Late October meeting 2010

The most recent meeting was held on the 21st of October. Several of our regular members were unavailable, but we held a lively meeting with 13 people in attendance:

Members: Adarsh Saini, Bob Nisbet, Chris Ascough, Deborah G, Harry Fish, Jonathan Alsop, Maria James Mills, Mark Willson, Martin Berry (Club President), Pam Williams, Quang Truong Le, Rob Sutcliffe.

Guest(s): Nicola Coutts. 

The meeting was brought to order by Harry, standing in as SAA, then handed to Martin, who welcomed everyone, with a special mention for our guest of the evening, Nicola. Martin handed the meeting to Deborah, our Toastmaster of the evening, who introduced Jonathan, our Timekeeper, and Maria, our Grammarian and Ah Counter, and each in turn gave a summary of their roles. Maria’s chosen “Word of the Day” was GREGARIOUS. This word was on display in the front and back of the room. 

Quang Le first made sure that everyone knew how to say GREGARIOUS, by asking the whole audience to say the word several times. He then introduced the “Warm up” session, with the question “Were you nervous about public speaking when you joined Toastmasters, and have you got better?” This topic generated some enthusiastic responses from the assembled audience, and some useful tips on how many members feel they have developed their confidence since joining Toastmasters, and reduced the initial anxiety that many had experienced. A common “cure” for nerves is to ensure your speech has been thoroughly prepared, which helps you to relax and enjoy the experience with your audience, and don’t forget to ......................SMILE! To quote from Bob, having butterflies is quite normal, just get your butterflies to fly in formation! 

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

1) Tuition Fees (CC02) – by Mark. This was clearly well researched, and close to Mark’s heart, as he is a student, and well aware of the changes taking place within the tuition fee system. 

2) Energy conservation (CC04) – by Quang Le. This was an interesting probe into the world of human energy, with some insights into ways in which this could be harnessed. 

3) Friendship (Advanced Speech) – by Martin. This was an evocative speech, relating to the close friendship that had built up over several years with someone who had helped Martin on a number of occasions.    

During the break, the assembled members and guests had informal discussions, and Pam and Quang Le dispensed tea, coffee and biscuits. 

The meeting resumed after the break with the speech evaluations. Chris gave an appraisal of Mark’s speech, Nicola gave an appraisal of Quang Le’s speech, and Pam gave an appraisal of Martin’s speech. 

The Table Topics Master was Harry, who started by reading the first part of Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If” and then introduced a number of topics starting with the “If” word. The participants were: Bob, Adarsh, Nicola, Maria, Rob, Chris, Jonathan and Deborah. 

The Topics Evaluation was carried out by Adarsh, who was also a participant, and said that his performance had been lively and energetic! He gave constructive feedback for each of the TT speakers performances. 

Maria took the floor as Grammarian/Ah Counter for the evening, and summarised 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.) Thanks to Quang Le, everyone had used the word of the evening (GREGARIOUS) early on in the proceedings, and a few had also used the word during the course of their presentations. 

Bob gave his General Evaluation of the evening, with some useful suggestions about the proceedings, and ideas for improvement in certain areas. This was followed by Martin (as club President) presenting the award for:

Best Prepared speaker, to Mark.

Best Evaluator, to Pam.

Best Topics speaker, to Bob, on “Imagine if for a day you are a 50p coin......” 

There was a further presentation, for Pam, who has recently completed her first 10 speeches, and received her Competent Communicator Award. 

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

Next meeting: Thursday 4th of November 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.  

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. 

Club’s atmosphere: Whilst we are not yet the biggest club in the area, I think you will find that we are one of the friendliest, which is certainly the impression that many of our visitors give us. If you have a problem in attending because you need a lift, do come forward and say so, there is normally someone who will be happy to assist. If you need to cancel your attendance shortly before a meeting, and have a role to play, please let someone know ASAP, so that the agenda can be revised. Luckily we have many enthusiastic members, who are good at multi-tasking and can take on roles at short notice, and a hard-working VPPE (Quang Le) who is prepared to juggle the agenda as required, to ensure that “It we be alright on the night.” 

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    

Website access – We have a short term problem with the website which has resulted in us using a temporary domain name: http://camberley-speakers.co.uk

The normal site should be in use again within a few weeks. 

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