Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)
Introduction
With one new member giving his Ice Breaker speech, all participants receiving constructive feedback and a mixture of humour with a general theme of crime and punishment, it was another great meeting.
At the beginning of the meeting, the club’s President Femi welcomed all members and guests and encouraged everyone to “practice, practice, practice!” giving feedback because that in itself is a very important skill.
The Toastmaster of the evening was VP of Education Swarajit, who injected a lot of humour into the meeting along the general theme of Crime and Punishment. He was supported by two functionaries who ensured good use of language and time respectively: Past President and Grammarian Glen and Timekeeper Ahmed.
Prepared speeches
The first speaker of the evening was Marco, who presented his Ice Breaker speech entitled “Holistic Wellbeing”. He familiarised the audience with different holistic techniques: therapy, massage, metamorphosis and laughing yoga, giving clear explanations of what each meant and the benefits of using them.
The next speaker, Carrie, delivered her speech No. 3 “Checking Out” in which she told us why, in her opinion, Facebook has gone too far. She shared her own Facebook experience, starting in 2006 when she joined that network with her student-friends, up to deactivating her account six years later.
Janet gave her speech No. 4 entitled “The Cave”. She relayed to the audience a personal story about how her daughter had asked her: “What is the Holocaust and how come so many Jewish people died?” Not having a short, easy answer for that, Janet presented a parable “The Cave” (originally told by Socrates in 400 BC) to help her daughter get some idea.
The evening’s last speaker, Elena, performed her speech No. 6 “Nightmare Driving” about the completely different driving style in her hometown of Samara, Russia. She told (and showed some pictures) about road conditions, how road regulations were ignored by drivers and the complete inactivity of the police!
Speech evaluations
Jason gave an evaluation of Marco’s Ice Breaker speech. He acknowledged the good structure of the speech, which systematically covered each part of the therapy, and the fact that it wrapped up on time. Jason also commended Marco’s very calm, well-measured delivery. However he would have liked to have heard a more personal take on this topic, relating it to Marco’s life.
Angela evaluated Carrie’s speech and noted that she came up on stage very confidently and continued with a clear voice, good pace and eye contact. Angela also commended Carrie’s good preparation and research of the speech, especially the statistical data. The only recommendation was to not rely as much on notes in the future.
Michael, evaluating Janet’s speech, acknowledged the clarity and conciseness of the speech and its original structure in giving so vivid an answer to her daughter. Michael suggested making a more effective conclusion to the speech by bringing it back to her daughter’s question.
Paula evaluated Elena’s speech. She praised the volume and pace of delivery of the speech, the descriptive language and rhetorical questions. Paula recommended making more pauses for better dramatic effect.
Table Topics
Topics Master of the evening was Sajia, who continued Swarajit’s theme for the meeting and suggested some questions based on the classic novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky:
- Define for the audience the word “Crime”.
- If you were able to send somebody somewhere as a punishment,where would that be?
- Have you or could you ever love a criminal?
- Is there any crime, big or small, that you would like to confess tonight?
Awards
Closing the meeting, Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and also the certificate for successful completion of the Ice Breaker speech – an important step in Toastmaster’s programme – to Marco.
The Best Evaluator award was given to Jason for his evaluation of Marco’s Ice Breaker. The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to recently-returned member James for his ‘confessed crime’ Table Topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Janet for her fantastic speech.
The President’s discretional award went to Saija for her very successful hosting of the Table Topics section of the meeting.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is our Humorous Speech & Table Topics contest on Monday, 10th September 2012,upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.
