Introduction
With one new member giving an Ice Breaker speech, two members of the club jointly receiving the Best Evaluator award and a general theme of “Simple Pleasures”, it was another enjoyable and well-attended meeting at The Clerk & Well pub.
Henry piloted the meeting in the role of Toastmaster and was assisted by Grammarian Carrie and Timekeeper Steven who oversaw good use of language and time management respectively and reported back to the audience on their findings.
Prepared speeches
New member of the club Eugenia gave her Ice Breaker speech “How Did I Get Here?” in which she compared herself to a dog from a Russian children’s rhyme where at the beginning of a journey the dog is tiny whereas by the end of the journey had changed completely. Eugenia related those transitions to those in her own life: a new language, a new hairstyle and her personality.
In his No. 3 speech “Big City Disconnect” Wayne shared his concern that slow walkers and unexpected interruptions on the street can be extremely annoying, especially on the way to work. One occurrence had forced him to change his mind, however, and consider that it might be him that needs help.
Michael presented his No. 4 speech “Corporate Relations” where he stated that there is no divorce in business between related companies and suggested three reasons why it is so: trust, openness and understanding.
Swarajit gave a PowerPoint presentation for his No. 7 speech entitled “Carbon”. As usual he started the speech with great humour and then gave a detailed overview of the structure and chemical characteristics of carbon and where it can be found in our lives.
Speech evaluations
Joe evaluated Eugenia’s Ice Breaker speech and commended her great posture and animated body language which were in congruence with the story, her use of the whole stage and her brilliant personality and humour. Joe recommended Eugenia work on her voice projection so that people at the back of the room could hear her speech as well.
Evaluating Wayne’s human disconnection speech, Ahmed reminded us of the purpose of the project – to get to the point – and praised the strong opening, body and conclusion of the speech which were related to one another. Ahmed’s recommendation for Wayne was to try not to use notes in the future.
Janet evaluated Michael’s corporate relations speech. She had seen a confident man, well grounded with very good hand gestures. She had also heard a sincere and honest man who called on his audience to be more mature and take responsibility for what they do. However Janet would have liked to have seen a bit more movement on stage.
Elena evaluated Swarajit’s speech about “the bad boy of Mendeleev’s periodic table”. She praised Swarajit’s passion for science, his very thorough research and clear presentation using PowerPoint. However in Elena’s opinion the speech could be improved by making more eye contact with the audience.
Table Topics
Christopher stepped in to perform the Topics Master role of the evening. His “Food” theme added a lot of fun for the participants as well as for the audience as a whole. Regular members and guests tackled the appetite-stimulating questions:
- What is your favourite restaurant in London?
- What is the food that makes you most happy?
- What food reminds you of your childhood?
- Is meat murder?
- What is the most unusual food you have had?
- Who has the better food: Britain or France?
Awards
Closing the meeting the club President Femi gave out the awards based on the audience votes cast during the evening and one special President’s award.
The certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster – went to Eugenia.
The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to Jo for her “favourite local restaurant” topic.
The Best Evaluator award was shared between Janet for her evaluation of Michael’s No. 4 speech and Jason for his Table Topics evaluation.
The Best Speaker award went to Wayne for his successful No. 3 speech.
The President’s discretional award went to Christopher for his interesting Table Topics section.
Next meeting
Next Monday, 29th October 2012 is our Evaluation Workshop hosted by Chris Boden, UK & Ireland Contest Champion 2011 at our usual venue, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub.
Our next regular meeting is an extra one on Monday, 5th November 2012, again upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road,London,EC1R 5BX.
