Saturday, February 20, 2010

Hew we work

Expect to find the following at a typical Speakeasy Toastmaster meeting. One of the club members will chair the meeting, acting as “Toastmaster for the evening”. A different club member acts as Toastmaster for each meeting. Then the prepared speeches will be delivered. We have an average of four speeches each night.

All our speeches are based on manuals from Toastmasters International. The manuals comprise different projects which set criteria, such as organizing one’s speech, and so on. However, speeches can be on any subject once the manual objectives are adhered to.

After the tea break, we have a topics session. A club member, again a different person for each meeting, acts as Topicsmaster. The Topicsmaster asks other club members to speak on an unexpected topic for up to two minutes. Needless to say, non-members will not be asked to speak in the topics session, but are welcome to contribute. Following the topics session, the evaluation session takes place.

A club member will act as General Evaluator, making observations on how the meeting was organized. The prepared speeches will be evaluated by other club members, who will comment on the features on the speech, and make recommendations on how the speaker can improve. Recommendations are given in a friendly and constructive manner. Finally, all contributions are timed by a Timekeeper.

See the above in reality at our next meeting which will be held at the Hibernian Hotel, Mallow, February 18th, at 8:00pm. We meet on the first and third Thursday of each month. Further details on the club are available from our website, www.speakeasytoastmasters.com.

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