Written by Elena Fanaberova (edited by Glen Long)
Introduction
The meeting was opened by Club President Glen Long. In his introduction he referred to the new design rebranding of Toastmasters International and invited members to “rebrand” their relationship with Toastmasters as being “in training to be an excellent communicator”.
Then Glen handed the meeting over to the past Club President and a very experienced Toastmaster, Nazia Soon. She explained how each part of the agenda worked and how each section supports the Toastmaster’s Communication and Leadership educational programs. After this she introduced the theme for the meeting – Leadership – and explained that she would be introducing each speaker with the answer they had given to her question: “Which Leadership skills do you value the most?”
Nazia then explained that she would be supported in her role by other club members and introduced the evening’s Timekeeper Elena Fanaberova, followed by Harkmaster Terry Freedman.
Prepared speeches
The Prepared Speeches were started with new member Ann Connolly’s Ice Breaker speech entitled “One Small Step For Ann”. In her captivating speech Ann told us about her great childhood memories which were closely associated with her mother and grandmother (who taught her to cook – and smoke!). She also told us about her life in her twenties when she worked in various countries and learnt a lot about how to start from scratch.
Finishing with a quote from Goethe, she reminded us that the moment we commit ourselves to something we get rid of any hesitation and get empowered to achieve what we want.
Next was a No. 8 speech (whose aim is to “Get Comfortable With Visual Aids”) entitled “Art”. Todd Wade focused on the subjective valuation of art and why some art may be considered excellent when some other art might be perceived as just rubbish. While handing out pictures of some of the “works” of Damien Hirst such as Stuffed Shark, Butterfly Exhibition and Medicine Exhibition, he questioned their true value and concluded that collectors are not buying a piece of art, but a brand.
The final speech – also a No. 8 – was “Moon Shine” by club secretary Kate Osborne. She illustrated the four main moon phases, how their changing is believed by some people to affect our lives and how to best behave during each phase to get most benefit from the “waxing” and “waning”.
After a quick Timekeeper’s report and an opportunity for the guests to briefly introduce themselves to the room – led by our newest member AG – there was a short break.
Speech evaluations
After the break, Nazia opened the evaluations portion of the evening by introducing the first evaluator – Adam Horne. Adam said it was his great pleasure to evaluate Ann’s wonderful ice breaker speech. He felt that all objectives had been met: good structure of the speech, confident voice and engagement with the audience. Adam gave only one small recommendation for Ann – to grab the stage and stand forward.
The next evaluator, Fabrizio Palmucci, evaluated Todd’s striking speech. He commented on Todd’s great stage presence, his good speech delivery using visual materials and the deeply researched topic, but would have liked to have seen the purpose more clearly in his conclusion. He added that he felt the speech structure was impeccable.
The last evaluator of the meeting, Alex Goldsbrough, evaluated Kate’s moon speech. He commented that this time Kate seemed a lot more relaxed and in control than in some previous speeches. Alex reminded Kate that the fundamental objective for speech No. 8 is to use visual aids and suggested Kate to be more creative with hers (a useful tip for all speakers) as well as to use more hand gestures.
Table Topics
Karan Daswani stepped up as Topics Master to lead the impromptu speaking section of the evening. He chose the simple but powerful theme of the people’s most memorable experiences.
- Swarajit shared with us his memorable experience of visiting Brighton beach and how his dreams about the perfect beach were shattered when he found that it was pebbles not sand;
- AG’s most memorable experience of traveling abroad was her first ever holiday in Italy with her parents – particularly how she enjoyed the pizza in the Luciano Pavarotti cafe;
- Guest Anne spoke about a memorable experience of traveling two months ago in a Hummer to Las Vegas and how a trip through the National Park took much longer than expected;
- Adam told us about his most memorable experience with friends on holiday when he was in Sweden and nobody spoke English – so his friend ended up ordering food ‘blind’ and was presented with a dish of herring with five shots of spirit;
- Dave’s most memorable experience of an entertainment event was attending a storytelling workshop with a top speaker;
- Alex told us the story of his memorable BBQ in the middle of winter in US where he was served a burger made from roadkilled Elk!
- Terry spoke about a memorable experience of a book, falling back on fond memories of A.A. Milne and Winnie The Pooh;
- Glen spoke about his experience of doing nothing, just staring into a roaring fire after an exhausting day grape-picking in France
Table Topics Evaluator Joe Lake – in his first ever evaluation role! – did a great job of providing commendations and recommendations for all eight table topics speakers – and finishing within time.
In conclusion of this section of the meeting Terry’s final Harkmaster’s Report tested our listening and memory by asking “who said what?” and rewarded correct answers with chocolates (only 30 calories each we were assured!)
Evaluating all those who had not yet been evaluated, our General Evaluator (and Area Governor) Ken Adjei had some great pointers for the club and was much impressed by the inclusion of the Harkmaster role.
Awards
Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on votes cast during the evening.
The Best Evaluator award went to Joe, the Best Table Topics speaker award to Terry and the “highly coveted” Best Speaker award to Ann, who also received a certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster.
The President’s discretionary award went to AG for her role as guest introducer.
Wrapping up, Glen announced the upcoming competitions and the workshops.
Next meeting
The next event is Monday 5th September 2011 – Andrew Brammer’s Storytelling Workshop, arrive from 6.30pm for a 6.45pm start. Tickets going fast so book here.
The next meeting is the Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests on 12th September. There’s still time to enter – just book your slot on ClubPlan.
