The Reigate Rhetoric

It was a really enjoyable meeting that we had on the 8th of June. For the first time our very own Julie took the role of Toastmaster. We have been very used to Julie as Sergeant at Arms opening every meeting and this time she was on stage for pretty well the whole evening. She did a really great job and was very warm and encouraging for all of us.
Clinton gave us a great warm-up with a lovely sentence starter of “I am very happy when…..” And we all had something to say about that.
The three speakers were super strong. We were privileged to hear Jen's icebreaker when she talked of her lifelong fear of public speaking and how this was a first step in trying hard to overcome it. Freddie dug deep to find something in his life that was challenging and the best he had was planning a 24th birthday party. He brought lots of humor and care to it and Ruth drew some life lessons from a weekend of bonding with friends. We were all delighted to see that Jen won the trophy for a heartfelt speech.
The evaluators of the speeches were Clinton, Kieran, and Ritesh. It's really interesting to note that the evaluators continue to improve and the quality of evaluations is really strong. Clinton took the trophy.
Alan gave us a lovely table topic loosely based around the theme of things that he did at the weekend. It was funny and everyone rose to the challenging topics that he gave us.
They were very well evaluated and Ruth really came into her own, sharing all of her thoughts about these speakers.
As well as offering a general evaluation I ran a mini AGM where we elected our new Committee. They will take over on the first of July and before then this year's committee will have their final few jobs to do.
All in all it was a great evening and a constant reminder of why I keep coming back to Toastmasters after nearly 20 years!

11th May meeting.
This meeting felt very special, and we were delighted to have such a good time. As ever, Julie opened the meeting well with some encouraging words and a quote. We had a new joiner – Sophie – and she is already participating in the meeting, which is great to see. Heidi was Toastmaster and she brought the evening together really well, and with plenty of encouragement for everyone.
Comfort gave us such a helpful subject for the warm up, asking us to think about how we prepare for speeches. Lots of helpful tips came out from the group.
Then three speeches, as ever. Julie shared with a very personal experience and her relation to obstacles that get in our way. Alan talked about being an independent visitor, which was fascinating. And Ritesh shared about having to drive on the right on a trip to Paris. Julie won the cup, with her moving speech.
Then the evaluators. Natalia had her first outing in this role, and did really well. Richard is well into his evaluation groove and really adds value. Clinton is now becoming a bit of an evaluation master, and he took the cup.
Topics was run by Andy, and he gave us some quite deep and meaningful questions to respond to. It was joyful to see the cup won jointly by two former members, returning as guests – Dave Lister and Steve Harris. All evaluated very well by Kieran, who seems to have gone on a standup course. Ruth was on Harkmaster duty, and managed to ask 30 questions in about 4 minutes! Super impressive. The evening was brought to a great end by Freddie, with a very focussed and encouraging general evaluation.
The meetings just seem to get better!
No meeting on 25th as it’s a bank holiday. So the next meeting is 8th June. See you there!

27th April
Tonight’s meeting was a very special one, for a number of reasons. I’m writing this on Wednesday, and still have a warm feeling about it!
As ever, Julie opened the meeting well, with an inspiring quote and some encouragement. Then our Toastmaster, Ritesh took us through the night. His first time in the role and he did a great job. He was supportive, clear and even tried a bit of US style audience participation!
Julie brought us a joyful warm up question, about what inspires us. Everyone shared so richly.
And four speeches, which were all outstanding in their own ways. Natalia and Andy both did their ice breakers, and gave us different perspectives into their backgrounds and principles. Heidi gave us a heartfelt experience of personal challenges she’s faced. And one of our founders, Dan Magill returned to the club to practice his competition speech, ready for the District competition on Saturday. Good luck Dan!
Natalia won the best speech prize, with her powerful and heartfelt speech.
The evaluators all did a great job, and Alan walked away with the prize, with a caring and sensitive evaluation.
Ruth gave us some quirky and reflective questions to have a go at in the Table Topics section, and Clinton evaluated them well. He also managed to do a topic, and indeed won the topics speaker prize – that’s a rare thing to happen that the evaluator does this too!
Michael was our careful listening Harkmaster, and challenged us to see how many stats we remembered. And Kieran took time out from setting up his new business and preparing his wedding to give a great general evaluation.
This club feels so supportive and caring, and each evening brings something special. Members really take care of each other and of guests. It is a special place to be. Thanks everyone for coming, and see you for the next meeting, on 11th May.

Meeting 13th April 2026
Our first April meeting went really well. We’re definitely in the groove of having full, fun and engaging evenings. Thanks to everyone for contributing and for playing your parts. And in particular, thanks to Heidi for organising every meeting, getting all the roles filled and taking care of everything.
The evening started, as ever, with a great opening and a quote from Julie, to set the mood. Tonight it was about mistakes and learning from failure. Thanks Julie!
The Toastmaster was Heidi, stepping in last minute as there had been some changes. Heidi’s been Toastmaster a fair few times now, and always brings positivity, fun and energy to the role.
The warm up was organised by Ritesh, who asked us about new years resolutions! Mainly because it’s his own new year this week, in Nepal. That got us thinking!
We had two great speeches. Michael shared about his mentor and role model, Bob, who seemed to be running his organisation in an ethical, person centred way. It was inspiring to hear. I evaluated him, and was happy to be able to observe and see Michael’s continuing improvements.
Second speech was by Richard, who gave us a great insight into his youth, his journey and his vision. And a rare mention of rap music at a Toastmasters meeting! He was evaluated by Alan – his first evaluation, which was great to hear. Well done Alan for stepping up.
I offered a brief tutorial about giving good evaluations, and shared some structures of how to evaluate well. We have great evaluators at the club, and I was happy to point out some of what is being done well. Evaluations are such a great way to help our speakers grow and develop.
Kieran’s table topic session was fab – all about risk, comfort zone and stretch. 5 speakers managed to offer heartfelt, engaging and interesting thoughts. Freddie evaluated them well, and managed to offer commendations and recommendations to all.
Clinton had two roles to bring the evening together. He was Hark master, and quizzed us in a thorough but also jovial way, to see how well we’re listening! And then the general evaluation was outstanding – bringing all the learning from the evening together. It was super strong.
The evening was lots of fun, we had a couple of guests, and continue to offer great experiences. Thanks everyone for coming along!

Meeting 23rd March
This was another great meeting, full of positivity and energy.
Firstly, we had the joy of welcoming two new members. Natalia and Alan have attended a few times as guests, and are now ready to join. It’s a warm welcome to them and we’re delighted to have them as members.
Plus we had 4 guests, which made it a pretty full house.
As ever, Julie opened the meeting with inspiration and enthusiasm. Then our Toastmaster was Freddie. He did a top job, bringing the meeting together and giving everyone warm encouragement.
The icebreaker was by Julie, who gave us the chance to imagine the warmer times of this summer. A much appreciated topic, given all the recent rain!
Two strong speeches. Alan gave us a moving and personal ice breaker, sharing about his background, his family and his work. A scary story about public speaking, with some inspiration thrown in. And Clinton let us know about his great love of films to stir, move, entertain and even scare us!
The speeches were evaluated by Ruth and Michael – and their experience is now shining through. One of the great things that happens when a Toastmaster club develops is that the quality of evaluations improves, and everyone gets good value from them.
I gave a talk about how to re-engage with the fiddly system that is Pathways. But more important than that, the message was about having goals and a plan for improving as a speaker. The speech was recorded and we’ll circulate it for members.
The topics session was super! Richard came up with some thought provoking questions and had 8 speakers up, including all of our guests! This was wonderful, and a great way to bring energy to the room.
Heidi had the unenviable task of evaluating all 8 of the speeches and she did that with her customary warmth and care. And Keiran brought the evening together with a super strong evaluation of the night, offering praise, encouragement and passion.
All told, a great evening and a really good way to bring our March events to a close. Roll on April and warmer days!

I really wanted to share this with everyone. Every Toastmaster meeting starts with the Sergeant at arms welcoming everyone, and doing the "housekeeping". Lots of times, the speaker tries to make it engaging. I've seen plenty of good meeting openings.
But never a poem about the meeting, written by the Sergeant at arms!
Well that's what our own Julie did this week - shared a poem she had written to open the meeting. How wonderful. Here it is:

As SAA, Sergeant at Arms,
I hope to bring an aura of peace and calm.
In case there's a need for a quick exit tonight,
Please leave by the front entrance or the door to my right.
The loos are located on the ground floor;
Turn immediately right
On entering the main door.

Just a gentle reminder to turn off your phone
Will ensure no-one's embarrassed by that unwanted ring-tone.
So sit back and relax
And enjoy what's in store ,
As those who are speaking will take command of the floor.

9th February club meeting night
I think that Monday’s meeting was one of the most enjoyable I’ve been to in my nearly 20 years as a Toastmaster! There were so many special things happening. Thanks everyone for making such great contributions.
Firstly, we had 5 guests! That was wonderful, and 3 of the guests were returners – people who have come as guests already and are still keen to check us out again before joining. That’s wonderful and we encourage that – we only want people to join us or any Toastmasters club when they’re really ready.

Julie opened the meeting in her usual warm and welcoming way, but with something extra – a poem that she has written. I’ll pop it in the posts separately. How wonderful to do that for everyone!
Kieran was Toastmaster and he had clearly read the manual as he knew very well how to run a great meeting. He may well have read a book on standup comedy, as he was throwing in one liners throughout the evening. We all felt well looked after, and entertained too.
I took on the role of Hark Master. We’re really liking this role and have embraced it well. It’s effectively an instant quiz. I listened throughout the evening and wrote down facts and information that I heard from the speakers. At the end of the evening I came back and asked about 20 questions, to see what people remembered. It’s quite light-hearted, and no-one is put on the spot.
Warm up may have been a bit too warm. By his own admission Michael set us quite a challenge, with a philosophical question. We did our best to rise to his challenge, and it was great that everyone spoke.
Then three wonderful speeches, and all prepared relatively recently, because of agenda changes. That was hugely impressive, and it’s good practice for the real world, when we are often asked to do things with little notice. Michael talked of his engineer friend and told tales from that particular front line. Doris had us on our feet and doing some focussing activities, and celebrated the power of breath. And Ruth spoke from the heart about finding strength, faith and positivity in tough times. Following from her competition success, Ruth won the best speaker vote. Wonderful.
Three very strong evaluations. Freddie’s back after his op and delivered a strong and encouraging evaluation. Julie has started evaluating and had the small challenge of evaluating Doris, who rarely puts a foot wrong! And Andy continued his competition success, and won the vote with his evaluation of Ruth’s speech.
In the second half, Heidi took us back in time to when the first improv shows appeared on the telly (some of us can remember that!). She had us in pairs, doing the types of things that the improv artists did, to much mirth. It was joyous to see both members and guests embrace this really well. A joy to watch.
Clinton had the challenge of evaluating all of that, and brought great skill and also a little mirth to his feedback. He embraced the spirit of the evening very well.
Finally, Andy brought the evening to a close with a very strong evaluation of the whole event. Positive, specific and encouraging.

Thanks again to everyone for making such great contributions. Looking forward to seeing you on the 23rd!

What a wonderful evening – our International Speech and Evaluation Contests evening. We showed that, although a smaller club, we can put on a good show. Everyone did tremendously well, pulled together and gave us a great evening.
We had two guests attend, both of whom have been in touch since and said they are keen to join. That’s a real testament to how everyone did.

We had visitors too – Gillian Prior, our chief judge and old friend of The Reigate Rhetoric, Rafael Guzman, our esteemed area director, our guest speaker Shona Snow, and her partner, fellow Toastmaster Dionne . They were all very welcome.
The whole event was pulled together by Heidi, our super impressive Education officer.
I chaired the competition, so was able to bring the meeting along. I’ve seen a few over the years!

Our International Speech Contest was of a really high quality. Kieran gave a strong speech about the pull and the joy of the theme park, and to be proud of this. Ruth gave us a moving and heartfelt story of how she has managed to break through the glass ceiling in corporate life. And Freddie shared his struggles and having gone through his first general anaesthetic. All powerful, impactful speeches. Ruth won!

And the Evaluation Contest was equally compelling. Our guest Shona gave a strong, story-based speech about her son and his desire to have a phobia! It was very strong, and hard for our three evaluators to find recommendations.
Our evaluators were Ritesh, Clinton and Andy. All very strong, interesting and well delivered evaluations. Andy, in his first competition, won!

We had plenty going on in the evening. A warm down, having lots of people come and give brief talks on random subjects. A contestants’ interview, when they shared the inspiration for their speeches. And of course, the award and certificate presentation.

Congratulations to Ruth and Andy. They go on to represent The Reigate Rhetoric at the area competition on 17th March. We wish them the very best!

9th February club meeting.
Our first February club meeting, and a great one it was. We had one new joiner – welcome to Andy. A visit from our area director, Rafael Guzman. And regular members, plus three guests.
Clinton was our Toastmaster for the evening, and he led us through with calmness, warmth and care. The warmup was an interesting one – Julie had us all talk about ways to safely remove a spider from home. Very creative.
Great speeches, three of them. Heidi continued the theme of removing creatures from our houses, with stories of trying to evict a mouse. Kieran gave us a personal, but also educational talk about the Chimp Paradox and how it has helped him. And Michael taught us all about the Shipping Forecast. Three very strong speeches, and Heidi won the trophy for the best one.
The evaluators were Kieran, Heidi and Ritesh, two of them doubling up. The evaluations continue to improve at the club, adding value for both the speakers and the audience. Heidi won, again!

In the second half Rafael ran the table topics session really well. The questions were fascinating, having us talk about various highs and lows of our lives. All our guests participated, as did members. All the topics were really well evaluated by Richard, who gave us positivity and encouragement.
We’ve been having the Harkmaster role for some time now, and it’s working well. I did it, and had written 20 questions to ask the audience, based on what earlier speakers had said. The audience did show their careful listening by being able to get most of the questions right!
The evening was closed by Rafael, with plenty of positive comments before he started his long journey home.

A really fun and rich evening, and I learnt plenty.

Next meeting is on 23rd, which is our club competition night. See you there!

26th January meeting. Our second meeting of the year, and it was another great one. We had two guests – Robbie and Andy – both of whom said they were going to join! That’s fab and shows that we can give a good, positive and inclusive experience for our guests.

Heidi was our Toastmaster for the evening, and ran a great session. She kept things well on track, was super encouraging throughout, and was able to bring plenty of positivity to the occasion. Kieran did a warm up, encouraging us to think of sunnier times ahead and our holidays. Then the three speeches, which were all super strong. Clinton shared a personal experience of how he manages to stay positive and focussed amongst the challenging news that we all read. Ritesh found some fascinating explanations about the complexity of AI, that we’re all grappling to understand. And Richard took us back to the Covid days, and shared the personal learnings that he took from those strange days. Richard won the speech award.

The evaluations were also very strong. Doris, Ruth and I all looked to add value to our speakers by sharing ideas, thoughts and insights. As ever, when she evaluates, Doris won the evaluation award.

Then the Marmite part of the evening – the table topics. Kieran was back up, and gave us some fascinating topics to get stuck into. Clearly he has summer holidays on his mind as the questions all revolved around travel. We had 5 speakers, all getting over 1.30 and all with interesting stories. For the second time our guest Andy won the topics award. Congratulations. Ruth evaluated all the topics speakers and brought her customary energy and enthusiasm to the stage, and offered helpful perspectives.

Before I did a general evaluation and brought the evening to an end, Clinton came back up to be Harkmaster. We’re getting used to this role, and it revolves around careful listening. Clinton had about 20 questions about things that had happened during the evening, and it was a fun and challenging way to show we had been paying attention!

Another great evening, and although I never need it, another reminder why I still love Toastmasters, 17 years on from joining.
Thanks everyone!

Our February meetings:

9th – standard club meeting. Our area director, Rafael Guzman, is visiting us
23rd – club competition night!

See you then and have a good week.