Officer training: so much fun I did it twice
I thought I was going to have to miss the area 44 club officer training, so not wanting to miss out, I took a trip to Huntingdon to attend area 41′s training instead, along with Narinder. Between us, we came up with a lot of ideas for improving the club and supporting our members. I also had the pleasure of meeting people from several different clubs outside the Bedford and Milton Keynes area.
Then the snow started, and my plans for the following weekend got cancelled. Suddenly I was free to attend the training – so why not?
Bedford had a great showing – no less than eight members present! The room was crowded, but bursting with enthusiasm as well. Any time I meet up with other Toastmasters members I find myself meeting old friends and making new ones, and this was no exception.
During the training we broke off into small groups, each discussing one objective, and identifying assets and actions. My group’s objective was attracting new members – identifying our assets gave us a lot of ideas for making sure the word gets out about Toastmasters.
We also had a presentation on district reformation – while this sounds complicated, all it means is that the UK and Ireland make up one of the biggest Toastmasters districts in the world with nearly 250 clubs, and we need to split in half. The complicated part is where that split is going to be.
We left the training ready for a committee meeting at Janet’s house where we could discuss everything we’d learned at the training (and also have coffee and biscuits!) After the success of the Christmas dinner, going back to the Ruby Murray for another social event with a Toastmasters twist was a popular suggestion.
In short, while officer training may not sound very exciting, it’s so much fun I wanted to do it all again!
Meeting Minutes – Thursday 9th February 2012
BEDFORD SPEAKERS
MEETING MINUTES
Thursday 9 February 2012
3rd 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.
————————————————————————————————————————-
Future events
1. 11th Feb. Officer Training – Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes (10am to 1pm), all members are welcome to attend for greater insight into District workings.
2. 11th Feb. Club Committee Meeting, immediately following Officer Training.
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 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
——————————————————————————————————————————————————————
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
Latest newsletter out now
The latest newsletter for our Toastmasters area is now available. Download it here. This edition has articles on stuttering and the educational manuals, as well as the usual area calendar.
The previous editions of the newsletter are available from the downloads page.
Minutes – Thu 26 January 2012
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.
Minutes – Thu 12 January 2012
BEDFORD SPEAKERS
MEETING MINUTES – THURSDAY 12 JANUARY 2012
1st Club Meeting of the Year
Happy New Year to you all and welcome back to Bedford Speakers on our 1st meeting of the year.
It was great to catch up with everyone and to find such great energy as we all got in to the swing of what proved to be yet another successful, educational and inspirational evening.
We had 11 members and 2 guests in attendance, and extend a warm welcome to Carl on his first visit to Bedford Speakers.
Jaimen’s Word of the Day: Anamnesis
Speeches
We had three speeches this evening:
1. Tony Stead – Discharge ‘Em (Competent Communicator – 9). The Evaluation Guide for Speech 9 states Persuade with Power, Tony achieved this to great effect citing fact and event to present a very convincing argument challenging the welfare model used to treat very seriously injured in the Armed Forces.
2. Roy Manley – 2012 (Persuasive Speaking – 5). Welcome back Roy! Who would believe that 6 months has passed so quickly? Roy returned to the stage with his usual charm and presented very enthusiastic speech encouraging us to step up to the plate and be leaders. Roy’s quote “I don’t see you as you see yourself, I see you as great leaders” really hit a poignant note. Well done Roy.
3. Narinder Kaurbring – Living… I mean really living (Competent Communicator – 4). Narinder painted a vivid picture of a trip to
India and the experiences that gave cause to reflect on life and to appreciate those people, events and special moments that we can occasionally take for granted or miss. Narinder delivered the intriguing dilemma, when packing traditional Indian clothing to return to the hustle bustle of UK life, concluding with “living, I mean really living”. Well done Narinder, this was a really thought-provoking speech.
Table Topics
Val Swanborough hosted Table Topics on themes related to Christmas. Well done to Tim, Peter, Dave and Paul Hayward for four excellent answers which all managed to be within 4 seconds of the 2-minute light.
Evaluators
Sue, Paul Hindess and Gayna are thanked for their insightful evaluations of the main speakers and well done to Paul Breakey, this evenings Toastmaster, for hosting a novel TableTopics group evaluation which proved to be a great and interactive way for sharing, learning and evaluating Table Topics.
General Evaluator
David offered onsiderable gems of feedback and guidance to both evaluators and speakers from which all club members can benefit.
Meeting Evaluator
Roy, excitedly rapped up the meeting with feedback and praise for all the roles, congratulating Jaimen and Tim on jobs well done, as 1st timers as Grammarian and Grunt Counter respectively. Both, having clearly listened intensely to the meeting, gave very accurate and encouraging reports.
Awards
Best Speaker: Narinder
Best Evaluator: Paul Hndess
Best Table Topic: Dave and Tim
Grunts: -
Humour: -
Future events
1. 7 Feb. International Speaking Competition
2. 11 Feb. Officer Training – Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes
3. 23 Feb. Freddy Daniels, next District Governor, Watford Speakers (speak with Gayna for more details).
Members are invited to register for roles on the club website, or email Roy (Meeting Toastmaster)
Next Club Meeting: Thursday 26 January
Minutes – Thursday 08 December 2011
In Tony’s absence, this week’s minutes are brought to you by Narinder.
MEETING MINUTES – THURSDAY 08 DECEMBER 2011
23nd Club Meeting of the Year
Season Greetings
What an evening!!! Scintillating speeches, felicitous table topics all with generous helpings of humour. Thank-you to all for attending and participating, special thanks to Mac our Toastmaster for his fascinating Christmas facts throughout the programme. We had 12 members and 1 guest (Linda).
The word of the day was replaced with:
Paul Hindess Request for the Evening: Any seasonal word or reference
Speeches
We had three speakers this evening:
- Jaimen Lathia –“ What goes on inside my head” (Competent Communicator: 1 Icebreaker). Jaimen ‘winner of the mind’ delivered a speech about his philosophical outlook on life. The speech projected both clarity and simplicity of expression and ended with Albert Einstein’s quote “I have no special talents. I am only passionately curious”.
- Cheryl Green – The Moral of the Story (Storytelling manual Project: 3). Cheryl, with her usual flare and energy shared a tale of Christmas past. A time where Space Invaders was a must-buy present for every man especially when diamonds were at stake. Great use of vocal variety and body language. Cheryl had us hook, line and sinker from start to finish. Well done!
- Tim Sawyer – “Ahead of our time” (Competent Communicator: 1 Icebreaker). Tim’s speech projected an air of cool confidence with panoply of description to set the scene. The speech was pitched and delivered at the right level with a perfect balance of humour. Tim was commended for negligible use of ahs and
umms, an added bonus on a first speech.
Table Topics
Gayna Cooper hosted Table Topics on a much-anticipated Christmas theme. Gayna’s natural positive approach helped to instil confidence and ease in the participants.
Well done to all those who rose to the occasion. Paul Breakey (Devising Plan B following Rudolph’s unfortunate broken antler), Paul Hindess (Worst Christmas present), Paul Hayward (invent new tradition at Christmas), Linda (Perfect Christmas present), Narinder (Explaining to child why Santa hasn’t delivered presents on eve) and Martin (Ideal person to spend your Christmas).
In addition, Mac’s ‘Just a minute’ part of the agenda provided the perfect opportunity for Dave to share his evening of Tall Tales at Eldergate, where we were intrigued to learn of his political links with Boris Johnson.
Evaluators
Paul Breakey, Martin, Paul Hayward, Dave and Val shared their pearls of wisdom and provided the speakers with good constructive feedback.
Meeting Evaluator
Narinder rounded off the meeting with a personal twist on the role of meeting evaluator, delivering a time travel summary of the year’s events with the added bonus of including every ‘word of the day’ from the last 6months.
Awards
Best Speaker: Cheryl Green
Best Evaluator: Paul Hayward
Best Table Topic: Paul Hayward
Humour: Cheryl Green
Future events
- Speeches and Evaluation Contest – 23rd February 2012
- Area Speeches and Evaluation Contest – 21 March 2012
- Division Speeches and Evaluation Contest – 21 April 2012
Have a merry Christmas &
a lovely New Year
Next Club Meeting: Thursday 12th January
PS. Note to self‐ “easy on the mince pies”.
Christmas party – tall tales and limericks
The Bedford Speakers annual Christmas party and Tall Tales contest was held on the 1st of December at the Ruby Murray Indian restaurant in Bedford, and the restaurant was a welcome sight on a cold December night. Friendly staff, stylish decor, and the promise of delicious food to come.
The contest chair Narinder already had things well in hand, with numbers at each seat ready for the limerick contest, which were soon joined by the programmes – a joint effort between Narinder, me and Val. Gayna welcomed everyone to the party, then handed over to Narinder, who set the scene in great style, despite the frog she had eaten at lunchtime which was still lodged in her throat.
I was looking forward to delivering my own tall tale, but first came starters and limericks, including a multi-verse epic from Gayna and a few picks from Narinder’s bag of limericks.
Then it was time for my speech – “Lovely Spam, Wonderful Spam” – a fast-paced tour of SPAM around the globe. My speech was factual, but mentions of SPAM sushi, SPAM gift sets and kosher SPAM managed to fool a few people into thinking I’d made it up.
With other groups in the same restaurant, it was quite a challenge to make myself heard over all the noise. Great voice projection practice though!
I was followed by Tony’s account of a trip to the Ideal Home Exhibition in the 1970s. Despite claiming that the singer Craig David was his nephew, he managed to fool a few people (including me!) into thinking that his story was true, rather than a complete fabrication.
Next up was our former Division G governor, Graham. Graham told us a fictional tale of his brief career as a saxophonist in a blues band in London, that sounded extremely convincing.
Then came last year’s winner, Paul. His speech told us of a steamy (or at least, very wet) August night in 1997, which not only displayed fantastic storytelling skills, but was also completely true.
At some point between speeches, dinner arrived, and the table was soon crammed full with rice, vegetable dishes and curries. A fabulous meal – although I did feel sorry for those who had to speak on a full stomach.
Last but one to speak was Val, with a ‘shaggy dog story’ about a dog she once met at a bus stop. The horrendous pun at the end led me to believe it was a fictional story, but several others correctly identified it as fact.
And finally came our club president, Janet, who told us a story of how she unexpectedly found herself in the middle of an African marriage ceremony with herself as the bride. Despite a certain amount of embellishment, I finally managed to correctly identify a true story.
But the show wasn’t over yet – we still had more limericks to come. Paul and I both managed to rhyme ‘Gayna’ with ‘no-brainer’ but it was Peter’s exceptional limericks including a man from Bedford who sang at a Welsh eisteddfodd who stole the show.
Narinder had one more surprise in store for us – cake! From a place of concealment under the table, she produced a huge plate full of home made fairy cakes, all decorated with the Toastmasters logo.
And finally, the competition results. Janet presented the certificates to the winners. Val took second place in the tall tales, and for the second year running, Paul took first place and carried home the trophy. Meanwhile, Peter’s masterful rhymes and wit won him first place in the limerick contest.
Limericks
Here are a few of the limericks entered in our Christmas Tall Tales and Limericks contest:
Val Swanborough:
We went to the Ruby Murray
For limericks, tall tales and curry.
There was copious wine
Which suited us fine
But the tall talles got taller … and taller …. and taller – no worry!!
Trish Page:
I’ve got a son who’s barbecue mad
It runs in the family and makes me quite sad
But he hasn’t used a tyre
To set a whole field on fire
So at least he’s not as bad as his Dad!
Sue Savage:
My humorous speech was no strainer
In fact it was quite a no-brainer
With language so pretty
And humour so witty…
And still I came second to Gayna
Dave Minzey:
Our President Janet is quite a catch
She is on the lookout for a match
Be it golf or man
We all know she can
Dismiss all duffers and duds with despatch!
Watch this post – more coming soon!
Minutes – Thursday 24 November 2011
BEDFORD SPEAKERS
MEETING MINUTES – THURSDAY 24 NOVEMBER 2011
22nd Club Meeting of the Year
Hi all, thanks for a great evening on Thursday. We managed to pack in a great evening of excellent speeches, humour and table topics. Thanks to you all for attending and participating.
We had 16 members and 1 guest attend Thursday’s meeting and would like to extend a warm welcome Jaimen who recently joined the club.
Tim’s Word of the Day: Effusive
Speeches
We had three speeches this evening:
1. Sue Savage – Tartuffe (Interpretive Reading: 4). Sue effusively recited an extract from Moliere’s Tartuffe, bringing life and energy to the scenario with great vocal variety, dialects and body language. Well done Sue.
2. Maciej Sadza – Presentations 101 (Competent Communicator: 7). Mac delivered a speech which is related to a Public Speaking Course he shall shortly undertake. Mac gave great guidance on public speaking tips and a very useful handout.
3. David Minzey – Etna Event (Entertaining Speaker: 4). Dave gave an thrilling, energetic and very confident speech employing body language, vocal variety and relating to a recent holiday in Sicily.
Table Topics
Paul Hayward hosted Table Topics on the musical theme of song titles and what they mean to you. Well done to Byford, Paul Hindess,
Narinder and Tim (first Table Topic), for rising to the occasion, combining wit with quick thinking to present great impromptu speeches.
Evaluators
Tony Stead, Tony David, Val and Martin were thanked for sharing their wisdom and experience and for providing alternative examples of expression.
General Evaluator
Gayna reminded us of the value within evaluations, highlighting how we all enjoy receiving our feedback slips and the impact they can make.
Gayna then commended Evaluators and offered great guidance for further development.
Meeting Evaluator
Dave, in his usual energetic, proactive and encouraging style, rounded off the meeting by recognising the importance of each role in making the evening a rewarding and successful event.
Awards
Best Speaker: David Minzey
Best Evaluator: Val
Best Table Topic: Paul Hindess and Tim
Grunts: Paul Breakey
Humour: David Minzey
Future events
1. Christmas Dinner – 1 December 2011
2. Speech and Evaluation Contest – 23rd February 2012
3. Area Speech and Evaluation Contest – 21 March 2012
4. Division Speech and Evaluation Contest – 21 April 2012
5. National Speech and Evaluation Contest – TBC
Members are invited to register for roles on the club website.
Next Club Meeting: Thursday 8 December
CHRISTMAS DINNER
The Club Christmas Meal will be held at 7.30pm on Thursday 1st December at the Ruby Murray Restaurant, High Street, Bedford http://www.rubymurrayrestaurant.co.uk/. The invitation is extended to guests. Names to Gayna (gaynacooper@gmail.com) soonest please.
The theme of the evening will be a Tall Tales competition. There will also be Limericks throughout the evening; participation is encouraged.
——-
Fellow Toastmaster
Bedford Speakers cordially welcomes you to an evening of fun, food
and laughter at our annual …
TALL TALES Contest 2011
When: Thursday 1st December 2011
Time: 7:30pm
Where: Ruby Murray
17
High Street
Bedford,
MK40
1RN.
See link: http://www.rubymurrayrestaurant.co.uk/
Tall Tales are not the result of a cross between a giraffe and monkey….or are they???
Not sure what a Tall Tale is?…..don’t trust me to tell you the truth?
Narinder linked an archived article from Toastmasters for your convenience: http://www.toastmasters.org/ToastmastersMagazine/ToastmasterArchive/2007/November/TallTales.aspx
Have a read and see if you would like to give it a go. Bonus…you can count it towards your CC manual… (don’t forget to ask someone to be your evaluator)
Follow Us!