Anybody over the age of 18 is welcome to attend a Cheltenham Speakers Club meeting. When you arrive you'll receive a warm, friendly greeting from one of our members who will answer any of your questions, explain how the night will run and make sure you're comfortable. Then you can sit back, relax and enjoy the evening.
At Toastmasters, people improve their communication skills through a combination of practice and feedback, in a supportive, friendly and fun atmosphere.Every meeting consists of three general parts:
Table Topics
Prepared speeches
Evaluations
During Table Topics, people are invited up from the audience and asked to speak ‘off the cuff’ for 1-2 minutes on a subject they will be given then and there. Table Topics are a way to help people craft a coherent message when they have very little time to prepare e.g. when answering an interview question or when you’ve been asked to make a few remarks during a team meeting/offsite.
Following Table Topics, three or four club members then give prepared speeches from various manuals (see next section), and in the final evaluation session, other club members give feedback, not only on the prepared speeches, but on various other aspects of the meeting.
Even if you’re not speaking, all the speeches tend to be enjoyable and informative. You always go away having learned something new.
Meetings cater to everyone: from those scared of even approaching the stage, to seasoned professionals who want to improve on what they’ve already got. For those with a competitive spirit, prizes are awarded every night for the best Table Topic, prepared speech and evaluation. Plus members are also eligible to enter a number of national and international competitions.
To find out when the next meeting is, and what the agenda will be, click here.