Virtual Speech Contest

The Association of Speakers Clubs invites entries for a pilot

VIRTUAL SPEECH CONTEST

* Entrants should be paid-up members of Clubs in good standing.

* Only one entry per person; once submitted the entry may not be retracted.

* Speeches may be on any topic.

* Speeches should be recorded in digital format. All videos should be uploaded to google video or youtube for embedding in the ASC website.

* Please contact the Webmaster on webmaster@the-asc.org.uk if in difficulty uploading your speech (or in following these instructions).

* Tapes will not be accepted.

* Each speech should commence with an identification, such as:
“My name is Cynthia Ferret, I am a member of Snetterton Speakers Club and my speech is entitled ‘Things Fall Apart’. Mr Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen…”

* The timing should commence from the next word uttered.

* Recorded speeches should be of between 4-6 minutes duration.

* The contest will run from 1st December 2008 though 31st March 2009.

* The judging panel will be the NEC Education Committee (with the exception of any member who is competing)

* Judging criteria will be as for the existing National Speech Contest together with any common sense medium-specific applications as determined by the judging panel.

* From 1st April 2009 onwards, Club members will be able to access all competing speeches on the ASC website.

* The winners will be announced at the Annual Dinner during the Dundee Conference and the prize (being donated by National President Joe James) will be presented then.

* This initiative is intended as a pilot for a potential (possibly much wider and hopefully sponsored) contest in the future.

These Rules Can be Downloaded here.

Lisa Rogers
Webmaster

Education Director

The NEC has great pleasure in announcing the appointment of Graham McLachlan, of Renfrew Club, and a Past President of North Western District, as National Education Director, with immediate effect. Graham has been very active in promoting both Education and Development in his own District, and his talents and energy will be an asset to the Association nationally.

PowerPoint to the People

I grew up accepting that bread and biscuits needed Marmite. When I lived in Australia, I encountered Vegemite and made the unpatriotic transition. But then I discovered Promite. Perfection. Everyone should taste Promite.

In a similar manner, I believe that every Speakers Club member should be able to use PowerPoint. I would not compel them to nor make it a requirement. But, as with Promite, it’s such a great thing I’d like everyone to have the chance to enjoy it as much as I do.

Perhaps it should be an optional assignment at the Advanced level. The ASC will shortly make available a self-instruction PowerPoint handbook: I have seen the draft and it is excellent.

However, I have three reservations and do not use PowerPoint now as much as I did a decade or so ago.

In many places where I work (Bangladesh, for example) the electricity cuts out – and I fear that this will soon start to happen here in the UK.

Having a prepared set of slides made me lazy, in that I would deliver more or less the same presentation to a group of professors in Pretoria as to a gathering of charity workers in Jamaica.

The PowerPoint format increasingly restricted me – I still like to communicate as I did when I was a mathematics teacher 110101 (binary) years ago and I like my thoughts, along with those of my class/audience to unwind freely in realtime, all over the blackboard.

Yes, everyone should experience PowerPoint – and maybe someone can solve my problems therewith.

MIKE DOUSE
Brecon Speakers Club