Zoom keeps us all in the loop

WE ARE fortunate to have a few members at Loughborough Charnwood Speakers Club who are IT competent and can take us into Zoom meetings to keep us all “in the loop” during this time of lockdown.

Not without teething troubles on this occasion, we seemed to be mixed up in another ASC meeting in Glasgow which disconnected us all. It was down to club president Peter Minshall, (until the end of this season) who was hosting the meeting to organise his personal account so the meeting could continue.

We lost a few participants during this changeover but 16 people managed to join in and enjoy an evening of prepared speeches and Topics.

Vince Jupp was inspired by this period of self isolation and distancing to refer to the war years and Winston Churchill’s message to never give up and never surrender.

He was reminded that it is the 80th Anniversary year of D Day and spoke of the terrible plight of the soldiers stranded on the beaches of Dunkirk. The heroism of the men who went out in their hundreds to save as many as they could is the subject of many films.

Winston Churchill was not always supported by his Government but he never

doubted himself and made tough decisions. In 1941 he negotiated a loan of billions of dollars with President Roosevelt which was called “Lease Lend”. This took over 60 years to repay and the country withstood hardship for many years. Churchill was determined to see it through and had the courage to continue the fight to the end.

Many memorable sayings of his remain with us to this day which remind us to “Never Surrender” to the virus and never give up. We will win in the end.

Lidia Lupes then presented a clever speech about snowmen.

Lidia comes from Romania so English is not her first language but she has shown enormous improvement since joining the club.

Her range of vocabulary is impressive and the amount of research which she did regarding the Snowman showed an innovative approach to the subject. First mentioned in the 14th century, snowmen were found in Italy and Japan and of course it has been a fun and free source of entertainment here for many centuries. Lidia covered this subject in three parts. Firstly, critical thinking, historic facts then climate change which as we know has affected the shortage of snow.

Lidia concluded that snowmen were now an endangered species. This was a novel approach to something we probably all take for granted without thinking about the interesting history of the Snowman’s

origins.

Nick Adjinkya was due to give a speech entitled “On the Stocks” but again, inspired by Vince Jupp and the situation we are all facing he did an about turn and delivered an unprepared talk about not surrendering.

Nick’s knowledge of so many subjects is amazing. He gave us a history lesson of battles ranging from the Greeks in 490 BC, the battle of the 300 Spartans and Hannibal and finished with a story about a more common battle these days, that of bullying in schools.

After a short break, Christine Callaway presented her Topics session. She wanted us to examine feelings. Caring and kindness being soft skills usually the role of women in the main

with engineering, management and the professions being the role of men.

Nowadays these jobs are taken by both sexes and very successfully. Men are becoming nurses and women are running board meetings! Equality is on its way.

Sue York who will be taking over as club president at the start of the next season was given the topic “How would you feel being extremely joyful”

Arthur Murray “Living the Dream” Eric Baker “How does it feel to be totally free” and a new visitor to the meeting Lauren Earle “How would it feel to became blind”. This was a challenging subject and Lauren handled this with sensitivity and care.

Deafness, being truly loved and being misunderstood

were some of the other feelings that were explored.

The evening’s theme became the subject of never giving up or surrendering starting with the technical difficulties and the uplifting speeches of our three speech makers.

There is often a surprise to be had which you may never expect and this was certainly an evening which reflected our current situation. We can look back at how people have managed during turbulent times and know that one day we will prevail even if our way of life is different it will become “The new Normal”.

There is still time to join in our meetings as we may continue to Zoom through the summer. Contact us on www.loughboroughspeakers.org.uk