Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 13th July 2015

General Evaluator’s Report | Monday 13th July 2015 | By Karry Chadburn

As Doncaster Speakers embraced a new elected committee, the first meeting of the new year opened on time with our Sergeant of Arms, Bridget Pearson. Bridget explained a few housekeeping rules before handing over to Jean Stewart who took on the role of Toastmaster for the very first meeting in her new position as Club President.

Jean Stewart presents Andrew Miller with a gift
Jean Stewart presents outgoing Club President Andrew Miller with a gift on behalf of Doncaster Speakers

Although there was only one speaker this evening, Andy Howell gave a polished and entertaining speech titled “Are computers evil?” This left all his audience pondering that very question, including his speech evaluator Michael J Clarke, who delivered a comprehensive evaluation of Andy’s speech.

Timekeeper this evening was Lisa Johnson who kept us on schedule and gave a wonderful explanation on the relevance of timely meetings. One of the newest members Stephanie Bisby was engaged as Ahh Counter and won a well deserved best evaluator award for her eloquent evaluation of our persistent use of filler words.

A sesquipedalian speech given by the grammarian Shelagh Jones explained that “Sesquipedalian” was the word of the day. Shelagh delivered a short lesson on the pronunciation which paid off as a few very brave people managed to incorporate the word during their speeches.

Richard Bluck engaged us with his excellent evaluation of the table topic speakers and Table Topics Master. Table topics were presented by Alison Turner as one of her very first roles in Toastmasters. Alison delivered an entertaining topic of Song titles which brought back many memories of childhood for me and for others who were present.

Everyone present will remember with fondness David Allen’s speech rendition of Scarborough Fair which won him the title of best table topic speaker, and applause also went to one of our guests Paul Smallwood, who delivered his first speech at Doncaster speakers with a table topic called “Hanging on the telephone”.

Thanks go to Jean Stewart, the Toastmaster, who from the beginning of the meeting made everyone feel welcome including 4 new guests. Jean set the relaxed atmosphere for the evening which continued through the education slot where she welcomed the new committee and noted the importance of participation and the theme for the evening – “Partnership”. Before closing the meeting Jean welcomed new member Qasam Javaid and also presented retiring Club President Andrew Miller with a small gift (which he declined to share). Jean thanked him on behalf of the members for his dedication to Doncaster speakers during the last year.

Last but not least, a quick mention for Karry Chadburn, the General Evaluator, who was amazing throughout!

Toastmasters International 90th Anniversary

Doncaster Speakers Celebrates 90 Years of Toastmasters International

Open Meeting | 23rd March 2015

Toastmasters International 90th Anniversary Invitation There will be a light buffet and tea/coffee! Please book your tickets so we can make sure we have enough food for everyone. CLICK HERE TO BOOK YOUR TICKETS

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 26th January 2015

Doncaster Speakers | The place to develop your public speaking and leadership skills in Doncaster

“YOLO” (You Only Live Once)

Report by General Evaluator Alison Kitchman

The “immortal” words – “You Only Live Once” were well chosen by our Toastmaster for the evening, Bridget Pearson, who welcomed no less than 7 guests to our club meeting at Doncaster Speakers on 26 January 2015.

YOLO | Doncaster Speakers | Public Speaking Doncaster

4 of our guests: Craig Hammond, Andy Howell, Andy Crossland and David Allen “felt the fear and did it any way” by taking part in the table topics 2 minute speaking challenge, not only winning Craig a First Timer Award but also the Award for Best Table Topics speaker with his story about the fear of the saber tooth tiger.

Lisa Johnson delivered a speech on “sockology” using great humour and descriptive language. Lisa gave a lesson in the history of the sock and proved that she is not only confident speaking but also at ease using props.  Lisa must have having borrowed a mini easel and an oversized clothes peg from her toddler twins and a wash basket, containing a variety of socks, from family and friends!  Not only was the delivery visual but also olfactory as Lisa passed around a pair of socks smelling sweetly of roses!

Our President, Andrew Miller, gave a brilliant overview of the structure of a Toastmasters’ meeting, outlining the roles and responsibilities of both its members and Committee.  He compared it to a well known franchise pointing out you can’t turn a McDonalds into a vegan restaurant.  Same with Doncaster Speakers, we deliberately follow the structure of Toastmasters International because it serves a purpose delivering communication, speech and leadership skills.

Our Sergeant at Arms for the evening, Sean Gordon, ensured all facilities were in place and on time because first impressions really do count.  Sean also “doubled up” to evaluate Lisa’s speech which he addressed powerfully by delivering his assessment in a question and answer style, noting in particular that he had now learned that “Tabby” was not just the name for a cat but also the name for a toe sock.

Our Timekeeper, Karry Chadburn, explained the importance of keeping to time, reflecting that as a child, 2 minutes’ silence in assembly “seemed like a lifetime”, but as an adult, 2 minutes “flies by”.  As a consequence of Kerry’s efficiency skills, the meeting ran to time.

Our Ah Counter for the evening, Shelagh Jones pointed out that “awareness is the first step to change”.  Not only did Shelagh highlight to us our “ums” and “ahs” but also noted that “conjunctions” i.e. words which are normally used to join 2 parts of a sentence such as “so”, “but”, “and”, and “now” were being used out of place as crutch words at the beginning of sentences.  Shelagh suggested we pause instead to avoid use of these crutch words.

Our Table Topics Master, Julie Gordon tied the topics beautifully to the theme “YOLO” asking our “victims, no sorry volunteers” to choose a number between 1 and 12 which produced a picture; our speakers then had to imagine they were in the picture and explain why.  It’s fair to say Andy with his bungee jump story would have given Craig’s saber tooth tiger story a run for his money had he not been overtime.  Our Table Topics Evaluator was Frederika Roberts who gave excellent observations and feedback to each of our Table Topic Speakers, feeding back not only commendations but also helpful recommendations on how to improve.

In his role as Grammarian, Derek Badger nicely tied in the word of the day “immortal”.

A huge team effort by our existing members, Committee and guests, with a special mention to Lee Parish and David Allen, our newest club members.  Altogether another truly great and inspirational meeting.

If you want to find out more about how Toastmasters International can help you improve your public speaking and leadership skills, come along to one of our meetings in Doncaster!

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 12th January 2015

General Evaluator’s Report | Doncaster Speakers | Public Speaking | Leadership

“Oaths, Promises & Resolutions”

Report by General Evaluator Richard Bluck

After missing a few recent meetings it was my pleasure once again to attend a club meeting of Doncaster Speaker’s and act as General Evaluator. We were also fortunate to welcome 2 guests to the meeting, Zoe Rodgers and Lee Parish, both of whom had never been to a Toastmasters meeting before, yet who were both brave enough to join in – more of that later on.

The meeting was kicked-off by our Sgt at Arms for the evening, Karry Chadburn, who in-turn introduced our Toastmaster, Sean Gordon. Sean choose ‘Oaths, Promises and Resolutions’ as the theme for the evening, and then earnestly reminded us all of our commitments and duties as Toastmasters – a timely prompter given the time of year (especially to those who hadn’t attended for a while!).

Oath | Promise | Resolution | Pinky Swear | Doncaster Speakers | Public Speaking | Leadership | Doncaster

A special mention must go to Alison Kitchman, who stepped in as Ah-Counter at literally zero notice, when it was suddenly released by all that the scheduled Ah Counter hadn’t turned up! Not only that but Alison went on to give a polished explanation of the pitfalls of Err’s and Ah’s and went on to win best Evaluator award. Bravo! Top marks must also go to Andrew Miller, who stepped-in for Lisa Johnson to deliver a 15 minute education session on ‘Finding New Members for Your Club’. Despite it being Lisa’s material, Andrew gave us a fluent, engaging and thought provoking interpretation with his usual style of vocal variety and body language.

The evening’s single speech was delivered by Julie Gordon, ‘Afternoon Tea’, a charming reminisce of a visit to Grandma’s, through the eyes of a child. Julie’s speech objective was to use words effectively and this was fully accomplished with, in the words of her Evaluator Derek Lucian, ‘a feast of language’.

Bridget Pearson, as Grammarian, gave us a challenging word of the Day, ‘Augury’, a sign of things to come. Fortunately, this challenge was met by three of those present, so well done to you.  TableTopics was ‘mastered’ by Alison Kitchman who cleverly chose the theme of New Year’s resolutions and the hows and whys thereof. As is often the case, TableTopics can reveal a bit more of us all than we expect and this was true here! Credit must go to Zoe Rodgers who told us about how she would set about going on a diet, and to Lee Parish who described how he would rid himself of his tattoo’s. Not only that, but Lee’s effort won him best TableTopics speaker. Well Done!

Overall a fine meeting, and looking forward to the next one.

Interested in developing your public speaking and leadership skills? Come along as a guest.  Our next meeting is Monday 26th January 2015 at The Regent Hotel in Doncaster. 

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 8th December 2014

General Evaluator’s Report | 8th December 2014 | By Julie Gordon

“Celebration”

The theme for this evening’s meeting was Celebration with a focus on celebrating all things great about Toastmasters.

Fireworks | Celebration | Doncaster Speakers | Toastmasters International

Shelagh Jones opened the evening as Sgt at Arms, dealing with housekeeping arrangements before handing over to our Toastmaster for the evening, Jean Stewart.  As Toastmaster, Jean made sure the evening ran smoothly.  In her opening speech, Jean presented some facts and figures about Toastmasters before going on to talk about how our own club, Doncaster Speakers, operates.

We had just one speech this evening, by Karry Chadburn. This was Karry’s first speech at the club, her Icebreaker, entitled Breaking Through.  A really good first speech by Karry and I know the club will look forward to hearing more from Karry as she works through her Competent Communicator projects.

Alison Kitchman was the evaluator for Karry’s speech.  In great Toastmaster style, Alison’s evaluation was a balance of highlighting the positive and making recommendations to Karry to help her develop her speaking skills.

As well as being Sgt. at Arms, Shelagh Jones also led an Education Session with a focus on the Toastmaster’s Moments of Truth programme.  This evening Shelagh asked the group for feedback on Fellowship within the club; whether members felt they were greeted warmly when they first visited the club, participation in area, district and international events, as well as inter-club events.

Table Topics was run in an unusual way, with a duo approach from Bridget Pearson and Derek Badger.  The session was evaluated by Gail Powell who commended Bridget and Derek for having a go at a different approach to this session.

Alison Kitchman doubled up as Ah Counter for the evening.  Alison gave us some really good ideas about how to avoid using filler words and presented the group with very detailed and individual feedback that will certainly help speakers to work on avoiding those ‘ums’ and ‘ers’.

We were kept to time throughout the meeting by our timekeeper Sean Gordon, while Ben Latham, a new member of the group, did a fantastic job as Grammarian.  Ben displayed an impressive command of language and its use and provided some great examples of how to use his Word of the Day.

As always the meeting was full of energy and fun and I am looking forward to our next event on 22nd December which promises to be full of Christmas cheer.

2015 kicks off with the first meeting of the year on Monday 12th January.  Guests welcome, as usual!

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 10th November 2014

General Evaluator’s Report | 10th November 2014 | By Jean Stewart

“Courage”

The meeting was opened by the Sgt at Arms, Julie Gordon.  The meeting was attended by new member Karry Chadburn, who took on the role as Timekeeper; with two visitors also in attendance.

Derek Lucian was the Toastmaster for the evening, and demonstrated his considerable skills as a presenter with a professional, but relaxed approach to the role.

The Theme for the evening as “Courage”, which was very apt as the following day would be Armistice Day.     The Grammarian, Shelagh Jones, provided the Word of the Day, as “Conviction”.    She explained how this word could be used and also provided a link between this word and the Theme word.

The two speakers during the evening were Jamie Godfrey whose speech was Speech 1 from Advanced Communication Manual entitled “The Science of a Female Yeti”.  Jamie as always demonstrated his strength as a speaker especially when delivering a humorous speech.    The level of laughter was the result of an hilarious presentation by Jamie, who explained the differences between male and female Yetis.    It was obvious from this that his ‘research on the subject’ had paid dividends and set the tone for a fun evening.

The second speaker was Sean Gordon, who repeated his speech from Competent Communicator Manual – speech 2, entitled “Lest We Forget”.   The topic covered the First World War.   Sean’s performance was superb which sensitively covered the emotional subject of war and its futility.

By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK (Poppies again 1 Uploaded by Magnus Manske) [CC-BY-2.0 (httpcreativecommons.orglicensesby2.0)] via Wikimedia Commons
Image: By Tony Hisgett from Birmingham, UK (Poppies again 1 Uploaded by Magnus Manske) [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)%5D, via Wikimedia Commons
It was interesting to show how different the speakers’ presentations were and the differences in their presentation styles.

The President, Andrew Miller, mentioned the new systems being put in place to mentor new members and to welcome visitors.    He also spoke about the forthcoming Christmas celebration and said he would be contacting everyone to assess numbers for this event and theme preferred – with the option of a Christmas dinner or a more informal event.

Gail Powell ran the Education Session and covered the subject of Mentoring within Doncaster Speakers.    This supported the commitment to supporting new members.

Lisa Johnson was Table Topics Master and the two visitors agreed to take on the challenge.    The topics chosen by Lisa, again, provided everyone with a great deal of laughter.

The whole evening was great fun with a lot of laughter with the different roles being covered with skill and a relaxed style.  Next meeting on 24th November 2014.