Armada Speakers help you to speak for yourself ...

What do a university MA student, a former police commander, an ex-Royal Marine, a relationship coach and a student from the Czech Republic have in common? All are members of Armada Speakers, the thriving Plymouth group of Toastmasters International which is looking to grow even more now that it has moved into its new meeting place in the Saltram Suite at the city centre Copthorne Hotel.

The name ‘Toastmasters’ conjures up an image of people raising a glass and making a toast, but the reality is quite different. Each member has their own reasons for joining but most want to improve their speaking and communication skills and in many cases, to boost their self-confidence. Some join simply because they enjoy socialising and speaking in front of people.

The Plymouth group, which meets every other Tuesday evening, was launched in 2008 – a relative newcomer to the global organisation that this year marks its 90th anniversary and has almost 300,000 members in over 14,000 clubs in 122 countries.

Former police commander John Campbell Beattie is one of the founding members of Armada Speakers. John was a police officer for 32 years, at one stage running Charles Cross Station and ending his career as Divisional Commander in East Cornwall. For the next 17 years he worked in the police service in civilian roles before leaving last year. He now has a psychotherapy practice, for which he holds the highest national qualifications.

John said: “I went along to the first meeting and it all started from there. I’ve seen people starting off as nervous wrecks at their first meeting but they very soon become highly articulate, fluent and confident. So it does the job.

“It’s for people of all walks of life; most of us need communication and confident speaking skills for job interviews, negotiating a pay rise and the most obvious example is for wedding speeches. And who doesn’t want the skills to present themselves at their best?”

The diverse membership of the 25-strong Plymouth group has an age range of 24-80. The youngest is Aidan Green, who is about to start a master’s degree at Plymouth University: “I wanted to improve my public speaking,” said Aiden, who is studying English. “If you’re looking for a role in management, you need to be capable of speaking in front of an audience.

“Plus it’s something I enjoy.”

One of the newest members is David Mclean, who only joined this summer but who has already delivered his first ‘ice-breaker’ speech to fellow members. David, 37, was medically discharged from the Royal Marines last year after serving for 15 years, a bad back and legs bringing an end to his career.

David is now a clinical hypnotherapist and joined Armada Speakers to improve his confidence: “I want to move into teaching hypnotherapy and delivering seminars so I felt I needed to be better at public speaking. The group has a feeling of inclusion and supportiveness and straight away, it has helped me massively.”

People are welcome to attend three meeting to see if they would like to join. Membership is £55 for six months. President of Armada Speakers, personal development and change coach Liza Oxford-Booth, explains what people can expect: “They will get fun, friendship and enthusiastic learning.

“It’s about communication as a whole, which we all need. We have people who want to increase their skills to help them get a job; we have people who want to progress into leadership; we have people who want more self-confidence. We have a nice, gentle phase-in and new members have roles which lead to their ice-breaker speech so that before they know it, they’ve become a public speaker.

“From that, there are a number of stages which develop different aspects of public speaking and there is also leadership element.”

John Campbell Beattie added: “Armada Speakers is going from strength to strength. We have a lovely variety of people from different parts of the world. Come along and grow with us!”

Meetings are on the first and third Tuesdays of each month, 7m-9pm. Contact Liza Oxford-Booth on 07771 768 808 for more information.