4 Dramatic Speeches at Victoria Quay

Meeting 1052 – Wow!

They were Dramatic Speeches!!

• They were personal!
• They revealed important information about themselves, closely related to the main subject matter of the speeches.
• They were all presented skilfully

A warning – there is some challenging material in the speech reports below.

Not an average life

Carla’s CC1 Her Icebreaker – introducing herself

Carla told us how she was sexually abused by her father in her early childhood. This forced her to seek refuge by withdrawing into herself. She escaped at 18 by becoming a nun. After years of living in a different kind of oppressive supervision she left and fell in love and married. That didn’t work for her. She needed an occupation so she became a sex worker!! But that was even more isolated and lonely than being a nun. At the age of 54 she took stock of her life. Religion hadn’t worked for her. Sex hadn’t worked for her. So now she is on a journey into spirituality.

What a speech! Pauline evaluated Carla.

Nobody told me

Leisl’s CC2 focussed on organising her speech

It was a funny, self-revelatory complaint about life

• When she got her drivers license at 17 her father gave a Mini. She loved it. But when blue smoke billlowed up from the engine the garage man told her about topping up water and oil. Nobody told me!
• When she went to the dentist at 18 with sore teeth he told her that her teeth were a disaster. She should have being having annual check ups. Nobody told me!
• Parenting has been such a stressful disaster. She expected to be calm, relaxed and competent like her mother seemed to be. It hasn’t been like that. Nobody told me!
• Now her body is losing it’s youthful charm. She has hairs on her chin! Her skin jiggles. Apparently that’s all a normal part of aging. Nobody told me!

It was very well constructed and we laughed a lot. Caroline evaluated Leisl

Thinking Negative

Adina’s CC3 focussed on organising her speech

She dealt with a common belief nowdays that we should always be positive.

• If only life was that way
• Thinking positive leads to wonderful visions and goals, whilst negative thinking leeds to soud strategies and business plans to achieve those goals.
• Keep your thoughts in check by asking 3 key questions: Is the thought true?: is it important?’ is it helpful?

Aim for adaptive thinking whereby the most useful thoughts, emotions or behaviour, regardless of whether they are “positive” or “negative”, are being engaged.

Anna Marie evaluated Adina

The power of music

Shona’s CC5 focussed on body language

At 15 Shona found herself in a state of self-loathing. She was an unhappy teenager, into drugs and alcohol. Her mother took her to her first concert – John Denver. She was powerfully affected, first by the words he spoke before a note of music and then his opening song, Take me home, country road. She was taken into a different experience of life. Since then she has had downward spirals, but music has helped her recover – particularly Helen Reddy’s I am Woman.

She was energetic. Her face was mobile. Her arms flung around. Her hands opened expressively. Her voice was vibrant. It was a powerful speech. Rob evaluated Shona.

 

This was an “ordinary” meeting!!

The Agenda had all the standard items on it

• An Inspiration, a Tonic and Highlights
• Table Topics of course with evaluations for all 7 speakers
• Timing? Yes, everything was timed – even the Timer timed himself
• Evaluations – everybody gets evaluated – except the final Meeting Evaluation. We even evaluate the evaluators
• And the speeches – of course we had 4 speeches

It is a mark of the supportive atmosphere at Victoria Quay that our speakers are comfortable to share this kind of very challenging personal material with their fellow members.

Personal experiences have credibility, authenticity and power.

Have a look at this website about Personal Experience Speeches

Our 4 speakers tonight, all women, showed that brilliantly.

If you want to know more about how Victoria Quay functions, you can contact David
or you can explore our website