Written by Jo
Introduction
The meeting was opened by Acting Club President Femi who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members. He described the growth of Toastmasters from one club to a worldwide organisation, providing a safe and friendly environment for practising public speaking and developing leadership skills.
Making his debut as Toastmaster at the meeting was Joe, who outlined the structure of the meeting and encouraged guests and members to applaud all the participants as enthusiastically as possible to create positive energy. Joe was assisted by the Timekeeper, Jo, and Grammarian, Swarajit, who invited speakers to use the word of the day ‘audacious’ in their presentations.
Prepared speeches
The evening began with an Ice Breaker from Wayne. His speech was entitled “Coming back to London” and in it he told us about some of the key memories from his childhood and teen years, including how he developed a love of travel, what he realised while travelling and how happy he is to have now returned to London.
The second speaker this evening was Joyanta with his No. 7 speech (which focuses on researching a topic) entitled “The 6 killer apps for success”. In an historical speech, inspired by a book he’d read, Joyanta discussed the growth of Western European empires over recent centuries and explained that this was due to competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the Protestant work ethic.
The last speaker of the evening was Ratan, who presented his contest-winning speech entitled “Beyond the call of duty”. He outlined a transformation in the way he viewed some of his accounting clients after receiving some unexpected hospitality in South Africa. He also discussed how others – both famous and not – go beyond the call of duty and how this changes our lives.
Speech evaluations
After a short break, it was time to listen to the speeches from the first half being evaluated by other members of the club, in which we learn what the speakers did well and how they could improve in future.
Henry gave an evaluation of Wayne’s Ice Breaker speech in which he praised Wayne’s calmness, presence and body language. He spoke about Wayne’s interesting choice of language to add more background e.g. he was ‘compelled’ to go to school. The main recommendation was to consider the structure of his speech and add a conclusion or closing line.
Hari’s evaluation of Joyanta’s No. 7 speech commended his relaxed style and likened it to talking to Joyanta in his living room. Again, the main recommendation was around structure – Hari felt that covering all six ‘apps’ was too detailed for the time available and he suggested he might have had a stronger structure by outlining all six but covering just three in detail.
Femi evaluated Ratan’s contest speech and noted how well Ratan used the stage along with appropriate gestures throughout. As Ratan will be presenting the speech at the area final on Thursday, Femi recommended that he be very clear with his diction and encouraged him to feel confident with his well-written, well-rehearsed speech.
Table Topics
Table Topics are an opportunity for both members and guests to improve their ability to speak ‘off the cuff’ by talking for one to two minutes on a topic they’ve been given only moments earlier.
Ahmed performed as the Topics Master this evening; his theme for the evening was the Olympics and he invited speakers to discuss a variety of topics ranging from which Olympic event they would like to participate in, to their favourite Olympic memories and why the sack race should be an Olympic event.
Both members and guests took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening, Adam. He commended participants for their confidence, gestures, structure and language. His recommendations were to move around the stage more and to try to get one idea and run with it rather than attempt to cram every thought into the speech. He also noted that there was some hand clasping amongst participants.
Rounding off the meeting, Swarajit returned to review the participants’ grammar and use of the word of the day. Nigel, the General Evaluator for this evening from our sister club Holborn Speakers confessed this was his first time attending a meeting at a club other than his own in 12 years of Toastmasters, before evaluating all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and highlighting how much progress Bloomsbury Speakers has made since its inception.
Awards
Closing proceedings, Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.
Wayne received a certificate for successfully completing his Ice Breaker speech – an important first step in his Toastmasters career. The Best Evaluator award went to Henry for his evaluation of Wayne’s Icebreaker, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to guest Pamela for her explanation of why we should all use bicycles to get to the Olympics. The President’s discretional award went to Swarajit for the firm delivery of his Grammarian role.
Next meeting – New venue!!!
Our next meeting is on Monday 16th April upstairs at The Clerk and Well Pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX. This is a new venue – directly opposite our old venue at The Real Man Pizza restaurant. Please also note that the date is the third Monday in April, not the usual second Monday, due to the Easter break.
