Introductions
Club president Swarajit opened the meeting by promoting the leadership opportunities available in Toastmasters, which are often overlooked by members in favour of improving their communication skills. He spoke about the invaluable experience of serving on the club’s committee and encouraged members to get involved in the running their club and even consider taking on a formal position on the new committee this summer.
Swarajit then handed over to Bronia, the Toastmaster for the evening, to kick the meeting off with a celebrity theme – “which actor or actress would play you in a film about your life?”
Bronia also introduced two of the functionaries who would be assisting her that evening:
- Grace, the timekeeper, explained the format of the meeting agenda and the use of coloured lights to signal timings to the speakers.
- Ash, the grammarian, introduced the word of the day, fortuitous – which means happening or produced by chance, by accident, lucky or fortunate – and encouraged everyone to incorporate it into their speeches.
Prepared speeches
With an Icebreaker speech entitled “Community Action”, Tracey introduced herself to the club (even though she’d been a member for several months already) before going on to talk about the voluntary work she’d undertaken and what she’d learnt from her experiences.
The second speaker was Svetlana, who used her speech on “The Commercialisation of Holidays” to share her frustration about how festivals such as Christmas and Easter have become too focused on spending money rather than showing our loved ones that we care for them.
Hari opened his advanced speech with a humorous tale set in his favourite café which had him make an assumption about an elderly couple, reminding him (and us) about the danger of simply assuming. He ended with a message reiterating that “to assume, makes an ASS out of U and ME.”
Kate rounded off the prepared speeches with an advanced storytelling speech entitled “The Adventures of Jeremy Fisher” in which she humorously reminisced about the ageing horse she and her family had grown up with.
Evaluations
Jo was up first with her evaluation of Tracey’s Icebreaker on her volunteering activities. She praised Tracey’s ‘silky, smooth’ voice, clear explanatory structure and gently persuasive manner. She would have liked a few personal anecdotes on Tracey’s experiences so the audience could really understand what her volunteering means to her and those she helps.
Marte was impressed with Svetlana’s stage presence and use of personal stories to make her message easier to relate to. She recommended using smaller prompt cards to organise her notes on and giving a clear outline of the speech’s purpose at the start.
Glen commended Hari’s qualities as an advanced speaker, including his great eye contact, wide vocal variety and charismatic delivery. He recommended a stronger internal speech structure and a clearer purpose but ended by praising Hari’s evocation of the characters in his story, which was an improvement from earlier speeches.
Henry found lots to praise in Kate’s humorous tale, particular the vivid descriptions which added depth and colour to the story. His main recommendation was to make use of pauses to add drama to the narrative.
Table Topics
The table topics (impromptu speeches) section was chaired by Janet who flipped the meeting’s theme on its head by asking each speaker to answer a particular question as if they were a given celebrity. Participants included Peter who defended Eddie Izzard’s choice of attire, and Janet’s daughter Ayla speaking as fairytale princess Cinderella.
Joe evaluated the topics session by commending all who took part for rising to the challenge with the general recommendation to pause more for contemplation and to make full use of the time on stage.
Awards
After Ash had reported back on the interesting use of language throughout the meeting, Swarajit brought the meeting to a timely close by handing out the awards:
- Tracey was given an Icebreaker ribbon to mark her first speech at the club
- The president’s award went to Grace as the evening’s proficient first-time Timekeeper
- Best evaluator went to Henry
- Best table topic went to Ayla
- Best speaker went to Kate
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 10th March upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
The club’s 2014 International Speech and Evaluation Contest will take place on Monday, 17th March. Enter or sign up for roles on ClubPlan now!
