Doncaster Speakers TM Club meeting GE Report 22/04/2024

Saving The World – One Speech At A Time.

Written by: Andrew Miller,

Edited and Published By: Donald Sweeting VPPR.

To acknowledge, elevate and celebrate World Earth Day, Lianna Williamson, our Toastmaster of the evening selected Save The World as her theme.  By sharing official statistics throughout the meeting and connecting with the Grammarian and Table Topics so that their particular inputs reflected the theme, it was a great way to involve everyone in an important message without taking away from the fun of the evening.

It was also great to see so many recently joined members – almost half of the attendees have been with us for less than a year.  Having experience in the room from established members is extremely useful as we can learn from them, but the new faces bring an extra level of energy and excitement to the meetings.

As is common practice, there were a few last minute essential alterations to who was taking which roles, which meant some people stepping in with only a moment’s notice.  But that is what Toastmasters is all about – working together and producing great results irrespective of circumstances.

Roy Rungay, Nicole Stead and Mark Kelly all took on roles that they’d never done before – Grammarian, Ah Counter and Table Topics Evaluator respectively.  And all three performed exceptionally well with great observations and feedback that will have helped all those attending.

Meanwhile, Mihail Pricop challenged himself immensely with only his second club speech by taking it on with only a few bullet points to cover and improvising the actual content. Very impressive.

Our evening winners in the different categories were:

Best Speaker – Donald Sweeting

Best Evaluator – Mark Kelly

Best Table Topic –  Andy Howell – even though he started off the evening saying that being on time was more important than saving the world and, in his table topic, essentially instigated an animal uprising enforced by human executions !!    It’s amazing what some people will vote for.

As ever, an evening of learning and serious messages all wrapped up in an envelope of fun and encouragement.

The next few meetings don’t follow our normal pattern.  We actually have an extra meeting next week on the 29th – testing out another venue just to compare.  Then, to Bank Holidays, the May meetings will be on 13th and the 20th.

If you’re interested in coming along, drop a line to us at doncasterspeakers@gmail.com and ask for details.

Doncaster Speakers TM Club Meeting & GE Report: 11th March 2024 – Inclusion… By Donald Sweeting

Written By: Donald Sweeting VPPR (Edited By: Donald Sweeting VPPR, Doncaster Speakers Toastmasters Club)

The meeting was opened on time by the SAA (Sargent At Arms) Andrew Miller , who did all the usual housekeeping announcements and introduction then handed over to TM for the evening Mrs Stephanie Bisby.

Each of the role players were invited to come to the stage and share with the members what their roles entail and how the members will benefit from them performing their roles successfully to the benefit of all present and on Zoom.

1st Speech Evaluator: Andrew Miller – Great opening as usual creating the suspence for what was to come before the usual formal greeting “Madam Toastmaster, Fellow Toastmasters and most welcomed guests…” as he draws us into his story by injecting humour where appropriate. Andrew always leaves us wanting more by making us aware of the speakers ambitions for his speech and his TM journey.

2nd Speech Evaluator: Andy Howell – Another veteran in the art of competition at Division level on behalf of the Doncaster Speakers Toastmasters Club, Andy took us through the various Educational Pathways available to members of TMI and how it benefits every member to follow their chosen path. He delivered a very clear speech on his topic and the speaker gave us a great demonstration of how NOT to reposition the podium… OOPS!!! this prompted laughter from the audience.

Toastmaster Stephanie Bisby invited the audience to write their feedback to both speakers using the SLIDO app or using the folding bits of voting slips as per the traditional TM method… She then invited our VPE (Vice President Education) Mrs Lianna (Cairns) Williamson to the stage to give her presentation (100 years Of TM)…

HAPPY (100 YEARS) BIRTHDAY – Toastmasters International

Lianna took us on a wonderful journey through the years of Toastmasters beginning in 1924 right up to present date. it was a great story and a highly educational opportunity for newer members who may not have known the full magnitude of an Non Governmental Organization (NGO) with over 240,000 members in more than 144 countries around the globe to how we started here in the UK in Southport. She continued the talk by touching on how our own local club (Doncaster Speakers) was chartered only 10 years ago and provided new greetings from founder members.

“Evaluation is The POWERHOUSE of Toastmasters” –

author unknown…

The Grammarian gave their report on the word of the day – Acceptance… commenting further that we want to be as open, welcoming and inclusive as we can as a club so let’s get on with it…

The TT Master (Table Topics Master) was very entertaining as was each of the members and guests who volunteered to take part (some of whom did so for the very first time) in the impromptu speaking session, despite the irrational fear of public speaking that affects many people. Each person made a valuable contribution to an overall enjoyable evening that delivered on the TM promise of providing a “SAFE SPACE” to practice public speaking and supporting every member on their journey.

The TT Evaluator (Table Topics Evaluator) expressed the need for “Having Each Other’s Backs”… and supporting each other. Well done Rai ~Bergman for keeping us entertained and for encouraging first timers to “Have A Go” because its so scary that just getting up in front of everyone is a huge win… Also as if on cue, the comments on involuntary body language of hand clasping to cope with nerves, is a huge “NO, NO” in Rai’s book this was repeated until the message got through… to the delight of the audience in attendance and on Zoom.

The Ah Counter was again very humorous with the delivery of his report… He commented on the fact that although he was a fellow “nubie” full of self deprecation, he was grateful that the TM brand has created a SAFE environment to try out new things as we each are at a different place in our journeys.

The Grammarian … Finally but by no means least was the Gramarian’s report… Val’s report was somewhat diminished due to some technical gremlins that crept into the system and distorted her sound, so that she was not experiencing the same levels as the rest of the online participants. This made providing feedback to everyone difficult but the ones she could hear were given feedback in her usual forthright and enthusiastic style… well done.

In general, the meeting was very well conducted from start to finish and everyone in the room knew their roles and delivered on the Toastmasters Promise impeccably…

The Doncaster Speakers Club President – Stephanie Bisby, presented the awards and thanked everyone for coming and closed the meeting.

Doncaster Speakers TM Club Meeting & GE Report: 25th March 2024 – Every Step You Take… By Andrew Miller

Written By: Andrew Miller VPM (Edited By: Donald Sweeting VPPR, Doncaster Speakers Toastmasters Club)

Get Out Of Your Comfort Zone And Help Each Other


This was the overarching message that ran through last night’s meeting of Doncaster Speakers and it was more than just words. Actions followed intention.
Andy Howell, as Toastmaster of the evening, set the specific theme of Every Step You Take, backing it up with the title of this article and the importance of moving forwards with purpose.

Very relevant because, as a result of some behind the scenes challenges, we had lost
approximately a third of our role takers for the evening and everyone had to rally round and take on multiple roles – Andy himself taking on three. This included one of our newer members, Mihail Pricop, who added Ah Counter to his role
as Grammarian – a challenging task to do both at the best of times – and add the fact that English is not his native language, he did an absolute sterling job.

We were also blessed with three excellent speeches tonight.
Seasoned Toastmaster, Lianna Williamson carried away the vote for best speaker of the evening with her personal experiences of “Fight, Flight or Freeze” (as well as stepping in as Table Topics Master at a moment’s notice)
This should not, in any way, take away from the performances from our other two
speakers, Rai Bergmane and Roy Rungay.


Rai has only been with us for around 6 months but is a star in the making and delivered another confident performance with a different take on the concept of “My Story”. Later on in the session, she would evaluate the Table Topics session and this would earn her a ribbon for the night for Best Evaluator.

Our other speech of the evening came from new member Roy Rungay who delivered his Ice Breaker speech entitled “My Choice” and what an introduction to the club. A self confessed ‘bag of nerves’ when joining the club a few weeks ago, this was another example of someone getting out of their comfort zone, taking action and hitting it out of the park. An incredibly confident, well delivered speech – it felt like he’d been a member for years. A great sign of things to come.

Also unwilling to go home empty handed, as well as getting his Ice Breaker ribbon, Roy also carried home the Table Topic vote (shared with Andrew Miller). So everyone was a winner of sorts. Special mentions too for Steven and Stephanie Bisby who both doubled or trebled up on roles in order to make sure things ran smoothly, including a great education slot from Stephanie which was engaging and interactive – fielding and responding to comments from the audience with aplomb.

Finally, a welcome to Nicole and Pat who, last night, started the process to join the club. Both have speaking fears that they want to face and have been inspired to get out of their comfort zones and take action – and of course, the other members of Doncaster Speakers will all be there to help.

Next meeting is on the 8th April. If you’re interested incoming along, drop a line to
doncasterspeakers@gmail.com and ask for details.

Doncaster Speakers TM Meeting: 08th January 2024 – Winter Wonders… By Donald Sweeting

Let us congratulate this week’s winners especially our most valued guest Chinwe who won Best Table Topics and was awarded with first timers ribbon for getting up in front of everyone to deliver an impromptu speech on her very first visit.

Other winners were Rai Berga and Stephanie Bisby… Presented by our Toastmaster for the evening Lianna Williamson…

Doncaster Speakers Club Meeting & GE Report: 23rd October 2023 – Life Story… By Steven Bisby

Written By: Steven Bisby (IPP) Immediate Past President, Edited By: Donald Sweeting VPPR (Doncaster Speakers)..

The meeting kicked off slightly late, but it highlighted the multiple skills of our members as Charlie stepped in as Ah Counter and Steve stepped in as Time Keeper as there were some last minute changes of plan as some people were unable to attend the meeting as originally thought.

Andy also multitasked during the evening, first as Sergeant At Arms setting out the housekeeping rules for the evening and then following that up by performing the Toastmaster role. The Toastmaster is like a compere of the evening keeping things to the agenda and introducing up to the stage the various roles when it is their turn to speak.

Andy welcomed the 3 guests and explained what Toastmasters is and went through the statistics of how many members and clubs there are round the world.

Congratulations were given to club members Stephanie & Rai who competed at the weekend in the area contest for the Table Topics and Humorous competition and both came out on top.

Steve explained the time keeping role and why good time keeping is important in life.

Dan explained his role of Grammarian and introduced the word of the day people had to try and get in to their speeches, the word was Uptick.

Charlie was next as Ah Counter, his role is to look out for those crutch and filler words people use instead of just taking a big breath and pausing whilst their mind catches up what they want to say.

Introduced by her evaluator Rai, Elizabeth was the only speaker of the evening with her prepared speech entitled “The Capture”, a clever story that you thought Elizabeth was in danger but there was a twist at the end as it was actually a story of her Romanian rescue dog Maggie.

As Elizabeth was the only speaker she duly won best speaker of the evening.

To end the first half Andy ran an education session on how to breakdown a table topic speech into a beginning, middle and end to give it a good structure.

The second half started with Rai’s evaluation of Elizabeth’s speech and then we moved on to the impromptu speaking part of the meeting.

Val was Table Topics Master with questions around life that people had to try and give a quick personal story on subjects such as: most embarrassing moment, proudest moment, happiest childhood memory etc.

The winner was Charlie with his childhood memories.

With a minute’s gap for voting Andrew was called to the stage to evaluate all the Table Topics and he fitted it all in to his 6-minute time slot and gave a commend and recommend to all who spoke.

Dan was back up with a summary of good language used and who said the word of the day the most. Following Dan was Charlie with his Ah Counter report.

Steve finished off the evening as General Evaluator, evaluating all the Evaluators and the evening as a whole.

To end the night’s voting Andrew gained the best Evaluator ribbon.