Posted by Freddie Daniells
This is a long post so find yourself a comfy chair and a glass of whatever and relax! Here goes:
Wow! Another conference is over and what a few days it was. It was evident that everyone was there to have fun and let the economy be hanged!
Mrs Fred and I arrived on Friday at about 4.30pm and checked into our room. We had a lovely view over the water so were already off to a good start.
At 5pm, there was a workshop by Brian McLoughlin, one of the funniest of our Irish members. Unfortunately, I couldn’t attend the workshop for reasons that may become apparent later in this note. The people who attended told me it was great fun, informative and very interactive.
At 7.15pm we came down for the pre-dinner drinks. Much hilarity ensued as everyone turned up in their fancy dress outfits. The theme was musicals and there were many excellent costumes on view!
As you can see below, the Tube Talkers turned up as The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Our Immediate Past Division Governor, Dick Dixon, paved the way with his hilarious nun’s outfit. Yes, he is seen in the second picture in a clinch with our groover District Lt Governor, Marketing, Teresa Dukes, who came as Sally Bowles from Cabaret!
Music was provided by the Oxford Drum Troupe and was followed with belly dancing by the Vale Dancers. The men were, of course, particularly interested in that part of the evening!
From what I remember, we then retired to the bar and kept on drinking and then went to another bar and then there was some singing and then…oh, I don’t know. What I do know is that when the alarm went off at 7.30 the next morning, neither Mrs Fred nor I were in the best of shape!
But off to the 8am Area and Division Governor breakfast meeting it was. There was plenty of good information about successes and challenges that the organisation was facing plus plenty of talk encouraging us to make sure that clubs have sorted out their succession. Have you?? ;)
Between 9am and 11am there were more workshops.
Unfortunately, I was unable to attend either. Both Dick Dixon and myself were standing later in the morning for the UK and Ireland PR Officer role. This role is elected by all the clubs so there was plenty of campaigning to be done!
It was evident that quite a few Londoners had joined us on the Saturday morning, significantly boosting the numbers. Some were staying the day but a few came for the rest of the conference.
At 11am was the District Council meeting – this is where ‘the business’ of Toastmasters is conducted. The exciting news for Division B is:
- The Division is to be split into 7 areas rather than the current five. I will write a note on this shortly.
- Hilary Briggs of Early Birds Speakers, Grosvenor Square and St Pauls Speakers has been confirmed as the new Division B Governor in 2009/10. She will take over from me on July 1st. Hopefully we will hear more from her shortly too!
- Our new District 71 (UK and Ireland) council were elected with Joe Gibbs as the new District Governor, Teresa Dukes as the new District Lt Governor Training and Education, Jim Hegarty as the new District Lt Governor for Marketing and myself as the new District PR Officer. Below is a picture of Joe Gibbs speaking at the meeting.
At the end of the meeting Dick Dixon and I were in need of a swift beer and fast! These votes are a stressful business…
At 2.30pm the International Speech Contest began. The host for the contest was our very own Tube Talker, Iain Duthie, who did a first class job of running the show. I know he had wanted to do this for a while so a big well done to him.
The interesting thing about this years contest was the variety of speeches. There were the speeches on how the motivational industry doesn’t work and we need to look for the simple things that happen around us for the solutions, on war memorials, on human trafficking, on how we do things we want, not what we need and many more. As ever the quality was outstanding.
Franco Vaccaro of Riverside and our Division B representative did a great job and I am sure that it was a close scoring by the judges. However, he did not place and the results were:
- Gareth McHale
- Bob Ferguson
- Colm McGlade
I believe that Gareth is an ex member of London Corinthians and Bob is a member of Excalibur so along with Franco they did our Division proud. Below is Iain Duthie handing out the Certificates of Participation to Franco and the winner Gareth respectively.
Mrs Fred and I were quite tired at this so crash we did!
At 6.30pm we had been invited to an invite only soiree by the Old Corinthians, Ian Millen and our winner Gareth. Probably 30 or so folks crammed into their room, drinking Pimms and other wonderful concoctions. It meant we were in great shape for the dinner at 8pm! Thanks guys!
Another evening, another haze! Excellent food, good company, an funky band called the Funtime Frankies, too many more drinks and a long sing along at the Craic in the early morning. Chris Boden of Holborn and of course Dick Dixon of Tube Talk took their turns to lead the festivities. I think we finished at 3ish but things were still in full swing.
You may just spot our incoming Division Governor below shaking her stuff. (Hilary – the voting is already over! hehe!)
I woke on Sunday at 9.45am and there was immediately a mad dash downstairs for breakfast as it finished at 10am. There had been a workshop that morning that people said was good, but I think many of the Division B’ers were happy for the lie in.
The evaluation contest started at 11am.
We had a short promo for the November conference to be held in York. We will write this up soon. And then it on to the contest proper. Simon Bucknall was representing Division B representative and Excalibur Speakers.
The test speech was a big wow! The contest chair, John Evans, introduced the speaker and there was a round of applause but no speaker! Suddenly, the speaker burst through one of the doors at the back literally screaming ‘there's been a murder, there's been a murder!'”
We all turned round to find the speaker, Pania Lee of Limerick Toastmasters, dressed in a maids outfit, running around the back of the room asking whether there was a doctor in the house. As the speech unfolded, she came to the front, asking us whether we had ever been on a Murder Mystery weekend and encouraging us to go on one. It was a rip-roaring effort from the wonderful Pania and one, I must admit, I was glad I did not have to evaluate!
However, the contestants didn’t have that choice! For me (biased Div B Governor that is!) Simon was the clear winner. And indeed he was chosen by the judges to be as well. The results were:
- Simon Bucknall
- Lindy Irving
- Sue Coppens-Browne
See below a pic of Simon with Pania waving her feather duster below.
Everyone could see how chuffed Simon was with the award. I found him later still calling family and friends to share the news, beaming like the proverbial cat.
It was a fabulous way to end the conference and another winner for Division B – yay!
So that is the end of another conference, onwards and upwards to York in November we go!
