Early October meeting 2010

The early October meeting was a fun-filled evening, with 17 people in attendance:

Members: Adarsh Saini, Bob Nisbet, Chris Ascough, Christina, Deborah G, Doug New, Harry Fish, Lesley Whitfield, Maria James Mills, Martin Berry (Club President), Pam Williams, Quang Truong Le and Sarah Williamson Green.

Guests: “JJ” Van Delsen, Katie Nisbet, Rob Sutcliffe and Vanessa King. 

The meeting was opened by Martin, who welcomed everyone, with a special mention for our guests. Martin handed the meeting to Doug, our Toastmaster of the evening, who introduced Maria, our Timekeeper, and Harry, our Grammarian and Ah Counter, and each in turn gave a summary of their roles. Harry’s chosen “Word of the Day” was INITIATE. (Verb or noun) 

Adarsh introduced the “Warm up” (15 seconds) session, with the question “Why did you join Toastmasters?” which generated a wide range of responses, and some interesting insights in to how and why many of our members joined. 

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

 1) Home (CC03) – by Quang Le. This related to Quang Le’s childhood experiences in Vietnam, all about “Home” and what it meant to him, which was clearly a great deal. He described the stillness of fishing at night time with his grandfather, the clear skies and bright stars, and it was indeed an engaging story. We look forward to hearing more from Quang Le in the coming months. 

2) Eating ethically (CC09) – by Lesley. This was Lesley’s opportunity to “Inspire the audience” which she did by reminding us that the vast majority of us in the Western World are eating more food than we need, and wasting much of it, whereas in many parts of the Third World, there is a shortage of food. 

3) A Toastmaster’s promise (Educational) – by Vanessa. This Educational speech was to remind members of Toastmasters that there are a number of defined promises which when kept by each member, help to ensure the smooth and effective running of each Toastmasters International club. Ten were listed, many of these are very logical: To attend meetings regularly, to prepare speeches to the best of one’s ability, to treat fellow members and guests with respect and courtesy, etc. It was a good insight into how clubs should be run, and included some humorous references into how “not to do it”, which helped to convey the message effectively.   

During the break, the assembled members and guests had informal discussions, and Harry and Sarah dispensed tea, coffee and biscuits. 

The meeting resumed after the break with the speech evaluations. Bob gave an appraisal of Quang Le’s speech, and Deborah gave an appraisal of Lesley’s speech. 

The Table Topics Master was Chris, who had assumed the role of Sir Alan Sugar in the Apprentice, and had some searching questions for the participants, who were:

Sarah, Pam, Christina, JJ, Harry, Katie, Rob and Martin. 

The Topics Evaluation was carried out by Sarah, who was also a participant! She gave an enthusiastic account of each of the TT speakers performances. 

Harry was Grammarian/Ah Counter for the meeting, and gave us his account on the good and bad use of English over the course of the evening, and identified those who had used “filler” words. (Ah, Oh, So, Um etc.) With a little prompting, he also ensured that everyone used the word INITIATE at least twice! 

Martin gave his General Evaluation of the evening, with some constructive suggestions about the meeting, and some useful ideas for future implementation. This was followed by Martin (as club President) presenting the award for:

Best Topics speaker, to Rob, one of our guests, the “Fast food” man! 

Martin concluded the meeting, and many then went to the nearby Duke of Clarence pub, for informal discussions.

Next meeting: Thursday 21st of October 2010, commencing 7.30 p.m. We hope to be able to welcome a visitor from the Camberley News on this occasion, to assist us in spreading the word about our thriving club. 

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.  

Club’s Newsletter: This newsletter will also be posted onto the website which you can access without a password. If you’d like to include additional information which is relevant to Toastmasters, do let me (Harry) know. 

Many hands make light work: A club like ours relies on volunteers, there are always jobs that are being done by committee and others, and often more that we could do to help the club grow and develop. 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    

Memberships – New and Renewals: I am pleased to confirm that we have several recent guests who are in the process of joining Camberley Speakers as members. Can I also remind existing members that the half-yearly renewal fees were due on the 1st of October, and are payable through Chris Ascough, who is the club’s Treasurer. If you have overlooked your renewal, please expect to hear from Chris shortly. 

Website access – We have a short term problem with the domain name for our website which has resulted in us being “off air” for longer than we expected. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible. In the meantime we are indebted to Ben Dell, a current member, and to Benjamin Ellis, a previous President, for their assistance with technology in an effort to get us back into service. 

I hope to see you at the next meeting. Happy Toastmastering All! 

Harry Fish CC - (VPPR, Camberley Speakers)   Phones: 01276-35164 and 07860-201387

E-mail: harryfish@thinkpositive.co.uk