Written by Svetlana
Introductions
Our new President Jo opened the meeting, telling the audience how it felt being President – just like a queen who took good care of her subjects! And she introduced the Toastmaster of the evening Rufina, who had recently completed her No. 10 speech project to become a Competent Communicator.
Rufina gave a well-rounded introduction and announced the theme of the day – which animal did the meeting’s speakers identify themselves with? Rufina said she was an eagle, the very image of courage and leadership. Faith-Rose, the Timekeeper, was an elegant and loveable cat. She reminded the audience of the timing rules before later returning to report back on how well they were kept to. Bronia, the Grammarian and also a strong elephant who remembered the good and the bad, announced the literary device of the day, which was alliteration. She gave examples of alliteration and encouraged us to use smart and appropriate alliteration to make our speeches more powerful.
Prepared speeches
Michelle, an intelligent dolphin, devoted her No.2 speech “The Art of Learning” to three different learning styles – visual, auditory, and kinaesthetic – and used colourful visual aids for illustration.
Peter F, a strong and elegant Bengal tiger, gave his Speech No. 8 “Save Dough, Make Bread” by paying tribute to bread with an overview of its history. He gave his speech using basic ingredients as visual aids and revealing a freshly baked loaf of bread, which he’d made himself. The audience cheered for the bread, the recipe, and Peter!
Janet, a highly intelligent dog giving her speech No. 10 entitled “10”, was extremely compelling and addressed the audience by giving 10 reasons for public speakers to use their skills to be a voice for the oppressed and for disadvantaged groups across the world.
Glen, in line with his speech, was a Mexican hairless cat, was asked to step in and had only 30 minutes to prepare his semi-impromptu advanced speech “The Psychological Effects of Going Bald”. He gave a very humorous speech filled with wisdom on how a man goes through a stage of shock, followed by awareness, alertness, and acceptance of the inevitable.
Before the break, Sergeant at Arms Michelle returned to lead a session where guests introduced themselves and shared their reasons for attending the club meeting.
Evaluations
Ash evaluated Michelle’s Icebreaker speech in her very methodical and thorough way. She commended Michelle on her control of nerves, good speech structure and sign-posting.
Henry, who wanted to be a carefree, joyful dolphin, but admitted he was currently still miserable and tense, gave a humorous, meaningful, and entertaining evaluation of Peter’s speech.
Swarajit, a beaver, evaluated Janet’s No. 10 speech by highlighting best practice, describing the speech as innovative and relevant, a model of structuring to implant ideas in the memory of the audience and commending Janet’s use of effective eye contact.
James, a cautious and calculating lion, evaluated Glen’s performance, commending him on preparing a semi-impromptu speech in half an hour, based on a personal story to which every man can relate.
Table Topics
Wise panther, Emma, very ably facilitated the impromptu speech session choosing summer holidays as the main topic and offered some questions!
How important is it to learn a foreign language before you visit a foreign country? Visiting Toastmaster Alex shared with us that, despite his best efforts to learn French and practice it, French people somewhat disappointed him by asking him to speak English, as their English, they said, was better than his French! And his multi-cultural IT work environment provided a rich experience of foreign languages when his colleagues felt emotional while playing computer games!
While dining out in an exotic country, you are offered monkey brains, what will you do? Peter L said it actually happened to him some years ago when his Malaysian girlfriend invited him to her home country to taste monkey brains. He managed to skip the offer by saying he couldn’t stand the hot climate.
How would you cope with four unruly children for a week? Rebecca said she actually was a favourite aunty of four wonderful nephews, who live in Shropshire and visit her in London from time to time but for no more than 2 days in one go! She regularly takes them to the “Rainforest Café”, where you spend the money, they entertain the children, and you take the credit. She shared that as best practice for entertaining four unruly children.
You arrive to the airport and discover that your flight is cancelled what would you do? Svetlana would use that as an opportunity to practice gratitude, a sense of humour, and freewill and choose the first destination on the schedule and fly out to experience some adventure.
Which relaxing adventure would you pick? If some people see adventure as a relaxing activity, for guest Robert it would be “hiking” between pubs, reading, and theatre.
Conclusion
Grammarian Bronia delivered a very interesting report on how alliteration was used throughout the evening, after which Jenny from MLP London Bridge Speakers provided a very thorough and energetic General Evaluation of the meeting with important recommendations on how every functionary could improve their performance.
Awards
The best prepared speech award went to Janet for her No. 10 speech, which also marked her progression to Competent Communicator. Best evaluator award went to Henry, and best impromptu speech award to Rebecca.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 28th July upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
