21st January 2009

by Emma Thomas

Gray Standen, President of the Riverside Communicators opened the meeting promptly at 7.30pm. She told us there are only 38 days to the Riverside International Speech & Evaluation Contest. Any and all the members could help run the contest as there were lots of different roles to be filled on Wednesday 1st April. Gray concluded her introduction by welcoming a brand new member Bak who had joined the club that evening.

Duncan Hyde, Toastmaster for the evening welcomed everyone to the meeting especially the 6 guests. He then read out a short excerpt from Gray’s guide to being a toastmaster which involved him whipping up the members to a frenzy. Duncan informed us he doesn’t do ‘frenzy’ so he looked for inspiration elsewhere. and produced the famous poster of Lord Kitchener but with the Toastmaster seal. Normally the first part of the meeting would consist of up to 4 prepared speeches by the members. However this was an evening with a difference. Riverside Plus gave us a special presentation.

Next up was Heidi Ashley-Hacker who gave us an explanation of her role as Timekeeper followed by Jim McCluskey the Grammarian. Jim’s main role was to listen to all the members then comment on the use of good English during the course of the meeting.

Prepared Speech – Maria Hemming (No.9 speech) “Who is your best doctor”. In essence she gave us three pieces of advice. Eat Well. Exercise. Make time for Rest and Relaxation. Conclusion You are your best doctor.

Next up Riverside Plus Club members. Special presentation led by Andrew Klimaytys. He told us there’s a lot more to achieve after completing the Competent Communicators Manual. Members can go on to complete the Advanced Speech Manual; the Advanced Communicator Bronze, Silver and Gold achievements and the Leadership path to Distinguished Toastmasters.

Prepared speech – Sue Kennedy “Love makes the world go round” and asked the question ‘what would the world be like if we all loved everyone as if they were our neighbours’. She asked us all to perform one act of random kindness in our daily lives.

Jenny Betts told us how group evaluation can provide a thorough feedback for its advanced members (10 speeches or more). It’s a smaller group and the speaker has an opportunity to answer back.
Andrew/Jim/Trevor each gave their evaluation of Sue’s speech. In conclusion Franco then gave a summary of the Riverside Plus objectives.

Next the Table Topics Session. This was an opportunity for any of the members to get up and give an impromptu speech for up to 1 and a half minutes. This week’s theme was based around Barack Obama 44th President of the United States. One at a time eight of the members got up to speak. John Craddock then gave his evaluation on each of the speakers.

Jim, our Grammarian for the evening commented on all the members’ use of lively and interesting words.

And finally, the General Evaluator, Franco Vaccaro gave his evaluation on all the main speakers throughout the evening and welcomed again the new member Bak to Riverside Communicators ‘the best club in the world’.

Awards:
Best Topic Speaker – Gray Standen
Best Evaluator – John Craddock