Written by Rufina
Introductions
Swarajit, our president, opened the meeting with cheer and enthusiasm, reminding everyone that Toastmasters is a safe place to develop our speaking skills. We practice and get better by learning from our mistakes based on constructive feedback. An example of the support in Toastmasters became even more evident recently when one of our members, Janet, took part in the UK & Ireland International Speech contest. She was given advice, tips and support by experienced members from ours and other Toastmasters clubs and she truly aced it in the competition by placing third overall.
Swarajit then went on to introduce the toastmaster for the evening, Helen. After running through the agenda for the meeting, Helen introduced her theme “What is your favourite mode of transportation – real or fictional?” with each participant being introduced with their response. She then introduced her supporting functionaries, the Timekeeper and Grammarian.
Michelle, the timekeeper, explained the timings for the programme and demonstrated the use of the lights to signal these timings to the speakers. Nathaniel, the Grammarian, introduced the word of the day, “’ineffable” which means too great or extreme to be expressed or described in words.
Prepared Speeches
The first prepared speech, “Lessons Learnt from Mars the Prince of Tashkent” was a No. 3 speech by Svetlana. In reality it was lessons learnt from her once tiny, furry, shy cat found at a traffic light. As the cat became part of the family, he saw Svetlana as the strict one, her son the fight mate and her daughter the lover. Although he disappeared into thin air when he got older, they all learnt the art of ‘verbal communication without saying a word’.
The second speaker, Peter, on his speech No. 7 “Bee a pain” kept us all captivated with the lifestyle of bees, which are categorised into three types. The queen bee is the sole source of replacement bees; worker bees keep the queen fed and the hive taken care off and the drones are solely for mating with the queen. The bee population has declined by fifty per cent in the last twenty years due to parasites, destroyed habitats and deadly pesticides. Peter urged us all to stand up and help protect these wonderful creatures.
The third speaker, Carrie, on her No. 8 speech shared her experience of three properties she’d rented in London. The first property in Oval, which was 2 minutes away from Zone 2, had lovely housemates, however the area was noisy and housemates got messy. Having moved to a second property in Brixton which was clean and tidy yet turned out to be in a dodgy area forced her on to her third breath-taking property in Clapham. The extortionate rent for the Clapham property forced her to make the decision to find a place she could really call ‘Home’.
Bronia, the final speaker on her No.9 speech entitled “Join our Clan” shared her bewilderment on how uninspired kids are in society today. They feel unprepared for life, uncompromising and uninspired, which is likely to spill into adulthood. However, a group of theatre specialists have come together to change the status quo by using the theatre production to help steer these kids back on the right track. Bronia appealed to everyone to support this well tried and tested venture because, as the saying goes, “the greatest creations comes from the craziest ideas”.
Evaluations
Ahmed evaluated Svetlana’s speech on lessons learnt from her cat. He commended her on a credible speech, oozing with sincerity and interjection of humour. It was entertaining speech with vivid description, however areas to work on included having a clear structure and less use of notes.
Ash evaluated Peter’s No. 7 speech by firstly commending him on a relaxed poise and friendly body language. The speech was very informative, engaging and included lots of eye contact. Ash’s recommendation to Peter was to use cue cards where needed and to keep within the given time.
James in evaluating Carrie’s No.8 speech started by commending her on the good use of props to help the audience envision her message, and choosing a topic the audience could relate to. He mentioned Carrie could have used even more props to show the negative side of the properties as well and been mindful of the timing.
Egor evaluated Bronia’s No.9 speech, firstly by commending her natural, free and pleasant voice that resounded everywhere in the room. She’d used nice choice of colourful language, good facial expressions and showed great passion about her subject. Bronia could however improve on the structure of her speech and use a few more pauses.
Table Topics
Rufina the Table Topicsmaster introduced her theme for the evening in relation to the toastmaster’s theme of transport.
- Sinead was asked “why is a donkey a better mode of transport than a bus?” Sinead believed the donkey would be more reliable during rush hour, elegant and had better personalities than bus drivers.
- Guest David was asked “If you were given the choice to travel in a hot air balloon over any city, where would it be?” David said it would be Florianópolis in Brazil because it’s the most indescribable island.
- Faith-Rose was asked “You’ve been tasked to give London’s buses a new look by changing the colour to green, why would you?” Faith-Rose said that in the light of everyone going green it seems the right thing to do to help save the planet!
- Rebecca was asked “you are in competition with 10 other people to win a magic carpet, why should you win?” Rebecca answered that, given she does not like heights, she would change the prize by inviting Brad Pitt to dinner instead.
- Julia was asked “The tube is congested, cycling is unsafe and there’s too much traffic on the road, please offer an alternative solution”. Julia said it would be her majestic horse that can make you forget all your troubles.
- Marieandy was asked “why should we switch to electric cars?” She simply said it will reduce pollution, decrease illness and stop conflict over oil internationally.
Femi, the Table Topics Evaluator gave a super-charged, entertaining and thorough evaluation to every participating speaker. The commendations given as a whole were on speakers’ confident stance, relaxed style and injections of humour.
Stand-in general evaluator Peter L then evaluated the meeting as a whole, including those who were yet to be evaluated.
Awards
Closing the meeting, the president Swarajit handed out the awards based on the audience votes:
- Best Table Topic Speaker was awarded to Sinead
- Best Evaluator was awarded to Femi
- Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Carrie
- The President’s discretionary award went to Helen on her role as Toastmaster.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday, 19th March in the normal venue: upstairs at the Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.
