Our club wins the President's Distinguished Club award

We are delighted to announce that Camberley Speakers recently received notification from Headquarters in the USA that we have qualified for the “President’s Distinguished Club Award”, which is the highest award a Toastmaster’s club can receive. The new blue ribbon, to be sewn onto the club’s banner, was presented to Christina MacGuire at the meeting held on the 19th of August 2010, as this distinction was achieved during Christina’s recent term of office as Club President. 

This mid-August meeting was opened by Doug New, our Sergeant-at-Arms for the evening, who handed the meeting to the club’s President, Martin Berry. Martin welcomed everyone to the meeting, with a special mention for our guests: Nicola Coutts from Farnham Speakers, Diana Robinson DTM, on a visit from the USA, and her friend Harold, a local, who was married at St Michael’s church, 59 years ago. 

Martin continued by handing the meeting to Quang Le, our VPE and Toastmaster of the evening. Quang introduced Chris Ayscough, our Timekeeper, and Harry Fish, our Grammarian and Ah Counter, and each in turn gave a summary of their roles for the evening. Harry’s chosen word of the evening was “Meticulous”. 

Mark Willson then started a “Warm up” session, which gave everyone the opportunity to speak for up to 15 seconds on a topic chosen by him, which on this occasion was for each one to describe the most arduous physical activity they had endured during their lifetime, with some amusing outcomes. In some cases (without naming names) this seemed to be just getting out of bed in the mornings! 

The meeting continued with the three prepared speeches, as follows: 

1) Born without balls (CC02) – by Ben Dell. Ben confessed to having recently decided after many years that he wanted to support a football side. He told us how he had arrived at his choice (Tottenham) after a careful selection process, and reorganised his TV lounge and family to be able to enjoy his new hobby to best advantage.

2) The Journey (CC10) – by Deborah George. This was Deborah’s No. 10 speech in the Competent Communication manual, following which she qualifies for “CC” status (Competent Communicator). Deborah took us on a journey through some of the speeches she had given in the process, and explained that for personal reasons she had a considerable time gap part-way through the process, then at first found it difficult to resume her speeches, for lack of practice. It was an interesting talk, full of humour, and a good way to conclude the Competent Communication manual. 

3) The fall of a Hero (ST04) – by Alan Donegan. This was a speech from the Storytelling manual, under the heading of a “Touching Story”, intended to arouse emotions. Alan presented us with a true story, from his own personal and harrowing experiences. This was indeed an emotionally arousing speech.  

During the Break, the assembled members and guests had informal discussions, and Maria James-Mills and Ben Dell kindly dispensed tea, coffee and biscuits. 

The meeting resumed after the Break with the speech evaluations. Doug New gave an appraisal of Alan Donegan’s speech, Christina MacGuire gave an appraisal of Deborah George’s speech, and Martin Berry gave an appraisal of Ben Dell’s speech. 

The Table Topics Master was Devon Howell, who had clearly been meticulous in his preparations for this role. He was posing as a news reporter with a roving microphone, approaching personalities by surprise, and asking them to respond to questions put to each of the 6 participants in turn: Doug New, Bob Nisbet, Christina MacGuire, Nicola Coutts, Harry Fish and Alan Donegan. Devon’s efforts were well rewarded, the responses from each one were fulsome, confident, and very entertaining. The Topics Evaluation was carried out by Bob Nisbet, (except for his own speech!) with some useful pointers for all. 

Harry Fish was Grammarian/Ah Counter for this meeting, and gave his account on the good and bad use of English over the course of the evening, then ensured that everyone knew how to say the “Word of the day” which was “Meticulous”, by asking them to follow him in saying it out loud, twice!  

Peter Martins da Silva gave his General Evaluation of the evening, with an overall good impression, but with some constructive comments about the meeting. This was followed by Martin Berry presenting the awards for the evening, which were as follows:

Best Prepared speech, to Alan Donegan.

Best Topics speaker, Alan Donegan, justifying big expenses claims for politicians.

Best Evaluator to Doug New. 

Martin then presented the blue ribbon for the President’s Distinguished Club Award to Christina MacGuire, as the qualifications required were achieved during Christina’s term as club President. Deborah George kindly agreed to use her needlework skills to attach this to the club’s banner. Christina thanked her “team” for the joint efforts made in running the club successfully during her term as President, with a particular mention for Bob, Kuldeep, Harry and Nicola Coutts, the Area Governor at that time, and for the support given by members from other clubs, including Francois Teyssier.

Martin concluded the meeting, and many went on to the recently-refurbished and re-named Duke of Clarence pub, for refreshments and discussions.

Attendance: 17, many were away on holiday.

Atmosphere: Lively.

Next meeting: Thursday 2nd of September 2010, commencing 7.30 p.m. 

Other news: The club’s Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest Night takes place on Thursday the 16th of September, and will be great fun, and an opportunity for you to perform another speech in your manual. If you would like to participate, please let Martin Berry or Quang know, so that a space can be allocated for you on the agenda. 

In addition, other clubs are holding their contests in the next few weeks, and need judges for these contests, which must come from outside their own clubs. If you are not keen to enter the contest at Camberley, but would enjoy the fun and sense of achievement by being a judge at another club, please let Martin Berry know. 

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. If you would like to have some Toastmaster news or other information included in this newsletter, please provide me (Harry) with the relevant copy. 

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 CC - (VPPR, Camberley Speakers)  

Phones: 01276-35164 and 07860-201387

E-mail: harryfish@thinkpositive.co.uk