We had another great meeting of Southside Speakers last night. Anne Murray was Toastmaster and she coped brilliantly, despite several last-minute role and speech changes. Like an efficient sergeant-major, Anne rounded us all up and made sure all the role-players were in place before the meeting started – at 7pm prompt!

Anne admitted that she enjoyed banging the gavel, and she used it to great effect. We’ll have to watch that girl…

We had three guests, who all seemed to enjoy the meeting. Welcome to them, we’re very glad that they enjoyed the meeting and we hope to see them again soon!

The meeting was slightly different from the usual format because Kate Robinson was doing her 10^th speech and we wanted to mark the occasion with a wee celebration at the break, so we had the prepared speeches in the first half of the meeting and the Table Topics in the second half.

Rebecca Perry was the first speaker, doing her second speech, a very thought-provoking talk on setting and achieving goals. Rebecca stepped in with just two days’ notice to do her speech, as Eddy, who had booked a speech, had to stay home to look after his son, who was ill. We hope he gets better soon.

Lindy Irving also had to cancel her speech as she was unable to attend the meeting. Stuart Harris from Glasgow Toastmasters decided to pop along and was rather surprised when I asked him if he fancied doing a speech – but he rose to the challenge and delivered a very humorous and inspiring speech where he encouraged the audience to tell those they love that they love them. Stuart had previously told me he wanted to do a speech at Southside Speakers, but I don’t think he expected that opportunity to arise so soon!

Then it was time for Kate’s 10^th speech. This was again a very inspiring speech, where the audience was asked to pretend they were a group of environmental consultants listening to a pitch by a company called Green Monster. It was in fact a monstrously good speech. Kate described how the people of the island of Eigg had, after getting control of the land they lived on, moved to renewable energy and she then made the point that “You don’t have to be an island to be green”. Kate put across a very positive message about how we can all help save the earth’s resources, and she did so using very clear and eloquent language and lucid terminology.

In the second half of the meeting we had Table Topics, with Myfanwy stepping in as Table Topics Master because the original TT Master, Duncan Beattie, had sadly caught the dreaded lurgy and had to stay at home because he didn’t want any of us to catch it. However Duncan had already written out the Table Topics, and he very kindly drove all the way from Bearsden to drop them off with us before the meeting.

Adelheid Alexander was Table Topics Evaluator and multitasked as she also did a very good Table Topic. Elizabeth Roddick gave us excellent feedback on our Ahs and Ums as Ah Counter, Alan Keane kept track of our timings as Timekeeper, and Joe Kennedy took on his first ever role as Wordmaster, and gave us a great word of the day to use: Panglossian.

Our speech evaluators were Paul Convery, who evaluated Rebecca’s speech, George Hunter, who evaluated Stuart’s speech, and Vida Marsden, who evaluated Kate’s speech. Natalie Minnis was the General Evaluator.

Special achievement ribbons were given to Adelheid Alexander for Most Improved Table Topics – she did an excellent table topic on the subject of Seasonal Affective Disorder; George Hunter for Most Improved Evaluator – George’s evaluations are always good and he doesn’t always mince his words, but his evaluation of Stuart’s speech was particularly detailed with a lot of positive feedback that we could all learn from packed into a very short time-space.

Best Table Topics ribbon went to Paul Convery for a fantastic mini-speech all about using a stump grinder. It had humour, drama, and all the actions too. You had to be there!

Natalie

What a wonderful Speech Marathon we had at SSS last night! No table topics....just 5 very different but equally excellent Speeches.

First off, I'd like to say a HUGE thank you to all who attended and helped set up the room, and then tidy it away at the end. Your help was/is very much appreciated.

Lindy (me!) was our Toastmaster of the night, and started things off by asking everyone what meal they would prepare if they were trying to impress someone! With responses such as Herb Fritters, Corned Beef Hash and a German Feast we are obviously a group of very diverse culinary experts!

Vida was our Ah Counter of the evening and once again did a superb job both in summarising the role and providing feedback at the end of the night.

Eddy took on the role of Timekeeper and also gave a very good overview of the role and very helpful feedback.

Our first speaker was Alan who was giving his Ice Breaker speech. The speech was titled Work-Life Balance. Alan gave a really good first TM speech and we look forward to the next one. Well Done Alan.

Rebecca was our second speaker and was also giving her Ice Breaker speech. Rebecca's speech was titled Moose Factory Onwards which was all about growing up in Canada. Again, Rebecca did a great job with her first speech, so well done Rebecca.

Our third speaker was Paul Convery. Paul was giving his 4th speech from the CC manual titled A Free Lunch. This was a speech which conained so many important elements of speaking; lots of humour, a powerful delivery and a very inspiring message.

We then had the 3 verbal evaluations from Anne, George and Adelheid, all of whom did an excellent job both with their listening skills and their feedback skills. A special thanks to Adelheid for taking on the role at the last minute.

Following our 20 minute break, the next speaker was Kate, who was giving her 9th speech. The title was Get Swapping and was an informative speech all about Fairtrade Fortnight. This was an excellent speech from Kate and I think we'll all be buying Faitrade this weekend!

Our final speech was by Natalie. This was Nat's last spech from the Speaking to Inform advanced manual. The title of the speech was Private Equity - Is the Elephant Hunting Over? This was another really good speech (all about private equity companies) from Natalie AND she was the very first member to use the new club projector!! Well Done Nat.

The two verbal evaluators were Jane and Duncan, who are of course both very advanced speakers and this was evident from the excellent evaluations given.

General evaluator of the evening was Elizabeth Roddick who gave a superb evaluation of the whole evening, and gave ribbons to Jane (Best Evaluator), Rebecca (Best Speaker), Anne (Most Enthusiastic) and Paul (Most Improved). Well done you lot!

Don't forget if you want to use the club projector for one of your speeches, please let myself or Jane know at least 3 days in advance. You need to bring your laptop along with your presentation on it, but I think it's going to be a real asset to the club.

Our next meeting on the 11th March is a celebration night as Kate will achieve her CC award so please bring along any snacks/ drinks you'd like.

Have a great 2 weeks and I hope to see you all on the 11th.

What a great meeting on Thursday night! Not only did we have an excellent turnout, but the evening was full of high energy and lots of laughs. We welcomed 13 SSS members, 3 GTM members and although we started off the night with 3 guests, we ended up with 2. This was because by the end of the night we were delighted that Joe had decided to become our newest member. Welcome to Southside Speakers Joe!

Jane was our Toastmaster of the evening and started us off by asking what our favourite time of the day was. From sunrise to sunset and everything in between, everyone had a great reason for looking forward to a certain part of their day.

Role Players of the night were, Eddy (Ah-counter), Anne (Timer) and Rebecca (Wordmaster). The word of the night was Emacity and was used with great humour throughout the evening. All our role players did an excellent job in explaining why their role was important, and gave great feedback at the end of the night.

Table Topics Master was Christopher who gave us the lovely theme of Memories. Lovely that is until I got the first topic of 'Tell us about your First Love'!!! I wriggled out of it by chatting for 2 mins on my First Love in Sports....Skiing!

Geoffrey was asked about his First House and gave us a very funny table topic about the first house he didn't buy!

David from GTM spoke about his First Car and told us a story about the first car he ever bought....a bright yellow Lada for £180!! Enough said!

Joe was asked about his First Friend from School and gave a poignant table topic about moving away from people but still keeping in touch. Joe just joined SSS last night, so well done Joe!

Vida's topic was First Day at Work and we heard about her first paper round and then her love of selling jewellery!

Max from GTM was asked about The First Record You Ever Bought, and it was obvious from the cheer he gave that this was a question he could answer with ease! As well as telling us about his first record being by Led Zepplin, Max also let us into his secret of hiding his Abba records so his friends wouldn't see them! Sorry Max...your secret is out now!

George was our Table Topics Evaluator and gave a great round up of all the strengths of the speakers. It was obvious from his feedback that George had been listening intently to the speakers. Thank you George.

All in all it was an exellent Table Topics session. Thanks to everyone who took part!

Club Business was a wee bit more lighthearted, as all Jane and I wanted to talk about was the Club's recent purchase of a projector and screen! Please remember from now on if you want to do a presentation that requires overheads, just ask for use of the projector beforehand.

The new 20 minute break is going down very well and on Thursday night it went down even better as everyone got to enjoy some delicious cake sent in by Paul C's mum! Thank you Mrs C! It was Gingertastic!!

Following the break we had our 3 prepared speeches. First up was the lovely Vida who was giving speech number 4. The title of the speech was The Realism of a Dream. This was not only a very clever speech where Vida took us on a journey through a dream to a masked Vienna ball, but it was a rich concoction of beautiful language, imagery and powerful delivery. Vida - We were as sorry to be brought back to reality as you were :)

Our second speaker was Anne, who gave us a speech titled, wait for it...600 Bottles of Sherry, A Woman and A Scot. And Worth Every Penny. Anne was giving her 7th speech from the CC manual, and this was another delightful speech from Anne all about our Poet Laureate Carol Ann Duffy. Anne's speech was informative, humorous and at one point we even had Queen Victoria on the phone! Only at Toastmasters! Well Done Anne.

Third up was Geoffrey who was giving a speech from one of the advanced manuals - The Entertaining Speaker. His speech was titled My Friend Ivor and was a lovely story of a journey Geoffrey had taken with his friend Ivor. Geoffrey has such a natural speaking style and is able to sprinkle humour throughout his speech without resolving to using puns. He even used the word of the day! Well Done Geoffrey.

Each and every one of the speeches on Thursday would have made strong entries in the upcoming speech contests, so well done to all the speakers.

We then had our 3 Speech Evaluators: Max, Kate and Lindy who all gave very varied but extremely helpful evaluations. Giving feedback is one of the most important skills in Toastmasters and all 3 did a great job.

Our General Evaluator was Paul C, who was trying out this role for the first time but did a really great job. Again it was obvious from his feedback that Paul had listened carefully and paid attention to proceedings throughout the evening. Paul gave ribbons to Jane (Enthusiasm Award), Geoffrey (Best Humour) and Anne (Best Speech). Thank you Paul.

Thank you to everyone who came along on Thursday and made the night what it was. We've had a number of very positive comments from visiting guests recently saying they have found the club very welcoming and supportive, and this is just so great to hear.

SSS is a great club, but it's the members who make the club so "Well Done Everybody" for making SSS the fantastic club it is.

See you all on the 25th Feb.

Lindy, Oscar, Myfanwy, Natalie, Jane, Elizabeth and Alan.

Southside Speakers Committee

“There are old ships, there are new ships...and then there are Friendships”

Yes, last night’s meeting was a mix of old ships (members!) new ships (guests!) but as always lots of friendly faces!

Our second meeting of the year saw 11 members and 3 guests; Iain, Joe and Stuart from GTM who very kindly took on the role of General Evaluator at the last minute. Thank you Stuart.

Lindy was our Toastmaster of the evening and started off by giving everyone in the room 2 tickets to any destination in the world, and all they had to do was say where they would choose to go and why. With destinations ranging from South America, the island of Lombok (Indonesia), the Scottish Highlands, Canada and a helicopter trip into the Grand Canyon we were left in no doubt that Southside Speakers are an adventurous bunch!

Our Sergeant-at-Arms Myfanwy was unable to make last nights meeting, so thank you to all who chipped in to help set up the room, and to Jane Cameron for bringing the milk for the break.

Our first role player of the evening was Alan, our newest member who gave a clear and funny overview of the role as well as good feedback at the end of the evening. Well done on completing your first role Alan!

Rebecca was our timekeeper for the meeting and again introduced the role through humour, but kept the meeting running well on time. Many thanks Rebecca.

Natalie Minnis was the Table Topics Master and gave us the wonderful theme of ‘Friends’. This provided the opportunity for some impromptu speaking by a number of members and guests including; George who shared a funny but touching story about how he met his best friend; Anne who told us about why she was her own best friend; Lindy who argued that you can’t be a boss and a friend at the same time; Joe who told us which famous person he would choose as his friend (Nelson Mandela) Iain who spoke about keeping in touch with friends from school, and Adelheid who told us what she thought were the most important characteristics in a friend.

Jane Cameron then evaluated Table Topics and opened with the quote which began this blog...”There are old ships.....” As usual Jane gave a very succinct evaluation with lots of great tips for the speakers.

Club Business only took 1 minute and 40 seconds which is a record for SSS! This is because we have decided to try and put as much information as possible on the website.

Our break has been extended to 20 minutes and this certainly proved to be a hit at last nights meeting.

We had 3 prepared speeches after the break. First up was Eddie giving his Ice Breaker. Eddie gave us a speech titled 25 Degrees in which he shared a story about a holiday he took with his girlfriend in Dominican Republic. It was a really great speech full of twists and turns and delivered in a clear but humorous style. Well done on giving your first speech Eddie, we look forward to the next one!

Our second speaker was Kate who was giving her 8^th speech from the CC manual: Get comfortable with visual aids. Kate’s speech was titled Barra to the Butt on a Bike. This was a speech about a cycling trip Kate had taken with her partner in the Outer Hebrides. Kate had maps and photos and although it was an informative speech it was delivered in Kate’s naturally humorous style. Kate’s speaking progress was very evident in this speech as she looked very relaxed and comfortable in front of her audience. Well done Kate!

Last but not least we had Duncan who was giving his 2^nd advanced speech from the Speaking to Inform manual.  The title was Green Fingers and as well as being an informative speech, Duncan went all out to try and persuade the audience to start growing their own vegetables! Duncan is a very experienced speaker which was demonstrated throughout the presentation, but it was also light hearted and funny and we all enjoyed it very much.

Our 3 speech evaluators; Anne, George and Oscar gave very well thought out and structured feedback which will no doubt prove very helpful to the speakers.

Stuart from GTM took on the role of General Evaluator and gave very positive feedback to all the role players as well as the club in general. Stuart also gave ribbons to: Kate (Best Speaker), Jane (Best Gestures), Aldelheid (Best Improved Table Topic) and Anne (Best Evaluator).

All in all it was another great meeting and we really look forward to the next one.