Introduction
Still very fresh, our President Swarajit opened the meeting by giving a brief history and the purpose of toastmasters before introducing the toastmaster for the evening.
Joe Lake the toastmaster explained the three-part programme – 6 prepared speeches and evaluations with no impromptu speaking as it was a special evening to give members an opportunity to do their speeches. He introduced a theme for the evening: “Holidays, your favourite holiday and a place you wouldn’t like to go”. He also introduced two of the ‘functionaries’ the timekeeper and the harkmaster who would be helping him run the meeting:
- Marie – the Timekeeper – kept watch of the time and reported back to the audience how everyone used their allocated time.
Prepared speeches
Helen kick-started her 2nd speech entitled, ‘In your pocket’, with an intriguing question, “What do you have in your pocket?”. Almost everyone had a mobile phone in their pocket which reinforced findings from Ofcom that 92% of the population uses mobile for calls and data. The history of mobile phones was outlined and how it has changed us and made us more spontaneous.
Rufina on her 3rd speech entitled ‘Where should I relocate next?’ started by expressing her frustration with the unstable weather conditions, especially in Britain. Next, she described the extreme hot weather in her home country Ghana were everyone had a compulsory tan – whether or not they wanted one. We then heard a comparison of a number of countries before New Zealand was eventually revealed as her preferred choice because of its amazing landscape, relaxed lifestyle and favourable weather.
Rajeev in his number 4 speech entitled ‘Summer starts’ took us on a journey of failed attempts to get his summer started before he finally succeeded. On his first attempt to enjoy summer, he lost his personal assistant which turn out to be his mobile phone. The second time he tried cycling around, his trusted steed had a puncture 30minutes into it. However on the last attempt to enjoy summer finally came true when he had an unplanned BBQ at home with his friends.
Joowon set about her number 2 speech entitled ‘New Trend in Bonus culture’ and in setting off her speech asked the audience which of them had shopped in the retail shop John Lewis & Waitrose in the last 8 months. As a strategy, we heard how John Lewis set up a mutual scheme where every employee was made a shareholder thereby enjoying bonuses. In so doing employees were motivated to speak directly with customers to know what they wanted and brought those feedback to the boardrooms. The pros & cons of this bonus scheme were outlined in the rest of Joowon’s speech.
Sam gave his 5th speech entitled ‘Mua Mission’ an amazing little church in the middle of a bush in Malawi. He said if there was a secret wonder of the world it could be counted as one. It was oozing with wonderful and detailed carvings including that of 8 foot carved men with shields and spears that look very real. Some carvings looked like that of Picasso where he got his inspiration from. The church was headed by a Canadian priest who was initiated into Mua’s secret society.
Michael began his advanced management speech entitled ‘New Deal’ by promoting the progress and success of his company, Age UK as the largest retailers of gas and electricity. In continuing customer loyalty, he expounded on how a new change was been introduced where people can buy energy on a yearly contract basis. “This new scheme will,” he explained, “work just like buying insurance and they are confident that customers will remain and still attract more based on their bonus system.”
Evaluations
Elena commended Helen’s use of question in the opening of her speech because it immediately engaged the audience and she was very pleased with her strong conclusion. Other commendations given were great body language, voice projection and pauses, however she could give the speech from another point of view.
Henry who evaluated Rufina’s third speech commended her on a well structured and conversational speech. He described Rufina as a queen of hand gestures which worked well in addition to injecting good jokes. However the speech was heavily based on the weather and he was not entirely convinced she would moved solely because of the weather.
Femi enjoyed Rajeev’s speech enormously which was a feast of beautiful words that could be heard over and over again without getting bored. He also liked the great structure of the speech however spotted a grammatical error and advised Rajeev to avoid these as they can undermine a speaker’s credibility.
Ratan before evaluating Joowon’s speech briefly outlined the objectives of her speech. He started by commending her on a good opening which drew the audience in, picking a subject matter everyone could relate to and for delivering a very informative speech. His recommendation was for her not to apologise to the audience but go ahead with the message.
Glen thought Sam’s speech was fantastic as he took us on a Mua Mission journey. He commended his impressive stage presence and firm stance which he also cheekily likened to that of a bouncer. But he was fascinated about the story and the details of the art brought the story to life for Glen. Glen’s recommendation was to be more concrete about what knowledge he had.
Hari started Michael’s evaluation by outlining the speech objectives and praised him for the sincerity of his speech. Despite the sincerity, Hari felt he was not entirely clear about the changes being described. All the same, he commended Michael on bringing to life information that was new to the audience and how Michael had improved a lot in his speeches.
Reports
Harkmaster
Janet the Harkmaster tested the audience’s listening skills by asking questions based on speeches heard in the evening. Who ever got the correct answer was rewarded with a chocolate.
Dele Ogun a member of Early Birds toastmasters club was our General Evaluator for the evening. He gave expert feedback for all those that had not yet been evaluated and for the club as a whole.
Awards
Swarajit made some club announcements and gave out awards based on votes from the audience:
- Sam after delivering his 5th speech received a ‘half-competent communicator’ award.
- Best evaluator went to Glen.
- Best speaker went to Helen and Michael.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 22nd July 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
