific instructions and there were no pictures. So who knows whether the results were what they should have been? No complaints from the consumers though.

Janet challenged our imaginations by acting out the preparation of a cheesecake made from a packet mix. All she had on the table was the packet but we could visualise all the paraphernalia as she mixed, stirred and scraped with great enthusiasm. She also produced the finished product, which we were allowed to test - even though she concluded that the whole thing was a waste of effort and we'd be better to buy one ready-made if we didn't have time to start from scratch.

After all this food it was quite a relief that Norton hadn't brought any samples. Especially as he was talking about cattle food! He was practising a presentation for a job interview - all about stocking rates and milk production. He went away with some useful suggestions from his evaluators and we're keeping our fingers crossed for him in the hope that he'll wow the interviewers on the day.

A rather different experience from many of our meetings but great fun and hugely enjoyable.

A Passion for Pearls

2011-03-14T16:46:00.007Z

“Diamonds may be a girl’s best friend but pearls will make you glow like moonlight.” (GM)

PowerTalk Pollokshields

Monday, 28^th March 2011 at 7pm

Pollokshields Burgh Hall, Maxwell Park

Pollokshields PowerTalk speakers’ club has a special guest speaker on 28^th March - Elisabeth Ann Hughes - who is to give us a talk on her “Passion for Pearls”. There is something mysterious and alluring about pearls, perhaps it is their lustre, perhaps it is because they come from the sea. Elisabeth Ann will unlock some of their secrets, taking us on a fascinating journey through their origins and cultivation, the various types of pearls and their use and importance throughout history. She has promised to bring along beautiful examples and is offering a “Taste and Try” session – where some lucky volunteers will be able to be matched with their perfect pearls!

We would love you to share our evening so please come and join us and feel free to bring a friend! To assist with catering, please let our Secretary Iris Gibson know if you’re intending to join us for this fun evening – 0141 637 9820 or at Iris@firemail.co.uk

Derby Powertalk - your feedback please‏

2011-03-12T19:52:00.001Z

To all club members

You may know that Lorna Sheldon is establishing a Powertalk club in Derby. Setting up a new club takes considerable time, effort and investment and as the driving force behind this, Lorna is doing a fabulous job.

This is a short email to ask whether you, as a member of Birmingham International Speakers' Club would be in favour of sponsoring a Derby Powertalk club meeting using £40 of our club funds. As a club, we have sufficient money in our funds to afford this but I am keen to research the views of the membership to see how you would feel about our club funds being used to assist the establishment of a new club.

I would very much welcome your feedback and if you can let me have your views by the end of Monday (14th March), I would very much appreciate it.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Debate with Lichfield 7th April‏

2011-03-12T19:51:00.002Z

To all BISC members

Calling all budding debators! Lichfield Powertalk have invited us to take part in an inter-club debate on 7th April. Those of you who attended the Not-the-speech-contest with Lichfield earlier in the year will remember what a fabulous evening it was and what great hosts Lichfield were.

We're looking for a team of 3 so please - don't be shy! Drop me a line if you would like to be involved.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Best Regards
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Should we forgive and forget? Report on BISC last night‏

2011-03-12T19:49:00.004Z

Dear All

Fabulous meeting last night at Birmingham International Speakers' Club with some fascinating speeches on the topic of "Should we forgive and forget?" from Allan, Carole, Mercedes and Lorna.

Many thanks to Ernon, Josie and Beryl for providing evaluations and also to Beryl for stepping in as timekeeper too.

In the second half, Jacqui delivered an interactive workshop on the points to consider when crafting a speech with the intention "to persuade" - a massively packed 25 minutes with room for some debate over the MMR vaccination, speed cameras and smoking for good measure!

It was great to see so many guests too and hope you all enjoyed the evening - please come back again soon!

The next meeting is on 23rd March on the subject of "Education for the Future". Ernon will be programme presenter for the evening and will be in touch with those involved in the evening prior to the event.

Take care and hope to see you soon!

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

23 March 2011	Theme - Education for the Future
1st Half	5 to 8 minutes speeches on “Education for the Future” by Mike Venables, Henri Christophe, Jacqui Francis, Margaret Wellington, Michael Chan, Rob Anglin
Business Meeting	Yes
2nd Half	Workshop on speeches to inform by Allan Venables
Programme Presenter	Ernon Campbell
Evaluators	Mercedes Fonfria, Steve Hopkins, Lyn Hayles (workshop)
Timekeeper	Beryl Brown

Comedy in Speeches

2011-03-11T09:22:00.003Z

The theme for the recent Anglia Council Training Day was 'In the Spotlight!' and it certainly was an illuminating day.

The morning was devoted to Comedy in Speeches when stand up comic Andy White proved in his brilliant workshop that even the most boring text can be transformed by putting it through the Joke Collider. Who would have guessed that with a bit of surgery the Wikipedia entry for Stafford could have them rolling in the aisles? They say that laughter is the best medicine. Andy's audience must surely have been cured of any malaise.

In the afternoon the spotlight fell on the five participants in the Council Speech Contest. Rob's 'Technology, who needs it?' made us all appreciate that though modern technology has many downsides, we're now largely dependent on it.

Maria's 'A Captain's Tale' told the story behind the loss of the cargo ship Flying Enterprise in 1952. She spoke of the bravery Captain Carlsen who stayed with the sinking ship for almost two weeks as attempts were made to save it.

Janet's 'Star dust' took us on a light-hearted and fantastical journey as time-travellers through space.

Belinda's 'Keep your nose clean' entertained us with warnings about how idiomatic expressions can lead to terrible misunderstandings when translated into somebody else's language.

Mike's 'Invictus' made us think about our personal responsibilities and our relationships with others - touching particularly on the role of parents.

The contest rules call for two winners to go forward to the national contest in June and for there to be one reserve. On this occasion the two winners were Belinda and Mike, with Janet as reserve.

A great day out!

Caledonia Council Speech Contest

2011-03-08T15:22:00.000Z

The Caledonia Council Speech Contest will take place on Sunday 20th March at the Redhurst Hotel, 27 Eastwood Mains Road, Giffnock, Glasgow, G46 6QE. Refreshments will be available from 11.00 am and proceedings will commence promptly at 11.30am. The cost for the day including refreshments and a buffet lunch will be £18. Please contact me before Wednesday 16th if you wish to attend.

BISC on Wednesday - Should we forgive and forget?‏

2011-03-06T20:38:00.000Z

Hello!

Hope you're well and enjoying your weekend.

Just a quick note to say that the meeting on Wednesday will be on the theme on "Should we forgive and forget?"

with speeches from Allan, Carole, Mercedes and Lorna. Mike and our new member Alison will also both be mking use of our free slot and giving speeches on their chosen subject.

In the second half, Jacqui will give a workshop on "speeches to persuade".

Looking forward to seeing you there!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

BISC News : Good luck to Mike and Rob!‏

2011-02-25T20:50:00.000Z

Dear all

This is just a quick email to wish Mike Venables and Rob Anglin a massive "good luck" as
they prepare to represent BISC at the Anglia Council speech contest tomorrow.

I'll be in touch following the competition to inform you of the results and there will be a
full report at the next meeting at the Plough and Harrow on 9th March.

Good luck, guys!

Best Regards
Lucy Dinsdale

PROGRAM PARTICIPANTS NEEDED FOR INTERNATIONAL SPEECH CONTEST

2011-02-23T14:38:00.000Z

A list of program participants for the International Speech Contest is being developed. Judges, hosts to judges, timers, tellers, pages, and evaluators are needed.

If you plan to attend the 2011 POWERtalk International Convention, July 23-27, 2011, in Indianapolis, IN, and are interested in serving in one of these roles, please contact Melton Baxter, International Speech Contest Chairman, via email at meltonb202@aol.com or by phone at (North America) 202-723-1328 as soon as possible and indicate your preference.

Melton Baxter

International Speech Contest Chairman

POWERtalk Pollokshields Speech Contest.

2011-02-16T13:55:00.008Z

POWERtalk Pollokshields held its annual Speech Contest on Monday 14th February in Pollokshields Burgh Halls at 7.30. This event was supported by guests and members of Eastwood Communicators.

The contest was ably chaired by Ruth Maltman and the guests were duly informed and entertained by the four speakers.

The Speakers were:
Iris Gibson:- Subject: Education, Title: "A Passion for Pachyderms";
Ann Mason:- Subject: Thoughts, Title: "Nice to See You";
Joy Weightman:- Great Expectations, Title "Great Expectations";
Anita Cox:- Subject: Signals, Title: "Not a Word".

And the Winners were Iris Gibson and Joy Weightman.

Congratulations and good luck to Iris and Joy at the Caledonia Council Speech Contest on 20th March 2011

BISC meeting 9th February 2‏ 011 Theme: A fabulous speech contest!‏

2011-02-13T13:06:00.001Z

Dear all

The highlight of the BISC year took place recently when 6 members of the club entered the annual speech contest.

Many thanks go to Mercedes for organising and chairing the competition in which we heard a range of speeches on topics including fashion, parenthood and being a board member.A special thanks to Beryl and Helen for keeping us in line with the calculation of scores and also to Allan for being our bouncer (I think the official Powertalk term is "page"....) for the evening!

The winner of the competition was Mike Venables with new member Ron Anglin taking second place and Margaret Wellington in third place. Mike and Rob will go forward to represent the club at the Anglia Council speech contest on 26th February at the Express by Holiday Inn, Acton Gate, Stafford. Anybody wishing to attend the meeting should contact Margaret at margaret.wellington@blueyonder.co.uk for further details and a booking form.

The next club meeting will take place on 23rd February at the Plough and Harrow with the theme of "What is Love?" We will be in touch with speakers shortly.

Once again, well done to everybody involved in the speech contest and good luck to Mike and Rob in the next round.

Best wishes

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

GB Region Writing Contest‏

2011-02-06T14:39:00.000Z

Writing_Contest._2009-2011._Rules[1](2)

Writing Contest. 2009. Eligibility Statement[1]
Dear all

Received an email from Great Britain region regarding the Powertalk writing contest which takes place every year. I am not aware of anybody from our club who has entered before so please do take a look and if it takes your fancy, have a go!

Hope you're having a good weekend.

Best Regards
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

New Speaking Club in Derby

2011-01-30T22:33:00.003Z

We're launching a NEW CLUB in DERBY which will meet on 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of every month

at 7.15pm for 7.30pm until 9.45pm
at DAYS Hotel - Derbyshire Cricket Ground, Pentagon Roundabout, Derby DE21 6DA

The Launch will be on Tuesday 8th February 2011

If you're interested in:

Public Speaking
Presentations Skills
Building Confidence
Winning Presentations
Increasing Sales
Succeeding at Interviews
Leading Discussions
Chairing Meetings

then this is the club for you

For more information contact Lorna Sheldon on: 07860 806381

BISC meeting 26th January 2‏ 011 Theme : Desert Island Discs‏

2011-01-30T14:24:00.000Z

Hello!

Wednesday evening's meeting was an interesting one with speeches on "Desert Island Disc from Chris, Margaret and Rob. All were memorable to me for different reasons...

Chris - for his story on how he managed to upset hundreds of party-goers at a busy club in Ibiza back in his youth...

Margaret - for one of the best endings to a speech I've heard in a while (she likes creme brulee, by the way!)

Rob - for a fabulous and thought provoking maiden speech - well done!

Steve guided us through the evening as programme presenter and his self depreceating comments throughout the evening made us all curious as to how exactly many Val Doonican tunes his iPod holds....

In the second half, Carole delivered a great workshop in which we were all challenges to evaluate each other's speeches by giving volunteering good points and things to do that would make the speech even better next time. Delivering a balanced evaluation is truely a skill and Carole put us all to the test.

The next meeting is our annual speech contest. Mercedes as organiser and programme presenter for the evening has had a fabuous repsonse from club members and at the last count we had 7 people competing. Good luck to all those speaking in your preparation and I look forward to a full room of supporters at the Plough and Harrow for what promises to be one of the highlights of the BISC year!

See you soon

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Be more confident at interviews - free training in Congleton

2011-01-28T15:38:00.006Z

Improving confidence at interviews

The members of Cheshire Communicators will be putting something back into their local community in Congleton on Tuesday 8 March by sponsoring a free course on being more confident when attending job interviews. The course will be held in Congleton Town Hall and will last for two hours. It will cover how to present yourself and how to overcome nervousness. More information is available from the club at secretary@cheshire.powertalk.org.uk

Birmingham International Speakers Club Programme February to May‏

2011-01-26T13:59:00.001Z

BISC Qtrly Mtg Outline Jan 2011 - May 2011 Dear All

Attached is the programme for BISC up until the end of May.

Please could you take a look and check that you are available to speak / present / deliver a workshop / evaluate or timekeep on the dates you have been allocated.

Please note that we have an additional meeting on 7th April when we travel to Lichfield to take part in an inter-club debate. Details and requests for debate team members to follow!

If you know that you won't be able to make it on a partcular date or you have any other queries, get in touch and I can make the necessary changes.

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Rovers Spring Weekend

2011-01-21T17:17:00.001Z

Happy New Year to all Rovers Members !

Do you know that this weekend is your last chance to pre-book for the Salutation Hotel, Ambleside, at the rates Rosemary Low has arranged?

Sandra has said that her manager can only hold the rooms till Sunday night. The Telephone No. is 015394 32244. Reference is Rosemary Low, POWERtalk Rovers and please reserve rooms with your own credit card.

So far the hotel only has booking for 13 people and 5 rooms are going begging. i.e. 2 singles and 3 twins/doubles.

I hope that more of you can make it to the Lake District for a terrific social club outing from Friday April 8th to Sunday April 10th.

See you there!

Linda Griffin

Rovers President

Birmingham International Speakers Club: Theme : Not the Speech Contest‏

2011-01-21T11:33:00.004Z

Dear all

Sent on behalf of Lorna and all at the Lichfield club....

We would all at Lichfield like to thank Birmingham very much indeed for coming over to take part and join us for the Not The Speech Contest. It was an excellent evening and the discussion on the speakers by the audience proved a very strong point. How diverse our choices of speeches are plus that appeal being mingled with tecniques and skills.

Every single person was very good indeed and we would like to congratulate Mike Venables from Birmingham as no 1 speech contestent last night. Well done.

Maria from Lichfield came second but boy it was a hard decision. Mercedes was the best I have ever seen her. Really excellent and top marks for audience involvement and interaction.

Many many thanks to you all for coming and please put 7th April in your diaries for a joint Debate with 3 contestents in each team. Motion "This house believes that bankers should get bonuses"

- should be fun and we will host it again.

Very best wishes,
Lorna
Lorna. D. Sheldon A.L.A.M., F.I.T.C.lct.
Managing Director
www.compworks-int.co.uk

Birmingham International Speakers Club : Theme :Go on.... you know you want to!‏

2011-01-21T09:29:00.002Z

Evening all!

Not long to go now until the club speech contest on 9th February - always a great evening with the opportunity for the winning speaker to hold the BISC speech contest trophy for the year and represent Birmingham in the Anglia Council speech contest.

It would be great to get as many people involved as possible. Main guidelines are:
- Speak between 5 and 8 minutes
- Speech should be in one of the following categories:

to inform
to entertain
to persuade
to inspire
a research speech
a current event speech

- You will be provided with one phrase and two words and your speech should contain one of these.

That's it - simple!

If you are interested, please get in touch with Mercedes, the speech contest chair at fonfria@virginmedia.com as soon as possible.

Best wishes

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Anglia Council programme Theme : Booking form for 26 February 2011‏‏

2011-01-20T21:17:00.001Z

Anglia Council Prog 260211

Anglia Council Booking Form_26 Feb 2011

Dear all

A quick reminder here of the Anglia Council training day on 26th February - details of the programme and location are attached.

These are always great days packed full of learning opportunities and the chance to meet up with others from across Anglia Council.

In addition to workshops and club reports, the meeting on the 26th will include the Anglia Council Speech Contest at which the 2 first placed people from the BISC speech contest will compete - so please book now to lend your support! Who knows, if you are planning on competing in the speech contest at club level, you could be representing the club!

Please see the plea from Evelyn, our Anglia Council President Secretary.... if you are wishing ot attend, could you please contact Margaret Wellington in advance at margaret wellington@blueyonder.co.uk so that she can count you in the numbers for the day.

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

BISC meeting 26th January 2‏ 011 Theme : Desert Island Discs‏

2011-01-18T14:15:00.002Z

Dear all

I am in the process of putting together the entire programme for February to May 2011. In the meantime, see below the details of the next club meeting on Wednesday 26th January.

The theme of the meeting will be "Desert Island Discs"
Presenter: Steve Hopkins
Speakers: Mike Venables, Chris Pugh, Henri Christophe, Margaret Wellington, Aaron Bedward, Rob Anglin
Speaker evaluators: Jacqui Francis, Lucy Dinsdale
Workshop presenter: Carole Manship
Workshop evaluator: Allan Venables
Timekeeper: Ana Perez

Please take the time to see if your name appears above and drop me a line if you know that you will not be able to attend.

N.B You'll see a new role in the list of "workshop evaluator" - the clue is in the title - somebody whose role it will be to give an overall evaluation of the workshop.

Looking forward to seeing you on the 26th!
Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

12 January 2011 Wednesday's meeting‏ Review Theme : Report on Wednesday night's meeting‏

2011-01-18T14:13:00.001Z

Dear all

It was lovely to see everybody back to the first BISC meeting of the year on Wednesday after what seems like a very long Christmas and New Year.

The theme for the evening was "Music Transcends Barriers" and we were expertly taken through the programme by presenter for the evening Josie. Praise indeed from our evaluator Allan Venables who commended her on one of the best programme presenter performances of recent BISC times!

Mercedes and Carole treated us to their own unique interpretation of the evening's theme with both striking a chord (excuse the pun) with many of us in the audience whilst Allan and Ernon gave thorough evaluations.

In the second half, Lyn gave us the opportunity to think more about our own special relationship with music when she asked us in groups to come up with our all time favourite playlist.

Finally, the not-the-speech contest takes place this Thursday and will be hosted by the Lichfield club. A few of us are meeting in Harborne at 6.15 on Thursday evening to travel up to Lichfield together. If any members would like to join us, please give me a call on 07920 180212 or email me at lucydinsdale@yahoo.co.uk. So far, Mercedes and Mike will be competing whilst a few of us will be going along to lend moral support. If any other members would like to compete, please get in touch.

The new programme will be out shortly so keep your eyes peeled!

Best wishes

Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Not The Speech Contest - Thursday 20th January‏

2011-01-10T10:23:00.001Z

ITC Lichfield Final November 2010 Dear all

As mentioned in a previous message, on Thursday 20th January, all members of BISC have been invited to take part in the annual Not the Speech Contest.

The Not the Speech Contest is an annual competition between Birmingham and other clubs within the Anglia Region. It is designed as an informal alternative to the Speech Contest itself which for our club will take place in early February. All members are invited to compete and we're on a mission this year as last year, a Lichfield member won!

The rules are fairly simple and reflect the basic guidelines around club evenings:
- You choose your own subject
- You speak for between 5 and 8 minutes and get a light on at 5 minutes and off at 6 minutes.
- Because this is a competition, the use of a clock or watch is not permitted

N.B It has been requested that you should try to ensure yout speech is not purely a personal story- in other words not an "I" speech. This does not mean you cannot bring in personal anecdotes but it must not be a totally personal story.

If you would like to compete, please drop me a line to express your interest. I will then pass your details onto Lorna Sheldon who will be chairing the competition. You wil then be required to provide the title of the speech, the purpose (to inform, to entertain, to persuade, to inspire, a research speech or a current event speech) and a biography which will be used to introduce you at the competition.

The location of the evening is detailed in the attached document and the event starts promptly at 7.30pm. We can perhaps arrange for members to travel together. If you would like to do this, please do get in touch and I can coordinate this. If you would like to travel by train, arrangements can be made to collect you from Lichfield City station.

Hope you can make it and have a go at competing!

If you have any questions, drop me a line or see me on Wednesday evening.

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Birmingham International Speakers Club (BISC) A taster... upcoming events‏

2011-01-07T11:14:00.002Z

Anglia Council Prog Taster Feb 2011 Dear all

Just dropping you a line to highlight a few upcoming events at BISC and further afield....

20th January
The (now) infamous "Not the Speech Contest" will take place in Lichfield this year on Thursday 20th January. Details to follow for those who fancy having a crack at this very informal take on our speech contest.
N.B This meeting will take the place of our regular meeting planned for the fourth Wednesday in January so please put it in your diary and I will say more about it at the meeting next week.

9th February
The BISC annual speech contest - it comes around again! In time honoured tradition, the winner of last year's contest will be arranging the competition this year. Mercedes has the arrangements in hand and more information will be provided soon. Suffice to say, this is a great opportunity for those who wish, to polish up their speaking skills, put their creative hats on, throw away all watches (time pieces not permitted!) and have a crack at winning the BISC speech contest trophy.

26th February
The quarterly Anglia Council training day which will incorporate the next round of the speech contest is a great opportunity to meet up with members from other clubs. Please come along and support the BISC speech contest winner and see the fantastic comdedian Andy White speak. I first saw Andy speak when I was quite new to BISC and would recommend him to anyone wanting to know how to put humour into their speeches. The full programme is attached. If you would like to attend, drop Margaret a line at margaret.wellington@blueyonder.co.uk

That's all the dates for the diary now. Hope you can make the meeting on Wednesday - see you then!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Birmingham International Speakers Club : Happy new year and details of our next meeting‏

2011-01-04T20:06:00.000Z

Dear all

Happy new year to you all! Hope that the festive season was a restful one.

Just a quick note to say that the first meeting of 2011 will take place next Wednesday (12th January) at
the usual time, 7.30 at the Plough and Harrow - hope you can make it. The theme is "Music Transcends Barriers" and our programme presenter is Lyn Hayles. We'll be in touch with those people scheduled to speak in the very near future.

On another note, we have our next programme planning meeting on Monday at 7.30, again at the Plough
and Harrow. We will once again be compiling the next quarter's programme using the ideas from club members produced as a result of the workshop last summer. If you would like to suggest more ideas then please do drop me a line - have a think about any of the below:

- Themes for meetings
- Skills / subjects for workshops

Whilst we have no shortage of speakers, we are always on the look-out for workshop presenters so if you have an idea for a workshop you would like to run, please do get in touch.

Hope to see you on the 12th!

Best wishes
Lucy Dinsdale
President of Birmingham International Speakers Club

Christmas

2010-12-23T15:55:00.002Z

A joyful and peaceful Christmas to all.

Eastwood communicators Christmas Party

2010-12-18T11:58:00.006Z

Members of Eastwood Communicators met on Wednesday 15th December 2010 at Williamwood Golf Club for their annual Christmas party. The evening opened with Margaret Loudon giving the passing thought and Marie Richardson gave grace.

Following a delicious meal the President entertained the members with a quiz. This was trying to guess who the baby was - the babies were a mix of celebrities and members. Santa came to distribute the gifts and the evening was rounded off with the singing of Christmas songs.

The members all look forward to the first meeting in 2011on 5th January in Rhuallan House.