Manningham Speechcraft Week 6 23-11-09

The grand fanalie

The final night of the Manningham Speechcraft was full of enthusiasm,

 energy and smiles. 

Many of the speechcrafters brought a guest to hear their final speeches. We were treated to 8 well presented speeches, delivered with enthusiasm and energy.  The confidence of the speechcrafters was apparent they looked comfortable presenting and Yes looked like they were enjoying it. This sight made me very happy to be a part of someones development, to unlock the power of communication, to help people move beyond the fear of public speaking and deliver skillful presentations.  Being at the begining of the start of somthing great for a person is such a reward, imagine where they will take this skill!

We started the evening with a reflection of memorable moments which was enjoyable to relive those memories.

Then it was into the speeches.  The progress of skill was easily seen.  An experienced  Toastmaster who had come along for the first time commented, "I was amazed at the quality of their skill, being only just their 4th speech".  Again we were entertained by a huge range of topics.  Some very serious health and business issues others on a more personal experience.  I extended the speechcrafters for this speech to be 5 minutes.  The speakers had no problem speaking for the extra minute, some went over time.  I feel most could comfortably speak for 10 min or longer.

After the speeches I spoke about the benefits of joining a toastmasters club and an invitation to join was handed out.  The timing of this session was blown out by handing out these invitations individually and an unexpected interviewing of the participants (which was antincipated for the award ceremony).   Perhaps as toastmaster for the night I could have reminded the presenter of the timing contraints when he got up to speak since we were already over time.  It's a bit hard to jump up and stop what the presenter is doing once they have already invited someone to front to speak.  You can't assume that the presenters are mindful of the time.   Seamless emceeing is truely an art.  Anything can and may go wrong and it is hard to know when to be assertive.  But enough beating myself up about that, it was another opportunity for the speechcrafters to speak and the night did flow well (but finished 15 min late).

We commence the break with a toast and glass of bubbly.  I was presented with a gift and thank you for co-ordinating the course.  It was unexpected and lovely and one of the speechcrafters presented me with the award.  We had lots of yummy things to endulge in for our celebration.

After the break we heard evaluations from the Toastmasters.  I deliberately assigned toastmasters who attended earlier sessions of speechcraft so they could comment on not only the speech but the progress. The evaluations were uplifting and motivating adding to the joyful spirit of the whole evening.

Sadly we ran out of time for table topics, I would have loved the guests to experience the fun of impromptu speaking too.
Then it was onto presentations of the awards.  This was done by calling the group up and handing out the certificates individually. I invited our Division Governor to present the certificates.  Then we had a group photo.

I handed out a feedback form which all participants completed. This has also been given to the participants who did not finish the course.  So when I have all the forms I will do a complete anaylsis.  But in short the feedback showed growth in skills and confidence in public speaking in all participants.  With course content helpful that improved skills.  Overall coments of the course reflected possitive feedback from every participant.

I gave some brief thank yous to over 11 Toastmasters and the 13 participants  and then closed the meeting.

It was a wonderful night, a fitting end to an exceptional speechcraft course.