Underlining the strength in depth of speaking skills in the area, the North Bucks Speakers heat of this year's International Speech Contest attracted five high calibre entries from (in order of speaking) John Schell, Anthony Crow, Brian Bollen, Leon Welsh and Jason Johns. The honours in a close run competition went to Jason Johns for his thoughtful motivational address entitled: “Is It Really Possible?”
John Schell was runner-up.
Brian Bollen, to his clear astonishment, won the Speech Evaluation contest, despite the sterling efforts of Peter Giesinger, Dave Minzey and Leon Welsh to evaluate a speech prepared at very short notice by Margaret Bollen. “They say you should never evaluate a speech by your wife, or partner, but Toastmasters is all about stepping beyond and therefore extending your comfort zone, and this was a prime example of that,” said Brian.
