Bedford Speakers

BEDFORD SPEAKERS

 MEETING MINUTES

Thursday 9 February 2012

3^rd Club Meeting of the Year

 

Welcome to the Minutes of our 3rd meeting of 2012.  We had 11 members and welcome our guest Malcolm Campbell.

 Gayna, our Sergeant at Arms for the evening, opened the meeting promptly and effectively by leading a round-the-room ice-breaker opportunity for all members to introduce themselves and present their favourite word of the moment.  This was an illustrious and engaging route to start, well done Gayna.

 Janet.  Yayyyy, welcome back Janet our President!  Janet took her rightful place at the helm by reminding of the Officers Training on Saturday 11 February at the Badminton Centre Milton Keynes from 9am.  Following the training Janet will host a Club Committee Meeting.  These meetings are open to all members and are a great opportunity to meet and learn from the larger Toastmasters family.

 Val informed of the value in keeping training records current for both individual and club recognition.  The club is aiming to achieve the Distinguished Club award for the third year running.

 Word of the Day:  Avid

 TableTopics

 We started the evening with TableTopics hosted by Sue on the theme of romantic music.  Dave chose the 60’s, Janet the 70’s, Val the 50’s and Tony the 80’s.  Bizarre fact, speakers chose numbers 56789 – was this a cunning plan?  Well done to Sue and all participants for their entertaining topics, all within time.

Speeches 

 We had three very diverse speeches this evening, all of which were excellently delivered, highlighting the broad spectrum of skills and talent that we possess within the club:

 1.    Tim Sawyer.  Plain old Mr Fred (Competent Communicator 2).  Tim intricately weaved an intriguing insight in to the career history of Fred ‘the shred’ Goodwin.  Tim highlighted that Fred’s career has developed on the strength of corporate financial successes and £ rewards.  Has Fred recent media fame been of his own creation or has he been the scapegoat?  The words ‘Sins of action, Sins of In-action’ were a very appropriate fit.

 2.    Narinder Kaurbring.  To Infinity and Beyond… (Competent Communicator – 7).  Narinder’s aim was two-fold; firstly to achieve the objectives of speech 7 and also to prepare and rehearse a work-based presentation.  Narinder requested constructive guidance and would welcome any additional feedback by email. The presentation, enhanced by PowerPoint, achieved the objectives of the manual very quickly, as clearly much research had been done to inform the audience of the past, present and avenues for the future development within the specialised profession of a pharmacist.   

 3.    Gayna Cooper.  Jacob Thomas.  (Storytelling 1).  Gayna vividly painted a picture of Jacob from birth, through early years to adulthood, identifying the challenges faced by youth, the impact and distress that Jacob caused.  Artistically taking the audience through each emotional hurdle, Gayna built the tempo leading to Jacob being caught red-handed… or paw first.

 Evaluators

 Janet, Tony and David rose to the challenge of evaluating 3 excellent speeches, offering commendations, insight and guidance to the benefit of speakers and all members.  Well done also to Paul Hindess as Table Topics Evaluator who took to the stage confessing to enjoying the music theme and not focussing on evaluations, then delivered a wonderful and humorous evaluation which any stand-up comic would have been proud of.

General Evaluator and Meeting Evaluator

 Maciej deserves congratulations for combining both roles and giving great feedback to this evenings evaluators, then switching hats to offer a meeting evaluation and all this while reflecting on temperatures of -30 in Poland.  We’ll expect you in beach shorts at next meeting!

 President

 Janet rounded off the evening with an explanation to our guest on the etiquette behind handshakes, the handing over of the stage, and applause to encourage each speaker. 

 Awards

 Best Speaker:           Tim

Best Evaluator:         Tony and Paul

Best Table Topic:     Val

Bravery:                     Karl Bodaly on taking on the Timekeeper role with no notice.

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Future events

 1.    11^th Feb.  Officer Training – Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes (10am to 1pm), all members are welcome to attend for greater insight into District workings.

2.    11^th Feb.  Club Committee Meeting, immediately following Officer Training.

3.    23^rd Feb.  Club Competition:  2-part competition for Speaker and Evaluators.  Competitors required and support for numerous roles.  Names to Cheryl please.

4.    29^th Feb.  Bob Ferguson and Andrew Brammer in Dunstable.  Please contact Gayna.  Costs £7.

5.    5^th March (TBC).  Moment of Truth.  See note below.

 Members are invited to register for roles on the club website

Next Club Meeting:  Thursday 23 February – Competition Night

Friends and Family are welcome

Members are reminded that video cameras are welcome should you wish to record and review speeches

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Notices

Speech and Evaluation Contest – Thursday 23^rd February.

 “Hi fellow toastmasters, our speech and evaluation contest is on Thursday 23rd February and I have agreed to be the contest chair.   To make it a successful evening we need several things to happen which involves your good selves.  Firstly we need people to compete!  For the speech contest you need to have done six speeches and your membership should be up to date. If you haven’t done your six speeches, you could do a speech at another club. For the evaluation contest you just need your membership to be up to date.  Secondly we need someone prepared to give a speech on the 23rd that will be used for the evaluation competition.   Lastly we need a sergeant at arms, two timers and two counters for the night.  If you told me at the last meeting that you are thinking of doing a speech there is no need to email me but for everyone else please consider the “ opportunities “ above and email me .  I look forward to have lots of emails!  Regards, Cheryl

The 2nd Club Meeting of the Year.

Welcome to the Minutes of our 2nd meeting of 2012. We had 13 members and 1 guest, Karl, who impressively took on the role of Grunt Counter. Well done Karl! Scuffles between ‘Wanna be President’ Val and Gayna were kept to a restrained minimum in Janet’s absence, with both graciously presiding and informing of forthcoming club and district events. More on this later…

Maciej’s Word of the Day: Sassy Speeches

We had three speeches this evening: 1. Jaimen Lathia. Are you thinking what I’m thinking? (Competent Communicator – 2). Jaimen gave great insight in to the psychological 5-factor analysis used to assess Extroversion/Introvert, Neuroticism, Contiensciousness, Agreeableness and Openness, explaining the reasoning and benefits behind such analysis.

2. Peter Goode. A little bit about a little bit about a sycamore tree. (Competent Communicator – 4). Peter painted a vivid picture of trees, leaf structure and detailed insight into the skeletal intricacy and their functions, using flowing and colourful words enhanced with wonderful wit.

3. Sue Savage. Better Speaking or How I learned to stop worrying and love Table Topics (Better Speaker Series – 4). Sue gave a very insightful presentation, enhanced with PowerPoint, detailing great tips and considerations to be utilised when impromptu speaking. Focusing on TableTopics, Sue gave key tips of: Listen, Pause, Confirm, Tell and End. Then concluded with guidance to: be confident, be brief and be sincere.

Table Topics Paul Hindess introduced TableTopics with his observation that perhaps 9/10th of any TableTopic theme may be forgotten by the speaker, so kept his introductions short by delivering two options from which speakers could choose. Congratulations to Sue, Roy, Jaimen and Val for rising to the challenge all within the time.

Evaluators Val, Cheryl and Gayna offered in-depth evaluations of the main speakers with guidance from which we can all develop. Congratulations to Roy on his 1st ever Toastmaster of the Evening role and to Narinder for a very detailed and positive TableTopics evaluation which was encouraging to all.

General Evaluator Tony Stead gave insight in to the value of evaluations, relating to the forthcoming competition (23 February), where for last year’s event, Tony gave his 4th speech for the 4 competitors to evaluate. “Such quality feedback was priceless in helping my continued development” stated Tony. Tony offered feedback to the 3 evaluators with particular compliment to Gayna for including the audience’s perspective within Sue’s evaluation.

Meeting Evaluator Paul Breakey thanked all supporting roles and participants for their assistance in making the meeting yet another great and fun evening, paying particular compliment to Karl Bodaly, who, on his 2nd visit to the club, very confidently undertook the Grunt Counter role and delivered a very comprehensive end-of-meeting report. In retrospect it seems we overlooked evaluating the TableTopics Evaluator (perhaps this is something we can review at the next meeting).

Awards Best Speaker: Sue Savage Best Evaluator: Narinder Kaurbring Best Table Topic: Sue Savage Grunts: – Humour: Val Swanborough 1st Timer Role Karl Bodaly

Future events:

1. 7th Feb. Freddy Daniels, next District Governor, Watford Speakers (speak with Gayna for more details).

2. 11th Feb. Officer Training – Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes (10am to 1pm), all members are welcome to attend for greater insight into District workings.

3. 23rd Feb. Club Competition: 2-part competition for Speaker and Evaluators. Competitors required and support for numerous roles. Names to Cheryl please.

4. 29th Feb. Bob Ferguson and Andrew Brammer in Dunstable. Please contact Gayna. Costs £7. 5. 5th March (TBC). Moment of Truth. See note below. Members are invited to register for roles on the club website Next Club Meeting: Thursday 9 February Notices Speech and Evaluation Contest – Thursday 23rd February.

Hi fellow toastmasters, Our speech and evaluation contest is on Thursday 23rd February and I have agreed to be the contest chair. To make it a successful evening we need several things to happen which involves your good selves. Firstly we need people to compete! For the speech contest you need to have done six speeches and your membership should be up to date. If you haven’t done your six speeches, you could do a speech at another club. For the evaluation contest you just need your membership to be up to date. Secondly we need someone prepared to give a speech on the 23rd that will be used for the evaluation competition. Lastly we need a sergeant at arms, two timers and two counters for the night. If you told me at the last meeting that you are thinking of doing a speech there is no need to email me but for everyone else please consider the “ opportunities “ above and email me . I look forward to have lots of emails! Regards Cheryl

Moment of Truth Hello, We’ve been talking about having an extra meeting to run the Moments of Truth program (for those of you who haven’t seen it, a sort of MOT for the club) on the 5th Thursday in March. I’ve had a couple of ideas about it. How about inviting other clubs in the area to join us? Like us, they may appreciate the chance to do it without impacting on regular meetings. If there’s time, how about having another programme item as an extra incentive to come? Perhaps our area contest winner could practice presenting their speech? Sue

Good News – New Member Congratulations to Karl Bodaly who joined the club at the end of the meeting. Welcome aboard Karl.