Introduction
With another new member giving their Ice Breaker speech and a general theme of “Historical Characters” it was an energetic and “cracking bonfire night” at The Clerk & Well pub in London for our latest Toastmasters meeting.
The start of the meeting was full of synergy (the Grammarian’s word of the day) between the Toastmaster of the evening – and founding club President – Nazia, Grammarian Renars and Timekeeper Alex.
Prepared speeches
This part of the meeting was opened by Gemma’s Ice Breaker speech entitled “A History of Me” in which she described her job as a teacher and explained her purpose for joining the club – to gain more confidence speaking in front of groups. She also cleverly borrowed the structure of a typical lesson for her speech.
In her No. 3 speech entitled “What Makes a Strong Community?” our second speaker Bronia talked about the structure of communities and suggested we try to change the hierarchy from a pyramid to a circle in order to give benefits of strength and greater cooperation.
The next speaker, Janet, presented her No. 6 speech entitled “Look Closer” concerning the tragic story of a young girl who killed herself as a result of cyber-bullying. Janet helped us to imagine what that girl might have achieved in future had her life not been cut short through persecution from others.
Glen, who stepped in at the last minute, gave an advanced speech (focused on entertaining people by making them laugh) entitled “The Groom Speech”. He presented a condensed version of the groom speech from his own recent wedding and told us a personal story full of anecdotes and humour.
Speech evaluations
The first evaluator, Carrie, gave an assessment of Gemma’s Ice Breaker speech. She liked Gemma’s confidence, the use of metaphors, the very engaging and personal speech as well as the fact that Gemma did not rely too much on her notes. Carrie recommended for Gemma to make use of the whole stage in the future.
Evaluating Bronia’s speech, Elena commended the use of a captivating question at the beginning, and an easy to follow body of the speech – also her confidence and supportive body language. However she suggested that the conclusion could have been improved by a clear call-to-action.
Michael evaluated Janet’s speech and reminded us of the main objective of the speech – vocal variety. He liked the emotional contrast between the first part of the speech and the second, Janet’s use of pauses and her repetition of the definition of “bully” at the end. In Michael’s opinion the speech could have benefitted from more hope that things would change in the future.
Kate evaluated Glen’s speech and praised great delivery, his animated body language and his ability to tell jokes while keeping a straight face that had added to the comic effect. She recommended that Glen move closer to the audience when on the stage.
Table Topics
The Table Topics section of the meeting was hosted by Christopher who introduced the theme of the American Election and asked volunteers from the audience tricky political questions, including:
- If you were an American president for one day what would you do?
- Barack Obama or Mitt Romney? Who is better and why?
- It is important to vote because…
- What do you like most about the USA?
- What do you like least about the USA?
- Death penalty: yes or no?
Awards
Closing the meeting the club President Femi first made an exciting announcement about club member David’s impressive progress in the Humorous Speech contest – winning Division L contest and going on to compete in the final in Ireland. Well done David!
Then Femi gave out the awards based on the audience votes cast during the evening…
The certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster – went to Gemma.
The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to guest Sam for his response to the topic “What do you like most about the USA?”.
The Best Evaluator award went to Elena for her evaluation of Bronia’s No. 3 speech about communities.
The Best Speaker award went to Janet for her powerful and thought-provoking speech about cyber-bullying.
The President’s discretional award went to Alex for her successful performance as Timekeeper – her first time in that role.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday, 12th November 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.
