Mid-July meeting summary

The club's most recent meeting was held on the 15th of July 2010, and was opened by Doug New who was Sergeant-at-Arms for the evening. Doug introduced the President, Martin Berry, who welcomed everyone to the meeting, with a special mention for our two guests from Farnham. Bob then handed the meeting to Maria James Mills, our Toastmaster of the evening. Maria introduced Mark Wilson our Timekeeper, and Chris Ascough our Grammarian and Ah Counter, and each in turn gave a summary of their roles for the evening. The chosen word of the evening was "Salient". 

Tolu Akinluyi opened the Topics session, using the "If" word to pose a question to each participant, starting with Tristan Greaves (from Farnham club) "what would you do if you won the lottery"? This concept greatly appealed to Tristan, who gave an enthusiastic description of how he would put this new-found wealth to good use. Ben was asked to explain what he would do if he could change the world, Debbie if she could be invisible, Sarah, if time did not exist, and there were several others. All in all this was well organised by Tolu, with some interesting topics and amusing replies. The Topics Evaluation was carried out by Martin Berry, which took us to the break.

The second half of the meeting included three speeches:

1) Who is the real me? - by Devon Howell. This was Devon's Icebreaker speech, and was very well presented, explaining Devon's past apprehensions, and how joining Toastmasters is helping him to develop his confidence.

2) A No. 2 speech, Breaking Through Walls - by Tristan Greaves, one of our visitors from Farnham. This was an amusing account of his experiences on the London to Brighton cycle run, with considerable insight into Tristan's fascination with Lycra, rippling muscles, and male company!  

3) Losing track of time - by Harry Fish. This was a No. 1 speech from the Advanced Communication Series, the Entertaining Speaker. Harry described some of his recent experiences on a Mediterranean cruise, and how after several days and nights of being on holiday, night seemed to run into day!

The speeches were followed by Evaluations: by Rosemary Hayward on Devon's speech, Bob Nisbet on Tristan's and Doug New on Harry's speech.

Chris Ascough was Grammarian for this meeting, and gave his account on the good and bad use of English over the course of the evening, then congratulated those who had correctly used the "Word of the evening" which was "Salient".

Benjamin Dell then gave his General Evaluation of the evening, with some useful pointers. This was followed by Martin Berry presenting the awards for the evening, as follows:

Best Evaluator to Bob Nisbet, for his evaluation of Tristan's speech.

Best Topics speaker, to Tristan Greaves.

Best Prepared speech, to Tristan Greaves.

Martin also congratulated Harry Fish on successful completion of his first ten speeches, and presented him with his Competent Communicator award certificate. Harry said a few words, to thank the many members who had helped along the way, and to urge newer members to take on speaking roles when they became available, to help Quang, our hard-working VPE to complete the agenda for each meeting.

Martin then closed the meeting, and many went on to the Four Horseshoes pub for refreshments and discussions.

Attendance: 18.

Atmosphere: Lively.

Next meeting: Thursday 5th of August 2010, commencing 7.30 p.m.

Club Membership: We welcome guests to our growing club. If you like what we do at Camberley Speakers, why not bring a guest or two with you next time, and they can see for themselves? If you would like to know more about joining, please ask a committee member at the next meeting, or e-mail me or Martin Berry for details. This newsletter will also be posted onto the website which you can access without a password, and on which there are some useful links.

Personal development within Toastmasters International: When you join, you become part of a worldwide organisation with a strong sense of community, dedicated to help members to improve their skills in speaking, leadership and general communication. You will initially receive two manuals, Competent Communication and Competent Leadership, to help you chart your progress. Do bring them with you to meetings, so that your fellow members can help you to complete the various sections.

A club like ours is a dynamic entity, comprised of volunteers who carry out various functions, either as members of the committee or otherwise. Over time, people come and people go, but the things that have to be done, such as preparing, printing and distributing the speech agenda, looking after new members, preparing the room, making teas etc., being Timekeeper or Toastmaster, remain. If you would like to play your part in running the club, and learn some new skills at the same time, please contact our President, Martin Berry on: berry-martin1@sky.com

Happy Toastmastering!

Harry Fish - (VP Public Relations, Camberley Speakers)

Phones: 01276-35164 and 07860-201387

E-mail: harryfish@thinkpositive.co.uk