h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

That's a good question. I think I am also good at starting, and well able to deliver a cogent 3 point or 4 point message. My endings could also do with some improvement. It's a real talent to be able to ad lib if necessary in the middle of a speech, so well done. When do you expect you will deliver your next speech?

'When do you expect you will deliver your next speech?'

I'm not sure - the number 5 theme is 'Your body speaks' - I thought I might use the theme of silent movement and stalking. A 'how to' type speech. What do you think? Or maybe 'Bird language', although I'm probably not good enough at whistling. (Just tried - no, I'm definitely not good enough at whistling - yet!)

Did you tell me when your next speech is and what it will be about?

I have no plans currently. We stop for the summer holidays - it's common with most small clubs. My next speech will be an advanced speech on the lines of speaking to inform. I will have to re-look at the manual before I start that speech.

Ooh, look what I've just found: http://www.toastmasters.org/artisan/member.asp?CategoryID=1&SubCategoryID=10 - some great stuff here. Not seen anything so far about great endings.

We haven't announced a cessation for the summer holidays - probably *because* we're new and not wanting to loose the momentum.

We had a really good meeting yesterday - five new guests and I gave me number five speech. I reorganised it completely just before leaving for the meeting. My speech was 'Don't just do something - sit there!' - about the importance of taking time to be in the present and to connect with the earth. I did a physical demonstration of how to walk without disturbing wildlife and got my audience to participate in a wide-angle vision exercise. I got a really good evaluation, but only three feedback slips, which was disappointing, as we had many more people present than usual. I've no idea why - maybe because I was the last speaker.

We have a big membership drive starting in a few weeks and I have to deliver a speech about the do's and don'ts of speechmaking. I have the structure worked out pretty much, but now I need to turn it into a speech. The membership drive is taking up quite a bit of my time though.

Is that one of the Advanced Manual speeches? Our president does those really well. We are looking to do a membership drive too. Roywas timekeeper and is just about to join and so is one of his friends, so I'm bringing two people into the club!

I was Toastmaster yesterday, at fairly late notice. I didn't do a great deal of preparation, but as I think the main job of the Toastmaster is to make the other people look good, that wasn't really a problem. Ideally, I would have done it without notes, but I put the Agenda on a music stand to the side of me and glanced at it from time to time.

Little did really well. He's allowed a Table Topic each time and he did a short evaluation of a last-minute speech by our President (one of our speakers didn't turn up) and he told her that she had good 'stage presence'. I was quietly impressed - so was our general evaluator, who came from another club.

That's really good. I had no self-confidence when I was a kid, and I could have done with some public speaking practice. Toastmasters was such a breath of fresh air when I eventually joined at the age of 19.

Our membership drive is this weekend in the local Tesco. We just had a meeting to make final preparations. Now I have to get posters printed and a couple of magazines available. It's looking good for next year so far.

We start up again in early September. I have a bit of work to do over the coming nights to put everything into a speech for that night.

I'm having difficulty with my computer at the moment - think it's to do with my ISP. Pooh!

I think that the Toastmasters training has been terrific for little . He's never been short on confidence - just technique and style. He tends to wriggle and look away from his audience. He's now much more succinct than he used to be. I think he loves the spotlight. I used to like being in the spotlight too, but always speaking someone else's words, not my own. I think he's going to be amazing when he grows up.

It's great that you're getting the support from Tesco. Perhaps you'll get members from Tesco staff.

We haven't closed down for the summer. We're now starting to look for a larger venue as the one we have won't hold us all soon. We're still reliant on joint members, but we have seven completely new ones for the club (including me).

I've now finished working on my next speech, which is for 13 September. It's called The Third Story and is about difficult conversations.

Good luck with your speech! Let me know how it goes.

We had our first meeting of the new season yesterday with me as the club president. I also delivered a speech at it. There were some goods and some bads.

On the plus side, I was happy with my speech. Interestingly the title was "The three things you need to know" - similar somewhat to the title of your next speech. It was on the topic of public speaking, where I exploded 3 common myths about speaking in front of an audience. The difference with the speech was that I didn't use notes. At all. In fact I didn't even formally rehearse the speech in advance. I just decided on what I wanted to say, worked on making the concepts come together in my head, did a lot of mental preparation, then trusted on the night that I could get the message across. It worked like a dream. I came across as knowledgeable, interesting and I found it put me very much in touch with the audience. My time-keeping was bad though, so that's something to improve for the next speech.

Also, we got 3 new guests, so to an extent our marketing approach paid off. One of them also signed up on the night, which is great.

On the down-side we didn't get a big turnout overall, and I'm getting worried that some of our existing members will be no-shows this year. Our meeting co-incided with the football match between Ireland and France, which definitely can't have helped, so I'm hoping that we can get a bigger turnout in 2 weeks time. We will have to do some more marketing though. We also have to pay up our membership fees before the end of September and if we don't get 20 members signing up, we will be ineligable for the club competition. I've been left with a membership crisis from last year that I have to put all possible efforts into to turn around.

Anyhow I trust our committee. They are eager, hardworking and committed to making this a good year. We'll get through it.
So a lot to think about.

Best of luck with your forthcoming speech!

Oh, well done, Woodpigeon! Now you've done it once - you can do it again and again. The speeches I've done without proper rehearsal have suffered from poor timing too. How off was yours?

Not being a football fan, I've not really been aware of the matches taking place, although I understand we lost to Northern Ireland last night.

'if we don't get 20 members signing up, we will be ineligable for the club competition' - does that mean 20 new members? That's a tall order!!

My club is growing slowly. I don't know how many members we need in order to incorporate (if that's the word) properly as a registered club.

My number 6 speech is coming up very quickly. I practiced it with little when I was held up at the ferry on the way back from the IOW and I noticed it needed tweaking. I must do some work on it tonight, and I may have to prepare a couple of flip charts for it, which might help with comprehension.

Thanks for the good wishes. I may need them if I'm working with visual aids. I'm used to working with flip charts in a work context, where the time constraints are not nearly so rigid. Ho hum!

No 6 achieved! I had a very sore throat - not the think I wanted for 'vocal variety' at all! However, lack of power in the voice excepted (I was only marked 'satisfactory in that part), I thought my speech went well. I did what had been recommended and wrote it out in full - not that I delivered it word for word - I'm too used to having things occuring to me. It did strike me that I would quite like to have taped it, so I could compare it to what I intended to say and to see where I put in additions.

My no 7 is 'Research your subject', so I may do a speech on Women at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich - I did an h2g2 entry on this that got a blob.

I can't remember seeing anyone else doing a number 7, so I've nothing to compare with. What are no 7s usually like in your experience? I need to svoid being boring!

That's amazing - well done! To tell you the truth it's a while since I have heard a No. 7. I don't have the basic manual around: is it the "work with words" speech? If so, the more thought put into the words you want to use, the better. The words do not have to be big. If it's a recap speech, then go for lots of gestures and some vocal variety!

I am in a bit of a state - our last meeting did not have the attendences we wanted and I have had very little time to prepare for the next meeting. We are also very low on membership. I don't know quite how we will be able to get the requisite 20 members in order to qualify for the humourous speech contest. I've been in the UK twice over the last 2 weeks (just back today in fact), so I have not had the time to check if everybody is prepared.

Some work to do over the weekend.

The manuals have changed - the current number 7 is 'Research your subject'. It used to be 'Apply your skills' which included 'to research the facts needed to support your speech'. 'Work with words' was the old number 6 (now vocal variety).

Thinking about your problems with enrolment and recruitment, I wonder if you have any connectors in your club, or if people know connectors:http://radio.weblogs.com/0107127/stories/2003/01/01/tippingPointNetVersion.html

How many new members do you need to get and how many do you still have? By when do you need them? Is there a Chamber of Commerce who might be interested? Is there a University close by?

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you. We also need to grow quickly. We have just moved premises into another pub but with at much nicer and larger upstairs room. The previous one was free; this time we have to pay for it. If we don't pull in more members, then our 6 monthly fee might double! Interestingly, someone who works for the same organisation as me came along yesterday. I had seen the face, but didn't know who she was.

Just come back from doing my no 7 speech. Given the contretemps last week with little and the car and the fact I was interviewing solidly yesterday and today, finishing with no time to prepare myself, as I usually do.

As the first speaker hadn't arrived, I found myself speaking first. I started with a story, explained about the experimental programme, told a couple of stories and then thought, hell, I'll sing the WASP song - and I did - it came out loud and strong! I surprised myself doing it. Then I amended the end like crazy, adding bits in that I hadn't really prepared and omitting stuff that I had. And I was in time - just - which I was pleased about. (6 mins and 55 secs!) As I was about to leave the house, I suddenly remembered that I had a 'flying jacket', which I put on and wore during the speech. That worked really well.

The president of the club has challenged me to be more humourous for me next speech. Hmm! Any tips?

We got a couple of new people attending today and two said they would sign up. How is your membership faring. I know you were a bit distressed about it. Hope all is well. Are you up to 20 members yet?

Well done, ZSF, you are really flying through the manual. I'm really impressed.

We've had a few new members and a few returnees. I think we will make the 20 with a further push, and I am hoping we can get a few more than that to join. It's been difficult enough to find new members, but we will not give up just yet!

Your speech sounds like as if it was very good. Have you had your humourous speech competition yet? Will you go to the conference in Leamington Spa? I think humourous speeches are the toughest ones. I delivered one in my club last year that went down very well, but even so, I delivered the exact same speech in another club the following week and it flopped. Funny speeches are tough. Your story needs to be good, and it needs to be backed up with gestures and vocal variety to match. Even good speakers find it difficult to do.

Hi Woodpigeon,

No, I haven't tried a humourous speech yet. Our president's feedback was to try something more humourous - she said that I was now a seasoned speaker and that I need to stretch myself. I thought I was doing that by adding the song snatch! I don't know where to begin with doing something humourous!

If you have any hints and tips, I'd love to hear them. Did you tell me about yours ( I must look in the backlog)?

I do my number 8 on 8 November. I have a week's holiday in the middle of that so time to prepare is going to be short.

My last speech was recounted in post 110, but I have another one coming up and I haven't a clue what to write about. I am currently away in Chicago, and in a hotel and environment that is not conducive to creative thoughts unfortunately. I'm keeping myself occupied by reading all the books I wanted to read but couldn't read over the past few months. Hmm - I'm reading one currently on Freakonomics, the economics of everyday life -- there's a thought...

Doing a song or reciting something in the middle of a speech *is* pushing yourself! Unless you are prepared to juggle dynamite in your next speech I don't know what you could do.

Off to Toronto tomorrow and looking forward to it.

It wasn't your last speech I was trying to remember, it was your last humourous speech. I'm trying to remember whatit was about(unless you told me about someone else's) - I could go through the backlog, but here I am again, just about to go to bed!

I've not read Freakonomics, but I have read, or rather listened to 'The Tipping Point' and 'The Progress Paradox', both of which are fascinating.

The singing wasn't such a big deal - I am a reasonably good singer, and I just belted it out and enjoyed it. I've also recited a bit of a poem in a previous one - the one called 'I shall wear purple' by Jenny someoneorother. That was much more challenging. I wore a multi-coloured hat and a purple velvet skirt and top. Great fun!

Humour, on the other hand, scares me. It would be great to pull it off.

This is another business trip, I gather? Little has a friend in Toronto! I hope you have a good time!

o/

I can juggle - a bit - but I don't think I'll inflict that on the audience!