IT is a particularly busy time for members, who are not only taking part in club activities on a fortnightly basis but are heavily involved with various competitions.

The quarter finals of the National Speech and Evaluation Contest took place at the beginning of February in Solihull and fellow members gave support to Rhoda Lingard competing in the Speech Contest and Hazel Bradley in the Evaluation Contest.

It was a hard fought competition but neither Rhoda or Hazel won through to the semi-finals to be held in March.

Last Friday saw a team of four Redditch members competing in an inter club competition known as the Spouters Stump.

The team consisting of a chairman and three speechmakers competed against four other clubs from the Midlands - all teams speakingon the subjects The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.

Jim Fitzpatrick spoke about The Lion, on a theme of courage, while Kashmir Garton spoke about witches and how females have been treated in the past and present if they were thought to have ''powers''.

Finally, Eleanor Bothwell , speaking about The Wardrobe, took the audience through the ups and downs of following fashion.

Again a good effort by the Redditch team, who were piped to the post by an excellent winning team from Yardley.

At the fortnightly meeting on February 14 ,the theme was based on Valentines - members talking about their loves and pet hates.

The prepared speeches covered the whole range of speaking assignments.

It was pleasing to listen to Maurice's first speech when he talked about the many books there are about how to speak in public. Kashmir followed delivering her fourth speech demonstrating the use of gestures to enhance a speech. And finally Alan Young gave his ninth speech when he sought to engage with the audience establishing a rapport.

All the prepared speeches were to a high standard and members who evaluated their colleagues congratulated them all.

Members are now keen to move onto their next assignments - especially Alan, who will seek to deliver his Masterpiece before the season ends, thus reaching his Certificate of Achievement.

An impromptu session ably led by Roger Jauncey was followed by a concise and perceptive general evaluation by president Pat Langley.

If you are interested in learning how to speak in public with confidence, come along to meeting, which are held alternative Tuesdays at 7.30 for 7.45pm at the Quality Hotel, Redditch. For more details, call Jim Fitzpatrick on 63596 or visit www.redditchspeakersclub.co.uk