Meeting Report for 10 February 2014
Introductions
This meeting was held in our backup venue, The Apple Tree, due to building works at the Clerk & Well.
Swarajit the club president opened the meeting by describing Toastmasters as “a place where you can make mistakes with your public speaking and it doesn’t matter”.
He went on to talk about four stages of a model of competence: unconscious incompetence (you don’t know about or don’t value a skill), conscious incompetence (you know you lack a desired skill), conscious competence (you are skilled with deliberate effort), and unconscious competence (you are effortlessly skilled), and related it to the Toastmasters Competent Communicator program.
The Toastmaster for the evening, Ahmed, started by introducing his theme for the meeting, having asked all participants “What is your dream job?”. He spoke about the Toastmasters practice of providing written feedback for all speakers and the importance of applause to help warm up the speakers with lots of support and encouragement.
Rebecca (dream job: superhero!) described her role as Timekeeper, ably standing in at the last minute to replace the scheduled person in that role.
Hari (dream job: internet sensation and travelling speaker) explained the role of Harkmaster (an occasional replacement for the Grammarian role) and described how he loves the role because it encourages the audience to listen – with the incentive of chocolatey rewards!
Prepared speeches
The first speech was an ice breaker entitled “Ambitions” from new member Michelle. She told us about her current role in HR and her objectives for Toastmasters – to gain confidence giving work presentations. She told us how she enjoys travel and has visited Egypt, India, Thailand, and having worked in Sydney still has long term ambitions to work abroad. Of all the places she’d visited Michelle would choose to live in Boston because her relatives always make her feel welcome!
Our second speaker Ash (dream job: Olympic sprinter) gave a No. 2 speech entitled “My Miracle Mineral”. She opened with the statement that 80% of the people in the room will be deficient in magnesium! We learned that although we can get magnesium in food – such as nuts and leafy vegetables – our body cannot store it, so it needs constant replenishment. Also our modern lifestyles can easily deplete it. Ash described numerous personal benefits – or miracles – of taking the mineral: reduced migraines, a cure for insomnia and enhanced muscle recovery.
Our third prepared speech was from Marte, another No. 2 speech, this time entitled “Get on that bike!”. She opened her speech with a question: “How many of you cycle in London?” and then revealed that around half a million people cycle every day in London. She then described the numerous benefits of cycling: it’s healthy exercise, it’s good for the environment, and it’s also cheaper and faster than the alternatives. But it comes with its hazards: breathing exhaust fumes in busy traffic, the danger of large vehicles and the attitude of some motorists to cyclists. But there were solutions to all of these problems.
The final prepared speech was an advanced “speech to inform” by experienced member Jo entitled “A Fool for Love”. With Valentine’s Day coming up Jo decided to share three lessons learned from a past romance. Ignoring her best instincts because the object of her affections was “hot” taught Jo her Tip #1: Be true to yourself about what you want from love. Her beau’s admission “I’m just not very good at being happy” led her to Tip #2: Listen to who they say are. And an encounter with a disapproving mother led her to Tip #3: Find out about their friends and family!
Evaluations
Henry (dream job: travelling the world interviewing famous people) evaluated Michelle’s ice breaker. He commended the tight structure and the fact that the speech “did what it said on the tin”. Successful speaking is about “connection not perfection” he said he felt Michelle had really connected with the audience. His recommendation was simply not to worry if small things went wrong.
Bronia (dream job: CEO of her own company) evaluated Ash’s No. 2 speech about magnesium. Bronia felt Ash was “instantly likeable” because of her smile which was “the battle half won”. She felt her pace made her speech very easy to follow and this had helped Ash to bond with the audience. She also commended the structure of the speech and the very clear central message.
Peter (dream job: own a smallholding and be closer to nature) evaluated Marte’s speech about cycling. “If you smile, you can’t go wrong” said Peter, and he felt that Marte had certainly done that. He commended her on her humour and the clarity of her main points although it sounded like he was more persuaded by the hazards of cycling than the benefits!
Janet evaluated the final speech, Jo’s speech about love. She opened by asking: “What makes a fantastic public speaker?” and clearly felt that Jo deserved that description. Janet said Jo had made her speech really funny – but also true. And she’d made it personal – even though it can be difficult to open yourself up – but that helps people engage. Areas for improvement: a little more vocal variety; wider use of the stage; get the audience involved more.
Table Topics
As Topicsmaster for the evening Grace introduced her theme – Valentines – and gave brave volunteers the opportunity to give an impromptu speech based on one of her questions.
- Julia was asked “What does love mean?” and said she felt it meant being “comfortable and connected” with someone
- Faith was asked “Do you believe in love at first sight?” and told a humorous story about her friend and her future husband.
- Peter was asked “What first catches your attention about a person?”. He told us “love doesn’t exist” and backed up his statement with great humour.
- Raghav was asked “What is your favourite movie?” and revealed it was Love Actually.
- Simon was asked where he would sweep someone away to for a romantic weekend and he said somewhere Arabic-speaking so he could show off some new language skills.
As table topics evaluator Glen told us that the secret to great public speaking is a full bladder (!) before giving feedback for each of the table topics speakers.
General evaluator Sandra, visiting from our sister club Holborn, gave her evaluation of the club as a whole and of all the participants who had not received evaluations elsewhere. She commended the club on its friendly atmosphere, which she said was second only to her own. đ
Awards
Swarajit wrapped up the meeting with some announcements about forthcoming events before handing out the awards:
- The president’s award went to Rebecca for stepping in at the last minute as Timekeeper
- Best evaluator was shared by Janet & Glen
- Best table topic went to Peter
- Best speaker went to Jo
Important Dates
Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 24th Feburary 2014 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
The club is holding a Speech and Evaluation Workshop on Monday, 3rd March 2014. Book your place here.
The club’s 2014 International Speech and Evaluation Contest will take place on Monday, 17th March 2014.