Connections
Adaptability is one of the key strengths of a Toastmaster and those skills were tested on this particular evening as we discovered that there was a problem with the room booking and, with half an hour’s notice, we had to reconvene to a completely different part of the hotel, set everything up in an unfamiliar space and make sure that all arrivals were suitably diverted.
It slightly delayed the start of the meeting, but didn’t prevent it running smoothly from thereonin.
Toastmaster for the evening was Stephanie Bisby and the theme she ran with was one of ‘Connections’ on the basis that being a member of Doncaster Speakers is not just about improving your speaking and leadership skills, but also a great way to make good connections with other people. Furthermore, our club is connected to many, many, many other clubs around the world (apparently it would take over 40 years to visit all of them if we went to one a day). Whilst we don’t know everyone in all of those clubs, there are plenty of opportunities to connect with those closest to us.
Connecting to the theme of ‘Connections’ was the Word of the Day – “Association” or any similar word that is associated with it. Hah, see what I did there.
We had two prepared speeches this evening.
Steven Bisby bamboozled us all as he got us to consider whether or not we were Bagels or Croissants. Nothing to do with a continental breakfast it turns out, but tips and hints for how to be successful at a networking event (a bagel is a closed pair that doesn’t invite others to join, a croissant is an open pair that says ‘join us’).
Next up was Elizabeth Mead, with a short speech which was actually the first of a series to be completed over the following meetings. At her place of work, she had been asked to introduce a new tool for planning. Tonight she introduced the concept of what she’d been asked to do and, in future speeches, she will let us know how things went.
Whilst we frequently see speeches at Toastmasters where the speaker shares personal stories and meaningful lessons in life, it’s also good to see work related topics. In both cases, key learning points and concise report summaries were delivered in an engaging an informative way – very useful skills to be developed no matter what line of work we are in.
Before the break, Andy Howell stepped up with an education slot entitled “we the audience”, around the importance of feedback and making sure that we don’t hold back in giving constructive suggestions. It’s easy to give the positive feedback, but understanding how things can be even better is actually the secret sauce.
Andy and Stephanie were both back after the break to give their feedback to our two speakers respectively. Andy was keen to get some Evaluation practice in as he will be representing the club at the Division Contest at the weekend.
Which then brought us on to Table Topics, led by Elizabeth Mead, which turned out to be one of the best for a very long time.
Running with the Connections theme, Elizabeth had a ‘magic’ bag of items. The first person came up and, lucky dip style, pulled out an object. The aim was to start a story based around that object and pause the story at a key point. The second speaker then pulled out an object and had to continue the same story, weaving in the new object.
Every member that took part did an amazing job of picking up and running with the theme, weaving in their own object effortlessly and creating a surreal but hugely enjoyable, satisfying and connected story.
For the record, Andy had a stapler at work that he’d had for over 40 years. One day it went missing and it turned out that his boss had stolen it but refused to accept that it was Andy’s. Andy stole it back but, at a Christmas party, the boss got his revenge. By the end of the story, Andy had been falsely arrested for murder and thrown into jail, only to be rescued from his cell in the nick of time by “Tin-Opener Man”.
One for the ages, for sure.
The final few slots were taken up with the Table Topic Evaluation from Steven Bisby, an Ah Counter report from Lianna Williamson, Grammarian feedback from first timer in the role, Macaulay Shaw and the overall meeting report from the General Evaluator, Andrew Miller.
Winners of the evening were as follows:
Best Speaker – Steven Bisby
Best Evaluator – Stephanie Bisby
Best Table Topic – Andrew Miller
We’re back again in just one week (the Easter Holidays having pushed things back a bit). To clarify, that’s 24th April with a 7pm start. Feel free to come along and check things out – be there for 6.45pm to get settled before we get underway.
On the basis of how tonight went, it’s going to be a cracker.
Doncaster Speakers 