Introduction
Our last meeting was on Monday 21st May. We enjoyed four high-quality prepared speeches and a table topics session about artistic and scientific discoveries.
Roles
Peter R, President of the Club, opened the meeting by reminding us that being members of Toastmasters is a great way of becoming excellent communicators. He then handed over the reins of the meeting to Toastmaster Sarah who explained the agenda and introduced Timekeeper Lei and Grammarian Scott. Scott chose “ambiguous” as the word of the day.
Prepared speeches
First to speak was Andy with his Competent Communicator Speech #4 “The Greatest Briton”. Andy spoke about a more secret side of Winston Churchill, one which believed in a racial hierarchy and used racist beliefs as a basis for developing policies. Andy commented that the idealisation of Churchill to this day is likely to perpetuate the injustices of the past.
The second speaker was Chantal with her Storytelling Speech #2 “Scar Tissue”. Chantal delivered a personal and heart-felt speech about a water skiing accident her father had on the island of Majorca when she was a teenager. Now that her father has recovered and continues to water ski, Chantal keeps thinking about how lucky her family was to escape tragedy.
Third to speak was Sheldon with his Entertaining Speaker Speech #2 “You Don’t Know Me”. By explaining two experiments which had taken place at a summer camp in the US and at a university, Sheldon concluded that many of us believe we know more about others than others know about us. This is also because we tend to exhibit different personalities when in a group.
Last to speak was Helen with her Speaking to Inform Speech #2 “Who are the Windrush Generation and Why Should I Care”. Helen gave a brief powerpoint presentation on the current situation affecting the Windrush Generation and urged us to react by contacting the Home Office, contacting our local MPs and/or supporting the Windrush Justice Fund.
Luisa then led the guest introductions.
Table Topics
After the break, we heard from the evening’s evaluators – Michelle, Stirling, Peter and Atul.
After that, Table Topics Master Swarajit led a great table topics session, and Stirling, Roland, Farri, Stella, Han, Luisa and Andy participated. Highlights included Stirling predicting that humans will be less hairy in the future, and Stella concluding that washing up liquid is a pretty useless discovery compared to dishwashers!
Grammarian Scott then reported on the great uses of language during the meeting.
Finally, visiting General Evaluator Henry evaluated our club and the meeting.
Awards
Best Speaker: Helen
Best Evaluator: Atul
Best Table Topic: Stirling
Next meeting
Our next regular meeting will take place at Wedge Issue Pizza & Beer (91-95 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5BX), on Monday 11th June 18:30-21:00. Come over to practice your public speaking skills!
Please feel free to get in touch at [email protected] if you have any questions.
