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10/1/12
Alison Skinner hosted a memorable night which saw a record number of guests attend. Let's hope their resolutions last beyond the second week of January!
Mike o' Hara and Andrew Fox both delivered their debut speeches and surprised the audience with their excellent performances. Mike entertained us with the story of his worst job ever, 'the blob' whilst Andrew Fox asked us if we were really free. The club's marketing vice president, Dan Watt, delivered an informative speech on our historic town, Royal Tunbridge Wells.
After the break Jeremy Coulon hosted the impromptu speaking session which involved selling some pretty intangible objects to the crowd. What would you bid for the fountain of eternal youth?
13/12/11
Past president Graham Archbold hosted the last meeting of 2011 with a 'bah humbug' approach to christmas. 'What do you dislike most about christmas?' was the warm up question for the crowd... even Jeremy, dressed as Santa Clause found a reason for festive complaint.
Nick Hemming delivered a witty speech with tips on public speaking, including such gems as 'wear gloves to conceal sweaty hands'. This was in constrast to Steve Robert's moving speech about a teenage boy he fostered.
Table topics was hosted by the excitable Dan Watt, delving into the local paper for topics. Nick Benning won the topics trophy with a classic diatribe about washing machines and missing socks!
08/11/11
Hugh Mackenzie hosted a great evening, and inspired by news of the latest
James Bond film warmed us up by asking us 'What's your favourite genre of
film?' We enjoyed two prepared speeches - Jeremy Coulon teaching us about
the psychology of persuasion for his third speech from the Competent
Communication Manual, and Janine Boutelje giving us an impassioned plea to
Free the Children (http://www.freethechildren.com/) as her ninth speech.
Nick Hemming hosted a challenging but fun set of table topics, which was
enthusiastically attempted by our guest, three new members, and
experienced old hands alike. It was won by Richard for his fantastic
effort selling real estate on the moon - he even collected £10 from Jeremy
as a downpayment!
25/10/11
Nick Benning was 'ghostmaster' for a halloween themed evening of public speaking, complete with outfit. We warmed our vocal chords by concocting a horror story between us about an old lady's house and several dead toastmasters.
Gary Thompson delivered his second speech to the club, redefining confidence. We were intrigued to learn of his colourful past... as a karaoke presenter. Jonathon Bowcott gave us a glimpse of his professional life with an informative talk about payment in the contruction industry and the new laws that have been established in recent years.
Chris Stone continued the halloween theme with his table topic subjects, giving some contestants tricks and other cheats! Jeremy, our resident car-jacker, went home victorious after his public confession of crime.
11/10/11
Vocal coach Estelle Matthews of ELM Media delivered an excellent workshop to the club, giving us some useful tips and excercises for developing our vocal variety, expression and projection.
Peter Burns particularly excelled in one excercise, reading a pest control advert from the yellow pages in a haunting voice. A few new faces came along which we hope to see next fortnight.
27/09/11
Club President, James Chattell, hosted the evening's meeting which featured 3 prepared speeches. Nick Hemming completed the Competent Communicator course with a well researched speech about the health benefits of water. Nadia shared her love for tulips and Steve Roberts moved the audience with his touching story of a disabled boy in New York.
Table topics was hosted by Dan Watt who treated us with a poetic introduction to the theme of 'things we take for granted'. Gary Thompson took the trophy home after a comic story about his dad and a pig in the garden!
13/09/11
Nick Benning hosted tonight's contest evening which drew a bumper crowd including many new faces. The humourous speeches began with Ed Cain entertaining us with his attitude to sport. Graham Archbold bought smiles and blushes to the room with his monkey business.
James had everyone in stitches with his plumbing disaster story. Richard Hawkes entertained with his lessons learnt as a salesman. The contest was won by Dan Watt with his speech about how to use cold calling techniques to get a girlfriend.
Dan was also succesful in a hard fought Table Topics contest featuring Ed Cain, Mark Greasley, Jonathon Bowcott and Esther Hardman.
24/08/11
Club president, James Chattell hosted an evening of passionate speaking. Robert Taylor gave an impassioned plea for us to improve society by doing less harm and Janine Boutelje gripped the audience with her moving story of how God had helped her overcome cancer against the odds. Edward Cain won the table topics with a rant about social networking and the area governor was in attendance to end the evening with a thorough evaluation of the night.
09/08/11
Dan Watt was toastmaster for the 3rd time since joining last year. His relaxed approach matched itself nicely to Nick Hemming's drug inspired speech about the wonders of Amsterdam. Nigel, wearing what can only be described as a hat, shared his passion with us in his speech about Isimbard Kingdom Brunel.
The second half of the meeting was hosted by the evening's toastmaster, James Chattell. Nick Benning, on top form, won the coveted table topics trophy.
12/07/11
Janine was toastmaster for a friendly meeting which saw 3 first time guests. Jeremy delivered his second speech, taking us on a whistestop tour of three books that have helped him. Dan, our vice president for publicity gave a speech about how we could market the club and Nadia gave us a good introduction to astrology.
The table topics session, hosted by Robert, saw Nick Benning run away with the coveted trophy for his 2 minute speech on Shakespeare, questioning whether Shakespeare was in fact written by, er, Shakespeare. The jury is out.
28/06/11
Dan Watt hosted an evening full of entertainment. Nick Hemming told us about foods to keep us looking good, Janine gave us tips for success from the life of an eagle, but it was Mark Greasley who stole the show with his speech about tennis skills we can apply to our public speaking. He had the room in stitches. The table topics session was won by Jeremy who took his shirt off during his speech to talk about his sunburnt weekend!
14/6/11
Nick Benning hosted the evening with an inspirational theme running throughout, speeches that changed the world. Quite a low turnout this week and a lot of last minute role replacements made for a lack of atmosphere at the beginning but this was soon changed. Two of our speakers, Jeremy and Nadia gave their ice-breaker speeches, filling the room with their energy and enthusiasm. Peter Burns fondly recalled his time working with the great Ayrton Senna.
Janine Boutelje gave us impromptu topics around a sporting theme which was won by Hugh who recieved a lot of laughter for his opening line, 'I've always been a bit of a loser!'
24/5/11
James Chattell hosted a high quality evening of prepared speeches and evaluations. Richard Hawkes spoke about the four people types, elephants, monkeys, dolphins and lions. Which one are you? Nick Hemming persuaded us to add coconut water to our diet in a speech with included a free taste to finish. Jonathon Bowcott spoke topically on scandal, focussing on Bill Clinton's antics of 13 years ago.
Nigel Maynard hoseted a punchy table topics session which was won by soon to be member Nadia. The meeting concluded with the new committee being voted in and the clubs finances explained by the treasurer, Nick Benning.
10/5/11
Alison Skinner hosted an evening which again saw more guests attend toastmasters for the first time. Dan Watt delivered his 5th speech about athletics, running slightly over time, Nigel Maynard delivered a fascinating speech about brickwork and Robert Taylor spoke about what makes a great speech.
Richard Hawkes hosted the impromptu speaking session, focusing on the recent news events of the royal wedding and capture of Osama Bin Laden. Both guests participated and Christian won the vote on his first attempt.
26/4/11
Jonathon Bowcott hosted an entertaining evening which saw guests and long time absentees joining us and participating. Nick Hemming delivered a speech about steroids before having to leave early (to go to the gym), Janine Boutelje entertained us with the history of East Grinstead (I think we can guess where she went on holiday this Easter) and Esther Hardman entertained us with a speech about the way teenagers converse with each other.
The impromptu speawking session was hosted by Mark Greasley and was trickier than usual with participants having to respond to a famous quote. Robert Taylor won the cup with his response to Churchill's quote,'A lie can be half way round the world before the truth has got its boots on.'
8/3/11
Mark Greasley won the Tunbridge Wells Speakers round of the International Speaking Competition. He will go on to compete against the best speakers in the county in the next round. He was voted in ahead of Janine Boutelje, Graham Archbold and Nigel Maynard.
Dan Watt gave a speech asking us whether the earth is flat. This was then evaluated by Graham Archbold, Hugh Mackenzie and Robert Taylor. The latter won the vote and will go on to compete against the county.
22/2/11
Chris Stone was the night's toastmaster, talking us onto a cruise ship and we warmed each other up by talking about celebrities we'd like to meet aboard the boat.
Nigel Maynard delivered his 5th Speech from the Competent Communicator manual. His speech entitled 'Where is your faith' was full of illustrations to explain his faith to a largely godless crowd. Janine Boutelje steered clear of creator and spoke instead of the wonder of volcanos in her speech 'It's a disaster! or is it?'
The impromptu speaking was hotly contested with some interesting topics to keep speakers on their toes. Hugh Mackenzie was caught off guard and only managed 33 seconds on 'life after death,' Steve Roberts struggled to find a reason to hate milk, but it was Dan visiting from Italy who won the trophy on his first attempt.
8/2/11
Mark Greasley, the evening's toastmaster, warmed us up with the question 'Why did you come to Toastmasters?'. It was fascinating to hear the variety of responses. Some members wanted to become writers and deal with the press whilst others just wanted to increase their confidence in general.
Alison Skinner delivered her fifth speech, 'Plan Z', entertaining us with tales of her sailing antics. James Chattell proposed 'A Change of habit', addressing the future of books and technology.
Robert Taylor hosted an entertaining impromptu speaking session to end the night, with all four guests taking a chance to speak.
26/1/11
Our previous meeting saw three speakers giving their third speech from the Competent Communicators manual. Nick Hemming's speech 'Twenty four hours in Paris' told us about his favourite film 'La Haine,' a grimy social realism film set in the Parisian ghettos. In Nigel Maynard's speech entitled 'There must be another way' we were told about restorative justice, an alternative to the retributive justice we have in the UK. Peter Burns speech entitled 'KISS and Tell' informed us to 'Keep it simple, stupid!'
Jonathon Bowcott hosted the table topics session with a novel twist. Each speaker had to take a lucky dip into a bag of products then attempt to sell the product or idea to the audience. Steve Roberts broke down in laughter as he attempted to sell the audience a small white traffic cone, but it was Peter Burns who won this week's trophy. |
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