Written by Svetlana
Introductions
Our President Jo opened the meeting with a traditional informative introduction about the Toastmasters movement and introduced the Toastmaster of the evening Kate, who is an advanced member of the club.
Kate’s theme of the day about favourite games of our childhood set a very humorous tone to the evening as we laughed imagining for a second how our fellow toastmasters were growing into who they are now. Some of us could hardly remember those games or, on the contrary, remembered and had our own memories of them. This added one important and light-hearted connection to each of the functionaries of the evening. Michelle, the Timekeeper, introduced her role by reminding the audience of the timing rules. Swarajit, the Grammarian, announced the word of the day “frivolous” and explained his role as a Grammarian.
Prepared speeches
Robert named his No.1 Icebreaker speech “Stages of Life” and delivered it with lots of humour, beautiful language and lots of personal stories.
Tracey gave her Speech No. 4 “A Diamond is Forever” about diamonds, which are so precious and lasting that they are used as tokens of love and devotion although history of diamonds has been marred by wars and crimes. Quite recently manufacturers entered an agreement with the UN to certify diamonds before selling them.
Rebecca delivered her speech No. 4 “Popping Up”, which was devoted to her first experience of surfing in Devon in winter and an important advisory announcement to those of us who would like to repeat her endeavour.
Peter F delivered his Speech No. 9 “Is There a Solution to Violence?” It seemed like Peter was still seeking answers to the main topic of his speech, therefore, bringing it to individual level helped him make the speech relevant to every person. He called upon us to start working on the ways to cope with anger.
Guest introductions
Svetlana, Sergeant At Arms of the evening, greeted guests with a very warm welcome and moderated their introductions. David Marks, the Area Governor, visiting Bloomsbury Speakers, greeted the audience and said it felt good to be introduced among the fresh blood, which keeps the Toastmasters community vibrant.
Evaluations
Carrie evaluated Robert’s Icebreaker speech commending his authenticity, natural commanding presence, charisma, dry sense of humour. Her recommendations were mainly to make pauses to indicate to the audience where he expects them to laugh, and also to improve the structure. A big commendation was that Robert did not use notes.
Svetlana evaluated Tracey’s No.3 Speech “A Diamond is Forever” and commended her for strong opening, which was the title of the speech, for good structure, content, cool manner, and calm voice. Speech made an impression due to the main contrast between lasting love, romance, and devotion, of which diamonds have become a token, and trail of wars and atrocities, which for decades accompanied manufacturing and selling of diamonds.
Helen evaluated Rebecca’s No. 4 Speech “Popping Up” commending her for delivering very vivid speech, usage of triad, anaphora, epistrophe, choice of words, phrases, impeccable grammar, and modulating her voice. Her advice for Rebecca was to avoid 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.
Ahmed, evaluated Peter’s No. 9 speech “Is There a Solution to Violence?” commending the topic, the structure, and the content, history, Peter’s ability to connect with the audience bringing the wide topic to an individual level of how to cope with anger in order to stop and to prevent violence in the world. Ahmed recommended Peter to call for action, to project more power, to provide more emphasis.
Table Topics
Emily moderated the Table topics session offering impromptu speakers questions around summer holidays.
British people are notorious for behaving badly abroad. How would you change that? James reflected on the question and suggested that we work hard and there is no need to amend, to ameliorate, or adapt that behaviour in any way. He would recommend that we feel free to let ourselves completely go, relax, go crazy, make new friends, and come back refreshed and energised to devote ourselves to our career, families, and social life.
Living in such fantastic place we don’t need to go abroad for summer holidays. Do you agree with that? Tracey agreed, and she gave examples of amazing time she spent in Lake District, Devon, beaches in Southend and Brighton, and provided a thorough description of the attractions in those places.
How would you sell London as a touristy place to people who never came to London? Helen said London was a place to get really close to your fellowmen in transport, you don’t need to worry about sunblock; you can walk through the streets and enjoy wonderful London atmosphere; you can experience the entire world’s climates in one day; you experience all different accents and languages and cultures, and flavours.
What would be the worst destination with the exclusion of war zones? Our guest Nadir changed the question to “the best destination” and talked about his home country Uzbekistan, about people’s hospitality, sunshine, if you have money to pay for the flight.
If a benefactor offers you £20,000,000 upon condition that you never go on holiday would you accept it? Peter argued that in the face of such offer he would re-evaluate the purpose and the need for holiday and realise that life is actually much more comfortable, serene, and enjoyable without holidays, and yes, he would accept the offer and find a multitude of ways to chill without going anywhere for holidays.
Who would be the worst celebrity to spend your holiday with? Our guest Karl changed the question and said, his best celebrity choice would be Robert de Niro. And also, because he was in love with the whole world it would be difficult for him to find a person who would be worst choice to spend the holiday with.
Table Topics Evaluation
Femi’s evaluation of Table Topics not only contained commendations and advice but was also quite entertaining due to his enthusiastic, colourful and humourous manner of speech.
Conclusion
Grammarian Swarajit delivered a report on how the word “frivolous was used as well as figures of speech. As way of advice he noted speeches, which had too many fillers.
Cat K from Excalibur Speakers provided a thorough and inspiring general evaluation, which was received with lots of attention as it contained advice on the improvement of quite a few areas by functionaries and evaluators.
Awards
The best prepared speech award went to Peter for his No. 9 speech. Best evaluator award went to Femi, who evaluated Table Topic speeches and best impromptu speech award went to Helen.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 18th August upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
