Posts Tagged ‘doncaster’

Last Sunday I chaired the Area 15 Autumn 2014 contest. It was a tough one. I was in the Scottish Highlands the week before so I was trying to organise it from an area of the country almost devoid of phone signal.

There were only twelve people there on the day. However, thanks to the professionalism and enthusiasm of the members we were able to cover everything and run the contest. Even Elina was drafted in to count the ballots!

The Regent Hotel in Doncaster were an excellent host as always. I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who attended the contest and helped out, and well done to everyone who competed! Good luck to Andrew and Anthony who will be representing us at Division level.

At the end of April I acted as Chief Judge for the Toastmasters Division E International Speech & Evaluation contest. I did not go perfectly, but the general feedback seemed to be that nobody realised, so I am taking that as a win.

Congratulations to Gayna and Owen who won the contests. Most of all, congratulations to Doncaster Speakers and in particular Shelagh, our Contest Chair, for a fantastically well organised day.

Last month, a paid a visit to one of the other Area 15 Toastmasters clubs, Doncaster Speakers.

Some of the other clubs I have visited have not been able to match the standards of Leeds City, but Doncaster did an excellent job – it was well organised, professional and entertaining. I also came away with a few ideas I’m considering for Leeds.

I did feel a little guilty about cleaning out their awards though – I took home the best table topics ribbon while Anthony, our Division Govenor and Leeds City member took home the best evaluator ribbon.

After the meeting, we decided to get some dinner locally, so wandered down the street until we came across a restaurant named Cactus Jack. It was American themed and did some amazingly tasty ribs – fall off the bone TGI style, but with more flavour! I think next time I visit Doncaster Speakers, it will be more accurate to say I’m visiting Cactus Jack’s, and stopping by Toastmasters on the way…