Introduction
Club president Femi opened the meeting with a brief history of Toastmasters and Bloomsbury Speakers. He said that while the club had been through a number of changes since its inception – including many people and several different venues – one thing had stayed the same: the fun and friendly atmosphere.
He handed the meeting over to the evening’s Toastmaster Paula who explained her role as the person responsible for “running the show”. She set up her meeting theme of “sweeties” with a short poem about sweets and chocolates and then introduced two of the functionaries who would be helping her to run the meeting:
- Samuel – the Timekeeper – explained the use of the timing lights and the gavel that would be used for any speaker who went over time.
- Bronia – the Grammarian – said she would not be studying speakers’ grammar per se but watching out for effective uses of language – such as rhetorical devices – that the speakers used to draw the audience in. She also introduced the word of the day: “scrupulously”.
Prepared speeches
Monica was the first to give a prepared speech with her ice breaker “My Story”. She told us about the origin of her public speaking fear – a school speaking contest where giggling teachers made her self-conscious. Since then she’d developed a habit of keeping her presentations very short and had joined Toastmasters to help remedy this.
Barnaby opened his No.4 speech “The Grapes of Wrath: An Economic Companion” by holding up the classic book by John Steinbeck and asking who had read it. He told the story of the economic background to the extreme poverty of people living in the “Dustbowl of Oklahoma”, the initial setting for the book.
Adam started his No. 9 persuasive speech “LIFE” with the question “Are you tired of London?” before promising to “rekindle” our fire for the great city. He took us on a mental walking tour from Warren Street to Victoria and revealed the meaning behind his speech title: London Is Full of Energy!
Femi gave an Advanced Storytelling speech entitled “Never Again” where he told the story of an evening back in November where a lack of attention to detail proved to be a very expensive mistake. Misreading a parking restrictions sign he emerged from a book club meeting to find his car had disappeared. Several hours and £265 later he retrieved it from Hackney’s car pound.
Evaluations
After the break each speaker received an evaluation from a fellow member:
- Ahmed liked the imagery in Monica’s speech and the way she took the audience on a journey. He recommended that she try to project her voice more.
- Ben liked Barnaby’s “cool, calm and collected” style, vivid language and use of analogy. He recommended that he simplify some of the language and to keep an eye on time to avoid an abrupt finish.
- Joowon was intrigued by the title of Adam’s speech and felt his opening questions were very engaging. She recommended that he reduced the pace and spent more time on a summary at the end.
- Michael was hooked from Femi’s opening remark: “I love driving!” said he immediately sympathised with Femi’s predicament of losing his car. He recommended making even better use of the stage and acting out some of the scenarios he’d described.
Table Topics
Table Topicsmaster Carrie introduced a theme inspired by personal experience – looking for new flatmates for a house share.
She asked volunteers to tackle a number of interesting topics, including:
- Why would you make a good housemate? (to Tasos)
- Persuade us that a group of men would be the best housemates (to David)
- What assumptions do people make about you when they first meet you? (to Liz)
- How could you furnish a flat for free? (to guest Robin)
- What’s the worst place you’ve ever lived? (to Jo)
- What white lie would you tell to be chosen as a housemate? (to guest Tracy)
Regular member Renars had the challenging task of evaluating all the topics speakers. He was impressed by the high standard and encouraged all speakers to make full use of the available time.
Reports
Grammarian Bronia gave examples of good uses of language for all of the speakers and commented on uses of the word of the day.
General evaluator Linda gave feedback on the club as a whole and those participants who had not been evaluated elsewhere. She also had a great tip for the Toastmaster – when introducing speakers make sure their name is right at the end of the introduction and lead the applause from there.
Awards
Femi made some club announcements and gave out awards based on votes from the audience:
- Best topic speaker went to guest Robin
- Best evaluator was shared by Mike and Renars
- Best speaker went to Femi himself!
Femi also handed out the “Toastmasters Online Presence” award which had been presented to Bloomsbury Speakers at the Division contest and our VP Public Relations Glen accepted it on behalf of the PR team.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 20th May 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
