We meet 2nd & 4th Mondays
Join us to learn more about how you can make your voice heard.
Up to 3 meetings are free to attend and there is no obligation to speak or to join – although we encourage you to do both!
VENUE
The Mayfield Centre
Sunnybank Road
Stirling
FK7 0DB
Global coverage
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Free coffee
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Development
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Confident Speeches & Presentations
Do you have to give presentations? Have you just been asked to give a keynote speech and haven’t slept since for worrying?
Stirling Speakers is here to help you structure your speech, give you a chance to practice public speaking and help you become a more confident speaker. Our helpful evaluations will give you ideas on how to improve your speech as well as point out where it shines.
Speak up in meetings
Do you get nervous and tongue-tied in meetings? Not sure how to get your point across?
Stirling Speakers can help you gain confidence, provide you with guidance on impromptu speaking and give you opportunities to speak in a variety of meeting situations. What’s more, you will get feedback from your evaluators and mentor.
Be Entertained and Help Others
Do you like to help others? Guide them with your expertise?
There are plenty of opportunities at Stirling Speakers to help and guide other members at the same time as being entertained and making new friends. You learn so much in the process – members give speeches on a range of subjects and ideas from viewpoints you may not have thought of.
What does a typical meeting look like?
Learn public speaking skills at Stirling Speakers
To help you learn public speaking skills effectively, we follow a fairly standard meeting format. We do make changes to this and try to adapt but generally, every Toastmaster club follows a similar pattern.
At every meeting, club members take on helper roles. These jobs change at each meeting so a different person will be doing the role at the next meeting. This means everyone has an opportunity to practice different public speaking skills in a variety of situations.
Sometimes we will have a workshop, a speech contest or fit in an AGM depending on what time of year it is. We always let guests know if it is an unusual meeting.
We would love to see you at a meeting if you would like to visit for free, with no obligation.
Introductions
The Toastmaster of the Evening opens the meeting, welcomes everyone and introduces the people with specific helper roles – the Grammarian, the Ah Counter and the Timer.
These helpers will explain in detail what they are going to do when they’re introduced.
What this means
Toastmaster – in charge of the meeting
Grammarian / Wordmaster – watches out for grammar use and introduces a word of the day
Ah Counter – counts our ah’s, um’s and other such sounds
Timer – signals when time is coming to an end
Speeches
The Toastmaster introduces each of the prepared speeches which are then delivered. The speeches have objectives and are project driven.
After each speech, everyone at the meeting gives the speaker feedback using feedback forms. The Speech Evaluator then gives an oral evaluation.
We sometimes have an Education Session instead of a speech.
Then we have a break, which gives you a chance to talk to us!
What this means
Speaker – prepared speeches are taken from the Pathways online training programme – see the programme details.
Written evaluations – everyone’s opinion is valid – even if you are new!
Speech Evaluator – gives a comprehensive written and oral evaluation.
Education Session – there are manuals to help and they can be on topics like how to start a speech or on giving effective evaluations.
Grab a cuppa and a biscuit – you may be lucky to catch us on a home-baking night!
Table Topics
The aim of the Table Topics is for you to practice speaking in an impromptu manner. They last 2 minutes and you are never sure what they will be about until the question comes up.
The session is lead by the Table Topics Master and are then evaluated.
What this means
Table Topics Master – tries to give you a variety of interesting questions.
Table Topic – try to put a structured answer together with a message, a beginning, a body and a conclusion.
Table Topics Evaluator – the person who gives you feedback.
Reports
We start off with some club business.
The Grammarian, Ah Counter and Timer give their respective evaluations.
It is then the turn of the General Evaluator to evaluate everything that hasn’t already been evaluated, including all the other Evaluators.
We end the night by asking guests for their feedback and the Toastmaster closes the meeting.
What this means
General Evaluator – Evaluates everything from the room layout to the general ambience. The Evaluators are given feedback and so is the Toastmaster. We don’t just want to improve our public speaking skills, we want to improve the club as well.
What did Margaret say?
“My confidence was knocked badly when I had a car accident 2 years ago. I recognised that I needed to do something to help myself get back to where I was.
“I knew from the first meeting that Stirling Speakers would be able to help. It was somewhere to feel at home, with friendly and supportive people. I got lots of positive feedback.
“I started off by giving speeches but I have ended up on the committee giving back as well.”
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