On 12 August, 23 Rostrum members met at the Gosnells Hotel for this year’s South of the River Speaking Competition. The Chairman of the meeting Freeman Rick Staker welcomed visitors from Clubs 15, 21 and 50 to Club 11’s meeting No. 1818.
The speaking program kicked off with a Bright Spot from Martin Powner followed by a tongue wrangling Tongue Twister from Fmn Graham Longworth.
The competition then got underway with each of the four eligible clubs represented by a speaker with less than four years membership of Rostrum. Each speech was for six minutes with a warning bell at five. The topic Read the Instructions was a popular choice. James Mittel (Club 50) warned us ‘ignore instructions at your peril’, while Peter Hickey (21) told us to ‘enjoy the twinkles between the wrinkles’. Club 11’s Kun-Lin Wu’s message was ‘to not just read the instructions but to think and be prepared for what life throws at you’. Felicity Higgs (15) chose the topic Today’s Children and pointed out what many of us already know, ‘we can learn a lot from watching our children’.
All four speeches were excellent and our three adjudicators, Wayne Passmore, Bill Smith and Joanna Whitney had their work cut out for them. The winner of the John Barton Memorial Trophy was Felicity Higgs. Congratulations Felicity.
Clive Carrington presented a thoughtful PQ: ‘How would you like the audience to perceive your presentations?’ As a measure of the quality of the question, seven members jumped up to answer it. This was followed by a lively General Business session and a delicious dinner.
The program resumed with an entertaining speech by Ivan Miles on the joys of running a community radio station (Heritage FM 107.3). A radio ad prepared for Club 11 by Grady Habib (Sandbox Productions) and currently playing on Heritage FM was shared with the audience.
After Five Fabulous Phrases from Sally Matthews, the raffle was drawn, members and visitors were thanked for attending and another fun meeting at Club 11 was closed.
The South of the River Speaking Competition will be on again in 2016.
Freeman Rick Staker, Foothills Club 11
