Meetings
We meet on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month (except bank holidays), from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, in North Oxford Association Community Centre, Diamond Place, Oxford OX2 7DP.
You can come to a few meetings as a guest free of charge. Come along and see what the club meeting is like and what we do! You will be made very welcome. If you enjoy yourself, then you can think about joining and becoming a member.
Usually, between about 10 and 25 people attend the club meetings.
Meeting format
Meetings are fun and last about 2 hours, with a 10 minute break in the middle.
The first half of a meeting consists of a Round Robin and Table Topics. In the Round Robin session, everyone speaks for about 30 seconds on a topic suggested by the Table Topics Master.
In the Table topics session, participants give impromptu 1-2 minute speeches on a random topic, given to them by the Table Topics Master. The topics can be anything.
This part of the meeting is great fun and a terrific way to develop your ability to think on your feet. After practising this a few times, you will be able to speak on many topics in a very structured and fluent way at short notice.
The Table Topic participants get feedback from the Table Topics Evaluator, who talks about what the table topic speakers did well and what things they can improve upon.
After table topics, we have a 10 min break for refreshments and chat.
In the second half of the meeting, usually three members give prepared speeches and they are given constructive feedback - from their evaluators verbally and everyone else in writing - to help them improve.
Each speech lasts for about five to seven minutes and is aimed towards improving a particular aspect of speaking, such as: vocal variety; using visual aids; body language; speech structure; etc. The speech types are set out in the ‘Pathways’ system. This is the Toastmasters International educational program, which you will get access to if you join the club.
After that, the General Evaluator gives their thoughts on how the meeting was run and evaluates the Table Topics evaluator and the three speech evaluators.
At the end, the club president brings the meeting to a close.