Introductions
Our Vice President for Education Jo – standing in for President Swarajit – opened the meeting by introducing this special International Women’s Day meeting. She told us that International Women’s Day had been celebrated for over 100 years although (shockingly!) Toastmasters did not admit women until 1973.
Jo then introduced past President Nazia, who was the evening’s Toastmaster. Nazia gave a brief overview of the Toastmasters communication programme before running through the agenda for the meeting. She introduced her theme of “inspirational women”, having asked all participants who their favourite woman was, and revealed her own inspiration as Cleopatra. She then introduced the first of her supporting functionaries, the Timekeeper.
Ash (most inspiring woman: her Mum) explained the role of the Timekeeper and said although it was sometimes said that a woman’s prerogative was to be late, it wasn’t true in Toastmasters and she encouraged all the speakers to keep to time.
Nazia then introduced Rebecca (most inspirational woman: her sister), the Harkmaster for the evening. Rebecca opened with a quote from Winston Churchill: “It takes courage to speak, but it also takes courage to sit down and listen”. She explained her role which was to encourage the audience to listen by offering “chocolatey bribes” at the end of the meeting for those who could answer her questions about the speeches.
Prepared Speeches
The first speech “Why Is Yawning Contagious?” was a No. 2 speech by Sarah (most inspiring woman: Marilyn Monroe). We learned that all vertebrates yawn and a number of theories exist about why: a need for more oxygen, a way of waking up if you’re tired or a “brain cooling mechanism”. We also learned that dogs “catch” yawns but cats don’t, and that one of the most widely accepted theories about yawning is that it’s linked to empathy.
The second speaker was Bronia (most inspirational woman: Robin Wright in House of Cards) with a No. 8 speech entitled “In This Together”. She told us she was interested in the discrepancy between the increasingly prominent role of women in society and the large number of negative (and highly sexualised) stereotypes. To find an answer to this conundrum she decided to dig into the male psyche and concluded that men and women need to fight together – not against each other.
The third speaker was Rufina (most inspirational woman: Hilary Clinton) with a No. 9 speech “Hear My Plea”. She opened with a quote: “It is hard to be a woman. You have to think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl, and work like a horse”. Despite much progress for women, she told us there are still many injustices and one particularly tough issue is female genital mutilation. Rufina gave some shocking statistics about this barbaric practice – which also happens in this country – and urged us to sign a government petition to act against it beyond current measures.
Kate (most inspirational woman: Supergirl) was the final speaker, delivering a project from the advanced storytelling manual entitled “Bored Brenda”. She told her story about Brenda, a young girl who grew up on a housing estate in Swansea who accidentally released a genie from a discarded teapot. We heard about Brenda’s various wishes: to become a pop star, to be a crime-fighting superhero in New York, to become the first astronaut on Mars, to be captain of a pirate ship called The Black Parrot. Brenda was soon bored by each of her wishes but learned to find contentment at home.
Evaluations
Femi evaluated Sarah’s speech about contagious yawning. He commended the way she had opened with a question and liked the way that she’d made a potentially dry subject interesting and in places even hilarious. He said he would have liked Sarah to yawn at the start of her speech to test the theory of yawn contagiousness.
Samuel was tasked with evaluating Bronia’s No. 8 speech. He commended a strong opening, good eye contact and body language, and great use of humour. He felt she’d definitely met her speech objectives through her adept use of visual aids.
Joe (most inspiring woman: his first tennis teacher) evaluated Rufina’s persuasive speech about genital mutilation. He felt she spoke in a very mature and composed way but still managed to evoke much emotion in the room. He recommended using the audience’s emotion in support of the cause by bringing out a physical petition for people to sign.
Hari (most inspiring woman: his girlfriend!) evaluated Kate’s storytelling speech. He felt the opening of her story created a great hook to draw us into her world and that Kate’s actions really animated her story. He recommended a little more vocal characterisation for the main characters and maintaining the actions throughout.
Table Topics
Paula was the Table Topicsmaster (most inspirational woman: Dame Kelly Holmes) and introduced her topic of – inspiring women!
- Glen was asked to give Florence Nightingale an update on the NHS – he told her she would be impressed by the latest superbugs.
- Swarajit was invited to comment on the current state of fashion for Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham – he decided it was for them to give an account to him!
- Faith-Rose was invited by Michelle Obama to speak at the White House about a topic of importance – she chose a sense of identity.
- Svetlana was interviewed for Jackie Collins’ next spicy (Toastmasters-themed!) novel – she cleverly side-stepped the question to talk about a process for solving conflicts without wars.
- Rosa Parks risked her life for a cause. Manish was asked what he would stand for in his life – he said good education for all.
- Lady Godiva protested taxes by riding through Coventry naked. Elliot was asked how he would protest – he decided to lead a naked march into Soho with everyone in the room.
Henry (most inspiring women: his wife and three daughters) was the Table Topics Evaluator and opened with a personal plea for people to challenge casual sexism in everyday life. Having firmly established his feminist credentials, Henry went on to give a very thorough and entertaining assessment of the six topics speakers.
Closing and Awards
Atul (from Phoenix Speakers) was the General Evaluator and gave his assessment of all those participants who’d not previously been evaluated and also presented some great feedback for the club as a whole.
The acting president Jo handed out the awards based on the audience votes:
- Best Table Topic Speaker was awarded to Glen
- Best Evaluator was awarded to Henry
- Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Kate
The (acting) President’s discretionary award went to Rufina for her idea of a Women’s Day meeting.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is the club’s International Speech and Evaluation Contest on Monday, 17th March 2014 in the normal venue: upstairs at the Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.
The next regular meeting is Monday 24th March 2014 in the same venue.
