Is story telling an innate gift conferred by talent alone? Many would argue this to be to the case and yet the surfeit of creative writing courses suggest otherwise. There is a palpable demand for storytellers and willing complicit listeners. Stories are compelling. Stories are the fire we carry to each other. They blaze with intent. American Indians and American cowboys would carry the embers of camp fires from one camp to the next in an animal horn. This was a vital act of preservation in a hostile cold world of open prairies and snarling steppes. It was those flickering flames which warded ..read more

Like all Toastmasters clubs, Spa Speakers aims to be the best public speaking and leadership club it can be. Each year, we aspire to achieving the hallowed President’s Distinguished Award, and as a club have been very successful in doing so (click here to read about our track record). Achieving the award depends in large part on whether we successfully support members in completing educational awards. You might be asking: “with the upcoming introduction of the Pathways educational program, how does the criteria for getting the President’s Distinguished Award change?” Good question! To answer ..read more

Dear Spa Speakers, Feeling some nervousness before giving a speech is natural and even beneficial, but too much nervousness can be detrimental. Here are some proven tips on how to control your butterflies and give better presentations: 1. Know your material. Pick a topic you are interested in. Know more about it than you include in your speech. Use humor, personal stories and conversational language – that way you won’t easily forget what to say. 2. Practice. Practice. Practice! Rehearse out loud with all equipment you plan on using. Revise as necessary. Work to control filler words; Practice ..read more

To evaluate a speech well is a challenging endeavour. First, you’ve got to carefully listen to the content and observe the performance of the speech, looking out for strengths as well as opportunities for improvement. Second, you’ve got to prioritise and organise all that information into a mini-speech that lasts no more than 3 1/2 minutes with very little preparation time. Third, you’ve got deliver all that information through words that not only accurately convey your observations, but engage the audience and encourages the speaker. Phew! Learning to evaluate a speech is like learning to dri ..read more

Will you give the club a helping hand? As enthusiastic Spa Speakers, we want to play our part in making the club super successful, don’t we? Here is something really simple and easy that you can start doing right away that would not only make every meeting run smoother, but will also help your fellow members achieve their educational goals more quickly. Yes, you, as a member, can have such a profound impact by doing just one simple thing. What, you ask? Drum roll please…….. Responding to the email pictured below as soon as you get it! When you see this email in your inbox, respond straight ..read more

Is it time you helped a new member get started at Spa? If you’ve been with the club for a while (say 6 months or more) you’ve probably acquired enough knowledge and experience to support a new member in taking those scary first steps getting acquainted with the club. Spa Speakers continues to succeed as a safe, supportive and fun place to learn public speaking because every generation of members volunteers to give back by themselves providing mentoring support to newer members when they’re ready. Is it time you gave back? I’m not ready, surely? You might think you aren’t experienced enough ..read more

“I’ll do it later” “I’ll do it next week” “I haven’t got time” “I don’t feel like it right now” Such innocent words. Such deadly words! Sometimes self-talk like this does reflects reality; there is a genuine lack of time. But at others they’re a cover for a pernicious, unspoken, barely conscious self-destructive reluctance that stops us from doing what we would like to do, want to do, need to do, yet somehow cannot quite bring ourselves to do. Deeply introspecting to figure out the deep psychological reasons as to why such hesistancy holds us back might be too much to ask just to write our nex ..read more

Louise Weickert, former Vice President of Public Relations and Secretary. Dear Toastmasters, Louise Weickert, who has served on the committee and has achieved the Advanced Communicator Bronze and Advanced Leader Bronze awards has shared her story with Spa Speakers. Big thanks to Louise for this article, and for her ongoing contribution to the success of the club. The Spa Speakers Committee Fellow Spa Speakers, I am probably one of the few people who were prompted to join Toastmasters International having read about it in a careers book. Most people come to us through a personal recommendatio ..read more

Evaluation is the feedback we give to each other in Toastmasters.  A well-structured and appropriately delivered evaluation lets us know what we did well and what we could improve on. In the context of Toastmasters we may be called upon to evaluate speeches, table topics, leadership roles and other people’s evaluations. For simplicities sake, in this blog I am going to focus on evaluating speeches. What did your audience really think of your speech? But first, join me in picturing a Spa Speakers meeting without evaluation. Imagine you’re doing your third speech. You’ve done your prepara ..read more