What Went on at the Club Meeting on 6th July 2016?

6 July was certainly a new beginning and if you missed the meeting here are some of the highlights!!

Pat our new Sergeant at Arms welcomed us all confidently promising an exciting New Year for the Lewisham Speakers club! Paul, who is beginning his term as President welcomed us all and introduced all his Officers as part his team, Club Mission to follow.

Richard, who is an exceptionally talented Toastmaster made us relax and reminded us that we all make mistakes, but that's OK! John Lead the warm up and asked us for new challenges, including a new romance, pause, with the wife.

Molly took on the role of timekeeper for the very first time and did a great job in reminding us that time really does matter. "We are at a meeting not a support club" (Fantastic advice)

Pat stepped into the role of "Ah Counter" at short notice and reported on how we all need to avoid these crutches if possible to make our speaking powerful. 

Paul, doubling as Grammarian challenged us to initiate the use of the word Initiate (our word of the day) in our presentations. 

Now, to or Speakers and we had a bonus with Sally’s Icebreaker. Titled "What's in A Name". She gave a powerful presentation on how we relate to our history, through our names, and we really enjoyed to know Sally and look forward to seeing her progress through the Competent Communicator manual. 

Mark went next with his speech "Rent a Room". He used great structure to outline the process of getting a room, including being interviewed by house mates

Lucinda- one of our excellent members who returned after a break presented her speech "Once Upon a Time" which was a modern twist on Jack in The Bean Stalk, or Tower Block including iPads! Welcome back Lucinda, you have been missed.

Julian spoke from personal experience about "Food Stuffs" and suggested that on the subject of food fads, the "truth" may not be out there!  

The evaluators all built our 4 speakers up and we were reminded by Serena, Julie, Jenny and Philip that jargon can hinder a speech and that when telling a story, the story teller would ideally focus more on telling a story than performing. We were also reminded of the power of using personal stories and finally that using notes can act as a barrier by keeping a speaker behind a lectern though all four speakers gave great value.

After the break we had an exceptionally exciting "Table Topics" session lead by John, again around firsts. The best way to sum this session up is to say that each speaker, including our guests, all gave great answers to the questions posed to them. 

The winners of the evening were: 

- Best Speaker: Sally

- Best Evaluator: Philip

- Best Table Topic: Henry 

Overall it was a great evening! Thank you to the members who attended. The meetings really are made by our membership and we encourage everyone to attend and participate! 

See you on Wednesday the 20th

Lewisham Speakers Club