Meeting Report for 23 November 2015
Introduction
President Helen opened this regular meeting – back at our regular venue, The Clerk & Well – by extolling the virtues of the Competent Leadership manual, one part of the Toastmasters International educational programme that is often overlooked. Helen then passed proceedings on to Carrie to run the rest of the meeting as Toastmaster.
Carrie’s chosen theme for the evening was parties, and she had prepared her introductions for the meeting by asking each speaker what their ideal form of party would be. Before the prepared speeches began, Julia (who would like to throw a Star Wars themed party) explained her role in keeping the meeting running efficiently as timekeeper.
Prepared Speeches & Table Topics
New member Sebastian got the prepared speeches started off with his Icebreaker speech entitled “One World”. Growing up with parents from Spain and Argentina, Sebastian spent much of his youth between various countries, ending up in Italy by the age of 15. His father had once said to him that ‘the world is getting smaller’ and this had certainly proven to be accurate with experience.
In her No. 2 speech “Running with Purpose”, Margarita told us how she was required to enter a half-marathon after taking a job with a children’s charity. While the race took place in France, Margarita was unable to obtain a visa and so ran an equivalent race in the not-so-glamorous location of Milton Keynes. Regardless, the experience taught her that although she was not a sporty person, she was capable of more than she thought.
Olga‘s No. 7 speech “How to Lose the Tour de France” explained the origins of the Lanterne Rouge, awarded to the race’s last placed competitor and how some of its recipients achieved this dubious honour. Techniques included hiding behind a car and walking across the finish line!
Finally, Helen gave an advanced technical presentation entitled “Responsive Rebuild”, describing why Bloomsbury Speakers’ own website should be brought up-to-date in terms of compatibility with web browsers on modern smart phones and tablet computers. In a very informative and persuasive talk, she explained how search engine rankings for our website are affected by how responsive it is, and even obtained some volunteers from the audience to help take the suggested improvements forward.
After the break, each of the four speeches was given an individual evaluation by Hari, Egor, Peter and Paul.
This evening’s topics master was Ahmed, who began by explaining the benefits of practising impromptu speaking in Toastmasters to gain confidence in speaking elsewhere. Using Carrie’s theme of parties, Ahmed asked participants a range of questions, including how they might persuade people to attend a party at the north pole, what their craziest party experience had been and what the best and worst party-based films they had seen were.
Topics evaluator Jo gave each of the impromptu speakers some constructive feedback on their speeches, before visiting Area 34 director Jay evaluated the meeting as a whole as general evaluator.
Awards
Closing the meeting, president Helen returned to present the awards for the meeting.
- Sebastian was presented with a commemorative ribbon for his Icebreaker speech;
- Peter was voted best evaluator;
- Hari and Paul were jointly awarded the best table topic certificate; and
- Helen herself was voted best speaker.
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday, 7th December and our last meeting of the year is on Monday, 14th December at The Clerk & Well (venue subject to change).
We’re having a joint Christmas dinner with our friends from Clerkenwell and Kings Cross Speakers on Tuesday, 15th December at Mem & Laz in Islington. Get in touch via info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’d like to come along.
