Written by Svetlana
Introduction
Bloomsbury Speakers hosted its regular meeting on Monday, 29th September with the president Jo marking the 90th Anniversary of Toastmasters International by rolling out a quiz with candies for the right answers! Whoever thought we were long past the age when we love candies was proven wrong!
After the Introduction, Jo handed the Toastmaster steering wheel to Ahmed whose theme of the day was the most annoying public transport experiences and how we cope with them. Ahmed refreshed our knowledge of purpose and meaning of evaluation and of a warm round of applause with some practise of the latter before we started. Functionaries Egor the Timekeeper, Michelle the Sergeant At Arms, and Emma the Grammarian (with the word of the day “wicked”) helped Ahmed in smooth running of the meeting.
Prepared speeches
There were four prepared speeches on the agenda. With the Icebreaker “Why I Am Here Tonight” Rory made a strong and entertaining opening stating that a good speech was like a woman’s dress – long enough to cover the subject and short enough in order to impress. It was a concise story of how the outgoing part of his personality brought him success and how public speaking and listening skills were critical in complementing that and enhancing his chances of success in the future. And it was for the latter reason that he joined the Toastmasters.
Sinead’s Speech No. 2 entitled “In Defence of Nerves” was a logical continuation of Rory’s speech and offered a new perspective of how being nervous helps us to cope with a challenge of public speaking. Our body and brain are set in positive motion by nerves on the physiological level and help us step into the next level of personal development.
Ash’s No. 4 Speech entitled “YES!” was a well-crafted story sharing her personal experience of overcoming the patterns of life, in which we are trapped. Ash’s speech contained a parable and a number of anecdotes, which contained important messages, were vivid, had memorable language, expressions, and humour, which helped her connect with the audience.
Lastly, Tracey’s No. 4 Speech entitled “The Mediterranean Diet” was a very well prepared overview of the advantages of eating healthy food (of which Mediterranean diet was an example) combined with exercise and drinking fresh water and green tea.
Warm guest introductions were held by Michelle and, after the break, valuable upbeat evaluations of the prepared speeches were provided by Swarajit, Michelle, Svetlana, and Glen.
Table Topics
The evening’s Table Topics session, conducted by Bronia, switched the meeting theme to Winston Churchill quotes.
The quote, “Remember boys, it’s not for France that we are fighting, it’s for champagne!” – was elaborated by Peter L who thought champagne wasn’t worth dying for unless someone hadn’t had it for a very long time.
The quote, “You have enemies? Good! It means you stood up for something in your life” – was addressed by Peter F who shared some good tips on how to tackle enemies.
The quote, “Tact is the ability to tell someone to go to hell in such a way that they look forward to the trip”. Jon thought some of Churchill’s quotes were useful, but others were a waste of time, something, which he could use better for doing is work better instead of making up quotes.
The quote, “Never give up on something you can’t go a day without thinking about” went to Gail, who tackled the quote by sharing her love of champagne.
To the idea of “Success is going from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm!” – Sebastian offered his own take on succession of failures, which was to stay away from areas where you have to go through that.
The quote, “If you are going through hell, keep going” made Leeo think it was similar to the quote on succession of failures, and she shared her experience of skating in Hyde Park and that the image of her skating in the streets freely listening to music helps her in learning skating.
Joe provided the evaluation of all the Table Topic speakers with a balance of commendations and recommendations.
Grammarian Emma’s report was followed by General Evaluation from Vadim from Russian-English Speakers.
Awards & Announcements
Jo invited everybody to the Division L Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest on 16th October 2014.
The Icebreaker award went to Rory; best prepared speech award went to Ash for her No. 4 speech. Best evaluator award went to Glen, and best impromptu speech award went to Peter L.
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 13th October upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
