Introductions
Club President Femi opened the meeting by explaining the background of Toastmasters. His tip for the evening’s participants was to smile as it helps a speaker to connect to the audience. To encourage us he claimed that research had shown that smiling can give more pleasure than sex!
Femi then handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Hari, who explained the format of the evening. Noting the death earlier that day of Baroness Thatcher he said her quote ‘Hard work will get you to the top’ also held true of Toastmasters. His theme for the meeting was a question – What would 2013 be the year of? – and he used this to introduce each participant.
Marcin, the Timekeeper for the evening, stressed the importance of speakers not going over their allotted time and explained how the lights would provide signals for all the speakers.
Chris was the evening’s Grammarian and he stated that he would be looking out for examples of interesting language throughout the meeting. Chris also referenced Margaret Thatcher in his word of the day which was ‘unflinching’.
Prepared Speeches
In his icebreaker speech ‘Nostos’ Tasos explained that the speech title was a Greek word which meant ‘returning home after a long period away’. He noted that he would like one day to return to his home country of Greece and related several tales of his early life growing up there. His anecdotes included reference to his love of sports and his inability to sing.
In an informative No. 2 speech entitled “Top of the Class” Rajeev described his first (3rd class) train journey in Sri Lanka before giving us a history of the British class system and outlining the new 7 class system and what class means today. He ended by saying that it doesn’t matter which class you are in as you travel through life as the most important thing is to enjoy the journey!
Next up was Mike who explained in his No. 2 speech ‘The Sound of Silence’ how much time he is spending in libraries as he is studying for a PHD and how many different distractions other library users create. He gave advice on dealing with everything from mobile phones to nail polish smells and comcluded that classical music at a low volume will drown out other noises but not distract your attention from your work (although he didn’t have a solution for the nail polish aroma!)
The final speaker was Eugenia who gave us a No. 4 speech entitled ‘I run out of inspiration’. The subject of this very helpful speech was the difficulty of finding ideas for speech topics. Her suggestions were i) take a step back and look at what is around you, ii) change that object and take it to the extreme eg if you are looking at a lighter your topic could be a very large light such as the sun or a very small object such as light bugs. Thinking about the extremes of big and small, slow and fast, heavy and light allows you to collect potential topics for speeches.
Evaluations
After the break each of the speakers was given a spoken evaluation by a fellow club member.
Kate evaluated Tasos’ icebreaker speech and commended his relaxed calm manner and confidence to move around the stage. She recommended that he try to speak a little longer next time and also work on spreading his eye contact evenly around the room.
Barnaby evaluated Rajeev’s speech and praised the opening and conclusion which were both linked to a train journey. He also like the clear structure and the interaction with the audience. He recommended trying to make the transitions between sections smoother.
Bronia reviewed Mike’s speech about library distractions. She commended his simple but effective language and the images he painted by referring to each of the five senses. She noted a few umms and aahs at the beginning and also noted that his smile only appeared towards the end of the speech so recommended smiling throughout.
Elena evaluated Eugenia’s No. 4 speech. She enjoyed the vocal variety Eugenia displayed with changes in volume and pace and also commended the structure and language. Elena thought that more movement around the stage would have added more impact and made the speech more entertaining.
Table Topics
The Table Topicsmaster, Ahmed, had a mixed theme and asked six questions around moving home, travel and holidays with both members and guests giving impromptu answers.
Awards
Closing the meeting Femi handed out the awards based on votes from the audience:
- Best Table Topic was won by Ben
- Best Evaluator award went to Bronia
- Best Speaker was won by Rajeev
Tasos received an ice breaker ribbon to commemorate his first speech and the President’s discretionary award went to the evening’s Timekeeper Marcin. Toastmaster Hari was also presented with the Advanced Leader Bronze Award which he has recently achieved.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday 15th April upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
