Practice and Improve Your Speaking and Leadership Skills

Wessex Speakers meet on the second and fourth Wednesday of each month; meetings start promptly at 7:30pm, so we encourage people to arrive from 7:15pm.

Our meetings are held face-to-face at the Winchester Racquets and Fitness Club (we are no longer meeting on Zoom).

All clubs follow a similar format with a set agenda that includes a warm up, prepared speeches, table topics and evaluations. The president opens the meeting and introduces the toastmaster for the evening, who gives a brief overview of TM and the agenda, introduces a couple of key roles and sets a warm up question.

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What can you expect at a club meeting?

Warm Up:

The warm up is an easy question to give everyone the chance to speak for 15-20 seconds. This is optional for guests but most join in.

Prepared Speeches:

Following the toastmaster’s introductions and warm up, members engaged in the Pathway programme can give prepared speeches. Speeches are usually 5-7 minutes in length with specific objectives, e.g. structure, body language, vocal variety or more advanced speaking skills. At the end of each speech, members and guests may give written feedback to the speaker. A timekeeper will then report on the length of the speeches and if three or more speeches are given, the audience votes for best speaker. The meeting then adjourns for a short break.

Evaluations:

After the break the prepared speeches are evaluated. Each speaker has a designated evaluator to comment on how well they achieved the objectives of their speaking project. The evaluator gives commendations on what the speaker has done well and recommendations on how they could do even better. Evaluations are 2-3 minutes in length.

Table Topics:

Table Topics is a session of impromptu public speaking. A table topics master selects a theme and asks specific questions related to the chosen theme. Participants aim to speak for 1-2 minutes in response to the question. There are typically 5 table topics and guests are invited to participate, but it is entirely optional. A table topics evaluator will offer feedback to the speakers and there is a vote for best table topic speaker.

Further Evaluations:

Evaluations are key to developing public speaking skills and taking the role of evaluator or toastmaster is key to developing leadership skills. In addition to the evaluators of prepared and table topic speeches, a grammarian will give general feedback on good use of language and the use of filler words such ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’. There is also a general evaluator who offers their reflections on the evening, focusing particularly on the other evaluators. The timekeeper then reports on the evaluation times and there is a vote for best evaluator.

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Finally, the president closes the evening and announces the winners of best speaker, best table topic speaker and best evaluator.

There is a formal structure and agenda to the evening which helps create a positive, encouraging and supportive environment to learn and develop public speaking and leadership skills.

Guests are made very welcome and invited to join in the warm up, table topics and voting but there is no pressure and guests are equally welcome to sit back and observe what goes on.