Written by Ash

Introductions

Nerves were running high at the first meeting of the year. The 5-week break had clearly had an impact on even the most competent of speakers; a reminder to us all that it takes regular practice to build confidence and we are all here to improve together, from guest to president.

Our president, Swarajit, felt the pressure in his introduction but soon got into the swing of things using Michael Bay’s recent meltdown to highlight that even those in the public eye could benefit from Toastmasters, and thinking on your feet is a skill that can be honed by mastering the Table Topics.

Next up, our Toastmaster Joe introduced the fitting theme for the meeting: “2014 – What are We Looking Forward to?”

He then introduced two of the functionaries who would help him run the meeting:

• Marte – made her debut as timekeeper
• Peter – carried out his duties as Grammarian assiduously (“assiduous” being the Word of the Day).

Prepared speeches

One would think the Ice Breaker, a member’s first introduction to public speaking, would be a daunting task but not so for Svetlana; rather than rush from the stage she was brought to a halt by the gavel, not once but twice! During her talk we learnt that Svetlana speaks 3 languages, has a fictional neighbor (Borat) and sang daily with the Russian babushkas – an interesting life she leads.

Our second talk was by Samuel entitled “The Smoking Hot Topic”. As a former smoker of 10 years, Sam persuaded us using dry humour and visually descriptive language that it sometimes takes an arrogant friend and tough love to get the message across.

Hari was up next with his advanced speech entitled “Confinement”. It turns out Hari hasn’t done porridge but he did eat a lot of it on a 10 day meditation retreat in Hereford. Solitude, lack of possessions, lack of communication, and meditation from 4.30am doesn’t sound like my idea of fun but for Hari it proved to be truly rewarding. Lucky for us he once again found his voice.

Evaluations

Evaluating Svetlana, Ahmed announced it was the first time he had heard the gavel twice and could have happily listened to more of what he found to be a sincere and smiley speech. He felt that eye contact with the audience could be worked on for future speeches.

Nazia was impressed by Samuel’s handling of what some may perceive to be a controversial topic. Nazia was transported by Samuel’s visual references and found his dry humour worked well. Nadia would have liked Samuel to get more personal and tell us how he personally felt when trying to give up smoking.

Carrie found Hari was ‘on brand’ and gave a strong opening with great stage presence. Carrie would like to see Hari take himself further out of his comfort zone in future – less personal development messages and more flamboyance.

Table topics

Jo, our Topicsmaster for the evening, kicked off the Table Topics sessions for this year with a fitting New Year theme and there was no shortage volunteers:

• Guest Peter was asked what financial advice he would offer for 2014 and responded that in all honesty he was not the best person to ask! Having walked out of a job two years ago and just starting a new position that very day we might not follow your financial advice Peter but we certainly admire your gumption.
• Anthony was asked what he does to cope with stress. It turns out there is a lot to be said for poor customer service in Anthony’s world; having been without his mobile for 7 weeks he felt at ease and began to realise the future may not in fact be Orange.
• Grace was asked her views on diets and going to the gym. She has started Pilates but says she’s happiest playing her guitar, or at least she will be if she wins the bid on eBay.
• Michael was asked whether we should do what makes us happy or well-paid. He finished his talk without ever really answering the question, we can only assume this is because he admits he loves to procrastinate, so he is still thinking about it. Let’s hope his job running an NHS trust gives him both!
• Ash was asked about one of her most important relationships and spoke about her Mum. As her Mum cruised around the Caribbean over Christmas she didn’t get to speak to her for 5 weeks and found absence really does make the heart grow fonder.
• Blake philosophically tackled the question should we focus on our strengths in life or our weaknesses? To Blake our strengths may be seen as our weakest weaknesses! He summed it up nicely by pointing out if we can control our weaknesses imagine what we can do with our strengths.
• Faith was asked the apt question: what does spirituality mean to you? To Faith it is about a grounding, a source of happiness and joy and it’s even getting her out of bed earlier in the morning.
• Finally, our president Swarajit was asked whether it is better to love or to be loved? Swarajit, likened this to the popular question of whether it is better to give or to receive.

The session was wrapped up by another witty, skillful and award winning performance from Glen as Table Topics evaluator!

And the awards for…

Best Prepared Speech – Samuel

Best Evaluator – Glen

Best Table Topic – Peter

President’s Award – Peter (stand-in Grammarian)

Svetlana also received an Icebreaker ribbon for her maiden speech.

That’s it for now. See you all at the next meeting.

Save the dates…

Monday, 27 January – our next regular meeting at The Clerk and Well

Wednesday, 29 January – “Belly Laugh” night – humorous speaking workshop at The Loose Cannon, Allhallows Lane, EC4R 3UE; tickets available here: https://bellylaughnight2014.eventbrite.co.uk

Monday, 10th March – International Women’s Day themed meeting. Speaking slots for women only, open now on ClubPlan. Gentlemen welcome to evaluate.

Introductions

President Swarajit opened our last meeting of the year by reminding us about the importance of public speaking in different professions. As an example, he used an interview given by Richard Branson after the recent passing of Nelson Mandela. Branson’s speech was full of unnecessary filler words which detracted from his message – however, this is an area that the Toastmasters programme can help people improve through practice.

Swarajit then handed the meeting over to Jo, the Toastmaster for the evening. Jo’s theme was “What is the best or worst Christmas present you have received or given?”

Jo in action as Toastmaster for the meeting

Just like Santa Claus, Jo introduced her little helpers; Aislinn the meeting’s Timekeeper and Femi and Ayla as joint Harkmasters.

The meeting’s Timekeeper, Aislinn

Prepared speeches

Moving on to the prepared speeches, Marte with her Icebreaker speech entitled “My First Year in London” shared her experience of relocating from Amsterdam. Marte outlined 3 significant things she’d noticed during her time in London. Firstly, the expensive yet tiny and low quality housing; secondly the generally distant relationships people keep in the office until having a drink in the pub before opening up; and lastly the challenging transport in London as a cyclist, which is much more dangerous compared to Amsterdam.

In his No. 5 speech entitled “Clever Crows” Damien referred to Alfred Hitchcock’s movie The Birds before educating us on how crows are one of the most intelligent and adaptable birds to the human environment. They are found almost everywhere, from the centre of cities to moorlands and the seashore, as well as people’s gardens. They possess advanced qualities such as being problem solvers, facial recognition and planning ahead which includes storing food for rainy days.

Henry, with his No. 7 speech entitled “TV Addict”, informed us that people in the UK watch an average of 4 hours of TV a day. John Reith, who co-founded the BBC in 1922, started it with the intent to educate, inform and entertain. With over 300 hours of TV programs available there are TV documentaries, 24-hours news channels and programmes like Big Brother and The X Factor which achieve these aims. As a self-professed TV addict, Henry believed you can skim through 95% of junk to get the top 5% of good TV.

The final speaker Janet, with her 9^th speech entitled “Don’t Take it Personally”, opened strongly by asking the audience if we could imagine working for a boss who despised us, no matter how hard we worked, but then said “don’t take it personally”. Janet’s message was to treat others as you would want to be treated yourself.

Evaluations

Moving onto the evaluations, the key tips from our evaluators are briefly outlined below:

• Paula in evaluating Marte, commended her on her confidence, great structured speech and timely punctuation. The recommendation given was to use less information in order to not run out of time.
• Rufina commended Damien on a great opening by using a relevant film, his passion about the topic and its simplicity. Her main recommendation was to use more gestures and facial expressions.
• Carrie commended Henry on a great choice of topic, interactive delivery and a wonderful use of humour. Her recommendation was to use more pauses in the jokes and to experiment by trying something slightly different from his normal style.
• Joe commended Janet on a very engaging speech full of passion and emotion in which she picked out people in the audience. However, he observed that the point of the speech seemed to drift after a while.

Table Topics

The table topics section (also known as impromptu speeches), hosted by Ahmed, were based on the theme of the evening and the festive season with an infusion of real life scenarios.

• Femi was asked, how would you convince Santa Claus to use a ‘Boris bike’ to deliver his presents this Christmas?
• Kessy discussed her least favourite Christmas movie.
• Agnes was asked, if you had a call from Santa what would you say to him?
• Peter pondered who he’d cast in the role of Grinch.
• Alex spoke about her most memorable Christmas celebration.
• Glen explained why Christmas reminded him of the state of the economy.

Rajeev, the Topics Evaluator, telling it like it is

Rajeev took on the mantle of evaluating the table topics and commended the speakers on their great smiles, use of personal language and humour.

Awards

Closing the meeting, Harkmasters Femi and Ayla (Janet’s daughter) tested the audience’s listening skills by posing questions based on what we’d heard during the meeting, rewarding correct answers with delicious chocolate treats.

Harkmasters Femi & Ayla giving out chocolate

Finally, Swarajit handed out the main awards for the evening.

• Best Prepared Speech: This went to Janet for her speech on dealing with a difficult boss.
• Best Evaluator: Carrie won the best evaluator award for her detailed analysis of Henry’s performance.
• Best Table Topic: Glen won best table topics speaker for his discussion of the economy at Christmas.
• Marte received an Icebreaker award for delivering her first speech.
• Damien, after delivering his 5th speech, received a half-competent communicator award.
• President’s Award: This went to Aislinn for her exemplary performance as Timekeeper.

As it was our last meeting of the year, we wound things down with a bit of extra food, drink and socialising at the end of the meeting.

Next meeting

Our first meeting of the New Year will be held on Monday, 13^th January 2014 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.