What Happens at a Hamwic Speakers Meeting?

Hamwic Speakers meetings are motivating, inspiring, and fun! Speaking in front of an audience can be nerve-wracking, but we encourage each other to have a good time and enjoy ourselves.

 

Following a fairly typical Toastmasters meeting agenda, Hamwic Speakers meetings are approximately 2 hours long, with a cheeky tea, coffee and juice drink halfway to have a breather and chat with your fellow toastmasters.

Our meetings include a variety of standard Toastmasters roles, which give you lots of opportunities to develop different skills. Find out more about specific meeting roles at Hamwic Speakers.

Typical meeting format:

1. Meeting introduction and opening
   1. Sergeant at Arms – Opens meeting
   2. Toastmaster – Describes program
   3. Timekeeper – Explains role
   4. Grammarian & Ah Counter – Explains role
   5. Warm up
2. Prepared speeches (normally around 4-5 and each one is about 6 mins per speech)
3. Interval and Refreshments
4. Evaluations (matches the number of speeches and about 3 mins per evaluation)
   1. Prepared speech evaluations
5. Table Topics (impromptu speaking on random topics for about 2 mins per topic)
   1. Table Topics evaluations
6. Reports
   1. Timekeeper
   2. Grammarian & Ah Counter
   3. General Evaluator
7. Club Business and Awards (we love to recognise success and effort wherever possible)

Guests

Guests are always welcome to attend our meetings, whether you’re new to Toastmasters or visiting from a different club! We encourage you to please get in touch with us ahead of time so we can be sure to accommodate you.

We also have the ‘Warm-up’ section of the meeting where we encourage everyone to participate and contribute. In this section a small simple activity is designed to get people speaking.

For example, statement of choice and a why might be asked to the audience:

“Do you prefer sky-diving or bungee jumping?”

Each person will hopefully tackle and offer a small reply of around 10 seconds:

“Bungee. Saves me the cost of hiring the plane.”

Here the objective is lighthearted vocal warm-up, but you’ll be impressed with the humour and profoundness of some answers given (present example excluded).

But do remember you can say ‘Pass‘ at any time and the meeting will move on without hesitation or judgement. It is a supportive learning and participation environment designed to bring out your best, but on your terms.

Meeting Etiquette

We are a community club with members of all backgrounds, and we are proud of our supportive, inclusive, and welcoming environment!

There are only two ‘golden rules’ at Hamwic Speakers:

1. No one is obliged to speak
2. Anyone who does speak when they are invited to do so (however nervous they may feel) will receive warm and generous applause from everyone!

We encourage meeting attendees to:

• Clap before and after each speaker to show our support
• Motivate each other positively and constructively
• Be mindful of the content of your speech (if you are uncertain, speak to a committee member or your mentor beforehand)
• Arrive early to help set up the room, and stay to help re-organise the room after the meeting finishes
• Have a good time!

We hope to see you at our next meeting!