MEETING 2nd February 2012


President
Peter Hodgson

The meeting was opened by President Peter Hodgson with his usual warm welcome to everyone on a cold and frosty evening.  He related a few item that had happened on this day but many years ago.  After taking apologies, he handed over to the Chairman for the meeting Malcolm Bobbitt.

                                    Chairman

                                Malcolm Bobbitt

Chairman Malcolm stepped straight into that role going through the programme for the evening and introducing the timekeepers who for this meeting were Peter Hodgson and Frances Burditt.

                                                                            Phil Wilson

The first item on the agenda was an ‘Ice breaker’, by Phil Wilson, he gave a 4 minute speech on the strange subject of  ‘bottom wiping’  entitled ‘An Object of Desire’.  He got into his stride describing some of the things that were used for this purpose over many years. Starting with the cavemen who probably used grass or broad leaved plants to clean themselves. Phil developed his mini-speech to include the Roman system of using a small mini-mop and a bucket of water, coming through the hard times of the war with a visual aid of neatly trimmed newspaper on a string, which would be hung in an outside toilet. He concluded by showing the latest range of toilet paper that had twenty pound notes printed on the surface. As usual Phil was able to cover this odd subject by injecting a lot of humour into his speech.

                                         Wendy Brown

Chairman Malcolm then moved on the first main speech of the evening, this was by Wendy Brown. speaking to the advanced assignment ‘use of Visual Aids’.  Wendy’s tile was ‘To Kindle or not to Kindle’, she started by getting a number of bags of items ready, then she sowed the audience a few of her favourite childhood books, the first one by Enid Blyton, which was well worn and had her own pencil notes and scribbles on the pages, she showed other similar volumes including ‘The House on Pooh Corner. She gave some interesting, albeit shocking facts regarding the number of children today who do not own a single book, or did not use the public library. She showed a home made collection of Cookery recipes pasted into a book, that she had collected over her lifetime. Wendy concluded by bringing out of a bag, a huge family bible, the type of thing that people include their own family history in, complete with brass straps hinges and clasps.

                                                                                   Mike George

Mike George was the member allocated the job of reviewing Wendy’s speech. He said he had enjoyed hearing a well delivered speech, he agreed with the speaker in loving the printed word much better than computerised version and the modern form of book such as Kindle. Mike felt that Wendy had done very well with her visual aids which included books and a short use of a Flip Chart to give a couple of statistics on children’s reading habits. He had no hesitation in asking her to go onto her next assignment.

             Vic Emmerson

Malcolm then introduced the second main item of the evening, this was a complete change for the Club, the Educations Director had decide to have an open forum type of debate and asked Vic Emmerson to Chair the dialogue and choose the subject for discussion. Vic confidently disposed of the lectern and opted for a chair at the head of the table, his subject was ‘The Honours List’ asking the audience what they felt about this, especially with the news item concerning the removal of a Knighthood recently. This was a very good subject as all members were keen to put their point of view on the matter. This was well controlled by Vic, who was a very good chairman ensuring everyone had the chance to give their views. He also posed other questions as the debate went along. The outcome was in favour of some type of award system, but only for people who helped their community and no awards if you were paid for doing your job, such as entertainers, footballers/cricketers, business tycoons and banking executives. Overall a very good exercise.

                                                           Phil Wilson

Phil Wilson was the reviewer for the debate, he said that he had enjoyed this new venture of an open debate, he felt that Vic had controlled the exercise well ensuring everyone had their say and joined in. Vic had used good control to ensure there was no cross talk and all members heard others make their points. Well done and a good exercise including all members.

                                Steve Dryden

After a short interval in the hotel bar, it was time for the ‘Topics Session’, this is were the speaker has no time to think before they have to give a three minute mini-speech Steve Dryden was the Topics Chairman.  He had recently visited London and decided to use this a basis for his subjects.

          Peter Hodgson                Malcolm Bobbitt            Vic Emmerson

The first Topicee was Peter Hodgson,  He was given ‘London Parks’, Peter’s first thoughts were that he had not visited London for approximately twenty years, but assumed the parks were still there. He always admired the Victorian forefathers who installed parks in all towns and cities, not just London, they gave the early ordinary working man a place  to relax and enjoy some fresh air away from the grime of mills and factories. Peter remembered a park of his childhood in Wallsend, with the end of Hadrian’s Wall sticking out of an embankment. This was later moved to another adjacent park and a small Roman encampment built. Goodness knows what Hadrian would have thought. As usual Peter had taken the subject off at a tangent and talked about his own thing.

Malcolm Bobbitt was given London Omnibuses as his subject, Malcolm had no problem taking about this theme, originally from London he knew all about them. He was even able to quote their specification and slip in a fact about them being so good, they were used to recover troops and bring them back to London during world war 1.  Other cities around the world have copied the double decker bus, based on the London Routemaster design.

Vic Emmerson was given the London Police, Vic talked about the Metropolitan Police force, having started a long time ago with the ‘Bow Street Runners’, then Robert Peel and his ‘Peelers’ as they were known to the ordinary man in the street.  He felt that throughout history the police had had a difficult job.  The chairman Steve enlightened the audience to the fact that there are actually two police forces in London, the Met and the City of London Police, they deal mainly with fraud and embezzlement, thing that go on in the square mile.

     Wendy Brown          Phil Wilson              Ron Thomas         Mike George

Wendy Brown had to talk about London Underground, she said she had been on the underground a number of times with her family, but by herself she found it very confusing, not knowing whether to turn left or right and everyone is in so much of a hurry. Her biggest horror was being jammed in an automatic door, not something that is supposed to happen, but it happened to Wendy.

Phil Wilson was asked to talk about his favourite London Museum, this was fortunate as Phil had recently been to London to visit some of the museums. He found that the British Museum was good but was packed with people and Japanese visitors taking pictures of every last item on display. The Science Museum was too interactive and full of children not taking anything in, just pressing buttons. He decided that his favourite was the Victoria & Albert Museum giving good comparisons between Victorian times and the present day. 

Ron Thomas had to talk about the River Thames. He gave a brief description of it rising in Gloucestershire and flowing right to the North Sea, passing many famous towns on its journey to the ocean.  In olden times it was an important means of getting wool down to London and on to the continent over the channel.  Many people have used the river in many ways, without the Thames London would never have achieved the success it enjoys to this day.

Mike George was the last topicee for the evening, he was given London the Seat of Government. Mike took a humorous look at the House of Commons, whilst he was collecting his thoughts he gave a little known fact that one of the beers named ‘Top Totti’ had recently been banned. He went on to say he felt the MPs who used the House of Commons were a very select Club, full of self importance, that is why they need a big room like the chamber, even if sometimes there are not many attend. It is basically a big Club with many perks, such as subsidised meals, they make a lot of noise and receive honours. 

General Evaluator

Vivian Hodgson

After a brief Business Session it was time for the General Evaluation of the whole evening, the member who had this job was Vivian Hodgson. She commenced by saying that it was good that the President started bang on time as usual. The Chairman explained the Agenda, going through the various sections. She enjoyed Phil’s ‘Ice breaker’ dealing with the various methods of personal hygiene. Wendy’s speech was very good and she liked the humorous approach by reviewer Mike George but still getting his points across. The exercise Chaired by Vic Emmerson was very good with a different slant on how to include all members. Phil’s evaluation was beneficial to the audience, showing that this was probably a good thing to do occasionally. Vivian had to advise that she was surprised at the number of ‘ums’ and ‘errs’ from some of the experienced speakers, more than usual.  The Topics Session was interesting and again it showed how much knowledge is stored away in the brains of the members just waiting to be triggered into action by the Topics Chairman.

It only left the President to look forward to the next meeting. Peter concluded by thanking everyone for their contribution and saying that the evening had been a success, it was very informative and entertaining, with a great deal of laughter thrown in.