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

We had a full night with 3 great speeches from Sally who did her Icebreaker (first ever speech in the club) from her Presentation Mastery pathway, Adrien who did an entertaining speech called How do I talk about Santa Claus?, and our club’s mentor progamme organiser, John Champion did an educational speech on mentoring within the club.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - Sally Chester

Best Evaluator Award - Kate Bargery

Best Table Topics - guest

For our last zoom meeting (hopefully) we had a theme of ‘Summer’ and a guest Toastmaster, Mikey, who did a great job for the evening.
Paul M did a speech titled The Critic from the Presentation Mastery pathway about how you are usually your worst critic, and visiting Irish Toastie Paul O'Mahony did an inspiring speech about the benefits of the Pathways education series from the Effective Coaching pathway.

Our Table Topics Master for the evening , Kate, brought us some Summer themed questions that strirred evocative answers from all the participants.

Winners

Best Speaker - Paul McKenna

Best Evaluator - John Champion

Best Table Topic Speaker - Amy (guest)

The Toastmaster for the evening, Natalie, picked a rather unusual theme for the evening - Patrick Swayze. Nobody knew what to expect, but she interweaved facts about Patrick and his filmsthroughout the night.

Then Table Topics Master Tim carried the theme with entertaining questions featuring his films that he posed to the group.

We had 3 speakers - CJ did his Icebreaker (his first speech in the club) from the Persuasive Influence pathway, then we had Karen Lee doing a speech about how we need to keep British terms alive, and not bow to the ever pervasive Americanisms, and Houra did a speech called Survive or Thrive from the Persuasive Influence pathway.

Winners

Best Speaker Award - CJ O'Neill

Best Table Topics Award - John Champion

Best Evaluator Award - Kate Bargery