We've had our first meeting of the year, and it didn't quite go according to plan as festive illnesses had felled many members, meaning members were relatively low, and there were some last-minute changes. We usually open with the president's welcome – on the rare occasions she can't make it, the past president fills in. On this occasion, we had to rely on the past past past past past president (i.e., me), who also filled in as Toastmaster for the evening, acting as master of ceremonies and (hopefully) not forgetting anything.

We also had a prepared speech drop out (again due to illness), so we had an educational session as well by Karen Lee.

There were two prepared speeches. One by Karen Lee and her thoughts on motherhood, whilst Elaine told us about the American Dream.

For Table Topics, we used the deck of table topic conversations – random questions drawn from the pile.

It was a great evening; despite a few of us doubling up on roles, and even with all the members off poorly, we were still packed with 𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐞 guests joining us – I hope I don't miss anyone out on the roll call below.

If your new year's resolution is to speak more confidently publicly, improve your presentations or do some self-development, why not come to our next meeting (Wednesday, 18th January) to see what we're all about?

Shout out to all our guests: Niyesha, Nirvana, Kate, Abby, Shell, AJ, Leila, Ethan, Nick

Role of Honour:

-       Best Table Topic: Nyesha (Guest)

-       Best Evaluator: Franci and John (a tie)

-       Best Speaker: Elaine

See you at the next meeting

-       Geoff

 Our penultimate meeting before Christmas, with table topics, two prepared speeches and evaluations. We had a few last-minute dropouts due to the football and people pretending they were ill when really they were watching the football. I (Geoff) was the Toastmaster for the evening and was only 10 minutes late – thank you, President Natalie, for filling in for me; you can blame the tractors blocking the road where I live (and not me setting off late).

We also had two guests – Paul and Nissa, with Paul joining us at the end of the meeting. Welcome, Paul.

Both our speakers were Ice Breakers – the first speech given by our newest members. Muhammad gave us his speech “Inspiration for Mastery”, and I can’t believe he hasn’t done this before. Sarah was second, with her speech “Proud to be British” – again, how can this be her first, and it was funny too. Well done both of you.

Karen Lee held our impromptu speaking session – Table Topics – on the topic of ‘-itions’ – words that end in ‘ition’, and had a snazzy ‘pick a door’ board to play along with too. I think the whole room got a chance to speak tonight.

If you’re not a member and what to improve your public speaking, confidence or leadership skills, why not come to our next meeting as a guest for free? It will be our Christmas meeting, which means we aim to have a lot of fun, and there may be nibbles (even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, it doesn’t matter, come and have nibbles and join in the fun).

Role of Honour:

-        Best Table Topic: Susan

-        Best Evaluator: Natalie

-        Best Speaker: Muhammad and Sarah (it was a tie)

-        Ice Breakers: Muhammad and Sarah

See you all on the 21st of December

-        Geoff

The ribbon winners. Left-to-right Sarah, Muhammad, Natalie.

We were indeed introduced to Little Dylan at this week's meeting in the form of an Ice-Breaker speech – the first speech by a new member. Dylan and Milangu both gave us an Ice-Breaker. Dylan talked about his childhood and his little brother. Milangu spoke about her struggles in answering the question, "Where are you from?". Adrien started level three in the Pathways Educational Programme and gave us his pitch for a job.

Elaine's table topics were related to Pam's theme of the evening "eeek – it's nearly Christmas" (no, it's not Pam, it's November). It was great that all our guests who wanted to speak got a chance.

We had six guests at the start of the meeting but only five at the end. No – one didn't chew through her restraints and escape; Iram converted to a member at the break. Big shout out to our other guests: Ayushna, Nissa, Owen, Katrina, and Chris.

Also, a big Didsbury Speakers welcome to our brand-new members tonight: Muhammad and Iram.

Ribbon roll call:

• Ice Breaker: Milangu and Dylan

• Best Speaker: Milangu and Dylan (joint first place in the vote)

• Best Evaluator: Geoff

• Best Table Topic: Hollie

Why not come to our next meeting and see what all the fuss is about? We had five guests tonight, so you won't be the only one

The Ribbon Winners

There was no report last meeting as I was at Chester Speaking Club sharing my experiences with them (whether they liked it or not) and, more importantly, eating their cake.

Tonight I was back as Didsbury Speakers, lamenting the lack of cake. Still, there was one prepared and two unprepared speeches, table topic impromptu speaking and a new member to celebrate. A slice of Battenburg cake would have helped, but you can’t have everything.

Congratulations to Holly, who is through to our division contest on Saturday for both the Humorous speaking and Table Topic competitions. Our prepared speech tonight was Hollie’s refined and hilarious speech as a practice run.

I (Geoff) delivered two impromptu (or unprepared) speeches. This wasn’t because I was lazy, or caught unawares – my latest project was to give two short, impromptu speeches incorporating humorous anecdotes, one straight after the other. I talked about self-confidence and different perspectives on the same situation.

Pam led our table topics session for 1-2 minute impromptu speeches without planning. There were unexpected confessions and talks about praying wherever you happen to be at the time of prayer – even if that’s in B&Qs car park. Several guests had a go with brilliant first-time speeches.

Everyone was evaluated, and there were tips for future evaluators and impromptu speaking.

If you didn’t make it this week, why not come along next time – 16th November, 19.15, Withington Golf Club, Manchester.

Roll of Honour:

-        New Member: Dylan (welcome to the club)

-        Best Table Topic: Muhammad

-        Best Evaluator: Karen Lee

-        Best Speaker: Hollie

Good luck on Saturday, Hollie.

For 3 years running Didsbury Speakers have won the award of being a President’s Distinguished Club, which means we gained the highest level of recognition available, as the club met the membership prerequisite, and the committee and members achieved at least 9 of the 10 goals set by Toastmasters International.

"𝑺𝒐 𝑰 𝒄𝒂𝒖𝒈𝒉𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒕𝒓𝒂𝒊𝒏 𝒉𝒐𝒎𝒆 𝒏𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒅"

The first meeting in August brought us three Icebreaker speeches – where a new member does their first speech and introduces themselves to the club and a Table Topics session full of stories of lost items.

Angus kicked off a speech full of humour in his speech, questioning whether fate exists. Hollie was up second with her speech on the neoliberalisation of citizenship, asking how we got here and where we are going. Again, it was full of humour and was delivered professionally. Jorge finished the triplet of prepared speeches with his speech about moving to Australia. Again, expertly full of humour and combining elements of the first two speeches.

Kate held the Table Topics session – where guests and visitors talked for 1-2 minutes on a question or topic without knowing what it would be until they got up to speak. Tonight it was themed around items lost on a train and creative stories about how they may have become lost.

Ribbon winners tonight were:

• Geoff won Best Table Topic

• Elaine won Best Evaluator

• Angus won Best Speaker.

In addition, our newest member Amy received her new member ribbon and her first timer ribbon for picking up the role of Grammarian without any time to prepare. Angus, Hollie and Jorge also picked up their Ice Breaker ribbon.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 17th August, starting at 19.30. Drop us a message if you want to join or come along as a guest to see what it’s all about.

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