This is the report from General Evaluator Sean Gordon.

Our Sergeant at Arms Alison Turner opened the meeting promptly, ensuring that everything was in place, fire procedures were understood, phones switched off and if caught short everyone knew where to go.

We had eleven members attend the meeting, including new member Julian Leanne, but it is the holiday season. This was made up by four guests; Lianna Cairns, Sharon Davies, Sarah Saxelby and Bartek Marzec and everything was set for a great evening.

Our Toastmaster for the evening and his first time in the position was Shane Lukas. Shane is a new member, only joining our club on 11 Apr 16. Shane set the theme for the evening, ‘Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway’.

I was impressed by Shane’s performance, as anyone who has taken the role of Toastmaster will tell you it is challenging, but Shane rose to the occasion. Well done.

Our Grammarian, Stephanie Bisby gave The Word of the Day; Encourage, Encouragement, Encouraging, an excellent word which proved popular throughout the evening.

We had two speakers for the evening; Bridget Pearson with a speech titled, ‘Smell the Fear’ – how very appropriate – and Steven Bisby with a speech titled, ‘I didn’t Order that Phantom’, both entertaining and enjoyable speeches.

The speech evaluators were Julie Gordon and Jean Stewart respectively. Both gave a  good account of themselves.

The speeches were followed by an Educational Session given by Andy Howell who turned the session around on its head by asking the audience, what they wanted from these sessions? Having just begun a new year in Toastmasters, it was a good question to ask.

Our Toastmaster for the evening, Shane then closed the first part of the meeting and we enjoyed a break.

The second part of the evening belongs to the Evaluators and the ‘Fun Part’ Table Topics.

First the serious part of evaluating; Doncaster Speakers do fantastic in this area and it is important for we all learn to do better by giving this important feedback.

Table Topics, for those who do not know, it is impromptu speaking where the Speaker is given an unknown subject and must speak between 1 to 2 minutes and no one knows where the speech may lead to. The Table Topic Master for the evening was Andy Howell and his theme was to tell a Tall Tale and for the audience to surmise whether it was true or false. Truly original for me and I liked it.

Table Topics was evaluated by Jean Stewart, who did a quick and efficient job.

Finally the awards were announced by Jean Stewart.

Best Speaker                     Bridget Pearson

Best Evaluator   (A tie)   Stephanie Bisby

Jean Stewart

Best Table Topic (A tie)  Stephanie Bisby

Shelagh Jones

First Timers                         Sarah Saxelby

Lianna Cairns

Sharon Davies

I, and dare I say it everyone, had a thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Our next meeting is on Monday July 25th and guests are very welcome to attend (no charge, of course). There is a list of upcoming meetings here