Written by Jo and Elena (edited by Swarajit)
Introduction
The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular members. He invited the audience to use the Toastmasters educational programme as a guide to better public speaking and leadership.
The Toastmaster of the meeting was Mike–a guest from west London club London Athenians– who was making his debut in the role of Toastmaster. His theme for the evening was days of the week which participants liked or disliked and why, with each speaker limited to two words. Mike was assisted by the Timekeeper Jo, who was performing the role for the second time, and Harkmaster Adam.
Prepared speeches
This evening we were fortunate enough to have an Ice Breaker speech from our new member Ahmed, who made his first step into his Toastmasters career through the Competent Communication programme. Ahmed’s speech was entitled “Growing up in the Docklands East End” and he gave us a very descriptive overview of his life and how London’s Docklands have changed over the years including the impact these changes have had on his community.
The second speaker was Joe, who presented a No. 6 speech (which focuses on vocal variety) entitled “Ice Cream Sandwich”. Joe explained his trials in getting through to his mobile phone company to upgrade his phone and learn about his upgrade options. (The title of his speech referred to the latest Android operating system and is, apparently, an upgrade to Gingerbread!)
The third speaker was Femi with his advanced speech from the ‘Speaking to Inform’ manual entitled “The Game of Unspeakable Fun“. The main aim of this speech project is to explain and demonstrate a process. Femi presented a very entertaining speech in which he shared his enthusiasm for the game Taboo and, after he explained the rules,volunteer Neil from the audience took a part in an impromptu game.
The last speaker this evening was Glen with his seven-minute impromptu speech on a topic chosen by the audience– recent cinema release, The Iron Lady. He told us how the film (which Glen himself had not yet seen) presented the Hollywood version of Margaret Thatcher’s life: she was born to be a superhero, went through difficult times when she was Prime Minister and the biggest challenge she faced – the public vote.
Speech evaluations
After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting, where speakers, evaluators and the rest of the audience gain some useful tips and experience of public speaking.
The first evaluator Nazia evaluated Ahmed’s Ice Breaker speech. She commented that Ahmed had used anecdotes, dates and very descriptive language for drawing his personal story and we really got to know him. Only one recommendation for further improvement was a bit more eye contact with the whole audience.
The second evaluator was Neil, who evaluated Glen’s impromptu speech. He commented Glen’s very solid posture and body language, openness and power. He liked Glen’s use of humour and his smiling through out the speech. The main recommendation for Glen was to vary the tone of his voice more.
The third evaluator, Swarajit, evaluated Joe’s No. 7 speech. He commented on Joe’s excellent use of emphasis on certain words, and pauses to express emotions as well as humour. The main recommendation from Swarajit was regarding the structure – to make smooth transitions from the body of the speech to its conclusion.
The fourth evaluator this evening was Hari, who evaluated Femi’s advanced speech. He commented that Femi had definitely met the speech objective – he was very warm, smiled, used props to explain the rules and found a volunteer for the demonstration of the game. This all was very engaging for the audience, though Hari would like to have heard a final recap in the conclusion of the speech.
Table Topics
The Table Topics part of the meeting is not only a great practice for both new and experienced members but also a great fun.
The Topics Master of the evening was Joyanta. He introduced the theme – “Where I would like to live”. Members and guests were invited to explain over 2-3 minutes why they would want to live in Joyanta’s rather unconventional suggestions of places to dwell, including a cave, a rainforest and North Korea!
The Table Topics evaluator this evening was Kate, who evaluated all six participants. She encouraged the participants to use more eye contact around the room and hand gestures.
After Adam’s Harkmaster report, in which he rewarded the most alert listeners with Olympic-themed chocolates, General Evaluator Jane evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and gave useful recommendations for all.
Awards
Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.
The Best Evaluator award went to Hari for his evaluation of Femi’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Terry for his fantastic topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Femi for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to David for a brilliantly tackled table topic.
The certificate for successfully completing Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster– went to Ahmed.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday 13th February. Also on Monday 12th March we will be holding our speech and evaluation contests.
Please note we have a new venue.
The new venue will be: Real Man Pizza Company, 157-163 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8UE.
