Maidenhead Speakers Club - Monday 9th December 2013 WITH GUEST BLOGGER, STEVE CANN There was festive fun in the air for the final Maidenhead Speakers' Club meeting of the year as, unusually, we had a meeting with NO prepared speeches... but there were of course speaking opportunities aplenty for all our merry members! Sergeant at Arms Doreen Gowing gotContinue reading "Festive Fun at Maidenhead Speakers Club!"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 25th November 2013 WITH GUEST BLOGGER, MELL SHEPPARD Baby, it's cold outside... but fortunately for Maidenhead Speakers Club, the performances are always hot!!! Ok, Ok, I know I sound like Bruce Forsyth... let’s see how they got on in training..... We opened bang on time with Sergeant at Arms, Doreen Gowing,Continue reading "Baby It’s Cold Outside…"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 14th October 2013 WITH GUEST BLOGGER, M. ZAHID AZIZ I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?" (Eve Merriam) Monday’s meeting had a Remembrance Day Theme and it was certainly an evening to remember. Sgt at Arms Doreen Gowing kicked the meeting off inContinue reading "A Night to Remember!"

Part one of District Governor Vanessa King's latest post, with news & pics of the Humorous Speech & Table Topics Finals Contest in Colchester, featuring of course the successes of our very own Chris Boden!

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 28 October 2013 WITH GUEST BLOGGER, Yohan mCDONALD Doreen Gowing opened another splendid evening of high class speeches as Sergeant at Arms, sharing her dismay at losing a fence panel in the recent storm! Julie Farrell stood in for Jacqui Hogan as President and warmed everyone up with some ‘o-fence-sive’ humour... which gotContinue reading "Blown Away by Speeches"

Contestants, members and guests from Area 21 all assembled on a warm and bright October Saturday morning at Burnham Park Hall in Bucks for a fun-filled and lively Area Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest - showcasing the best of the Area's wit and spontaneous speaking skills! Contest Chair and Area Governor Mark Emanuelson kicked off proceedings inContinue reading "Area 21 Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest… in Full"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 30 September 2013 WITH GUEST BLOGGER, JOHN CALLAGHAN Top speeches. Top humour. Top evening! The Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests on 30 September were packed - several toastmasters deep! Which is always a good sign of a lively club where the members want to stretch themselves. Never mind “never mind theContinue reading "Lights, Contest, Action!"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 23 September 2013 With Guest Blogger, STEVE Cann Monday’s meeting had an autumnal air about it (what with it being two days since the equinox), and we certainly saw some seasoned performances tonight. Sgt at Arms Doreen Gowing kicked the meeting off in inspirational fashion, asking ‘Is it better to know, orContinue reading "Reaping a Harvest of Excellent Toastmastery"

Maidenhead Speakers Club - Monday 9th September 2013 With Guest Blogger, JULie FarrELL The ingredients to a successful club meeting: Take one energetic and well-organised TME, Chris Boden. Add one fun and inspiring Table Topics Master, Paul Aherne, and mix with eight Topics takers in the form of Yohan McDonald, Beshlie Donaldson, Vinay Neogi, Nick Bailey, DoreenContinue reading "All the Ingredients for a Successful Club Meeting"

Maidenhead Speakers Club 19th August 2013 With Guest Blogger, Yohan McDonald The evening began with a sound of an almighty crack as Ben De Candole slammed it hard on the lectern calling everyone to attention.  He stood in for Doreen as Sergeant at Arms and opened the evening with some fine humour, setting the sceneContinue reading "Stars in Their Eyes"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 12 August 2013 With Guest Blogger, Fatiha Lafkar The astronomers predicted a spectacular meteor shower on Monday night - the skies were expected to shimmer with a natural firework display. Well, I’m happy to report that the skies at Maidenhead Speakers Club were indeed scintillating with another spectacular speakers’ evening! The meeting openedContinue reading "A Meteor Shower of Scintillating Speakers Hits MSC"

Maidenhead Speakers Club  - Monday 29 July 2013 With Guest Blogger, Mary Fraser Despite the clock on the wall operating in ‘quick-quick time’, a well organised Sgt at Arms, Doreen Gowing, called the meeting to order, welcomed us warmly and shared wise words about managing the choices we make. Former Club President Nick Bailey droveContinue reading "When Time is on Our Side"

With Guest Blogger, Steve Catchick It was a very hot evening and stuffy room this late-July evening at Maidenhead Speakers’ Club, but that did not deter our members from attending. At the start there were 20 people, although 4 more turned up just a few minutes late. The meeting was called to order by SergeantContinue reading "Some Like it Hot"

With Guest Blogger, Ben de Candole This was the first meeting of the new Toastmasters' year, so we had an all-new committee including President (Jacqui Hogan), Sergeant at Arms (Paul Aherne standing-in for Doreen Gowing) and Membership Secretary Lorraine Hamilton. When I arrived at the meeting at 7:15, it was a full of efficient busy peopleContinue reading "New Year in July"

The final meeting of the Toastmasters year took place on the 24th June. This was the last meeting with the 2012-13 committee and Steve Cann welcomed everyone for the final time as Serjeant at Arms (thank you Joyce for the spelling pointers on that). Steve thanked everyone for their help this year and I thinkContinue reading "The End is the Beginning"

In the penultimate meeting of this Toastmasters year, Sergeant at Arms Steve started as he so often does with a story - a ghost story, but without any ghosts. It was a nice walk nonetheless. President Nick delivered some slightly sombre news about a couple of club members in difficulty before moving to the moreContinue reading "Meeting Round-Up for 10th June"

Monday the 20th May saw the holding of the Annual General Meeting. The old committee gave their reports and the committee was officially elected. Details of all the official type goings on will be circulated by our wonderful secretary in due course. As part of the AGM, Nick recognised some of the longer serving membersContinue reading "AGM Night (With Speeches of Course)"

With guest blogger (and GE for the evening) Sandra Davidson. The evening started off with our Sargent at Arms Steve Cann welcoming us and telling us about a recent visit he had to a blue bell wood.  Blue bells are Steve’s favourite and I was reminded of how much I like them too. Our PresidentContinue reading "Monday 13th May – A revealing evening"

For various reasons it’s been a while since I have attended a meeting of Maidenhead Speakers Club. Some things change. Some stay the same! Okay the changes were mostly restricted to some new format T M badges. Stays the same pretty much covered everything else. Not that that’s a bad thing - far from it!Continue reading "A Prodigal Tale"

The meeting on the 8th April was started by Mell, standing in as Sergeant at Arms and she spoke about the weekend's Area contest where she and Julie competed. Mell thanked everyone for their support and feedback in the lead up. Both she and Julie did the club proud. Steve Cann was Toastmaster of theContinue reading "Schools, Stories and Socks"

Courtesy of Area Governor Amanda Bouch Contest season brings out the best in us … Not only do the contestants challenge themselves to prepare a stunning speech, but also the audience is amazing – such generosity of spirit and applause to encourage the speakers.  Everyone was caught up in the brilliance – and on Saturday 6Continue reading "Stunning Speeches at the Area 21 Contest"

The first official meeting of Maidenhead Speakers took place on the 7th March 1983. So that makes March our 30th anniversary month! It was fitting therefore that stand in President for the evening was Norman Rhodes, the founder of the club. He opened the meeting with the happy duty of presenting a badge to ourContinue reading "30 Years of Speaking Brilliance"

With guest blogger, Steve Cann. Monday March 11th saw the first big event of the year on the Maidenhead Speakers' calendar – the International Speech & Evaluations Club Contest, and we were in for a memorable and eventful evening. Unusually tie-wearing Speech Contest Chair Steve Cann started with a warm-up exercise involving some amusing fridgeContinue reading "Contest Night!"

With special guest blogger Julie Farrell. The 25th of February meeting had a Chinese theme, in honour of the recent Chinese New Year.  Toastmaster for the Evening, Anita Li, explained the significance of the stacks of oranges that can be seen in Chinese homes at this time of year – they represent gold, because ChineseContinue reading "Chinese New Year in Maidenhead"

With special guest blogger Mary Fraser. Despite it being a cold, snowy evening with a serious drop in temperature, there was a very warm welcome from Nick Bailey (Club President) at Maidenhead Speakers club and Toastmaster of the evening, Ben de Candole on Monday evening. Ben highlighted the importance of a smile when giving aContinue reading "11th February Meeting"

With guest blogger Steve Catchick - Division H Governor. President Nick Bailey opened the evening, welcoming no fewer than 6 visitors, before handing over to Toastmaster of the evening Monica Horten. This was to be no ordinary meeting. Monica introduced the theme of the evening, which would feature an evaluation workshop by our own, andContinue reading "28th January – Evaluation Workshop"

Maidenhead’s 2013 got underway on the 14th January with a rousing and very well attended January meeting. Sandra Davidson led the evening as Toastmaster and set about asking people about their new years resolutions. Her advice was that you are far more likely to achieve your goals if you both write them down and tellContinue reading "2013 Underway at Maidenhead"

The final meeting for 2012 was great success. Jacqui organised the whole evening and as well as a fine selection of food and drink (provided by members) we held a balloon debate. In the debate each participants had to take on a character and then explain why they should be allowed to stay in theContinue reading "End of Year Festive Meeting – All about balloons"

Another night of high quality speeches! This time four out of five speeches were advanced, three being humorous. Richard Davies was TME and brought along his very popular humour. He asked us to reveal the courses we had been on. Sandra Davison won best speaker. She explained to us that she is learning to playContinue reading "28th November – Baboons in Space!"

It’s already November and there are just a few Toasty meetings left in 2012. So we made the most of it on the 12th November. John Callaghan led the evening’s frivolity with style and a smile, welcoming and introducing our wonderful speakers. The night started with Steve Catchick giving a report on the Conference inContinue reading "Dreams and Stories of November"

At the Club meeting on Monday 12th November, there was a surprise presentation by Division Governor Steve Catchick. At the District Conference in Cork the preceding weekend, Steve had been given an award to pass on to our club’s most distinguished member.         For 27 years Norman Rhodes has been making up the ribbons andContinue reading "Special Presentation to Norman Rhodes"

Some tips on dealing with nerves before a speech from Julie Farrell.   How do you feel just before you give a speech?  Do your knees shake?  Does your heart thump in your chest?  Do your thoughts drive you crazy with messages of impending doom? Here’s something that’s really helped me to deal with nervesContinue reading "Observe the Nerves"

With special guest blogger Amanda Bouch. Gerard Pillai as Toastmaster for the evening put together a powerful meeting for the 5th Monday in October.  With 3 speakers and their evaluators, we had time for an extended Table Topics session run by Yohan McDonald and evaluated by Nick Bailey.  The theme was ‘passion’ and that encouragedContinue reading "October 29 Meeting – small group, but we packed a punch!"

With special guest blogger Steve Cann: A lively evening at Maidenhead Speakers started guest Sgt at Arms, Mell Sheppard, enthusiastically welcoming us and getting us all in good spirits with her Groucho Marx story. Then President Nick Bailey reminded members about some important areas of club policy and etiquette. Our Toastmaster of the Evening was Julie Farrell - ever-confident and exuburant,Continue reading "First Timers Make an Impression – meeting 22nd October"

The second part of the Autumn contest season saw the battle of table topics. Jacqui as organiser and contest chair managed to cajole 9 willing contestants into putting themselves on the line. She posed the question “What is your favourite household chore and why?” Responses were many and varied. From watching TV, playing with childrenContinue reading "Contest Night II"

So you think giving a speech at Toastmasters is a challenge? Try making people laugh. In a contest. Seven game Maidenhead members did just that on Monday the 10th of September. The annual humorous speech contest saw members doing their best to raise a chuckle or two from the crowd. Steve Catchick chaired the evening andContinue reading "Contest Night I"

Maidenhead meeting on the 20th August, with guest blogger, Division Governer Steve Catchick. The meeting was opened very enthusiastically, with Steve Cann, as Sgt at Arms, before handing over to President Nick Bailey. Nick’s first duty sadly, was to inform the club of the death of new member, Oliver Helguson. Oliver had only joined recentlyContinue reading "Cards, Hotels, Boers and Cakes"

In the Toastmasters universe July represents the start of a new year. So it’s a new President and new committee, but the same top quality meetings at Maidenhead Speakers. Last Monday the 23rd July saw Karen Szulakowska steer us through an Olympian themed evening of speeches, topics and evaluations. This Olympic warm up event sawContinue reading "Getting in the swim of an Olympic new year"

A big thank you to Maidenhead Speakers and their friends. The last outing of the KC Comedy Club in High Wycombe threw up an unexpected challenge. Because of various circumstances four out of five of the stand ups booked didn't turn up. This would normally spell disaster and throw any gig into complete panic andContinue reading "Maidenhead Speakers save the day"

Toastmaster visits the Inner Wheel Club: take me to your spokes-person! Mell Shepherd in her role as Social Secretary recently gave a talk to the the Inner Wheel Club of Burnham about Toastmasters, and gave an entertaining demonstration speech - a practice run of her speech contest entry - that was very well received. AfterContinue reading "Toastmaster visits the Inner Wheel Club: take me to your spokes-person!"