Introduction
Club President Femi greeted all members and guests by asking about their reasons for attending Toastmasters and pointed out that they had come to the right place if they wanted to overcome their fears and practice to get better.
He then handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Ratan who gave an insight into his own benefit from joining Toastmasters as he is now happy to step up to lead a meeting at work if necessary. He also explained the meeting’s theme which was: regrets. His own regret was stealing money for sweets from his grandmother’s purse when a child in India and letting his grandmother think it was the servants.
Ratan explained the basic format of the meeting and then introduced the Timekeeper Eugenia and Grammarian Ed. Ed’s word of the day was ‘cogent’ and he encouraged speakers to try to use it in their speeches.
Prepared Speeches
We were fortunate enough to have an Icebreaker from new member Damien. He spoke about how he was fascinated by Ancient Egypt as a child and was also very interested in how and why humans think as they do. He was also passionate about the natural world and this led him from banking into renewable energy as a career.
Chris gave his No 5 speech which focuses on body language and began by taking us back to 27th July for the Olympics opening ceremony which referenced the NHS. He discussed how other nationalities seem to think Brits are obsessed with the NHS. After providing a short history of the NHS he told us about his worries about a two-tier health service.
Renars’ Advanced Speech on Public Relations tackled ‘Traffic Problems’ aka grumpy bus drivers, train delays and packed tubes. Renars worried about annoying pedestrian behaviour, including: sudden stoppers, tourists and lovebirds. He pondered whether there should be slow, medium and fast lanes on the pavement?
Hari’s Educational Speech from the Leadership Series was about Goal Setting and Planning. While encouraging audience participation, he explained why setting goals was important in life and gave a number of analogies and tips on how to set and achieve our goals.
Evaluations
After the break, Michael evaluated Damien’s Icebreaker speech. He commended Damien’s body language, eye contact and homour. His main recommendation was to edit the content to ensure he had time for all his key comments within the time but thought Damien gave a polished first speech.
Wayne evaluated Chris’ speech and noted several examples of good body language and facial expressions which fitted into the theme of the speech. He noted Chris’ use of filler words and encouraged him to use pauses instead of these words.
Our third evaluator Swarajit gave his opinion of Renars’s speech. He praised his conversational manner and the choice of issue as being something we could all relate to. He also liked his use of examples although he suggested he could have used more facts and figures to support these. He also would have liked more of a ‘call to action’ contained within the the speech.
Finally, Jo evaluated Hari’s Educational Speech and commended his use of interactive questions and analogies to keep audience interest high. Her main recommendation was to ensure there was enough time to present the conclusion at the same pace as the body of the speech.
Following the evaluations, Topicsmaster Glen turned Ratan’s theme on its head and asked participants to talk about the ‘best’ of things. His questions included:
- What is the best purchase you’ve ever made? Joe was unable to decide between a tennis racquet and his Toasmasters’ membership!
- What is the best strategy for succeeding where others have failed? Alex decided it was to keep trying regardless of what happens.
- Who is the best person to have with you in a crisis? Rishi decided it was himself and we should all try to nurture our self belief.
- What is the best place in the world to get away from city life? Kerry recommended the St Lucia – anywhere in St Lucia.
- What is the best way to survive an alien invasion? Liam decided if you can’t beat ’em you should join ’em and his secret weapon was seduction!
- What is the best thing to say to a policeman who’s just caught you speeding? Paul related a ‘true’ story about when he outpaced a police car while running!
The Topics Evaluator Steven evaluated all participants and praised their attempts while suggesting pointers for those who had had the toughest questions.
Grammarian Ed fed back on the good language he had heard during the meeting and acknowledged all speakers who had woven the word of the day into their presentations.
Visiting General Evaluator Christine started by saying she thought (quite rightly!) Bloomsbury was the best club in London. She also gave a lively and insightful evaluation of the club as a whole and participants (such as evaluators) who’d not yet received an assessment.
Closing the meeting Femi gave out the awards;
- Damien’s Icebreaker speech was acknowledged with a certificate to mark this important first step
- the President’s discretionary award went to Rishi for his confident Table Topic
- Best Table Topics speaker went to Paul for his ‘response to the policeman’ topic
- Best Evaluator went to Wayne for his evaluation of Chris’ speech
- Best Speaker went to Hari for his goal setting speech
Next meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday 3rd December. PLEASE NOTE: for this meeting and also for our final 2012 meeting on 10th December we will temporarily change venue to The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant Clerkenwell Road, London, WC1X 0AE.
Our normal venue is The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road London, EC1R 5DU and we will return there in January 2013.
Meeting report by Jo.
