The RAT Pack

Skill Building Libraries

The Historian

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• Be enthusiastic, inspiring and imaginative! 

• Review the agenda.  This will determine how many participants you will call and help you choose members who do not have a specific duty.

• Match your questions to a member’s experience; offer newer members more flexible questions.

• Some clubs ask participants to come to the front of the room.  That walk provides members with the time to think about their question, as well as a chance to practice at the lectern.

• Savvy Table Topic Ideas
• Soup up your Improv
• Learning Points

Savvy Table Topic Ideas

License Plates

Make personalized license plates and ask participants “What type of vehicle are you and who owns you?”

ERNDIT   SLO4X4   MYCAR   TRAVLN   MADA4U   10SNE1

Keys

Produce various keys and ask participants to describe what they will open – responses could vary from the key to success, happiness, a mystery or the key to a car, jewel box, mansion, etc.

Defense Plea

Pose “legal” situations (caught running a stop sign; mistake on tax return; threw a rock at a bird, but it went through a windows, etc.).  The culprits give a two-minute defense plea for their actions. 

Music Time Machine

Take old tapes or CDs to the meeting and play a portion of a song.   Ask each participant what memories the song brings back.  Another twist is showing an album or CD cover and ask Topics participants for their memories or why they would never buy that album/CD.

People’s Court

The Topics leader calls two members forward.  One is the plaintiff and the other is the defendant.  The Topics leader is the judge and reads the charges against the defendant.  The plaintiff speaks first, the defendant last.  Each has one to two minutes.  The other members serve as the jury, and vote guilty or not guilty.  The more ridiculous the charge, the more fun the session.

Soup up your Improv

Ambassador

Select one person to be a foreign ambassador and another to be the interpreter.  The Ambassador is given a premise for a press corps meeting (audience is the press corps).  Audience asks the question.  Ambassador must answer in gibberish.  Interpreter translates into English.  Ends on a great closing line or when enough time has passed.

Freeze

Choose as many players as time will allow.  First one is given a scenario to portray.  Player “freezes” action when “freeze” is called.  Next participant take the exact position.  Using the last words spoken by the previous player, and changes subject completely.

Symphony of Social Criticism

Audience chooses the subject—solicit ideas from audience about what irks them.  Five players, each portrays a different area.  Topics leader introduces the symphony, “Ladies & Gentlemen, I’d like to introduce to you, First St. Paul's Symphony on social Irks.”  Topics leader conducts the “symphony” by point to different people.  Ends with all players speaking at once. 

Learning Points

• “We learn best in moments of enjoyment.”    --Dr. Ralph C. Smedley, Founder, Toastmasters International.

• When you’ve learned something, it is usually learned through humor.

• Table topics are good for when you lose your place in a speech. 

• Roll with the punches.