Introduction
The Christmas meeting took place at The Apple Tree pub which was beautifully decorated with a Christmas tree and tinsel.
Club President Femi opened the meeting by singing a Christmas song and encouraged members and guests to set goals for the next year, whether it would be performing the evaluator role, participating in the Table Topics section or completing the Competent Communicator or Competent Leadership manuals.
The Toastmaster for the evening was Carrie, who introduced her theme – Christmas holidays. During the meeting she introduced participants via their ideal Christmas holiday and there was a wide range of choices, from relaxation at a luxury hotel in Dubai to skiing in France. She was supported by Timekeeper Renars and Grammarian Damien.
Prepared speeches
New member Michael gave his Ice Breaker speech “In the Key of Life”. He said the title of the speech – referring to his favourite song by Stevie Wonder – was closely related to his life because music had had a powerful influence on him in two different ways. Early in his life it provided motivation – via a dream to be a rock star – and lately it had led him to spend a lot of time reading literature.
In her No. 2 speech “Excessmas”Angela reminded the audience that the true meaning of Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. She felt that today there was so much commercialisation of Christmas that people spent excessive amounts on, for instance, the latest iPad even when they knew it was beyond their budget.
Jo described the Christmas character, Santa Claus, in her No. 9 speech “The Real Santa”. Jo revealed her personal – and very humorous – take on Santa with a story of his carelessness in delivering Christmas gifts to children. She also gave evidence of his discriminatory employment practices and negligence of his animals, proving that Santa is not as good a person as people might think!
The last speaker Joe gave an inspirational No. 10 speech “Chimps, Humans and Computers”. He referred to quotes from Winston Churchill, Michael Jordan, and Thomas Edison and suggested three key points to achieve success. Firstly to clarify: why am I doing this? Secondly: how am I going to do it? Lastly, to put significant effort into it.
Speech evaluations
Evaluating Michael’s Ice Breaker speech Glen commended his good vocal volume and a “lyrical” tone. He liked the really good content: clear theme (music), solid three-point structure, good summary and recommended to work on the “ums” and use a bit more vocal variety.
Second evaluator Nazia praised Angela’s topical and well-researched speech with lots of stats and facts – from which she learnt a new concept – “cognitive dissonance“. Nazia recommended to Angela to use her smile more and perhaps not rely quite so much on her notes.
The third evaluator of the evening, Swarajit, gave an assessment of Jo’s persuasive speech. He acknowledged that Jo had achieved the speech objectives very well and commended her deliberate language, great humour and delivery. However Swarajit suggested that the speech could have been improved by telling jokes with a straight face to enhance the comic effect.
Evaluating Joe’s inspirational speech Hari praised his passion for the subject, which helped him meet the objectives of the speech, and a very relaxed, humorous and engaging delivery style. In Hari’s opinion the conclusion of the speech could have been more powerful if it did not go over time.
Table Topics
The Topics Master Ahmed encouraged volunteers practice their impromptu speaking and announced the Christmas theme for one or two minute, off-the-cuff speeches:
- How would you convince Santa Claus to change his mode of transport to a helicopter?
- What is your most annoying Christmas song or film?
- What is your most embarrassing Christmas experience?
- If you were The Prime Minister for the day how would you convince the government to make more public holidays around Christmas time?
- What was your best or worst Christmas present?
- Which Christmas character could do the Mayor of London’s job?
Awards
The Ice Breaker Certificate – an important landmark for any Toastmaster – went to Michael.
Best Table Topic award went to Glen for his “Put the three wise men in charge of London” topic.
Best Evaluator award went to Kate for her encouraging evaluation of the Table Topics speakers.
Best speaker went to Jo who revealed the real Santa.
The President’s discretional award went to Carrie for so successfully performing the Toastmaster’s role.
Next meeting
The first meeting of 2013 is on Monday, 14th January 2013, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.
Meeting report by Elena.
