Introduction
Club President Femi opened the meeting by giving a brief explanation of the history and purpose of Toastmasters. He proceeded to give some tips to both participants and non-participants, which was to use rhetorical devices to connect with an audience and help them remember your message.
He explained that when statements or ideas are grouped in 3’s it’s much easier to remember than a whole string of words. This was further reinforced with an example of a quote from Abraham Lincoln, “this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom—and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth”.
Femi then handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Joe who explained his role. Joe’s theme was Food, having previously asked participants to describe their food “heaven” and their food “hell”. He used the answers to introduce each participant and started with the functionaries who were helping him to run the meeting.
- Tasos – the Timekeeper – titled himself as the “annoying person” of the evening because he would be watching the allotted time for each speaker. He explained the use of the timing lights and the purpose of the gavel.
- Rajeev – the Grammarian – started by using the President’s tip of the day to inform the audience that “it’s time to speak, it’s time to listen and it’s time to learn”. He encouraged good use of language and explained that he was going to listen and give a report at the end. He introduced the word of the day as “delectable” meaning pleasing to taste.
Prepared Speeches
Rufina was the first to give her second speech entitled “My New Found Love”. She shared with us how her choice of a wrong movie turned from a boring, drudgerous experience to a life-changing one. It helped her discover her new found love, Abraham Lincoln, who has also become her hero. She began and ended with a quote from Lincoln, including this one: “People are just as happy as they choose to be”.
Ahmed on his 8th speech “The Vinyl LP” took us back to the 1950s & 1960s where the Vinyl LP was the thing of the day. Unlike the CD players and MP3 players we have now, it was not easy to skip music tracks on an LP and so you would fully enjoy the depth of each track. He encouraged us all to invest in a record player as he believes it offers a greater experience and still has a place in the music business today.
Hari’s with his advanced speech “Swish” informed each and every one of us that we were in for a treat. The treat was helping us get rid of a bad habit or behaviour within 7 minutes by using the Swish technique. This technique involved closing the eyes and imaging a bad habit for a few seconds. The eyes were opened and closed again but this time around imagining the opposite of the bad habit. Hari asked the whole audience to close their eyes and imagine a bad habit for second, then swap that with a positive image when he shouted “Swish”. This technique is carried out until the bad image or behaviour is replaced with a desired and positive one.
Renars’ advanced speech on persuasive speaking entitled “Facebook Me” took us back to a time where telephone numbers were exchanged at social gatherings. However, at present when we meet people we like, the trend is “don’t call me – Facebook me”. He told us that the three biggest social networking websites are Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn with 750 million, 250 million and 110 million visitors per month respectively. Despite concerns over privacy and time consumption he reassured us that social networking can be used in moderation, be good for businesses and networking with people of the same interest, be helpful in dating and also reminded us that the information given is not as critical as, say, our bank details. The audience was allowed to ask questions at the end of the speech.
Evaluations
After the break each speaker received an evaluation from a fellow member:
- Bronia was impressed with Rufina’s second speech because she hardly used her notes, had good eye contact and was able to connect with the audience. Her recommendation was better voice projection and trying to eliminate filler words such as “actually”. She said Rufina had used the power of three as advised by our president and met the speech objective.
- Eugina commended Ahmed on the use of his prop – a Vinyl LP. The speech had good structure which was clear, easy to follow and had some drama. Her recommendation was to use the available space with more movement on the stage. The last commendation was the way he had built anticipation by putting his own personal experience and passion into the speech.
- Kate loved Hari’s opening which was bold, passionate and enthusiastic. It got everyone engaged and left us believing we were all in for a treat. She commended this as the best speech of his she’d seen. Her recommendation for him was to focus on both sides of the room and also eliminate any inappropriate statements. She ended by saying his speech was of a professional standard.
- Adam commended Renars on his good control of the stage, clear vocal variety and good body language. The opening comments about Facebook grabbed the audience’s attention and the content included personal stories. His main recommendation was that his viewpoint on the subject was a little bit cloudy and not as clear as expected. Adam also felt he needed to be more upfront. Finally he felt the message was well illustrated with great numbers, examples and humour and he also handled the questions from the audience very well.
Table Topics
The Table Topics theme, centred on acting, was introduced by Topicsmaster Joowon. Participants were asked to imagine Bloomsbury as a college and the centre of the room as their stage to pitch why they wanted to enrol in the acting school and why certain courses should be offered by the college.
The questions and volunteers were:
- Why do you want to join the acting programme and who would he like to be in 10 years? Samuel cunningly threw the question back at the audience which brought up suggestions while helping make use of his time.
- Why should the programme “Who wants to be a millionaire” be launched and why do you support it? Helen convinced us that no matter how rich you are you could still do with some more money.
- Why should the programme, “Bollywood Acting Class” be launched? David said it’s great because it puts people on the spot and brings them out of their shell.
- Why should the programme, “New Standup Comedy Class” be launched? Alex mentioned this will help people practice comedy and improve their public speaking.
- Why should the programme, “Pole Dancing” be launched? Stella advised we could combine pole dancing, internet dating and sharing bunk beds with strangers in dark knickers!
Jo evaluated the Table Topics by commending participants on their stalling tactics, imagination, good use of language, humour but encouraged them to not look at the props too long for inspiration.
Reports
Grammarian Rajeev gave examples of good uses of language and commended all speakers on the using the word of the day, which was quiet popular.
General Evaluator Atul gave feedback on the club as a whole and for those participants who had not yet been evaluated by someone else. The commendations given to speakers were calmness; boldness; thorough, informative speeches; good eye contact and a great word of the day. Lastly, suggestions for improvement included: inviting guests to the front of the room, having more filler words reported by the Grammarian and perhaps having Table Topics at the beginning of the programme.
Awards
Femi made some club announcements and gave out the awards for the evening based on votes from the audience:
- Best Topic Speaker was shared by Stella and Helen
- Best Evaluator was shared by Kate and Jo
- Best Speaker went to Hari
Rufina received an Icebreaker ribbon to commemorate her speech – although it was her second, it was her first at Bloomsbury.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 3rd June 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
Meeting report written by Rufina.
