Say It With a Quote

 What a masterful topic we had this week from Richard Bluck our Toastmaster. ‘Say it with a quote’ and what was ingenious was the way Richard managed to weave this into many of his  introductions as he effortlessly guided us through the evening’s Agenda. I always feel more relaxed when Richard is at the helm, largely due to his calm delivery and attention to detail –  well done Richard.

The meeting was started on time from our very able Sgt at Arms for the evening Sean Gordon. Our Time Keeper Jean Stewart brought her usual inimitable style to the role as she explained  the importance of keeping time. Our ‘Ah Counter’ for the evening was Derek Lucian who used an excellent way of feeding back on all our ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’ for the evening by using charts. He  kept his delivery specific to the people who had overdone their crutch words and noises and in his introduction gave everyone a tip on how to avoid using so many ums and ahs – the  answer to use more gestures!  He had taken this idea from this month’s Toastmaster magazine so get reading everyone as there are lots of great tips and tools to be find in your free  monthly mag.

Our President Andrew Miller was Grammarian for the evening and the word of the day was UTTER or UTTERANCE.  Andrew’s ability to use excellent language himself held now bounds and  he talked about ‘an almighty avalanche of alliteration’ – see what he did there J He observed well and gave out some great recommendations.

We only had one speech this evening, but it was indeed a ‘good un’ – Jean practised her competition speech ‘Hooray, Getting Older’, for the upcoming humorous speech competition. What a great idea as she received plenty of feedback and said it really helped. Of course she was fabulous and we look forward to her entry on Monday 8^th September.

Shelagh Jones, our VP of Education, delivered our first in the series of ‘Moments of Truth’ education slots. As always the preparation was excellent and Shelagh even managed to stay in time despite getting lots of feedback from the audience. Interesting and well led Shelagh as always. Shelagh also had a dual role as Table Topics master where she truly rose to the occasion using quotations to help lead us all through some really great topics.

Last, but by no means least, Jamie Godfrey had two roles and both as evaluators. First of all Jamie evaluate Jean’s speech and used the ballot sheet for the competition in which to judge is feedback. Jamie used no notes to give his feedback, which in itself is an exceptional art to be able to do this and remember all the detail, but as a seasoned and competition winning evaluator Jamie breezed through an informative and commanding delivery. He used the juxtaposition of comparing Jean to Helen Mirren on the one hand and Norah Batty on the other – a great visualisation to point out her strengths and weaknesses. It is not surprising that Jamie won Best Evaluator for his role.

Jamie also effortlessly took us through all the evaluations for Table Topics as well. He began with evaluating Jean as the TT Master and how she described the role very well. She also used a clipboard which saved messing with the lectern which can get moved around quite a bit with this part of the evening. Jamie was humorous in his delivery with great observations – his delivery was a perfect marriage of observations and stagecraft – commends and recommends. Well done Jamie it’s great to have you back in the fold after a short absence, we have missed your energy and excellence.

All in all it was, as usual, a great meeting with several new guests and members attending helping to start the journey of growing the club this year in line with Andrew’s vision for Doncaster Toastmasters 2014/2015.

We hope to see you all at the next meeting which is the Humorous Speech Contest if only to come and watch and support and have a really good laugh.

General Evaluator – Gail Powell

Doncaster Speakers Meeting Report | Monday 11th August 2014

Truth

We had an excellent Doncaster Speakers meeting last night 11^th August 2014. Although holidays numbers were a little on the small side we were graced by four welcome visitors;     Fawad, Cath, Jane and Simeon that swelled the numbers.

The meeting was called to order in a very professional manner by Lisa Johnson who introduced Gail Powell as our Toastmaster for the evening. Gail explained that Doncaster  Speakers is part of a worldwide organisation in over 122 countries with over 292,000 members. She also welcomed our guests and introduced the committee.

Gail introduced three members who would assist her run the meeting; firstly, Andrew Miller who explained the importance of timekeeping in both Toastmasters and work and          life in general. Next was Lisa Johnson, was our Ah Counter, who clearly, but succinctly, explained that she would be looking out for all the crutch words we tend to use. Finally,        Alison Kitchman, who as Grammarian, gave us a Word of the Day; Credible or Credibility. This was the word that we should try to incorporate into our speeches, she also said she would be reporting back on  good  grammar during the meeting – not sure if that is good grammar!

We had one speaker, Bridget Pearson, who was doing her Icebreaker entitled ‘Help! My brain is dissolving!’. Bridget was introduced by her evaluator Jean Stewart. The speech was very entertaining and was an excellent first speech – we look forward to hearing more from Bridget very soon. Jean was very honest but very supportive in her evaluation and I’m sure Bridget will take her feedback and work on being even better next time. As the only speaker Bridget won Best Speaker.

One of the key ways all clubs can measure their strength and development is the ‘Moments of Truth’ programme which Shelagh Jones outlined in her Education session. She told us how she would be referring back to the programme throughout the year and how it works towards the Distinguished club Programme each year.

Our Table Topics Master for the evening was Derek Badger. Before he started, one of our guests asked to speak. Fawad Shah told us he is a stammerer and on the Maguire programme. He wished to develop a  career in the legal profession and saw Toastmasters as a way to help with his stammering (not that we noticed any last night) and with his career. He is to be congratulated on having the guts to stand up in front of an audience he didn’t know and speak regardless of his challenges – that’s what Doncaster Speakers is all about – to give support and help to everyone wishing to speak in public for whatever reason.

The theme of Table Topics was taking phrases from Shakespeare and explaining them as a book or whatever we wished to. All turned their topic into a personal experience ranging from Michael J Clarke talking about being an idiot to Alison Kitchman talking about the death of her Gran’s dog Dusty. The Best Table Topics Speaker though was from one of the visitors; Cath Winfield, who took us back to the seventies and three day week and how the world changed under candlelight.

Table Topics was evaluated by Andrew Miller who spent time giving feedback to the TT Master and to each speaker. He was followed by Lisa Johnson who gave specific feedback to each member on the level of their crutch words of which there weren’t that many. Alison Kitchman gave feedback on the grammar used in the meeting and who had used the Word of the Day. Michael J. Clarke won with ten uses of the word; however it has to be said he did rather overuse the word if we’re being honest.

Best Evaluator was won by Andrew Miller. Michael J Clarke was General Evaluator and took some time to feedback on the whole meeting saying that this is a Class Club, a Quality Club with excellent meetings.

After some announcements and awards from the President Andrew Miller the meeting was closed with the next meeting next week due to Bank Holiday.

Personally, I’ve missed meetings for the last couple of months and it was a real pleasure to return – it won’t be so long to my next meeting visit.

Michael J. Clarke – General Evaluator

The next meeting is this coming Monday 18th August due to the Bank Holiday the following Monday.