Well Croydon Speakers has hit the new season with a bang!  We are enjoying having lots of members, new and old.  Lots of speeches and different topic sessions.  We have been able to provide video capablities and allowing members to use PowerPoint in their speeches.

New members to the Committee team have brought new ideas and added to support to the existing team.  It has also allowed some team members to step down and let others take on the challenge!

Croydon continues to grow stronger and provides a safe and friendly environment to all to take on the art of public speaking and conquer any fears or barriers!

If you want to know more, then browse the website or contact the committee team.

Welcome back fellow speakers!  Our first meeting was chaired by our new president, Sana and she welcomed us back.  Her opening speech enthused us all to think about what we would like to achieve this speaking year.  The meeting was well attended with a potential new member.  There were 3 speeches which everyone enjoyed.  Our topics session after the tea break got our brain cells working and challenged all.  The evening was well evaluated with everyone getting feedback on their performance on the night. 

The next meeting is on the 26th September.  If you would like to give a speech or take up a role then please contact James at james@croydonspeakers.org.uk.

Its not long now until we all meet again for our new season.  The season starts on the 13th September in St Matthews Church Hall at 7:45pm.  The season will run until the end of June 2012 with our dinner finishing off the year in July.  As lots of people know our club is a very friendly place to come an learn and practice public speaking.  Everyone is welcome and the committee team look forward to seeing you all very soon.

Our meeting got off to a flying start with our Chairman extending a warm welcome to four visitors to our club.  This steady trickle of potential new club members is a source of much pleasure to us and we trust we will see these new speakers at further meetings. 

Our speaking programme began with a speech at Croydon Speakers Club’s most advanced level by one of our most experienced speakers.  This speech took as its subject   the importance of motivation and used the good works of Jamie Oliver as an example – you could almost smell the much-improved school dinners!

We continued at a blistering pace with an Icebreaker from one of our newest speakers who certainly lived up to the high standard expected of our members.   The poise and natural aptitude of this speaker promise much for the future!

Croydon Speakers Club relies on the skill and judgement of its speech evaluators – to give constructive feedback which helps the learning process and our two evaluators for tonight did not disappoint.

One of our Committee members chaired the Topics session and we enjoyed the spectacle of all our visitors joining in the fun.  Our commitment to mentoring new speakers was illustrated by a promising speaker evaluating the Topics speakers jointly with a seasoned evaluator to round off a fun Topics session!

Our evening was wrapped up in a capable manner by our General Evaluator and we departed St Matthews on a high note anticipating our next meeting!

A different day of the week, a different venue and a different audience.  On Tuesday the 26^th we were guests of the Croydon Outdoor Pursuits club.  We were delighted to be invited to showcase what our club does, and we did so in style.  Two great speeches with evaluations from the floor, a topics session from out members and theirs, and a sense of fun, camaraderie and enthusiasm for the whole evening.   The feedback was that it was a good evening for both organisations.  It was good to see so many of our speakers supporting the event and taking the opportunity to speak in different circumstances. We hope some of the participants will come along as guests to our meeting but whether they do or not, it was a good, different and enjoyable evening.

Last night’s club night brought February to a close on a high-note. We had two brand new visitors and a returner from last meeting, together with a good crowd of established members.

A special welcome was extended to our newcomers, who both expressed satisfaction with their first visit and vowed to be at the next meeting on 14th March.

The evening was chaired by one of our committee members, who explained the aims and structure of the Club to our visitors, then introduced the evening’s main speakers.

One of our newer members took her first step as a speaker, presenting her “Icebreaker”, or Level 1, entitled Storytelling. Despite some challenges with her notes, which preferred the call of gravity to the support of the lectern, she delivered an interesting speech on the different types of story and their uses, then illustrated this with a story with a moral.

An experienced speaker and long time member used his considerable speaking experience to provide a helpful evaluation of the speech, with some pointers to aid her future progress.

Next was a Level 4 speech, Use of Voice, speech on Control and Creativity.   The speaker proposed the view that Creativity needs Control to produce valuable results. The speaker explained how many artists in the past have bent or broken the “rules” to present their vision in new ways, but that current “Post, Post, Modernist” work has little value, as a result of totally ignoring all rules and trying to claim as Art that which has no artistic merits. This was an interesting and well prepared speech, full of passion, but the evaluator, concluded that the primary criteria for Use of Voice had not been met, and asked the speaker to repeat this level.

As we have several recent additions to our number, the Chairman introduced a short “Me and My Interests” session, in which everyone participated and introduced themselves with a quick expose of what is their passion in life.

After the usual tea break, Club President summarised a recent visit by some Club members to a debate on changing beer measures to 2/3 pint glasses. Needless to say, with a hogshead of free ale provided at that meeting, the idea of smaller measures was defeated. The President then explained an invitation to provide speakers for a meeting of Croydon Outdoor Pursuits and Social Events group (COPSE).

One of our very experienced speakers took the floor next, dramatically illustrating how attitude and projected confidence can make a huge difference to a speaker’s actual confidence and their reception by the audience. This ten minute mini-tutorial was very well received, not only by the new visitors, but the regular attendees.

The final segment of the meeting was the regular Topics session: an opportunity to practice impromptu speaking. The session chose an unusual concept inspired by the wave of protests sweeping both Africa and the Middle East at present. He suggested an imaginary mob was protesting outside the hall and invited each speaker to address them and try to defuse their protests. Speakers’ approaches varied considerably and certainly demonstrated great ingenuity in their proposed handling of this scenario. Everyone had a chance to speak, and our visitors demonstrated great promise in their first exposure to the Club.

One of the newer speakers provided an effective evaluation of every Topics speaker, with a variety of points for future development. The final presentation was the general evaluation. He gave good feedback to all those who had not yet been evaluated, including the Chairman, Evaluators and Topics Chair. He praised one of the evaluators decision to fail a speech, as this Club believes in helping speakers to improve and justify their progress, not just rubber-stamp them through the programme.

We look forward to seeing all our regulars and our recent visitors at the next meeting on Monday 14th March.

Despite some of our experienced members being away, we had a super evening.  Two speeches that were delivered and then evaluated.  This was followed by a debate which was based around one of the speeches.  As a result there was sufficient background to allow the debate to have some substance.  With volunteers speaking for and against an interesting and different speaking activity.  After a break we enjoyed some impromptu speaking topics which rounded off the evening.  We chatted for a while with some people meeting for a social drink.   If you were not there, you missed an evening that was inspiring, educational and fun.

Happy New Year to everyone!

The first meeting of the year was well attended with a great mixture of new, current and returning faces.  The  evening enjoyed a new chairman who took control of the evening very well with a warm up of new year resolutions.  One of the experienced speakers did a evaluation tutorial which we all took part in in evaluating a first attempt at an impromptu speech!  The topics session is the second half challenged us all especially me!  It was a great evening and everyone is looking forward to the next meeting and maybe tackling some of those resolutions!

An extra Monday in the month for November meant an extra evening to make up for the gap created by Christmas.   As a one-off, we went to Ruskin House to learn from the experience of speaking in a different room, different environment.  We made use of our PowerPoint equipment and had a fascinating couple of speeches with visuals to enhance our delight.   As an evening it was different but enjoyable.   Speaking in different venues from time to time is very helpful and adds that extra dimension for even an experienced speaker.   It was also very positive to see a good turnout for this additional meeting  – a sign of a successful club that people really enjoy coming to and learning from.   It is also good to see newer members taking the challenge of one of the evening’s roles for the first time.   This is the way to learn and like everything we do – it is part of the education and fun and the more you do, the more you put in, the more you get out.  Overall a terrific evening that was entertaining and fun – something we also do well at Croydon speakers!   It would be wrong to fail to mention the one issue that was a problem.  Parking is difficult to say the least which is why we are not planning to move from our current venue, which comes with a large, free car park!

I hope as many people as possible will be able to come to the last meeting of the year on the 13^th where there might just be a slight seasonal theme!