I personally had a great time on Monday night at Doncaster Speakers. I was tired after an eventful few days in Wexford at the District 71 Conference.

The meeting was started on time by our Sergeant at Arms Karen Venables .

Shelagh Jones, the club President, was Toastmaster for the evening. She welcomed our returning guest, Alison Straw, and all the members.

Shelagh had a theme for the evening of ‘Building Bricks’ and used it to explain how the building bricks for any club was its members and the roles at a meeting were the bricks to make a successful meeting.

Shelagh explained what Toastmasters is, its worldwide size and the structure of the organisation in the GB and Ireland. Those of the committee who were there were introduced and the clapping and handshakes were explained.

Shelagh then introduced members who were helping her with the meeting.

The first was our replacement Timekeeper Karen Venables . She was standing in for Yvonne McGowan, one of three members giving apologies due to illness – the others being Lisa Johnson and Liz Tarleton. Karen explained the importance of keeping to time and explained the green, yellow and red cards.

Next was Paul Hart undertaking the role of the Ah counter for the first time. His explanation of the role was first class and his feedback later in the meeting very good.

Finally, at this stage, our Grammarian Karen Trem set out her role of looking for good grammar and wordsmithery and introduced the Word of the Day – Austerity. The word was used amazingly well through the meeting and Karen did an excellent feedback of our grammar later in the meeting.

We had four formal speeches ranging from a Speech 1 Icebreaker to a Speech 7 Researching Your Topic.

First was Jamie Godfrey with his Speech 7 Researching Your Topic entitled ‘The ABC of MMR’. Jamie set out the history of the MMR vaccination and its troubled past. Some excellent research that really made you think.

Next was Richard Bluck with his Speech 1 Icebreaker entitled ‘You know what engineers are like…’. He entertained us with a description of the personality traits of different types of engineers. Highly amusing and well delivered.

Third was Mark Powel with his Speech 2 Organise Your Speech entitled ‘I predict a riot’. Mark told us all about how he became involved in the 2001 Bradford riots as a police officer. Again well delivered and built the tension well.

Finally we heard from Derek Badger with his Speech 3 Get to the Point entitled ‘It’s all about perspective’. The speech did exactly what it said on the tin!

Best Speaker was Jamie Godfrey – well done.

Due to so many speeches we dispensed with the Education session for this meeting and so we then went into the break.

After the break, Karen Trem reminded us of the Word of the Day.

Next the Toastmaster introduce me as General Evaluator to introduce the Evaluators.

Our four evaluators were Derek Lucian (sometimes known as David by me!!), Fred Roberts (stepping in for Lisa), Karen Trem and Gail Powell.

The evaluations were all delivered in different styles depending on the person. However what they all did have in common was examples of what went well and what needed improving. There was some issues with two of the evaluations going over time and I gave some tips to sort this out when evaluating them later.

Next was Table Topics with Jamie Godfrey stepping into Liz Tarleton shoes using her topics as if they were his own. The overall theme involved asking members to say how they would plan for different holidays.

We had varied subjects that included the revelation that lions aren’t kings of the jungle because they are beige and live on the savannah! Thanks for that Mark.

Best Table Topics Speaker was Mark Powell – well done.

I introduced Fred Roberts who took Lisa Johnson ’s role as Table Topics Evaluator and did an excellent job in quite a short amount of time. Fred gave great feedback to all using examples where possible.

After the Ah counter and Grammarian feedback which I mentioned earlier we voted for the Best Evaluator and that was Fred Roberts for her TT Evaluation.

I then gave my short evaluation of the whole meeting which I thought was very well run and highly entertaining.
I handed back to Shelagh Jones as Toastmaster who had a quick Q and A session. I mentioned Leeds City Toastmasters 10th Anniversary Dinner, and Hull Speakers request for anyone to come and support them every second and fourth Tuesday evening. I also gave a quick update on the District Reformation vote at Wexford.

Mention was also made of the Summer BBQ on Sunday 8th July at the Clarke/Caldicott abode near Howden.

Shelagh changed roles to be club President again. She conducted the election of officers for next year. This was fairly simple due to all being unopposed; however she expressed her pleasure at there being a full committee and extra places taken.

Yvonne McGowan opened the evening’s proceedings as Sgt at Arms just a couple of minutes late but in an exceedingly professional manner covering all the main points including switching off mobiles.

Fred was Toastmaster and she began by welcoming our 4 guests and introducing the committee.

Fred chose ‘Over the Rainbow’ as her theme for the evening and explained the various roles we all take at Toastmasters by using the character’s from the Wizard of Oz. Fred’s opening was engaging and interesting and we all knew we were all in for a real treat of an evening.

I had brought a guest, Alison Straw, who commented during the break about Fred’s introduction to the meeting and how by introducing all the committee, and the background Fred had provided on the Toastmaster’s organisation, it gave her a real understanding of the what was going to happen and it made her feel very welcome and instantly a part of it all.

Jamie was the Timekeeper and explained the importance of timing very eloquently and stated that sticking to the timings helps to ‘purify your speech’. I thought this was a particularly insightful explanation of why time-keeping is so important.

Sean was Grammarian and chose the word ‘COMPLEMENT/COMPLEMENTARY’. Sean’s explained the role of grammarian well and really set the tone and pace of what this role is all about. As he described the way we use words Sean demonstrated the correct tone that related to each word – for instance when talking about sounding ‘awkward’ his delivery also reflected an awkward tone and physical stance. Sean carried this insightful delivery over into an excellent evaluation but unfortunately he went over time and, therefore, could not be counted in the judging at the end.

Lisa was ‘Ah Counter’ and she explained how there was no need to create superfluous words when giving a speech and that they only detracted from the message and delivery. Lisa explained that she would be counting the ‘ahs’ and ‘ums’ and also about the various crutch and filler words that we can fill our time using such as the word ‘so’, and why they do not add to the delivery of a speech in any way.

Karen Trem gave a speech entitled ‘Home’ which was evaluated by Sean.

Shelagh Jones gave a speech entitled ‘From Extraction to Extrapolation’ which was evaluated by Michael J Clarke.

Lisa and Jamie stepped in at the last moment as the Area Governor could not attend and delivered a most excellent Education Slot entitled ‘Taking Your Speech to the Next Level’.

They delivered this so well together with Lisa taking on a role almost as ‘evaluator’ of Jamie’s time during the recent competition how and why he came a very close second after a tie-break?

Jamie interjected with his thoughts, feelings and analysis from his viewpoint of actually delivering the speech.

This was a very relevant topic for everyone and although they ran out of time and could not deliver it all they did promise to return and deliver Part 2 for us at a later date.

Well done both!

Table Topics was presented by Karen Venables who took on the theme of the ‘Wizard of Oz’ using quotes from the film/book for people to create their table topic speeches. Needless to say as usual everyone stepped up to the challenge in their usual inimitable style.

This was a very apt subject and showed that Karen had been in touch with the Toastmaster to check the theme and to keep this relevant for the whole evening’s proceedings; something that really added to the theme and relevance of the Table Topics section.

As usual the standard of all the table topics deliveries were exceptional with all 4 guests getting up to deliver. In view of them all being ‘first timers’ the standard and quality from the guests was also commendable.

Hazel had forgotten she was Table Topics Evaluator and as a result did not make any notes but regardless she valiantly stood up and delivered her appraisal. Considering her lack of notes and having to deliver her evaluation at such short notice she did very well.

It was succinct and relevant with her referencing everyone who had stood up although not a great deal of feedback on areas of improvements. But well done to Hazel; although I do not recommend this way of approaching any role in the future as without a doubt this could prove quite stressful for most of us!

My overall impression as GE for the evening was that the energy, as usual, was fun and professional. The pace and tone of all speakers and members taking on roles helped to maintain this positive energy and ‘flow’ for the evening.

It was very difficult for me as evaluator to find points in which to improve upon but here goes:

A few people went over on time so unfortunately Sean who took on two roles went over in both instances which was a shame as I felt he would definitely been in the running to win a ‘Best of…’ ribbon in at least one of his categories – so watch your time keeping Sean?

Jamie and Lisa ran slightly over in the education slot, but really they could have not done any more to improve their excellent delivery at such short notice.

My time-keeping as GE went over and I was reminded afterwards that I had not needed to reflect on the speeches at all as these were covered by the individual evaluators; a good point for me to remember in future and anyone else taking on the role of GE for the first time.

I have created a template for the role of GE that made it far easier for me to keep track and make notes as I went along as there is so much to cover as GE. I will make this available for anyone who wants to use it when they take on the role of GE.

Finally, make sure you check the Agendas that come out from the Toastmaster ahead of attending and that you are down for the role you think you are in case there is any need to do any preparation before hand or take notes on the night.

The good points were many:

The energy, flow and quality, of everyone who stands up to speak at the Club I believe is outstanding. The guests obviously felt comfortable enough to give it a go as well so well done to all our guests and hopefully we will have some new members out of those who attended?

I am not sure how other Clubs operate but if Doncaster is anything to go by then Toastmasters really does attract quality people with the right attitude and approach to learning what for many is perceived as the somewhat scary skill of public speaking.

My particular stand out people were Fred as Toastmaster (most excellent and kept that wonderful theme going), Lisa and Jamie’s education slot (for such a late request they were exceptional and looking forward to part 2) and Karen Trem for her most excellent speech delivery and for winning ‘best speech’ in the face of formidable competition, as always, from Shelagh.

Gail Powell – GE for the evening.