About the club
A supportive room, a ringing bell
Rostrum is an Australian public-speaking movement: clubs of people who meet to practise speaking, chairing and listening in a structured, friendly way. Club 18 is one of South Australia's Rostrum clubs — our next meeting is number 1,294, which tells you how long we've been at this.
The order of the evening
Every meeting follows the same dependable shape, run by a different chair each time.
- Open, 6:00pm. The chair calls the room to order; members answer the roll and visitors are welcomed by name.
- Club business. Minutes, correspondence and brisk reports — president, treasurer, secretary, membership.
- The night's format. Prepared speeches or a set-piece exercise, each with its time and its warning bell.
- Dinner break. Meals arrive from the bar and the club eats together.
- Statistics & coach. The night's numbers, then the coach's feedback and the outstanding-member award.
- Word of the day, closure. One word — origin, meaning, use — then thanks all round and home.
Meeting formats
Standard nights carry the program; format nights sharpen different muscles.
Standard & theme nights
Three or four prepared speeches on set topics — sometimes free choice, sometimes drawn together under a theme for the night.
Balloon debate
Each speaker pleads a case; the audience votes on who survives. Ours have ranged from famous figures to four ships seeking safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz.
Show and tell
Bring an object or a photograph and tell its true story. Simpler than it sounds, harder than it looks.
Impromptu rounds
Three minutes, a topic you've just been handed, and nowhere to hide. The fastest way to learn to think on your feet.
Time, and the bell
Every speech at Rostrum has a set time — written like 6/4: six minutes to speak, with the warning bell at four. New members start around four minutes and stretch out as their confidence grows; experienced speakers run to eight. The bell isn't a punishment — it's the craft. Learning to shape a speech so the ending lands just as time does is the thing Rostrum quietly teaches you.
Alongside the speeches, every meeting has a chair who runs the room (first-timers get a senior member alongside as chair mentor), a minutes taker, and a coach — an experienced Rostrum speaker who watches the whole night and closes it with feedback: what worked, what to try next, and who was the night's outstanding member.
Curious? The next chapter is easy.
Sit in on a meeting and see the bell in action.