Author Archives: Doncaster Speakers
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 12th Month, 2018
Doncaster Speakers is always a fun, educational evening and this evening was no exception. The evening started with a warm welcoming from Jean has Sergeant at Arms and a confident introduction from Arthur has Toastmaster.
Arthur has stepped up to the Toastmaster role quite a few times now and this evening he gave a slick professional introduction which was clear and precise.
Mwada filled in at the last minute as Timekeeper. She used the Toastmaster Timekeeper app on a phone to keep us all in time for the evening. Maria was Grammarian giving a thorough introduction to her role. She told us the word of the day ‘Balance’ and great examples how to use it throughout the evening. Steven was the Ah Counter and always introduces whatever role he is in with confidence and humour.
Our first speaker of the evening was Maria with a speech entitled Mother Tongue. Maria always amazes us with her knowledge and facts in her speeches. Elizabeth was her evaluator and gave a lovely evaluation to Maria and ending her evaluation with a positive to really boost Maria’s confidence in her speech.
Our second speaker was Lianna with a speech entitled My name is Lianna and I am … This speech was an honest recount of Special Educational Needs. Jean was her evaluator and was very complimentary on how much she enjoys this speech and back this with good examples of Lianna’s speaking skills throughout the speech.
Stephanie delivered an Educational slot looking at the power of word. Stephanie enjoys this topic and educated us all this evening. We all took something away from the session.
The second half of the evening was filled with evaluations and Table Topics. Elizabeth was our TableTopic session. Elizabeth pushed us all to the red timer this evening and we had some interesting impromptu stories told. Andy evaluated our TableTopics session and spoke to all speakers, he also encouraged people to pick up a role at the next meeting.
The evening was wrapped up by Lianna giving the General Evaluator report.
The award winners for best in category were:
Lianna Cairns for Best Speaker.
Susie Marsh for Best TableTopics.
Andy Howell for Best Evaluator.
Report by Lianna Cairns (General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 26th November 2018 at 7pm.
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 22nd October, 2018
Another great evening at Doncaster Speakers.. The evening started with a clear introduction
from Mwada has Sergeant at Arms and Andy has Toastmaster.
Andy introduced Toastmaster International confidently and told us about the programme he referred to Toastmasters as an educational and fun session.
Steve was Timekeeper, he carried out his role with humour. Bridget was Grammarian and jumped into the role with confidence and clear expectations of what she wanted to see in her role. Shane was Ah Counter and told us the importance of his role and that instead of ah and ums we should just ‘push the pause button’.
Our first speaker of the evening was Elizabeth she gave a confident speech on glass blowing and her passion for the subject shone through on this speech. Maria was her evaluator and praised Elizabeth for completing her first pathways modules.
Our second speaker was Jean and has always she gave us a humorous speech with food for thought about world population. Jon gave an excellent evaluation of Jean’s speech.
Bridget and Lianna delivered an Educational slot their recent visit to Sheffield Speakers and gave us a few suggestions on how to make our club even better.
The second half of the evening was filled with evaluations and Table Topics. Stephanie took on the role of Table Topic Master and gave us another fun session. Arthur gave a thoughtful and clear evaluation of all speakers that spoke.
The evening was wrapped up by Lianna giving the General Evaluator report and Andy finished off the evening. Another successful evening, looking forward to the next meeting Monday 12th November.
The award winners for best in category were:
Jean Stewart for Best Speaker.
John for Best TableTopics.
Jon Carvell for Best Evaluator.
Report by Lianna Cairns (General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 12th November 2018 at 7pm start at the Regent Hotel and, as always, guests are welcome.
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 8th October, 2018
The meeting tonight had a great vibe with an excellent turn out and 3 lovely guests.
It was Sandie’s first time as SAA and she got us off to a good start by taking the gavel with gusto, giving the usual 1 min warning and explaining in a clear and concise way of all the things we should be aware of, such as where the fire escape door was, phones off etc. Sandie then gave our ToastMaster of the evening Lianna a very warm welcome.
Lianna has now lots of experience as TM & reminded us from the off how all the dedicated roles taken at the meetings will help with our leadership skills. Tonight’s theme was “Happiness” and Lianna asked us all to try and start our day with giving at least 3 smiles a day to people we meet and even the odd ” how do” and as we travel down our given path we should endeavour to “enjoy the journey”.
Our Timekeeper this evening was Janet. It was Janet’s first role tonight she and reminded us of the importance of keeping to times and how this would be achieved. Janet obviously enjoyed this task and I’m sure this will lead to taking on many other roles.
Stephanie as Grammarian is always a joy to see and hear. Stephanie picks up on phrases, nuances and general grammar that many of us miss. The word of the day was Elation/Elated and it was interesting to see this incorporated into many speeches.
The Ah counter role was taken by Mwada and explained that she would be watching out carefully for all those irritating filler words that we all sometimes use. It is really great to see how infrequent certain ah’s and so’s are being used as we all gain more confidence with each passing meeting.
The Toastmaster then introduced the 2 evaluators. First was Elizabeth who was evaluating Laura’s speech “Nuts & Crackers” which was a very moving and thought provoking reminder of the problems of mental health. Second was Steven who was evaluating Andy speech “Random” . Andy delivered this well with upbeat ” good times” approach to life which will defeat the ” bad times” any day.
Maria kindly stepped up to the plate with an educational session and welcomed our guests. Maria reminded us about the last session a few weeks ago and of the the hard work involved in becoming a Pathways champion.
After the votes for best speaker the Toastmaster ended the first half for a well earned 15 minute break.
Sandie then called the meeting to order and introduced the Toastmaster back to the lecturn. As TM Lianna kept the meeting running smoothly with some great humour thrown in before asking the Grammarian to remind us of the word of the day and give us all an update on how we were all performing.
The General Evaluator was up next and explained the importance of evaluations and how they can be a positive influence to all the speakers.
Elizabeth and Steven then came forward and each gave an honest and valuable assessment of Laura and Andy’s speeches.
Table Topics will always be one of the most popular if not a little terrifying part of the night and this was no exception with Bridget asking 6 people including Jon and Susie ( guests ) the questions of Dr Seuss. These were really thought provoking with “why fit in when you were born to stand out” and “to the world you may be one person but to one person you may be the world”
It was great to have Michael back tonight and as table topic evaluator he gave all the contestants sincere & honest feedback.
With the end of the night looming our TM Lianna asked for reports from the ah counter, grammarian , timekeeper & general evaluator before a short Q&A session. Lianna handed over to Andy to ask for any guest feedback . This was given by all 3 guests tonight who said they had thoroughly enjoyed it. Andy finished off a brilliant night by handing out the awards.
The award winners for best in category were:
Andy Howell for Best Speaker.
Elizabeth Mead for Best TableTopics.
Stephanie Bisby for Best Evaluator.
Report by Arthur Fenn (General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 22nd October 2018 at 7pm start at the Regent Hotel and, as always, guests are welcome.
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 10th September, 2018
Club President Andy was Sergeant at Arms for the evening and got the evening off on time and ran through the housekeeping rules before handing over the meeting to the Toastmaster Lianna.
About a month ago Lianna had never performed the role but watching her tonight she performed the role of Toastmaster with confidence and kept the meeting flowing and overcoming some on the spot problems when a few people dropped out at the last minute leaving roles not filled but by the start of the meeting Lianna had politely persuaded people to take up extra roles.
Next up was experienced speaker and long-time member Jean carrying out the role of Timekeeper, delivered in her usual amusing fashion informing the group the importance of time and the discipline needed to stick to it.
First up of the people who agreed to dual roles was Bridget as the ‘Ah Counter’. Bridget explained what she was looking and give tips how not to have a speech filled with erms, ahs and so’s.
Moments before being called up Steven was asked to step in as Grammarian adding his own humorous stamp to proceedings and choosing the word of the day of ‘Unprepared’. Speakers then have to try and fit the word of the day in to their talks through the night.
Arthur as evaluator introduced the first prepared speaker of the evening Elizabeth who was doing speech 3 of the new Pathways programme where she had to repeat a speech and improved it with the feedback she had been given last time. Her speech was titled ‘What’s in the box’, a look at her fear of buttons.
Another dual role was Pauline who introduced the 2nd speaker Maria. Maria was doing speech 8 of the old Competent Communicator manual – using visual aids. Maria did an interesting educational session about the Toastmaster Easyspeak and Pathways websites. A very packed session that unfortunately ran slightly over time eliminating her from the best speaker award.
During the interval a visitor popped his head in and was warmly welcomed and brought up to speed of what was happening.
The second half kicked with Andy reminding people to turn off their phones and he handed over to Lianna.
Arthur and Pauline gave their evaluations of the prepared speeches giving examples of good and bad parts and way both the individuals and the general audience could use to improve next time.
Pauline performed her 2nd role of the evening – Table Topics Master where people are given a topic and with no planning they have to go straight up on stage and talk for around 1 to 2 minutes.
This weeks topic was ‘Adventure’, things like taking part in a film or going on a blind date cropped up.
Visitor Innocence had a go talking about things he would like to bring from his culture but the winner was Arthur with his talk about getting lost in the Bermuda Triangle and being saved by a Pidgeon (The challenge is to find a topic he does not managed to get a Pidgeon in to!)
Bridget then reviewed the Table Topics giving each speaker one compliment and one comment for them to take away.
Bridget came back to give a review of the evening from the ‘Ah Counter’ point of view giving the number of times each person had said an erm or ah instead of just pausing whist they thought of what to say next.
Steven with his Gramarian hat on informed the room of 4 uses of the word of the day and highlighted some good and not so good grammar that came up during the night.
Then Steven put his other hat on of General Evaluator and evaluated all the people who had not been evaluated during the evening pointing out what they did well and what could be improved on.
The award winners for best in category were:
Elizabeth Mead for Best Speaker.
Arthur Fenn for Best TableTopics.
Bridget Pearson for Best Evaluator. Report by Steven Bisby (General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 24th September 2018 at 7pm start at the Regent Hotel and, as always, guests are welcome. This is our Humous and Table Topics Contest come along for an evening of comedy and fun.
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 20th August, 2018
For a distinguished Toastmasters club with a membership in the high 30s, this was an extraordinary night never witnessed previously by most of its membership. For unlike a typical buoyant turnout, only 6 members could attend this second meeting in the holiday month of August.
However, just like life and public speaking may throw up unforeseen challenges, all saw the prospect for extra practice as an opportunity and got stuck right in. Our newest member Sandie, bravely stretched herself and took on the role of Grammarian. The more experienced members took on two roles to compliment her move – with Arthur as Toastmaster and Table Topics Master, Steve as Timekeeper and Speech Evaluator, Andy as Ah Counter and Speech Evaluator, Andrew as Speaker and Table Topics Evaluator and Maria as Sergeant at Arms and Speaker. Instead of the full General Evaluator feedback of a normal meeting towards the end, all attendees gave Sandie verbal feedback with added focus instead.
Sandie did a superb job in her first Grammarian role, highlighting such vivid gems as “constructed a sentence to paint a picture” and setting the word of the day as “procrastination”. Andy as Ah Counter challenged all to use pauses and avoid the use of so’s (at the start of a sentence) and um’s. Andrew holds the most competition wins, but this evening he launched into the new Pathways programme with his Icebreaker speech “Tales From the Inside” that focused on his Toastmasters journey. His Speech Evaluator Andy, reminded us that Andrew “stayed for the challenge, stayed for the change”. Maria gave her ‘Evaluation and Feedback’ project second speech aiming to demonstrate applied feedback and gave a different spin to her original speech about new digital technologies. Her Evaluator was Steve, who had identified initial strengths and suggested improvements in his thorough approach that was appreciated and proved effective.
Everyone sharpened their concentration and mobility to keep pace with the various roles they played. Plus every person got the opportunity to take part in Table Topics. This impromptu short speeches session hovers on the edge of whacky at times, and this time Arthur brought politics into the equation. He stated that he was Prime Minister, had sacked his cabinet and gave each speaker a nominated Minister portfolio to solve the countries problems. As I said, it was an extraordinary meeting.
The award winners for best in category were:
Andrew Miller for Best Speaker.
Andy Howell for Best TableTopics.
Andrew Miller for Best Evaluator.
Report by Maria Orlovic (in lieu of a General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 10th September 2018 at 7pm start at the Regent Hotel and, as always, guests are welcome.
Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 13th August, 2018
Another wonderful evening at Doncaster Speakers, we are very lucky to have such a positive supportive group. The evening started with a confident introduction from Laura has Sergeant at Arms and Jean has Toastmaster.
Jean introduced Toastmaster International confidently and told us about the new Pathways programme. Her theme was ‘Achievement’ and this theme was woven in throughout the evening by all participants.
Arthur was Timekeeper; he introduced his role and used a great story about time to keep us all enthralled. Pauline was Grammarian and introduced the word of the day ‘eclectic’. Pauline told us what her role was and shared language that grabbed her attention in her evaluation. Andrew stepped in at the last minute has Ah Counter, and gave us a clear description of the role. He spoke to all individuals in his evaluation.
Our first and only speaker of the evening was Maria with a speech entitled ‘What Is Digital?’ she gave a confident speech and tonight was a true reflection of her journey at Toastmasters and how much she has progressed over her 18 months here. Steven stepped in at the last minute to evaluate her speech and delivered a confident and detailed evaluation. He used the ‘commend, recommend and commend’ evaluation technique to deliver his evaluation.
Andrew delivered an Educational slot on the Humour and Table Topic competition we have coming up in the next few months. He certainly persuaded us to come along to the sessions to support and join in with this brilliant event.
The second half of the evening was filled with evaluations and Table Topics. Andy took on the role of Table Topic Master and gave us another fun session. Stephanie gave an thoughtful evaluation of Table Topics and gave feedback to all speakers.
The evening was wrapped up by Lianna giving the General Evaluator report and Andy finished off the evening. Another successful evening, looking forward to the next meeting Monday 20th August.
The award winners for best in category were:
Maria Orlovic for Best Speaker.
Arthur Fenn for Best TableTopics.
Stephanie Bisby for Best Evaluator.
Report by Lianna Cairns (General Evaluator)
Our next meeting is Monday 20th August 2018 at 7pm start at the Regent Hotel and, as always, guests are welcome.
