Our Purpose
The primary goal of this society is to improve the members' competence in speaking in public.
Communication is the foundation of our society and a part of daily life. How we present ourselves and how well we can get our points across influences how we are perceived by those around us, and their responses to us.
We are a very employability focused society, with the skills learned here being applicable in almost every area of work. From the actor that captivates their audience, the politician that persuades others convincingly, the teacher that invokes curiosity in a subject, to the team leader that motivates and inspires their teammates, how effective they are at getting their points across is determined by their understanding of the principles of public speaking. Getting more comfortable with speaking in public is also a great opportunity for personal development, as you will be able to build confidence in yourself, and thus the confidence others have in you.
This society offers a structured, organised, and supportive environment in which members are given a means to learn and practice public speaking skills, and to receive and give useful feedback from each other and more advanced speakers, with the aim of preparing members to be able to deal with real-world public speaking scenarios successfully.
What We Do
Our typical sessions are structured to allow as many people as possible get a chance to improve their public speaking skills, and actively engage with the content of the sessions. Our regular meetings are broken up into three main activities: The presentation of prepared speeches, followed by a series of table topics, and evaluations for each speaker.
Prepared Speeches
This part of the session focuses on a speaker's ability to develop a speech around a topic of their choice in their own time. The speaker is encouraged to think of an engaging topic to talk about, prepare a short speech lasting two to five minutes, and deliver it to the group.
This is intended to promote good planning, use of creativity, and allows the speaker to rehearse their speech before they present it.
Table Topics
This part of the session involves speakers being given a topic by the table topics master of the session, that they have not had the chance to prepare for. The speaker is then expected to deliver a speech around that topic to the group, lasting up to two minutes.
This kind of on the spot, impromptu style of speaking is important for developing the ability to remain calm and able to speak clearly under pressure, to generate new ideas quickly, and to recall relevant thoughts from memory and form them into a coherent speech.
Evaluations
For each speaker during the above activities, they are assigned an evaluator, who has the role of assessing the performance of that speaker according to the criteria specified in the Speechcraft workbook for the chapter the speaker is doing.
This is the opportunity for other members of the group to develop their analytical skills by critiquing other speakers, helping them to better understand their strengths and areas for improvement.
Session
6 PM - The President will start the session and share any announcements.
6:05 PM - The President will hand the session over to the Chair (who is responsible for overseeing the session).
6:10 PM - The Chair will start the meeting by introducing the:
- TTM (TableTopicMaster, who is responsible for creating the questions for the session and taking notes of people's names).
- The General Evaluator who is responsible for giving a summary of the session overall by saying what went well and what could be improved for future sessions.
- The Timekeeper who records the time of each speakers speech and says it after each speech.
- The two Evaluators who evaluate each speakers speech after they have finished by saying what went well and what could be improved for future speeches (e.g. projection, stance, utilising pauses).
6:15 PM - The session will begin with the TTM introducing themselves and what their questions are based on.
6:20 PM - Members will raise their hand to pick a question (if they wish to make a speech), if they are selected they should give their names, a number and make their way to the floor (in that order). Those who are not speaking are expected to clap for the speaker until they reach the stage to encourage them.
7:15 PM - The TTM will hand over the session to the chair who will give a brief overview of the session and call on the General Evaluator to give a summary of the session including what went well and what could be improved for future sessions.
7:25 PM - The General Evaluator will hand over to the President who will close the session by adding their input about the session and letting the members know where the socials are!