Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 12th February 2018

Upon entering the room, I was greeted by the hustle and bustle of excited Toastmasters and several guests.

Debra Kershaw – the club’s VP Membership, Maria Orlovic and Andrew Miller were hard at work to ensure that guests had signed the guest book and all had seats. By 7pm when the meeting started, there was standing room only!

The night was comprised of three speeches from the Traditional Toastmasters program, and one educational session led by Accredited Speaker and Pathways Guide, Clare Crowther.

Lianna Cairns’ speech “Discovering New Zealand” drew cheers from the audience when she pointed out that it was a Yorkshire man who eventually gained the indigenous Polynesians’ trust. Arthur Fenn praised Lianna’s word choice, use of the floor and pacing, recommending that she vary her hand gestures to avoid clasping her hands.

Steve Bisby earned the award of Best Speaker for his speech “The Steve Slam,” which entertained the audience with several wardrobe changes along with a vivid and humorous slide show. Sarah Saxelby earned Best Evaluator for her evaluation, which was entertaining in its own right. She praised Steve’s physicality during the speech but added a note of caution not to turn his back on the audience when referencing the slides.

Andy Howell demonstrated advanced skills in his speech “A Trip Down Memory Lane,” Bridgett Pearson praised how he combined body language, gestures and vivid imagery in his storytelling to connect with the audience. Her recommendations included referencing the title within the speech itself.

Clare Crowther and Tina Norbury offered more insight into the what, when and how of the new educational system, Pathways. Members and guests alike were interested to hear what Pathways has in store, and how this would change the educational experience.

As Toastmaster for the evening, Shane Lukas led us through the meeting expertly. His introductions and transitions were welcoming and seemed effortless. He demonstrated how a Toastmaster can lead with a calm and confident presence.

Stefan Glova made his debut as Table Topics Master.  His welcoming and cheerful smile made speakers feel at ease, as they answered deceptively simple but challenging questions about a variety of service experiences. Stephanie Bisby evaluated the 8 table topics participants expertly.

Jean Stewart kept us laughing in her dual roles as Timekeeper and Grammarian, while still explaining the roles simply for the benefit of guests.

In the role of Ah-Counter, Jon Carvell kept the humour coming with artful use of pauses and repetition.

The meeting closed with a Thank You from Angela Scott, Division E Director, and acknowledgement of all that Doncasters Speakers have achieved so far this year to build a vibrant club. President Shane Lukas accepted the ribbons the club had earned for the Dues Renewal contest in September on behalf of the committee, and then announced that meeting’s winners were:

  • Best Speaker: Steve Bisby
  • Best Evaluator: Sarah Saxelby
  • Best Table Topics: John Carvell

Report by Angela Scott, General Evaluator

Our next meeting is Monday 26th February 2018

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 22nd January 2018

Arthur Fenn opened the meeting at 7 o’clock and welcomed our club President and Toastmaster for the evening, Shane Lukas, who provided a lively introduction despite being let down by technology.    Proof that Toastmasters really does help you cope with every eventuality that can befall a speaker.

Jon Carvell, taking the role of timekeeper for the first time, gave a clear explanation of the importance of timekeeping and the way the timekeeper helps to keep the meeting on track.  Sarah Saxelby described the role of Ah Counter in an equally fluent fashion and Maria Orlovic as Grammarian introduced both the role and a word of the day to challenge speakers: prodigious.  Prodigious efforts were made throughout the meeting to ensure this new word was widely used!

The first speaker was Jane Franckeiss, who delivered a confident and fascinating icebreaker speech, giving us an insight into her life through her travels.  Ben Clottey then delivered his tenth and final speech from the Competent Communicator manual, asking us to consider how we might inspire others who we touch on our paths through life.  Shane Lukas closed the first half of the evening with an informative and thought-provoking educational presentation about values and beliefs.

The second half of the evening opened with evaluations of the prepared speeches.  Jane’s speech was evaluated by Andy Howell, who delivered a warm and positive evaluation which nevertheless included helpful pointers on how Jane could develop as a speaker.  Andrew Miller, evaluating Ben, also gave a clear, well-structured evaluation, offering both commendations and recommendations.

The table topics (short impromptu speeches) were set by Bridget Pearson, with the entertaining theme of responding gratefully to a surprise gift.  Both the gifts and responses varied widely, with all the speakers rising to the challenge and responding originally and often amusingly, with the winner managing to display an impressive amount of emotion over her gift, a small and rather nondescript rock.  Steven Bisby, as Table Topics Evaluator, provided useful feedback to all the participants.

All the awards were closely contested but the final results were as follows:

  • Best Speaker: Ben Clottey
  • Best Evaluator: Andy Howell
  • Best Table Topics: Maria Orlovic

Report by Stephanie Bisby, General Evaluator

Our next meeting is Monday 12th February 2018, rsvp for our New Year, New You event

 

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 8th January 2018

Sergeant at Arms Jean Stewart started the meeting on the dot of 7pm with a humorous but effective introduction to the logistics of the evening.

As it was the first meeting of 2018, Toastmaster of the Day Pauline Westrop chose “New Year Resolutions” as her theme for the meeting.   She did a quick run round everyone in the room asking them to complete the sentence “This year I  will….” which uncovered a promise to avoid murder and to refrain from aiding and abetting said murder as well as many more worthy goals.  We had two guests and Pauline covered all the conventions efficiently.

Stephanie Bisby as Timekeeper not only explained the reason for good time keeping but made sure everyone was familiar with the position of the timing cards in the unfamiliar meeting-style room setup.

New member Jane Franckeiss stepped in at short notice to take the role of Ah counter and did an excellent job in explaining her role.

Jean was also Grammarian and chose a word related to the meeting theme, Willpower, as her word of the day.

Bridget Pearson introduced Steve Bisby who was delivering Speech 7 in the Competent Communicator manual which helps uncover the ways to research the material in a speech. Steve gave us an amusing talk about the trials of life as a follower of Doncaster Rovers – a subject for which he had many years of research to plunder and cleverly linked specific examples to the theme of Be Prepared.

Pauline delivered an educational session around the forthcoming second half of the Toastmaster Year and the imminent start of the new Pathways programme in March 2018.

Jean had us back at our seats exactly at 8pm after a break for coffee and chat and the second half started with Bridget’s evaluation of Steve’s prepared speech.

She highlighted the parts which went especially well and, as is the way in Toastmasters, offered some points where the speech could be improved.

Table Topics, the impromptu speaking section of the meeting, was run by Andy Howell.  He gave speakers the unusual task of comparing the pros and cons of arguments. He called it “Rant and Rave” and it was really enjoyed by all the speakers.  Pauline Westrop, talking about small dogs, won the award for Best Table Topics speaker.

Andrew Miller gave helpful feedback to all the speakers which earned him the Best Evaluator award.

Jane gave feedback as Ah counter and commented on how hard it is to focus on her role and not get diverted by the content of the speeches.

Jean gave her usual entertaining look at all the language used during the meeting – and ended up saying that “I think you are all bonkers!”

Which summed up an enjoyable, entertaining and instructive meeting perfectly.

The award winners were:

  •     Best Speaker – Steve Bisby
  •     Best Table Topics speaker – Pauline Westrop
  •     Best Evaluator – Andrew Miller

Report by Shelagh Jones, General Evaluator

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 11th December 2017

Doncaster Speakers meeting on 11th December kicked off at the usual time of 7pm but not quite in the usual style. The Regent Hotel was decorated for Christmas, and members sported Christmas jumpers and enjoyed drinks, food and a fine collection of Christmas cracker jokes.

The evening also departed from the usual format of prepared speeches in the first half of the evening followed by evaluations and table topics – short impromptu speeches – in the second. Instead an informal chat over dinner was followed by ‘evaluator bingo’. This involved listening to an excellent TED talk while attempting to count instances of ‘um’, ‘like’, ‘so’ and stuttering in each five-minute segment of the talk. Once the counts were in, everyone compared their results with the correct answers (as defined by Club Treasurer, Andrew Miller). Lianna Cairns and Steven Bisby demonstrated their listening skills by coming closest with three exact matches each.

The evening closed with a version of table topics given a festive twist by Club President, Shane Lukas. Questions had seasonal themes, from ‘how would you tell an eleven-year-old the truth about Santa?’ to ‘what would you say if you were an innkeeper with a full house, and a pregnant woman with a donkey arrived on your doorstep?’ The prize for the best table topic went to our Vice President of Education, Andy Howell, for his unconventional answer to the question, ‘What’s the best Christmas film ever?’

Report by Stephanie Bisby

Our next meeting is on 8th January 2018 at the Regent Hotel in Doncaster, at the usual time of 6:45pm for 7pm start.  As always, guests are very welcome!

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 27 November 2017

Another wonderful evening at Doncaster Speakers, it was a very busy evening with a few new faces which is always a positive.  Three strong speeches were delivered and everyone stepped up to the mark as usually in their roles.  The evening started with a humorous introduction from Andrew Miller as Sergeant at Arms and Stephanie Bisby as Toastmaster.  Stephanie introduced Toastmasters International confidently and told us why she had joined the club. Her theme was ‘Taking Risks’ and she described Toastmasters perfectly as a safe environment to take risks and described Toastmasters as a place to  “Stand up, have a go, fall back and trust us we will catch you and support you through your journey.”

Jean Stewart was Timekeeper, she introduced her role and used the Toastmaster timekeeper’s app to keep us all on time for the evening.  Stefan Glova was Grammarian and introduced the word of the day ‘procrastination’.  Stefan entertained us with his humour and shared language that grabbed his attention. Bridget Pearson was Ah Counter, she gave us a suggestion on’ just taking a pause’ to stop these little niggles from happening. She spoke to all individuals in her evaluation.

Our first speaker was Maria Orlovic with a speech entitled ‘Act Upon It ’, she gave a confident speech which has us all enthralled from start to finish.  Deborah Kershaw evaluated her speech in a positive way and showed how well she had been listening to the speech.

The second speaker was Andy Howell with a speech entitled ‘Beep, Beep’ which was a classic story of good Vs evil using a well-known cartoon programme.  Steven Bisby evaluated his speech in his witty way and gave Andy positive and constructive feedback to work on.

The final speaker was Pauline Westrop with a speech entitled ‘Remembering the miners strike of 84/85’ this was another heartfelt and honest speech. Pauline has the ability to pull us into her personal stories and take us on her journey, very powerful.  Arthur Fenn evaluated her with a personal and positive evaluation.

The second half of the evening was filled with evaluations and Table Topics.  Shane Lukas took on the role of Table Topic Master and gave us another fun session.  Pauline Westrop gave an energetic evaluation of Table Topics and gave feedback to all speakers.

The evening was wrapped up by Lianna Cairns (myself) giving the General Evaluator report and Shane Lucas finished off the evening.  Another successful evening, looking forward to our Christmas themed night!

The award winners were:

  •     Best Speaker, joint winners – Pauline Westrop and Maria Orlovic
  •     Best Table Topics – Jon Carvell
  •     Best Evaluator – Deborah Kershaw

Report by Lianna Cairns, General Evaluator

Our next meeting is Monday 11th December, 2017 with our Members’ Christmas Meeting

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report Monday 13 November 2017

Numbers were lower than usual this week, mainly due to holidays (who knew November was such a popular time for travel?) but what the group lacked in size it made up for in enthusiasm.  Sergeant at Arms for the evening, Lianna Cairns, opened the meeting at 7:00 (give or take an unavoidable delay of a minute or two), and got us off to a flying start by delivering the announcements in her usual clear and unflappable style, despite stepping into the role at very short notice.

Arthur Fenn introduced the main business of the evening in a friendly and approachable manner, and then kept the meeting flowing smoothly as he introduced the individuals performing various roles for the evening: Pauline Westrop as Grammarian, Steven Bisby as Ah Counter and Stefan Glova as timer.  All three performed their roles meticulously throughout the evening.

Our first speaker was Lianna Cairns, who received a well deserved ‘Best Speaker’ ribbon for her talk entitled ‘Anything for a Bargain’, a sentiment with which I’m sure many of our members would agree (we are from Yorkshire, after all), even if we may not have gone quite as far for a bargain as she did.   Her evaluator, Pauline Westrop, received ‘Best Evaluator’ award for her thoughtful and powerfully delivered feedback on Lianna’s speech.

The second speaker was Stephanie Bisby, presenting a modern twist on a traditional folk tale as part of the advanced Storytelling manual.  Stuart Hunt bravely stepped in at the last minute to deliver his first ever evaluation, which he did clearly and enthusiastically.

The second half of the evening featured Table Topics (short impromptu speeches) set by Bridget Pearson around themes relating to the recent Steel City conference and the speeches delivered there.  Topics varied from the conventional, such as buying a new dress for the conference, to the intriguing, such as ‘Who would you be if someone stole your identity?’  The winning Table Topic was delivered by our Toastmaster for the evening, Arthur Fenn, with a humorous take on the assigned subject: his reaction to finding himself fifteen months pregnant.

Following the General Evaluator’s report, Arthur wrapped up the evening with a quick Q&A session and then presented the awards for Best Speaker and Best Evaluator, while Past President Jean Stewart kindly stepped in to present Arthur with his award for Best Table Topic.

The award winners were:

  •     Best Speaker – Lianna Cairns
  •     Best Table Topics – Arthur Fenn
  •     Best Evaluator – Pauline Westrop

Report by Stephanie Bisby, General Evaluator

Our next meeting is Monday 27th November, 2017