Introductions
Femi opened the meeting by introducing himself as “the proud president of this great club”. He then quizzed members on the history of Toastmasters and reminded everyone of the club contest on 25 March, which would be held in the Real Man Pizza restaurant across the road from the normal venue.
Using Mothers Day by way of introduction, Femi handed the meeting over to the joint “Toastmistresses” of the evening, regular member Janet and her daughter Ayla.
In a first for Bloomsbury Speakers, Janet and Ayla performed the Toastmaster role as a team and started things off by introducing their theme for the evening – childhood fairytales.
Timekeeper Joe (favourite fairytale Rapunzel) gave an overview of his role and stressed the importance of keeping time.
Michael our Grammarian (favourite tale Finn Mac Cool and the Salmon of Knowledge!) explained that he would be keeping an eye on good language use throughout the meeting and introduced his word for the day – “conversant”.
Prepared speeches
In his icebreaker speech “The Glastonbury Festival” Ben (favourite fairytale The Magic Faraway Tree) told us about growing up near the site of the festival and how it has formed the backbone of his life ever since. His speech took us from his early love of music (and stalking his favourite musicians by post!) to returning to the festival in an official capacity with his job in music promotion. Despite a miserable experience in 2011 – when his wellies were stolen and his tent ran with muddy water – he said he would be returning to the festival this year, but this time staying in a caravan.
Our second speaker Ahmed (favourite tale the Jungle book) opened his No. 7 speech “The London Underground” with the question “great institution or the bane of our lives?” It quickly became clear on which side of the question Ahmed’s feeling lay as he gave a very informative and passionate speech describing the underground as, amongst other things, a “great feat of engineering”. He also described how the original London Underground map was replaced with the version we now know which he felt was a “radical breakthrough in communication graphics”. In his summary Ahmed described the London Underground as “the beating heart of the city”.
In his No. 8 speech entitled “Fuel Poverty” Mike promised to “put cash back into our pockets” and went on to describe the energy bill revolution, an initiative to spend fuel tax on insulating homes instead of it disappearing into the Government’s coffers. We learnt that the definition of fuel poverty is spending 10% or more of household income on fuel and the fact that over 6 million households in the UK fall under this category. Finishing up, he urged us to “complete the circle” by supporting this initiative and lobbying the Government.
In another No. 8 speech, this time entitled “Public Transport in Samara” club treasurer Elena gave an entertaining speech about the transport system in her hometown in “Mother Russia” and her concerns should it host any of the games in the 2018 World Cup tournament. With visual aids including a transport map and a pie chart she told us about the buses, trams, trolleybuses, underground trains and commercial buses that carried people around the town. She also acted out a very humorous role-play of a ticket collector trying to check fares and sell tickets in the middle of the Russian winter.
Evaluators
Hari evaluated Ben’s icebreaker speech and commended the fact that he had opened with a question and also that he had shown “a great deal of composure”. He felt Ben had definitely met the speech objectives and recommended projecting his voice, looking up at the audience more and not trying to include quite so much information next time round.
Nazia evaluated Ahmed’s speech about the London Underground. She felt it was well-rehearsed and met the objectives. She liked the fact that Ahmed “told us what he was going to tell us” at the start of the speech and commended his three point structure. She recommended that he cut down the “huge amount of information” in future because it was a little “overwhelming”.
Swarajit gave a very encouraging evaluation of Mike’s No. 8 speech. He liked Mike’s conversational style and his use of props such as a £20 note. He also liked the fact that Mike ended his speech with a call to action but recommended that he rethink some of his visual aids to make it easier for people to read them.
Eugenia began her very amusing evaluation of Elena’s speech by saying that Samara would be “stuffed” if it hosted the World Cup – as she had personal knowledge of the place and its transport. She commended the statistics, action, visual aids, audience interaction in the speech and the way that Elena had dominated the stage. She felt that “all aspects of Toastmasters” were on display in the speech but recommended working on a stronger ending.
Table topics
As table topics master, Paula continued the theme of fairytales during this part of the meeting, which she described as “an opportunity to think and speak on your feet”.
Her topics for those who volunteered to speak without preparation included the following:
- Little Jack Horner has been fired for eating his curds and whey in the corner. It is your job to defend him at his tribunal.
- You are Cinderella and have just discovered that Prince Charming is already married. What do you do?
- Jack and Jill are suing Richmond Borough Council for injuries sustained whilst falling down a hill. You are a witness in the court case.
- The Three Bears have moved out and Goldilocks is now forced to pay bedroom tax. What should she do?
- As Rapunzel what do you feel about the portrayal of beauty in the media?
Reports
Michael gave his report as Grammarian and commended those speakers who’d incorporated his word of the day in their speeches. He also praised participants generally for their “vivid, striking language”.
General Evaluator Steve Maguire from Angel Speakers gave a very positive evaluation of the club and gave feedback to those participants who’d not been evaluated elsewhere.
Closing the meeting Femi handed out the awards based on votes cast by the audience:
- Hari and Eugenia shared the prize for best evaluator for their evaluations of Ben and Elena respectively
- Glen won the award for best table topic for his eyewitness account of Jack and Jill’s tumble down the hill
- Elena won the award for best speaker for her description of the transport system in her hometown of Samara
Wrapping up, he urged members to join in the Meet The Members initiative by sending in some information to share with other members.
Next meeting
Our next meeting is Monday 18th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.
