A Typical Meeting

At Shoalhaven Communicators, we like to think of our meetings as pleasant social events with a valuable educational spin-off.

Every speakers-club has it's own personality and ours leans towards informality with good (clean) humour.

There are some events, such as inter-club speech competitions and debates, where a greater degree of formality is appropriate and we like to enter fully into the spirit of such occasions.

The format of a typical club meeting can vary quite a bit but most of our normal meetings tend to include three main elements:

• The meeting opens with a one course dinner and coffee prepared by the caterers.
  
• This is followed by a short business session, where parliamentary procedure is practiced.
  
• After the coffee break the Speaking programme commences, this could include....
  
• Two prepared speeches of typically 5-8 minutes although the more advanced speakers will often undertake longer assignments.
  
• A session of short 'impromptu' speeches known as 'Table Topics' - The 'Topics Leader' selects members who give speeches of typically 90-seconds on a subject introduced 'on the spot'.
  
• Each prepared-speaker and impromptu-speaker will be 'evaluated' by one of the more-experienced members to provide valuable feedback and recommendations for improvement.

As the club is essentially about speaking, all members take turns to perform the meeting 'functionary' roles which include Topics Leader, Timekeeper and Evaluator.