I don’t sail and know little or nothing about boats so when the Commodore of the local yacht club asked to write a speech I was in a bit of a quandary. He explained that they were going to have a sail pass dinner and that he needed to speak at it. He confessed that no matter how many times he had to speak he still found it hard going. My imagination took flight as I remembered walking by the seashore one balmy evening recently and being entranced by the colours of the sails reflected in the water. He wanted to speak about the youngsters who were the life blood of the club. He spoke proudly of how, when a sudden squall had overturned many of the boats, the children had not panicked but had kept their wits and waited to be rescued. He had the interesting thought that their training at sea would help them deal with the squalls of life later on. With that interesting though I was soon in full flow and his speech, he told me later on, was plain sailing.

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The chairman of the amateur football club wanted me to write a few words for his annual general meeting. Obviously he wanted to praise the work done by his coaches. He wanted to talk about the success of the various teams during the year. He also wanted to point out that some teams were not doing as well as could be expected and he wanted to suggest, tactfully, ways they could improve. He needed to address the general membership about the support they could give the club and about the urgent need for fundraising. He said that, overall, he’d like to speak about the whole ethos of the club, how it had enriched many lives and to lay out the challenges it faced. He wanted to end on a positive note so that everyone would go home proud to be a member of the club and willing to volunteer their services in some way. My challenge was to see that the speech coaxed busy people into believing that they could spare the time to become involved in such a worthwhile organisation. He had sold it to me, now it was my job to sell it to others. I hope I can score with this one.

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