Introduction
It was all change at this week’s meeting as, due to illness, a last minute switch of roles was made. Immediate Past President Glen stepped in to act as President once more. He opened the meeting by welcoming everyone and outlined the Toastmaster’s programme to new guests. He then handed over to current President Femi who was the evening’s Toastmaster.
Femi quickly had the audience clapping at his demand and requested everyone to applaud participants warmly and keep the energy in the room high.
Timekeeper Adam explained the importance of keeping to time during the meeting and outlined the colour coded programme and how he would be timing participants.
Grammarian Glen explained his role as the person responsible for looking out for good and bad uses of language. His Word of the Day was possibly the shortest ever – ‘apt’ – and he encouraged everyone to try and slot it into their speeches.
Prepared Speeches
Guest speaker Kimberley was the first speaker up to give her No 2 speech “It’s not what you do, it’s what it does to you”. She spoke about her views of travelling and the life skills it can teach you. She explained this by showing how you could respond to interview questions by referencing events from your travels.
The second speaker was Eugenia. Her No 3 speech “I do not have a TV” reasoned that we should not be made to feel bad by people who say they don’t have a TV as they are not better than us. In fact you can still watch TV without actually owning one and people who watch no TV are isolating themselves from the real world.
The final prepared speech from Chris whose No 5 speech was entitled ‘Grey power… How the old will shape our future”. He reflected on the aging population and what it means for the world.
Before the break Swarajit led the guest introductions where non-members said a few words about themselves to the rest of the room.
Evaluations
After the break the meeting continued with the evaluations section, where each speaker received feedback from other members.
Carrie evaluated Kimberley’s No 2 speech. She commended her smile, open body language and clear opening statement. She noted the humour in the speech and the referencing of interview questions. She recommended a longer opening to signpost the upcoming structure and to keep returning to this structure to keep the listener informed as to where we were in the speech.
Janet was the evaluator for Eugenia’s No. 3 speech and commended Eugenia’s confidence, passion, use of the rule of 3 and the humour and through the use of the TV catchphrases. She recommended not drawing attention to the moment she lost her train of thought as otherwise the audience might not have realised.
The final evaluator was Michael who gave his assessment of Chris’s No 5 speech. He liked that Chris had tackled a serious topic, had facial expressions which matched the topic and used the full stage. He also commended the expressive language and closing statement.
Table Topics
Jo was the Topics Master for the evening and as we had only heard three prepared speeches there was time for 8 topics. The topics were all related to events which had occurred on January 28th in previous years. These included:
- the anniversary of the Space Shuttle Challenger explosion – do we need space travel and space exploration?
- the birth of Jessica Ennis – what sporting event would you like to train for?
- the anniversary of the first UK speeding conviction – convince us you don’t deserve that speeding ticket.
- the patenting of Lego – what are your memories of Lego?
- the anniversary of the publishing of Pride and Prejudice – what is your favourite book and why?
- the anniversary of the death of Henry VIII – what would you do if you were suddenly made England’s monarch?
- the birth of Elijah Wood – which film role would you love to play?
- the anniversary of the death of Jackson Pollack – convince us that your art is very valuable.
Taking on the challenge of evaluating all of the topics speakers, Joe offered his feedback for the speakers. He found it a very humourous set of responses but had a few recommendations. These included really getting into the role play when applicable, avoiding saying ‘I can’t think of anything else’ as a closing statement and, if you find a good idea, keep running with it.
Reporting as Grammarian and having heard a ‘tsunami of vocabulary’, Glen picked out some of his favourite phrases and also made a few recommendations where language could have been improved.
General evaluator Paul commended the club and highlighted what an enjoyable evening he had had and provided evaluations to all functionaries who had not already been evaluated.
Awards
Closing the meeting Acting President Glen thanked Femi for stepping in as Toastmaster before giving out the awards for the evening.
The President’s Award went to Carrie for her evaluation of Kimberley’s speech.
Based on audience votes, Glen gave out the remaining awards: best Table Topic went to Paul, best evaluator to Joe, and best speaker to Eugenia. Chris also received a ‘Half Competent Speaker’ ribbon to recognise he was now halfway through his 10 speeches. Well done all!
Next meeting
Members: Don’t forget our Evaluation Workshop on Monday 4th February entitled ‘Exceptional Evaluations’ and run by Freddie Daniels
Our next regular meeting is Monday 11th February, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.
Meeting report by Jo.
