Introduction
Club President Nazia Soon opened the meeting with a reminder that Toastmasters is an “experiential” learning environment – it’s all about learning by doing. She gave a topical example from the world of tennis – that Andy Murray didn’t get good at the sport just by reading about it!
As the evening’s Toastmaster, Alex Donald introduced the theme of “injustice” and spoke about his personal view that it was injust that so many young people left education without reaching acceptable standards of numeracy and literacy, or being able to communicate effectively. Perhaps the curriculum should include more elements from Toastmasters he ventured!
Passing to a fellow Alex, he introduced Alex Goldsbrough as timekeeper who explained the purpose of the role – to keep all the speakers to time. He explained how he felt his timekeepers’ stopwatch was a symbol of the forthcoming Olympics – an event for which he had singularly failed to get tickets. He promised to channel his frustration into his timekeeping and use the gavel without mercy for those speakers who overran their allotted time.
Despite the Toastmasters “rule of three” almost demanding the appearance of a third Alex, we instead were met with Adam Horne in his role as Harkmaster. Adam invited us all to listen carefully to the meeting as he would be testing this at the end and rewarding good listening.
Prepared speeches
Toastmaster Alex then introduced the first speaker, club stalwart Henry Playfoot, who took as his subject – breakfast and its myriad possibilities. For Henry, the very first meal of the day afforded a great sense of freedom and he painted a vivid picture of key stages in his life via the breakfasts that had characterised them.
Our second speaker was a visiting member from another Toastmasters club, Jennifer Zou, who delivered an advanced speech focused on storytelling. Jennifer treated us to the story of St Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, an enchanting tale excellently told whose moral was that sometimes it is better to befriend your enemy than to fight him!
Our third speech was another advanced speech, this time from club regular and recent international speech contest finalist Raj Jain. In Giving Effective Feedback, Raj gave numerous useful tips including a powerful reminder that the overriding responsibility of the evaluator is to provide feedback that will be helpful to the speaker. He warned us against losing sight of this, perhaps by trying to entertain the audience, or even by using the evaluation as an opportunity to deliver a mini speech of our own.
Evaluations
After the break, each of the speeches was discussed by an evaluator, no doubt with Raj’s wise words still ringing in their ears!
Hari Kalymnios evaluated Henry’s breakfast-inspired speech, commending Henry on his use of language and fluid delivery and confessing that he himself found it quite hypnotic. He also commended Henry on his natural gestures and body language but cautioned him not to allow them to distract from the verbal elements of the speech.
Next, Kate Osborne gave a very confident evaluation of Jennifer’s children’s story which she found “extremely entertaining” and “great for adults too”. She loved Jennifer’s smile and use of vivid language but invited her to use more vocal variety.
Thirdly, Glen Long took on the task of evaluating Raj’s advanced speech on giving feedback. He was impressed by Raj’s confident introduction which had included various improvisations to incorporate elements from the evening itself. Glen also commended Raj on his insightful and helpful tips but challenged him to keep an eye on maintaining an even tone throughout.
Table topics
As Table Topicsmaster, Swarajit Das challenged willing volunteers to speak for 1 to 2 minutes on some challenging topics of his choosing, including:
- Should premiership footballers have the right to keep their extramarital affairs out of the newspapers?
- Should the rich be taxed more to help the poor?
- Are human rights more important than animal rights?
As Table Topics evaluator, Nazia had praise and pointers for all participants…
She commended Todd for his great presence and booming voice but felt his speech ended a little too abruptly. She commended Fabrizio’s philosophical view of his topic and his “valiant attempt” at a rule of three. Returning guest Joe gave a “balanced view” but Nazia encouraged him to share eye contact with both sides of the room.
Nazia liked the way that Dave took control of the stage, paused a moment to pick his subject then “just went with it”. Michael’s speech was confident and humorous but she invited him to keep his eyes on the audience rather than the floor. Hari made a good argument but could also have benefitted from sharing his eye contact around the room more. And Mehnaz developed a considered response but Nazia felt it was a little short – she would have liked to hear more.
Other reports
Returning as Harkmaster, Adam tested our listening skills with a series of questions and rewarded correct answers with chocolate – many going to a particularly attentive Hari!
Carlos Johnson from Broadgate Speakers provided a general evaluation, giving some useful hints for improving the club and also providing evaluations for all those participants not yet evaluated. He said it had been very interesting for him to witness the progress of this “Holborn offshoot” and commended Bloomsbury on its “unique style”.
Awards
Bringing the meeting to close, Nazia handed out the evening’s awards, based on votes cast throughout the meeting by the audience. Best Table Topics Speaker was awarded to our guest Michael, Best Evaluator to Kate, and coveted Best Speech award went to Henry. The President’s discretionary award went to Alex Donald for his performance as the evenings Toastmaster.
Next meeting
The next meeting is at 6.45pm on Monday 27 June at our normal venue – upstairs at the Rugby Tavern.