The meeting on the 18th of December was an intimate affair with not many in attendance but was great fun nevertheless!
Those who weren’t out doing last minute Christmas shopping or indulging in alternative Christmas excess were witness to a few monumental events in the club’s history: firstly, it was our inaugural meeting in our new venue at St. Botolph’s church, secondly Ed P skillfully lead us through the various twists and turns of the evening with his first outing as toastmaster, and lastly one of our more dedicated members Christine delivered her 10th speech and completed her competent communicator manual in the process!
Although it was only our first meeting in St. Botolph’s the initial signs are good: the room was spacious, had a great layout and the facilities were excellent. And this was just their function room! We’ve been promised their main church hall if we want it and that’s 10 times better so it all bodes well for future meetings and is a far cry from previous pub venues… we’re really hopeful that this can become a permanent residence for the club.
The only slight hiccup with the new venue was the onset of the church bells halfway through the meeting! Don’t worry, we’ve been told this won’t happen again!
The first half of the evening was taken up with prepared speeches and evaluations. Those present had the pleasure of listening to three excellent speeches: the first from Peter wrestling with Christmas spirit, another from Nikola detailing his obsession with Snickers and lastly Christine with her inspirational speech on how to step outside your comfort zone.
Each of the speeches were delivered as part of projects taken from the competent communicator manual; a manual that all new members receive as part of their membership. Peter was working on project 4: how to say it, a project that encourages you to concentrate on the language you use when delivering a speech and not to alienate your audience with confusing dialogue. Nikola was working on project 7: research your topic; a speech is always better if the speaker knows their stuff and Nikola demonstrated this perfectly by backing up his slight Snickers addiction with interesting facts and figures. Christine took the stage with aplomb with her truly inspirational speech on stepping outside your comfort zone, she effortlessly pulled together all skills learnt from her previous 9 speeches and had the audience hanging off her every word.
Next it was time for the evaluations; a vital part of toastmasters where everyone gets a bit of feedback; what they did well and what can be improved for next time. Simon, Helen and Ian evaluated each of the speakers in turn. In doing so, they were demonstrating other important aspects of the toastmasters’ curriculum: the ability to listen effectively, collate your thoughts in a short time, then deliver coherent valuable feedback. These are all skills that are encouraged in the second manual everyone receives when they join as members: the competent leadership manual.
After a break, the second half of the evening was a little bit of a departure from the normal table topics but still designed to test people’s impromptu speaking skills. After the usual guest intros our president Ian had us all competing in a specially adapted game of “Just a Minute” inspired by the radio show of the same name. This was a chance for everyone present to get up and give public speaking a go, even the guests attending for the first time! Unfortunately due to a slight clerical error, Ian lost track of which team had the most points but this didn’t seem to spoil people’s enjoyment of the game!
Our guest from Northern Light Speakers Clare Smallman rounded the evening off well with a thorough evaluation of all those who hadn’t yet been evaluated. Then after Ian concluded the meeting, all were invited to the hoop and grapes pub to mull over the finer points of the evening’s events.
All in all a fantastic evening and a great way to round off 2012, Merry Christmas everyone and see you in the New Year!
