Written by Svetlana
Introduction
Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 27th April 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who compared Toastmaster Competent Communicator Manual to Marathon. Beyond that Manual there are a variety of manuals, which enables you to continue the process of self-improvement as a public speaker.
Prepared Speeches
After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening, Henry, who introduced the theme of the day which features of human character do you like and why.
Henry introduced the functionaries of the day: Zita the Timekeeper and Janet (whose preferred feature of character is confidence), the Grammarian, introduced the word of the day “incandescent” and encouraged to use language as power.
There were four prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker was Olga Kruglova (whose most cherished character features are kindness and tact) who delivered a very thoughtful and informative No. 1 Icebreaker Speech, entitled “With a Little Help of My Friends” devoted to a personal story of her early life in London to this day. Throughout her journey of a young IT professional her friends were her greatest asset.
Conor delivered her No.2 speech entitled “Becoming a NOMAN” – was a personal story of how he research and was deeply moved by the plight of people with HPV and decided to raise awareness about this preventable disease. He also decided that the best way to do it would be fund raising; he currently devotes all of his free time to power training to participate in a canoeing competition for that cause.
Sheldon delivered her No.2 speech entitled “Nature’s Best?” in which he educated us on so many paradoxes about what is good and what is bad disguised by advertisers.
Helen delivered her Speech No. 10 entitled “Taste and Smell” in which she educated us on the importance of savouring flavours and tastes of any food or drinks, which we consume. It makes life more enjoyable and food habits more healthy as our brain receives and processes information brought to us by thousands of taste buds.
We had warmly hosted guest introductions from Swarajit and well-balanced and well-structured thorough evaluations from Michelle, Peter, Bronia, and Ahmed.
Table topics
The table topics session was conducted by Svetlana (who favoured sense of freedom, sense of responsibility, and compassion – qualities that characterise sound mind and kind heart), who offered the impromptu speakers a variety of questions linked to the theme of the day – whether we like certain things and why.
“Do you like spring and why?” went to Hari, who said he was a summer person and spring wasn’t his favourite season. However, he appreciated spring for the spirit or renewal it carried and changes he could see taking place in the nature and people.
“What colour do you like and why?” went to Paul, who said he preferred white for surroundings and blue for clothing because those seemed to be his most comforting and harmonious colours.
“Which political party you prefer and why?” went to Philip who said it Tory although he wasn’t too happy with of the parties out there.
“Do you like arguing and why?” went to Kola, who said he certainly liked arguing because it posed a chance for intelligent victory.
“Where do you prefer traveling – in Britain or abroad and why?” went to Hannah who said she travelled abroad a lot and she travelled to many places in Britain as well, but perhaps there was more to explore in Britain which she hasn’t seen yet.
“Do you like your weekends and why?” went to Amira who said her weekends were packed with training in boxing, body building, yoga and other power and health oriented practices.
“Do you prefer reading books or watching movies and why?” went to Egor, who said he certainly preferred reading because they had a big library at home where he grew up and that explained his love of books.
“Do you like Toastmasters clubs and why?” went to Abdo, who said he is researching and exploring various Toastmaster clubs to decide which one to join. He needs public speaking skills for his professional development and he thinks he tends to like TM.
Emma gave an impressively thorough and informative evaluation for each of the 8 topics speakers, which was a record number of speeches on our memory.
Grammarian Janet’s report was very encouraging, substantive, and entertaining.
Sandra provided an excellent and thorough general evaluation of the evening with recommendations to all functionaries of the evening and evaluators who were not evaluated.
Awards
Icebreaker ribbon has handed to Olga; best speaker award was handed to Helen; best evaluator award went to Peter L.; and best impromptu speech award went to Amira!
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 13th of April upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.
