Wolverhampton Speakers Club

Wolverhampton Speakers Club

We are a mutual self- help organisation - a group of people who come together to help each other gain in confidence and learn a valuable life skill while having some fun. Anyone who comes along to the club and hopes to learn how to be an effective speaker will be delighted with the outcome. That person will be given the opportunity, the support, the knowledge and the feedback in a relaxed friendly environment - which is the most efficient way to become an effective speaker. It does not happen overnight, but it does work.

Our System Works because there is no substitute for experience gained by having a go, gaining feedback and absorbing experience by watching and listening to others.

Our Method

We use a ten-stage programme that is monitored by our Education Director to ensure that all members have the opportunity to develop to the point where they deliver a 'Masterpiece' speech with confidence. This programme has been proven to work over many years but is totally flexible and means that new members are able to move at a pace they find most suitable.

The programme first breaks down public speaking into its basic skills, which you practice, and then puts them back together one-by-one until you can deliver a 'Masterpice'.

The programme will cover the following skills:

• Making a start
• Mean what you say
• Speech construction
• Use of gestures
• Use your voice
• Vocabulary and word pictures
• The use of notes
• Smile please!
• Audience rapport
• The Masterpiece

And after that, you can try our Advanced Skills course. You will also have the opportunity to learn the skills involved in chairing a meeting and entering various competitions should you wish to do so.

Join Us at a Typical Meeting

Our meetings do vary from time to time, but we can describe a typical session to you.

One of the members acts as Chairman, who will run the whole evening and co-ordinate all the activities. Experienced members take their turn in doing this job.

Two or three members will give prepared speeches to the Club, often in the region of 5-8 minutes each. These speeches vary enormously in content, mood and delivery, but they are usually framed around the series of ten target assignments which lead us through the various speaking skills. There will usually be a reading of some text given by one of the members at this point, because reading skills in public are also important.

One of the great characteristics of Speakers Club is the Evaluation. Here each speech will be evaluated by another member who will briefly go through the speech and highlight the strengths and weaknesses and give some advice for further improvement. This is done in a sincere, constructive and non-threatening way.

Impromptu speaking is a useful and often vital skill to develop and so we will usually have a 'Topics Session' during our meeting. One member acts as the Topics Chairman and will have prepared a number of topics which the members are asked to speak about for 2 or 3 minutes when called to the front - the only snag is that we will have no time to prepare! This might sound pretty hard work, but in fact these sessions are usually great fun and, at the same time, really do develop our abilities.

The Topics Session

'Topics' is all about impromptu speaking. Impromptu speaking is speaking without any prior preparation and at short notice, and it is a very valuable skill.

So why do we put ourselves through it?

It is a useful skill in business meetings, interviews and also everyday social life.  It also helps your normal public speaking and can lead to much greater confidence and fluency.

In the Topics Session the Topics Chairman will have prepared a number of subjects for short 'mini-speeches' of 2 or 3 minutes duration. Speakers are called up and given their Topic subject and they speak without preparation. This sounds like a refined form of torture, but actually it is usually great fun .

Evaluation

One of the 'jewels in the crown' of the ASC is our unique method of evaluation. No external examinations, but your speech will be evaluated (not 'judged' or 'marked') by one of your peers. Your evaluator will review your speech and highlight the strengths and weaknesses, and give sound advice.

This is all done in a friendly and non-destructive way and you can learn a lot from the wise counsels of the more experienced members. You will be told whether you are ready to move on to the next stage of the Speakers Guide or whether you would be better having another try.

We have 10 stages of developing speaking skills. After successfully completing the first five stages you will be awarded the ASC Interim Certificate and after completing all ten you will receive the ASC Certificate of Achievement. You can then go on to tackle advanced techniques.

Membership Details and How to Join

Intrigued? Interested? Tempted? Why not come along and try us out!

As a visitor you will be made very welcome - come and see what we do - you might find that it's the thing for you.

Our meetings are held fortnightly on Mondays from September to May at the Ramada Park Hall Hotel, Goldthorne Park, Wolverhampton at 7.30pm for 7.45 pm.

We begin our season in September, but new members are welcome at any time! Do check our Calendar of Meetings.

How to Join

The best way is to come along and try us out. You are very welcome to come along and sit-in on a meeting night and see what we do. You can just observe, or you can join in - but you will not be pressurised to do so. Why not try us out for a meeting or two? You can decide then whether you wish to join.

You can always contact us before you come, either e-mail or telephone - see our Contact Page.

Membership Details

When you join ASC you become a member of a particular club, in our case Wolverhampton Speakers Club. The club is a member of the Association of Speakers Clubs which, of course, is a national organisation.

Clubs vary in what they charge for annual membership. Our current membership fee is £50 per year, which covers our room hire and a fee (called the 'Capitation') to the ASC itself. We do not aim to make a profit.

Unlike many clubs we do not charge a meeting fee. One minor expense that you will incur once only is the purchase of the ASC Speakers Guide for £15 - very well worthwhile because the Speakers Guide (we call it 'The Manual') is the basis of your activities and it contains a lot of accumulated wisdom about Public Speaking.