Introduction
The meeting was opened by incoming president Glen Long who first thanked his predecessor and club founder Nazia Soon for her hard work in establishing Bloomsbury Speakers and then gave an overview of the club for new guests (of which there were quite a few!). He then told the story of his own first visit to a Toastmasters club where he was hooked by a speech which was a “masterclass of content, structure and delivery”.
He shared his personal goal to help make Bloomsbury Speakers the best place in London to practice public speaking – and have fun at the same time! – before handing over to the evening’s Toastmaster Hari Kalymnios.
Taking the reins, Hari explained the format of the meeting – speeches, then evaluations, then impromptu speaking – plus a guide to the Toastmasters “CRC” approach to feedback, that is commend (something that was done well), recommend (something that could be improved), and then commend (something else).
He also asked us all to stand up and proceeded to teach us the basic mechanics of the hand clap but confessed it was partly because he had never received a standing ovation before!
Next he introduced our Timekeeper, Swarajit Das, who explained the importance of time in Toastmasters meetings and urged all participants to avoid making him use the gavel and thus “bring shame on themselves and their families”!
Then Todd Wade took the stage as Harkmaster and challenged everyone to pay close attention to all the speakers as he would be testing our listening skills at the end of the meeting. He also told a personal story of recently having to put his Toastmasters skills to the test when he had to speak in front of 150 people. He was very pleased to report that the confidence and skills he had learned saw him comfortably through the challenge.
Hari took the stage again and in his new capacity as VP of Mentoring explained the benefits our the mentoring programme giving us a preview of some new mentoring guides that he’d put together for existing and potential mentors.
Prepared speeches
The first speech was an ice breaker speech by one of the club’s newest members Joe Lake. In his speech “Lessons” Joe talked about having an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age and related several episodes including a very humorous tale about an early car washing business which unfortuately would always leave a dirty stripe at the top of the cars due to the small stature of its workers!
The next speech was another ice breaker, this time from our most recent member Karan Daswani. Telling the very dramatic story of his upbringing in Sierra Leone, Karan told us how his early experiences had fostered three important qualities that still serve him well: not accepting the status quo, a great sense of curiosity, and persistence in the face of challenges.
In a No. 5 speech (focussed on effective use of body language) Adam Horne invited us to join his “Working On Sunday Appreciation Society”. In a very humorous speech he attempted to convince us that heading to the office was the best way to pass the latter half of the weekend. His reasons? You get to wear what you like, you’re guaranteed a seat on the tube, and when you get into work, there’s no-one else there so you can turn the music up as loud as you like!
After Adam’s speech, past president Nazia Soon led the guest introductions inviting each person to tell us what had brought them to Bloomsbury Speakers that evening.
Speech evaluations
After a short and very precise (!) eight minute break, it was time for each of the three speakers to receive a formal evaluation from an existing member.
Femi Asaolu evaluated Joe’s ice breaker and reminded us what an important step the first speech is, quoting Woody Allen: “80% of success is just showing up!”. He felt that Joe had naturally adopted a good position in relation to the audience and commended him on a good choice of a chronological struture but he cautioned him against using “and” too often and instead recommended he try using other “connective” words.
Kate Osborne evaluated Karan’s ice breaker and started by commending his “confident stance” and added that she felt his hand gestures were “spot on”. She felt he made great use of humour and was impressed that he was already using the recommended “rule of three” structure. Her only recommendation was that he should put his notes to one side and refer to them as needed, rather than holding on to them throughout the speech.
Joyanta stepped up next to evaluate Adam’s speech and opened with a very encouraging rhetorical question: “Didn’t Adam do well?” He felt that Adam’s style was “concise, clear and approachable” and that his content was “well-structured”. He recommended that Adam tries to make more use of the space available and – since it was a speech about body language – to not be afraid to experiment with more exaggerated gestures.
Table topics
Following the evaluations, Todd stepped up again, this time in the role as Topicsmaster. He spoke briefly about the very valuable skill of being able to talk on a subject without preparation and introduced his own very inventive take on the session. He’d prepared several pieces of paper – each with the name of an animal – and invited volunteers to explain to the room why they thought that particular animal would soon be the dominant species on Earth.
In all an impressive eight people took up Todd’s challenge:
- Glen tried to convince us that Parrots would prevail, since they were already showing a gift for language – an important skill for any dominant animal!
- First-time guest Micah argued instead that Turtles would win the struggle for supremacy with the advantage of a protective shell and proven fighting skills as evidenced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
- Fellow guest Neil entertained us with the notion that Kangaroos are already very similar to humans in many ways and felt strongly that they would soon kick us humans back into the Stone Age.
- Nazia defended the humble but “much-maligned” Pigeon against accusations of being simply “flying rats” and championed the idea of these “beautiful birds” being a catalyst for world peace and unity!
- Grant – another brave guest – had a clear three-point manifesto for the rise of the Chihuahua as evolutionary top dog: they’re man’s best friend, they’re cute and furry, and you can eat them if times get tough!
- Mohammed put forward the case for the Elephant and recommended that we should take the opportunity to ride one if we ever get the chance – one presumes before they take over the world…
- Femi played ambassador for the Penguin, using the fact that they mate of life as proof of their loyalty. Tackling Glen’s feathered species head-on, he said that although penguins were “a bit fishy and smelly” at least they weren’t always “mouthing off” like parrots.
- Our final guest speaker Ann had the tough challenge of defending rats – difficult sincethey’re not even cute like chihuahuas she said. Dominant or not, she admitted that she did see rather a lot of them on the underground – but for some reason it was usually after she’d had a few drinks.
Henry Playfoot had quite a task in evaluating all eight speakers in a short amount of time but did a sterling job as usual.
He commended Glen on good humour and pace but wanted a stronger ending; he loved Micah’s warm smile but urged him to stay the distance; he thought that Neil had “great confidence” and was impressed by his “enormous kick” (kangaroo style); Nazia drew him in with her open gestures and had a great finish; Grant had a “fantasic opening” and a great nodding technique that had Henry nodding along with him; Mohammed had great authority and a gentle style; he was dazzled by Femi’s “1000 watt smile” which could apparently power a small principality; and finally he acknowledged Ann’s bravery in stepping forward despite nerves and felt she had made a great connection with the audience.
As General Evaluator, Simon Maggs (from MLP London Bridge Speakers) commended the club on its “feelgood factor” and gave a number of great recommendations to help the club to get even better.
Awards
Bringing his first meeting as president to a close, Glen announced the awards based on votes from the audience. He was simultaneously pleased and slightly embarrassed to announce that he’d won best Table Topic himself but revealed that Femi and his penguins had been a close second. Best evaluator went to Henry for his mammoth topics evaluation and the coveted Best Speaker award went to Karan for his Ice Breaker. The president’s discretionary award went to brand new guest Ann for bravery in the face of anxiety.
Our next meeting is on Monday 25th July, upstairs at the Rugby Tavern as usual. See you there!
