'If anyone would like to volunteer to speak at a newly formed Rotary club, could they see me at the break?' came the plea from Teresa. I have been saying for a while that I needed to speak outside of the 'comfort-zone' of our Speakers club. At the break I said 'Can you put my name on the list of volunteers please?'.

Now it's just a case of sitting back and waiting 'til they get down to my name on the volunteer list; plenty of time to come up with a speech topic and practice at one of our future meetings. The very next day got an email saying that there were only two volunteers, myself and the very experienced humorous speaker Jeff. Teresa would get in touch with the Rotary club to see who they would prefer. There will still be plenty of time because they'll choose the more experienced Jeff and one of his side-splitting humorous speeches, I thought.

Few days later they had made their decision which was based on the age range of their club, 30-50. Now I'm 44 and Jeff's a little older, so you can guess who they picked. That's OK I thought, still plenty of time to prepare. 'So when exactly do they need a speaker for?' 'That'll be a week today', came the reply.

At this point it all started to get very scary and very real. I could easily have 'bottled out' at this point, but it was all about going outside the comfort zone.

I decided to use a speech that I had used at one of our club meetings. For those of you who were there, it was the one about advanced driving techniques. This would be a good one I thought, because I could use a prop in the form of a flip chart with drawings.

I duly prepared my drawings the night before and got hold of a flip chart stand (this was a backup in case the hall didn't have one). I turned up at the venue, surprisingly without any nerves. I was warmly welcomed by the chairman and I setup my stand at the front of the room. As it was one of their inaugural meetings they weren't expecting many people. In fact the audience turned out to be about 8-10 strong and I didn't know any of them.

The chairman opened the meeting with a few club domestics and I was then introduced. Unlike our tradition at the club, there were no claps as I made my way to the front. But what's going on, I've still got no nerves? Now what has my feedback been?

Don't stand too close and blend into the back wall
Use vocal variety (I'm still working on this one)
Try not to sway from side to side
Don't adjust my clothing as I start to speak
Plus all the usuall Dos and Don'ts - um and ah, eye contact, clear and loud, etc
Now I'm ready to start - I opened my speech with an explanation about the speakers club and how it was not only them that were benefiting from having a speaker to fill their agenda, but that I was gaining as well.

After a strong opening and middle to the speech, I suddenly realised that I was getting to my last page on the flip chart and after a quick sideways glance at my watch, showed only 5 minutes had passed. In the email chain that had preceeded this event, the chairman had first suggested 30-40 minutes and I had managed this down to 15-20. When I gave this speech at our club meeting I asked for the lights at 5, 6 and 7 and can remember that I still had some further examples that I wanted to give. So what was going on, only 5 minutes in and I'm nearly at an end?

As I turned to the final page, I am desperately thinking if there are any other tips I can give, but the mind was blank. I apologised for a short speech and said we now had plenty of time for questions. Fortunately almost everyone asked a question and I finally took to my seat, after a warm thank-you from one of the comittee members, just over 20 minutes after I'd taken to the 'stage'.

I then stayed on for the rest of the meeting and was asked if I would consider joining their club, which I think I might.

Some points that I have learned from this experience:

Always volunteer
Prepare well
Don't be too nervous
Have backup material
Never apologise
Enjoy yourself

For more information about speaking in Public outside of a Speak Easy club meeting contact Andy Pitts