The General Election may be over but the election of new officers at Cottonwood Speakers has just started.

 At the Cleveland Hotel in Bournemouth on 13th May Cottonwood members past and present and some welcome guests heard candidates for the new committee  say why they should be voted on.

This was a special meeting away from our usual venue at the Hallmark Hotel and included some great food even for us veggies!

Everyone was welcomed by outgoing President Steve Osborne who is passing on the baton to Tony Peters.

Tony said he wanted to hear lots of Icebreaker speeches during his tenure and no is to hide behind the lectern.

The other the candidates were Kem for Secretary or could it be Maureen?

Dan is to become VP Education taking over from Shirley who is to become Area Governor.Well done Shirley.

Andrew is moving from VP membership to Public Relations a role he will share with Efe.

David Mitchell will take over as VP membership.Anyone for SAA? 

We had two prepared speeches one from a former member Sally Kavanagh who spoke on the proper use of the Queen's English nah wot I mean?.A new member Marc spoke on his desire to become a teacher.Great speech and go for it Marc.

Greg did his first evaluation of Sally's speech,well done Greg and David Singleton Smith evaluated Marc is his own unique way.

Dan did the warm up and asked people to talk about where they come from which was a great idea as we have members from all over the world Canada Nigeria and Australia as well as up north like me.

Alex kept things in order as TM and after the break we were treated to a bit of stand up by former member Keith Hart.He had us laughing telling how voting should be like boarding a plane "people in ages 55 to 90  please vote at 7am as you are the only people who are up"

Then we had a Question Time with various panelists and a David Dimbleby style MC to keep things in order.Lots of topical subjects such as should have compulsory voting? 

The evening ended with awards from Steve for the best question and the best Question Time MC.

We wrapped up about 945pm.A great meeting and hope to see you all again on 27th May.

Andrew Collinson VP Membership ( soon to be PR)