It always gives me a buzz going to Toastmasters in Bradford: entering the Midland Hotel from its carpark entrance – walking up the ramp tiled and furnished, instantly reminiscent of a bygone era of steam trains and porters, and travellers thankfully resting in the grand splendour of Bradford’s fine Midland Hotel. That sets the scene as I go into the hotel and take the grand staircase up to the Toastmasters’ meeting room.
As always, there is the welcoming Toastmasters meeting banner and a warm, welcoming, friendly atmosphere in the room, comfortably laid out for the meeting. Everyone is greeted and welcomed with encouragement and smiles, mostly by Phil, the President; and given a copy of the agenda by Andris. Though today’s meeting was beset by very many last minute changes due to a few unavoidable absences, Phil and Andris were able to rearrange the programme thinking on their feet and a few people stepped up at the last minute to fill roles.
Mo was scheduled for the timekeeper role and valiantly also took on the Sergeant at arms role too. Andrew took on the role of ah counter and Hamza the grammarian. The word of the day was posthaste, possibly a somewhat old fashioned word – though Phil assured us of his use of this and gave humorous examples!
I was expecting to evaluate a speech and in the absence of the speaker my role changed to general evaluator, and Table Topics evaluator.
Following Mo calling the meeting to order with a reminder about silencing mobile phones and other housekeeping matters, Phil started the meeting in his role as President, informing about the changed agenda as well as reiterating the reasons why we come to Toastmasters. He introduced Andris as the Toastmaster for the evening, a role that Andris had also accepted at very short notice. Andris made the usual introductions for Andrew, Hamza and Mo to come up to explain their roles. They all did very well considering the short time they had to consider and prepare!
Phil did an encouraging educational speech on impromptu speaking which ironically, he gave ‘off the cuff’, that is to say his speech was impromptu! His advice was very much practical and he demonstrated with a ‘humble 99p plastic pen’. I was captivated by some of his phrasing: “spasm around in the brain” when he was referring to the stress most people have in public speaking; and “we show them they’re still alive” when he talked about how people fear Table Topics but after giving their impromptu speech they find they were actually OK! I personally found his speech very useful when I was called up to give my Table Topic speech later in the evening!
In the second half of the meeting, Phil was the Table Topics master and gave a very interesting selection of topics. His choice of topic for a father and his son visiting for the first time, and brave enough to step up to take on Table Topics, was inspired and the resulting talks these two gave were really very very good! The son’s topic was: ‘ What would you do if you were 37?’ and the father’s topic was: ‘ What were your dreams for your life when you were 11?’
Overall, the standard of the Table Topic speeches was very high and highly entertaining!
The final item on the revised agenda was when the President closed the meeting with a joke that linked to one of the earlier Table Topics – a smooth finish.
For me it was a highly enjoyable evening learning new roles and gave me a feeling of a little more confidence in impromptu speaking.
Norma