John Reid delivered his very first advanced speech from the ‘Technical Presentations’ project. This was evaluated by Yvonne Forbes who gave positive feedback for both an entertaining and technical speech; also remarking that this is the first time that this manual has been undertook by a member of Ambassadors.

Yvonne went on to deliver a speech about the Distinguished Club Programme, and how it can benefit all members and the club.

The second half of the meeting’s impromptu Table Topics was chaired by Yvonne who tasked the members with coming up with alternative stories for established films. Randolph Bishop evaluated this and commented on how high the standard of improvisation was tonight.

The meeting was closed with a notice to members that next month’s meetings will be held on the 10th and 24th January instead of the regular 1st and 3rd Tuesday of the month.

Timer & General Evaluator: Elena Virgo

There was clearly a positive atmosphere as our Toastmaster for the evening, Yvonne Forbes, led us through a warmup about how we feel about the dark.

Tony Stavri delivered his ‘Ice Breaker’ speech, which was his very first speech in the club. Despite being new – he ably delivered it while sharing personal moments about his life. This was ably evaluated by Sue Fish.

The second speech was delivered by John Reid. Rather than being a standard project speech – it was a speech from ‘The Successful Club’ series entitled ‘Moments of Truth’. It was raised standard that the club should meet to create good first impressions and keep up that impression for all members. A short workshop completed the speech, and John will feedback the results of the workshop soon.

The second half of the meeting was opened with the Table Topics prepared by Randolph Bishop. The theme was ‘Just a Thought’ and asked participants to share moments or thoughts from their lives.

Timer: Imasogie Abimbola
Grammarian: Edwin Woodger
General Evaluator:  Mike Martin

Opened by this evening’s Toastmaster, Randolph Bishop, the meeting was full of entertainment and humour. Before the meeting commenced, the Distinguished Club Award for 2010-2011 was unveiled. This was awarded to the club by Toastmasters International for “its commitment to providing a quality experience for [our] members.”

Gay Jarred and Mike Martin delivered two excellent speeches from the Competent Communicatior manual, which were ably evaluated by John Reid and Randolph Bishop.

Following the break the entertaining Table Topics was delivered by John Reid. Using a deck of cards, members had to stand up and talk about a completely random topic. The Topics speakers were evaluated by Elena Virgo.

Congratulations to Gay Jarred for winning this meeting’s Table Topics.

The meeting closed with an invitation from out esteemed member, Yvonne Forbes, to join her for a casual meeting at her home at the end of the month. We also welcomed our new member, Tony Stavri, to the club.

Timer: Tony Stavri
Grammarian / General Evaluator: John Reid

Ribbons

“A soldier will fight long and hard for a bit of coloured ribbon.”

Napoleon may have been right when he said this. There is nothing quite as tangible or visual as a ribbon or medal to show that you have achieved an accolade. And people will go to great lengths, sometimes, to gain those accolades.

I’m glad to say that this is the case for our club as well! Last year we worked very hard to improve membership numbers and the overall experience for all members who attend a meeting at Ambassadors Speakers Club. This is reflected in the Distinguished Club Toastmasters Award. As the Immediate Past President, I’m proud that our club has managed to promote a good experience for all members, new or current.

What is a Distinguished Club?

In a nutshell, a distinguished club is a Toastmasters club that is dedicated to creating a high-standard of meetings and membership so that everyone can take part and engage in Toastmasters meetings.

At Ambassadors Speakers Club, we want to make sure that everyone who is a member has an opportunity to:

• enjoy themselves
• enhance their speaking skills
• improve their leadership skills

We set ourselves goals so that we can make sure that each member has a chance to do all three, while being in a meeting that is a high standard.

By meeting these goals we’re recognised by our parent organisation, Toastmasters International, and have been awarded the coveted ribbon.

So What’s Next?

We do it again! The way to keep a club like Ambassadors Speakers Club thriving is to keep these goals in mind. It’s good for all of our members and creates a strong community as well.

Although Ambassadors Speakers Club is a speaking club – what you get out of it is so much more than just speaking skills.

Of course I’m biased. Find out for yourself and come along to one of our meetings to see what happens and how it can benefit you.

The meeting was unveiled by today’s Toastmaster, John Reid, who presented the new format club agenda and marketing materials. Making use of the brains of the members, he asked what word sums up Toastmasters for them. Some great feedback. We also welcomed a guest who came along to see what Ambassadors is about.

Elena Virgo and Yvonne Forbes gave some excellent speeches, which were evaluated by Yvonne Forbes and Gay Jarred.

The second half of the meeting saw two rounds of the highly entertaining Table Topics. Gay Jarred provided us with a wonderful theme about dreams, and asked challenging yet universally accessible topics. The Topics speakers were evaluated by John Reid.

Congratulations go to Elena Virgo for winning this meeting’s Table Topics.

The meeting closed with a discussion on a ‘green theme’ meeting.

Timer: Grace
Grammarian: Yvonne Forbes
General Evaluator: Elena Virgo

Despite the desperate attempt at alliteration, the Division H Humorous Speech contest is one that shows all the best parts of public speaking. You need to be able to combine humour, content and delivery in a very neat and entertaining package.

That’s exactly what today’s contestants hoped to achieve. Each one has fought through 2 heats at club and area level to win a place at this contest. Whoever wins will take one other division winners in the National level at the Flourish 2011 Autumn Conference.

But let’s not jump ahead! The first part of the day was made up of two workshops.

The first, titled Confidence, Charisma and Connection was delivered by Jane Bennett. She delivered a unique perspective of how to use some Neuro-linguistic programming skills to build your own confidence. The workshop progressed to using non-verbal communication to build charisma and how being prepared enables you to create a positive connection with your audience.

The second workshop, Empower Your Voice, was conducted by Peter Street – a voice coach who brings the skills of singing a vocal training to the fore to get the best out of your voice. Peter introduced us to the very basic blocks of what helps us to use our voices well, things that might not even occur to us normally! A great and fun session showing how oration shares a lot of its skills with performing arts.

After a lunch break we all got down to the nitty-gritty – the contest itself.

5 areas brought forth five contestants ready to use their skills and deliver humorous speeches. Our own area’s winner, Robin Poole was the 3rd speaker among the high-standard speeches. Taking us from being a member of a jury giving a verdict on an elaborate tail of shampoo to the wild world or dog flaps and suicidal parrots.

The second set of contests were the Table Topics. There are the impromptu speeches in. Which you stand up and are given a topic without any preparation! Thinking on their feet, minds whirling faster than the Hadron Colliders, five contestants were given the task to talk about “Is honesty is always the best policy?” We were lucky enough to hear an assortment of funny speeches ranging from discussing the X-Factor, GP advice, Children and avoiding difficult conversations!

The day had to come to a close, however, and the important business of who would represent our division at the national contest.

Here are the hard-fought places in today’s competition:

Humorous Speech
1st Place: Robin Poole
2nd Place: Bob Nisbet
3rd Place: Richard Green

Table Topics
1st Place: Chris Boden
2nd Place: Robin Poole
3rd Place: Adrian Moore

Congratulations to everyone who took part today and made the event so enjoyable. Ambassadors wants to wish Robin and Chris the best success at Glasgow. Good luck!

The great thing about being in Ambassadors and any other Toastmasters club is the interactions of clubs at a local level, and there is no better example of this than the contests.

If you’re a club lucky enough to push a member ahead who’s got what it takes to make the grade and advance to compete against other clubs and better speakers – then it is an exciting prospect!

Ambassadors Speakers Club had two contestants who won the club humorous speech and table topics contests. These were John Reid and Yvonne Forbes respectively.

The Humorous Speech contest requires a good 5-7 minute speech that also is judged on how humorous it is, and how the audience respond to it. John Reid represented Ambassadors well with odd socks and a speech entitled ‘Yes Man.’

“I don’t find being humorous particularly easy,” John said before the contest. “I’m tend to use humour that is subtle. But this is a chance for me to try something new and loosen up. I just hope that the audience find it funny on the day!”

Up against 3 other contestants, John represented himself well and placed runner-up.

Yvonne delivered the Table Topics portion of the contest, based on “Good chemistry means different things to different people. What does good chemistry mean to you?” Delivering a joke-filled speech about chemistry inside and outside the classroom, Yvonne did a great job!

Yvonne placed a respectable 3rd place in the contest.

Needless to say a great day was had by competitors and guests alike.

Ambassadors sends its congratulations to Robin Poole who managed to secure First Place in both the humorous speech and table topics contests and will go on to represent the area next week!

After quickly assessing how we were going to fit folk in nicely, we were set for a great meeting with Randolph Bishop as the evening’s President and Toastmaster.

With three complete speeches from Elena Virgo, John Reid and Mike Martin – we had a variety of comedy, seriousness and intellectual stimulation.

Yvonne Forbe’s table topics also provided an invigorating sense of the final days of summer as members scrambled to deliver speeches of themes ranging from ideal days off to shopping.

A general evaluation from John Reid and grammarian report from Mike Martin closed the meeting.

Congratulations to Helen Court for winning the Best Table Topics award, and also being the evening’s timer.

We left with good luck wishes to Yvonne and John for their upcoming area-level speech contest in Canterbury this Sunday.

A successful first meeting at our new home!

You stand in a room, cold and alone. As you gaze forwards your meets meet the casual stares of every single person in the room. Your mouth goes dry, you knew this day had to come. Eyeballs bore into your core. As adrenaline fills you, your clammy hands are shaking, your pulse quickens, and the inescapable truth comes to the fore:

You’ve been asked to say a few words.

Like a bad dream, you can guarantee that someone somewhere is having this experience right now. No matter how prepared you are, you never quite realise how nervous you’re going to be until you are there. And it doesn’t matter if it is a group of five people or a group of 500, the feeling is the same. You can imagine, that person really wishes they could wake up!

Strangely, this is the Number 1 reason why I hear people DON’T want to join a speakers club such as Ambassadors Speakers Club. “Oh, I don’t think that I would be able to stand in front of people and talk.” Despite the fact that this is what Toastmasters International clubs are for. All Over the World.

And you know what else? YOU CAN! Absolutely anybody can stand in front of an audience and talk to other people. What you need to discover, is that you are one of 6 billion people in this world perfectly capable of public speaking.

Among a group of people such as Ambassadors Speakers or any other Toastmasters club, you are surrounded by individuals who want you to do one thing: succeed. When you are addressing the group, you are buoyed on by the inescapable fact that they want you to be your best at what you do.

Before you know it, you can deliver a speech with your eyes closed (although it might be helpful to see the audience you’re addressing). And through this journey of self discovery you become more confident, more assertive and develop a calm approach to any situation. You learn to take control of life’s events.

It’s that simple.

I can’t think of any other type of club where you can be entertained, informed and take away skills that will help you in life all at the same time.

For a few pounds a meeting, you have a mentor assigned to you, learn the skills of speaking in a friendly and nurturing environment, and meet like-minded friends.

Of course, don’t take my word for it – come along to an Ambassadors Speakers Club meeting and see for yourself. Guests are always welcome to come and see what the fuss is about. For free. Or just contact us to find out more.

Just think, if you’re ever asked to “say a few words” it will never, ever be the bad dream that we all fear!

This one is quite important though, as Ambassadors Speakers Club has a new home.

From now on, the club meetings will be held at St Gertrude’s Nursery, Lillian Road, Ramsgate. The address can be found at the bottom of the website and on the Contact page.

Also changed are the meeting times, which will now be starting prompt at 7pm. Members and guests are asked to arrive at 6:45pm to ensure smooth running of the meetings.

We would like to say thanks to the Trinity Community Centre for all of the help they have provided to us over the last couple of years, which has helped our club to remain successful and an enjoyable place to be.

As well as a new venue, we are looking at some of our members helping with projects at the St. Ethelbert’s Primary School to help with speaking, listening and confidence for Year 6 children. There will be more news as this happens.

In the meantime, we look forward to seeing you all there!