Nick, Nisar & John

Last night we had a really full room, filled with loads of members and quite a few guests, for a night of inspiration and learning. Franci our Toastmaster for the night used the theme of Environment to bring many issues to light, which was continued by Karen Lee in the Table Topics section of the night.

We had 3 cracking speeches on a variety of subjects. Anita brought us an inspiring ‘use them or lose them’ speech about the benefits of resistance training when getting older. Next up was long time member, Susan, who reminded us not to wait to do something,as sometimes time runs out. Lastly Muhammad talked about how in our ultra-connected lives people can still be lonely, and what we can do about it.

It definitely was a thought provoking night.

Winners

Best Evaluator - John Champion

Best Speaker - Susan H.

Best Table Topics Speaker - Nick Harvey

As one of our newest members, Nisar Khan received his First Timer ribbon for doing his first role in the club, Timekeeper.

If you missed last night's science-themed meeting, we had two Ice Breaker speeches, an Educational on the District Club Programme, and a smorgasbord of Table Topics, all ran by Franci, our Toastmaster for the evening.

Laura was first weaving humorous stories of her family and Andrew told us why he spent the deposit he'd been saving for a house on a university course. Karen Lee educated us all on the Distinguished Club Programme. Can we get the President's Distinguished award again next year? We're hoping so.

Karen Lee was also our Topics Master, mingling fascinating science facts with questions all about science, where we learnt why drinking the night before an elephant ride isn't a good idea and that fairy dust is better than world peace.

Laura and Andrew both received their Ice Breaker ribbon; Andrew also won Best Speaker. President Natalie won Best Table Topic, and Pam won Best Evaluator.

Want to come along to the next meeting or find out where the meeting title came from? Reach out and come along as a guest.

We were back in the room and we had a very lively fun meeting hosted by our brand new President Natalie who also took on the role of Toastmaster for the evening.

We had great speeches from Paul who did his 4th speech but it was actually his first in person, as his others had been done on zoom during lockdown, so we treated it like it was his Icebreaker speech, and our 2nd speaker came from our club Treasurer Geoff who regaled us with how to bluff your way through the world of opera with his amusingly titled speech ‘L’Opera: una guida per gli sconcertati’ which translates to Opera - A Guide for the Bewildered.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Geoff Hodge

Best Table Topics Award - (joint winners) Jorge Jackson & John Champion

Best Evaluator Award - (joint winners) John Champion, Karen Lee Turner & Kate Bargery

Left to right - Jorge, John, Geoff, Kate & Karen Lee

Other Awards

First Timer Ribbon for taking a first role in the club - Louise Dawson (Timekeeper)

Icebreaker Ribbon - Paul McKenna

At the last minute we had to change our meeting from an in person event to a zoom meeting due to a number of members suffering with a bout of Covid (luckily everyone has recovered), and quite a few members on holidays. Due to doing meetings on zoom throughout lockdown we already had the mechanisms in place to swap effortlessly, and the meeting went ahead although with a few less people.

Even with a diminished group we still managed to have a fun, entertaining and informative evening.

Winners

Best Table Topics Award - Elaine Blidgeon

Best Table Topics Award - Jorge Jackson

Best Evaluator Award - Karen Lowen

It was a quiet night due to the school holidays, and the Platinum Jubilee 4 day weekend starting the following day, but that didn’t stop us having a very enjoyable evening full of funny Table Topics in the first half, and in the second half Jan did a speech about ‘What make us happy’.

Although there was only the one speech we decided to do something a bit different and have 3 members do an evaluation of that one speech, similar to what happens in an evaluation competition, which proved informative to the newer members.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Jan Bramall

Best Evaluator Award - Kate Bargery

Best Table Topics - won by a visitor to the club

We had a full night of Table Topics and 3 speeches from members of the committee.

First up we had Pam our President doing a speech about mentoring, and the person who influenced her in her work life. Next up was our VPM Natalie who talked to us about Italy and specifically the glorious food of Italy, and our final speaker was John our Mentor Master who talked about whether is is better to be taught using the carrot theory or by using a metaphorical stick.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Pam Rowley

Best Table Topics Award - Louise Dawson

Best Evaluator Award - Geoff Hodge

What a cracking night, in which over 20 people attended. We had a full roster of speakers for the evening hosted by first time Toastmaster Adrien. Kate did a speech about standing up for yourself called ‘Be more Jackie Weaver!’, Filipe’s IceBreaker speech titled ‘ The Art of Nothing’ was about how to take time for yourself away from the distractions of modern day life, and Susan delivered an short educational speech on how to do evaluations in Toastmasters.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Filipe Fernandes

Best Table Topics Award - John Champion

Best Evaluator Award - Victoria Cullen

IceBreaker Award - Filipe Fernandes

Didsbury Speakers’ President Pam Rowley with Area Director Howard Balkind

We were glad to see 15 people arrived for our first time doing a face to face meeting back in the Golf Club in 2022, including our Area Director, Howard.

Karen Lee, our Vice-President of Education did a speech from the 2nd level of her Innovative Planning pathway, titled Understanding Your Leadership Style, and the rest of the night of Table Topics meant that everyone in the room got a chance to speak.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Karen Lee Turner

Best Evaluator Award - Tim Borden

Best Table Topics - Elaine

As it was the first meeting back after New Year we decided it would be prudent to hold a Zoom meeting instead of a face to face one as quite a few members were suffering from various lergys (mainly colds not Covid). Although it was a smaller meeting than usual it was a really enjoyable night with a couple of speeches.

Joy from Spa Speakers Toastmasters Club visited and did her 2nd speech from Level 3 of the Effective Coaching pathway, and our President Pam used her speech slot to practice a very special eulogy for her brother-in-law that she was going to be doing for real the following week.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Pam Rowley

Best Table Topics Award - guest Katie

Best Evaluator Award - Geoff Hodge

Due to a few members informing us that they couldn’t come to the last meeting of the year on the 15th we decided to have our Christmas meeting a bit earlier than usual. We hada speech from Victoria which was her 2nd speech from the Presentation Mastery pathway, and then we had a warm buffet of chilli (meat & vegetarian) with rice, all finished off with a selection of mince pies, cakes and biscuits kindly brought by members of the club.

The rest of the meeting was devoted to Christmas themed Table Topics in which everyone in the room got to speak.

Best Speaker Award - Victoria Cullen

Best Table Topics Award - Filipe Fernandes

Best Evaluator Award - Kate Bargery

First Timer Award (for doing 1st role in a meeting) - Filipe Fernandes