Cumberland Gang Show

When Margo Hebbard asked me to talk about my Guiding experience pre-show, I was extremely surprised. My instinct was to refuse - it was a much larger group than the District AGM. But she had me on the phone, and I technically was free that day, so I agreed. Straight after hanging up, I spent some time processing what I had agreed to, but it was about two months off so I figured I could prepare thoroughly before hand.

As it turned out, I totally lost track of preparing before hand, and spent maybe 10 minutes jotting down notes before leaving the house that night. The brief was to sell Guides in a Scout-dominated environment, and having spent time over the last months comparing Scout and Guide websites, programmes and resources I felt like I had a pretty good grasp on what things would catch their attention. With my last presentation at the AGM still in my mind I remembered the freedom of dot points, so decided to stick with that.

Ultimately on the night, I was the third speaker out of three, and the two younger girls who talked before me had written actual speeches, which meant not only did they go overtime, they were unable to cut them on the spot. As a result my 3 minutes actually became something like 30 seconds so the show could still start on time. When I was told to shorten, having no option but to agree gave me a sense of determination to deliver, and I think I stayed relatively calm, with just a couple lost-for-words moments.

Afterwards Margo congratulated us for our presentations, so I guess it went okay. It definitely tested my ability to remain calm, coherent and relatively professional while working totally on the spot, and I think any future impromptu presentations will definitely be easier knowing that I have successfully done one before.