It was ‘date night’ for Energetic Speakers (ES) on the 9^th August 2021. Our members attended a meeting hosted by Hertfordshire Speakers (HS), and what a wonderful group they were! Our date went well, and they will be coming to our ‘house’ on the 23^rd August as we host them for the all-important second date!!!

With 22 people attending in total there was a lovely energy in the Zoom room. The President of HS could not have made us feel any more welcome, we were embraced warmly from the moment we joined. It was an evening of firsts for their group, as well as ours, with lots of people doing roles for the first time. To prepare for the Humorous Speaking contest in September, Bob gave us a masterclass, with a myriad of tips that would certainly liven up PETEX 2021 if employed by our programme of speakers!

The ES represented very well, with Sam giving us a talk about his experiences as a ghost hunter and Melanie took everyone to task on their use of ums, ahs, and filler words. Our theme this time was the Olympics and there was some great impromptu speaking on this theme with creative questions that really make your mind work!  Shereen came joint first place in the Table Topics where she told us of her admiration for one of the women in the Jamaican Track team, it was something most of us could identify with.

Visiting other clubs gives us ideas and the chance to try different ways of learning our craft, HS does more evaluation than us and there are certainly elements we can take away from this ‘date’. They are an award-winning club that celebrates the achievements of all their members. We look forward to showing them the delights of the Energetic Speakers Club as Shereen takes on the Toastmaster role for the first time and we have an Ice-Breaker speech from one of our new members. If you fancy coming along to watch the ‘date’ on 23 August you can register to attend here.

We will be hosting an Open House in September to showcase the talents of all our wonderful members (many of whom you know well) and you can come along, be the audience and join in with the Table Topics if your brain can move that quickly post lockdown.

More details to follow…………….