Anglia Communicators

Club Meetings

Anglia Communicators is the a public speaking club based in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK and meet the 2nd, and 4th Monday of every month, from 6:30 to 8:45pm, at the Orton Hall Hotel and Spa, The Village, Orton Longueville, Peterborough, PE2 7DN.

The club has been assisting men and woman in the Peterborough area to improve their public speaking skills since 2002. We are a supportive, friendly Toastmasters club of 25-30 members; our membership covers the spectrum of individuals, from students to retired persons, from the self employed to managers and professionals, from new members to the more experienced. Our aim is to support each other in progressing towards our public speaking and leadership goals, and to have fun along the way. We are a public club and membership is not restricted to those who live and work in the Peterborough area. Everyone is welcome.

A Brief History of Anglia Communicators

Bill and Jane Biss, an American couple who were resident in the U.K. as the U.S. Air Force employed Jane, founded our club in 2002. Bill and Jane were already experienced Toastmasters and had both achieved the highest distinction available to Toastmasters International members – DTM (Distinguished Toastmaster).

The club recruited the statutory 20 members required to ‘charter’ and was officially launched in December 2002. The original meeting place was on Alconbury airfield, near Huntingdon, and most of the early members were U.S. citizens working in the U.K. The first ‘U.K. national’ member to join Anglia Communicators was Kate Atkin. A past member of our club, Peter Mueller, mentored the fledgling Anglia Communicators, as he was already a member of our sister club in Cambridge.

Pretty soon, our founders realised that if they were going to grow the club and recruit U.K. citizens they would need to move away from its air force base. The club moved to its second home, the ‘Racehorse Inn’, in the village of Catworth, on the A14 between Huntingdon and Kettering. The club thrived for a while at this new venue, as British members began to join the Americans.

Gradually the overseas members left the club, as their work took them back to the U.S., and in 2004 the club faced a real fight for survival. We lost our venue at the Racehorse Inn due to lack of numbers attending, and moved to a temporary home at Hartford Village Hall, near Huntingdon. Ask any of the members from around that time about delivering speeches while competing with the dog training class in the room next door!

During this time the decision was taken to re-locate the club to Peterborough. A number of the members were from Peterborough and it was felt that there would be more opportunity for growing the club and bringing the benefits of Toastmasters to more people.

Anglia Communicators then moved to its fourth venue, Judges Restaurant in Peterborough. This new venue proved very successful, both in terms of attracting new members and providing us with an excellent dinner! In 2004/2005, Anglia Communicators achieved Select Distinguished Club status for the first time. Toastmasters International sets all clubs 10 annual Distinguished Club Programme goals – this was the first time that Anglia Communicators had achieved in this area. We accomplished 8 out of 10 goals in 2004/2005, and repeated that achievement in 2005/2006. Sadly, our relationship with Judges Restaurant came to an end in 2006. The restaurant was forced to close, and we found another temporary, before moving to another venue, the Windmill in Orton Waterville.

2006/2007 was a year of tremendous achievement for Anglia Communicators. We achieved President’s Distinguished Club for the first time, by achieving all ten goals in the Distinguished Club Programme. The club also hosted the Division G International Speech and Evaluation Competition, and one of our founder members, Kate Atkin, won the District 71 Evaluation Speech Competition, competing against Toastmasters from all over the U.K. and Ireland. Kate has also represented the club in the District 71 Table Topics Competition at the Autumn Conference in Harrogate in November 2007.

2007/2008 was a year of building on success. At the end of March 2008, Anglia Communicators achieved President’s Distinguished Club for the second year running, and three months before target date. This means that the club has achieved 9 out of the 10 goals that we are set annually by Toastmasters International. We had until June 30 2008 to achieve these goals, we did it by March 3 and we did it as a team. Our club is home to Jacqui Grobler, who earlier in 2008 won area level of the International Speech Contest and Tracy Walker who won the Area Evaluation Contest. During October 2008 another of Anglia Communicators' members, Kwaku Sintim Misa, represented the area in the Division Contest of the Humorous Speech Contest.

Our current venue is the Orton Hall Hotel and Spa, Orton Longueville, more details on ☀https://3380.toastmastersclubs.org

Kate Atkin and Mervin Foster helped for form a "sister club" near Huntingdon, http://huntingdonshire.freetoasthost.cc/ in 2008.

Please contact us and come to visit one of our meetings. You will notice immediately that we’re not only learning, we’re having a good time as well!

Meeting Schedule

View our Club Calendar

Membership Information

View our membership information

Contact Details

For more information, visit our website at www.angliatoastmasters.co.uk or email us at info@angliatoastmasters.co.uk.

Club Newsletters

The Anglian Communicator Issue 1

The Anglian Communicator Issue 2

The Anglian Communicator Issue 3

Club Awards & Achievements

President's Distinguished Club 2006/2007

Select Distinguished Club 2004/2005 and 2005/2006

Links

Division G Spring Conference 2009 - Oxford

District 71

Toastmasters International