Written by Svetlana

Introductions

Our President Swarajit opened the meeting by giving a concise description of what Toastmasters is about and how it can help build confidence in public speaking and leadership skills. He spoke about his very recent experience of interaction with prominent politician’s office, from which he learnt just how important it was for them to be able to communicate their messages in a concise and persuasive manner that connects with their audience – just what the Toastmasters is about. Therefore, he encouraged the members and guests to take advantage of their meetings, roles, and speech projects.

After that, Swarajit introduced the evening’s Toastmaster Kate. He said Kate was an excellent example of a member who has been moving from strength to strength as a speaker, and he was convinced that the meeting would be in good hands with Kate as Toastmaster. Kate gave a brief overview of the agenda and introduced the theme of the day, “Which TV programmes and box sets do you like?” Her own favourite programmes are Fresh Meat and Peep Show, which are packed with situational comedy.

Kate then introduced the functionaries who were going to assist her that evening:

• Rebecca, the Grammarian [Rebecca’s favourite TV programme is Off Their Rockers where old people play funny tricks on the public. It makes her cry with laughter every time!]. Rebecca explained her function as a Grammarian, that is, to watch everyone’s grammar and style and at the end of the meeting provide an evaluation of the language usage by speakers, point out mistakes and good figures of speech. She offered the word of the evening “Nefarious”, which is an adjective (typically of an action or activity, meaning “wicked or criminal”), and encouraged all speakers to use it in their speeches.
• Egor, the Timekeeper [Egor advised everyone to befriend YouTube for virtually any need or interest]. Egor explained his role and encouraged the audience to be aware of the time requirements for speeches as being able to deliver a speech within a given time slot was an important skill for a proficient public speaker.

Prepared speeches

With an Icebreaker speech entitled “How I Found My Passion in Life”, Jon [whose favourite TV series is How I Met Your Mother, an hilarious take on the search for love and a great escape from the stresses of daily life] introduced himself to the club. Finding his passion in life meant looking within for answers to multiple questions, and it was also about making a space in his life where he could actually pursue that passion, enjoy every moment of travelling, having life experiences, personal discoveries, and sharing them with people via blogs and social networks.

Our second speaker Helen’s No. 6 speech “Switch Off and Let Go” related a story of her weekend journey to the countryside with her boyfriend where their GPS devices failed them. They were compelled “to switch off and let go” and to look around, take in the beauty and a multitude of events happening around them every second, the picturesque views, the cattle, the big blue and green blurb of nature, which kept changing their sensations from fear to enchantment.

Our third speaker Samuel delivered his No. 10 Speech “Just Do It”. He succeeded in inspiring the audience with his own personal story of how important it was to connect the intellectual knowledge and aspiration to do something good and important for people and for oneself through stepping out of one’s comfort zone and “just doing it” whether small or big, and how that could change one’s whole perception of life, making it more happy and fulfilling.

Our fourth speaker Ahmed gave his No. 10 speech entitled “Work-Life Balance” [Ahmed’s favourite programme is Breaking Bad, a brilliant, compelling series]. Ahmed gave a fascinating speech with a valuable, emotionally charged and enthusiastic message about the need to bear in mind that time flies and before you know it you will be fifty-five, no matter how far the age resonates in your mind when you are twenty or thirty. His advice was to never postpone the life goals that are important to you, but find a possibility to pursue them along with career goals. For him and his wife, bringing up four children meant a lot in establishing and maintaining the work-life balance so far.

Michelle [whose favourite TV programme at the moment is Homeland because she finds it gripping and exciting] then hosted the guest introductions, which put them at ease and showed how important guests are for any Toastmasters club, including Bloomsbury Speakers.

Evaluations

Ash [whose penchant for American series Revenge persists, despite the bad storylines and wooden acting] evaluated Jon’s Icebreaker speech in her very methodical and thorough way. She commended Jon for producing a speech which revealed an experienced storyteller. The performance was brave, resourceful, engaging, with good portion of humour and a lot of really interesting facts from his personal story of finding his passion in life, which was travelling and exploration of the world, making friends and sharing his discoveries with people.

Svetlana [who likes documentaries in general, but her favourite programme is Deal Or No Deal, where Noel Edmonds looks like everyone’s family member] evaluated Helen’s No. 6 speech “Switch Off and Let Go”, pointing out that Helen was a highly skilled speaker. Her speech swept the audience away and took them onto a 4-D journey to the countryside where her GPS failed and they had to find their way without it. With a strong stage presence, use of changing facial expressions and a bit of dance, Helen produced a performance about the beauty of nature and human behaviour, using vocal variety, volume, pitch, and pauses.

Jo [whose favourite programmes are Sunday night period dramas like Downton Abbey or Mr Selfridge to round off the weekend] evaluated Samuel’s No. 10 speech “Just Do It” with a number of commendations, such as his stage presence, which was truly Sam’s forte. He succeeded in inspiring the audience with his own personal story of how important it was to connect the intellectual knowledge and aspiration to do something good.

Glen [who is currently addicted to Game of Thrones and loves it because the characters are so compelling and it always manages to shock and surprise him] evaluated Ahmed’s No. 10 speech “Work-Life Balance”, which was a milestone in the Competent Communication programme. Glen commended Ahmed, who held a firm grip on everyone’s attention from the beginning to the end of his speech, which is truly a sign of a master speaker. It was amazing how he managed to make a long story of his life, his experience of family, parenthood, and work so concise that he not only did not go beyond his time limit but was the only speaker of the day who did not reach the minimum amount of time expected. In fact, this became grounds for one important recommendation, which was to fill up his time slot and give the audience a few more moments of the energising experience, which he truly is able to deliver as a highly skilled speaker.

Table Topics

The Table Topics section was chaired by Peter [whose favourite TV programmes are nature documentaries] who explained the “rules of the game” as being able to think on your feet and produce a speech with the beginning, the middle and the end. He asked the table topic speakers various questions, which they never heard before.

Guest Kal had the question: In the “The Lord of Flies” a book written by William Golding in 1954, a group of school children were stranded on an uninhabited island after a plane crash. You are the oldest child and the younger children are looking to you for guidance. What would your objective/s be to organise this motley crew?  Kal said he would organise the group as a team, give each and every one moral support and assign responsibilities for certain functions that would help them survive, such as building and maintaining shelter, finding food, water, vigilance and security against wild animals, search for help, etc.

Another guest, Raj had the question: In the X-Men film series, certain people in world have developed some extraordinary abilities and powers through genetic mutation. Assume you have become a mutant, what sort of abilities would you like to have and why? Raj thought the biggest mutants on earth were humans, so our abilities as humans make us different from the rest of animals.

Saija had the question: In “The War Of Worlds”, a science fiction novel written by H.G. Wells, the world was invaded by nefarious extra-terrestrial race from Mars. You live in a tiny village by the Essex coast, you see one of these gigantic creatures coming towards your village, what would you do? Saija gave the most simple and ingenuous answer, that after analysing the situation she would offer them a cup of English tea and show them that she and her village fellowmen were very friendly and ready to make friends with extra-terrestrials. It would, hopefully, win them over.

Graeme discussed the statement, “all animals are created equal, but some are created more equal than others”, a famous quote from the book “Animal Farm” by George Orwell. Graeme put himself in the place of the animals that had taken over the farm and ousted their cruel human masters.

Rufina had the question: In Hamlet, Polonius gave some his son Laertes some fatherly advice when he was going to France to study for example: ‘Give every man thy ear, but few thy voice’; and ‘Take each man’s censure, but reserve thy judgement’. What wise wisdom would you give your child if they were going abroad to study? If Rufina was to send her daughter to France to study, which was actually a pretty realistic scenario in her life, she would bear it in mind that children do not listen to lecturing and do whatever they want to have as much fun as possible. Therefore, she would focus on convincing her child to study while she is having fun in France.

Bronia [who finds House of Cards fascinating because it’s like a gigantic chess game, but is thankful it is not on TV so she doesn’t have to switch it on… when she does watch TV though she watches Al Jazeera, which is absolutely fantastic] evaluated the Topics session by commending all who took part for rising to the challenge, being very natural, resourceful, and creative delivering with good energy and humour. Her main recommendation was to have more eye contact, body language and to make better use of the stage, not to stay too close to the bar because we all can do that downstairs after the club meeting.

General Evaluation

After Grammarian Rebecca’s detailed report on the English language use and the use of the word of the day “Nefarious” by the evening’s speakers, Doug (visiting from Angel Speakers) kindly stepped in to provide the General Evaluation for the meeting.

He started with a very high commendation and congratulated the President, the functionaries, and members on having the reputation of the best club in London. He certainly noticed how well the club meeting was organised, with all the relevant notifications sent out prior to the meeting, the meeting itself where assigned roles were fulfilled efficiently, the environment was supportive, the atmosphere was fun, which explained the reputation and the overall very dynamic and seamless flow of the meeting. He pointed out that Grammarian’s report was thorough, contained a lot of valuable points for speakers, was delivered with pleasant charm and smile; he recommended Rebecca to use cards instead of paper notes next time. Further on, Doug commended Egor, the Timekeeper, who had several short outings each time revealing more of his confidence and character, which showed it fact how important the role of the Timekeeper is. He commended the evaluators for their meaningful and constructive evaluation reports and provided some tips to everyone.

Awards

Swarajit brought the meeting to a close by handing out the awards:

• The Icebreaker ribbon went to Jon
• A special trophy was presented to Janet who placed third in the UK & Ireland final of the International Speech Contest
• The Half Competent Communicator ribbon for completing five of the 10 speeches went to Helen
• The Competent Communicator ribbons for completing ten out of ten speeches went to Ahmed and Samuel
• Best evaluator went to Glen
• Best table topic went to Saija
• Best speaker went to Ahmed

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 9^th June upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Written by Ash

Introductions

Our president Swarajit opened the meeting with a salute to Darren LaCroix, 2001 World Champion of Public Speaking. Swarajit shared a couple of lessons he had taken away from a recent workshop with Darren:

• Never turn down stage time; at worst you will make mistakes, but you’ll learn from them.
• No International Speech Contest winner has done it alone, they all had coaching in order to hone their speeches – a mentor can make all the difference and there are experienced speakers at Bloomsbury Speakers to step into that role.

Swarajit then passed the baton to Peter, our Toastmaster for the evening. To most, being shipwrecked would a traumatic experience but Peter would like nothing better than being cast away, and this was his theme for the evening. Peter talked us through the programme and introduced us to tonight’s helpers:

• Rebecca, our timekeeper introduced the importance of the role and efficiently ensured we kept to schedule, even more important this evening given the imminent tube strike.
• Bronia, our grammarian for the night decided to shake things up a bit – gone was the usual word of the evening for a focus on rhetoric devices. Bronia explained the importance of metaphors and similies for good communication and presenting complex ideas.

Prepared Speeches

Our icebreaker this evening was confidently delivered by Emily, in her speech entitled ‘The Story of My Life’. Throughout the speech we were taken on a musical journey from her teenage years wearing fishnets and stalking band members in Camden Town to the jazz and blues scene in New Orleans later on. We learnt that Emily may not be able to sell a rubber, but as a media planner she’d realised her dream of working in advertising.

Next up was Michelle, delivering her number 2 talk ‘The Benefits of Yoga’ and her speech did exactly what it said on the tin. In a passionate delivery, Michelle informatively discussed the different types of Yoga and how incorporating Yoga into our daily lives can improve our posture, strength, sleep quality and reduce tension.

In his second prepared speech, James examined ‘why some succeed while others fail’. James discussed the research of Malcolm Gladwell and how this showed that, while luck and opportunity may have a bearing, an elite ice hockey player must also put in hard work in order to be successful. James ended his speech by relating this research nicely with the fact that we are all open to the opportunities of life in London and we can all put in the hard work by taking decisive action to become a good public speaker.

While many of us might be tuning in to find out how Binky is coping on Made in Chelsea, Damien proved to be a more discerning TV viewer. In his  6^th talk ‘Two Time Capsules’, Damien discussed two documentaries he’d watched recently and how these left an impression on him. The first discussed the oldest cave paintings known to man and how one artist’s drawings and another artist’s drawings were painted 5,000 years apart. The second considered how we can inform future generations about nuclear waste, but will our signs still be there in 100,000 years and will they even be understood?

Evaluations

Kate was very impressed by the confident delivery given by Emily and her “excellent use of hand gestures”. Kate recommended that Emily should slow down as there were some little gems we would have liked time to fully absorb.

Glen evaluated Michelle and thought there was a huge amount to like. He commended her firm stance and personality, her passion for the subject and preparation. Glen would have liked more in the way of signposting and a little more vocal variety but he loved the fact Michelle brought a personal story to life.

Henry evaluated James and found his delivery sincere. James lost his train of thought at the beginning but recovered from this well – a lesson to us all. Henry commended his “incredible hand gestures to reinforce his points” and found it was an impressive delivery without notes, especially given the complex subject matter.

Jo, in evaluating Damien commended his relaxed and strong stance and confident eye contact with the room. Ums and ahs were very few and far between and, given the deep and philosophical nature, this was well controlled. Jo felt it was a difficult subject in order to meet the vocal variety criteria and maybe something less complex might have worked better but Damien did a great job with a challenging topic.

Table Topics

Ahmed our table topics master was hot on the heels of tonight’s theme – survival – and there was no shortage of volunteers:

Paula was asked what steps she’d take to survive on a desert island and convinced us this would be easy once she had made a fishing rod, relishing the opportunity to feast on a healthy diet of fresh fish and an abundance of fruit and exercise.

Julia chose her husband as her ideal island companion as he would help around the island, develop exercise plans and they could spend romantic evenings together. He is a great singer and could serenade her and she could teach him to dance.

Jon was asked what superpower he’d want if he were lost in the jungle and chose x-ray vision to see through the bushes and relax in his underground camp while still knowing what was going on above him.

Bjorn was asked what had been the best survival film he’d seen and why. He chose MacGyver as he would like to be lost with lots of sexy people.

Ash considered whether she’d prefer to travel through the desert by jeep or camel. Inspired by the book The Alchemist, Ash decided she would turn down the easy option of the jeep in favour of a camel. She felt an epic journey demanded an epic mode of transport on a journey of self-fulfilment.

Emma was asked to sell to us the benefits of living on a desert island. Healthy living and the opportunity to come and go as one pleased came top of the list for Emma, followed closely by a great tan.

Our table topics session was evaluated by Nazia; in particular, she pointed out that a great compliment was paid during the session as reference was made to other speakers throughout the evening.

Closing and awards

• Icebreaker award – went to Emily for her maiden speech
• Best speaker – James proved to be successful on the night
• Best evaluator – this went to Glen, a regular winner of this accolade
• Best table topic – went to Paula for her healthy cast away lifestyle
• President’s award – this went to Kerstin, visiting from Clerkenwell Speakers, for her sterling efforts stepping in last minute as the general evaluator – and especially well done for her first ever evaluation!

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 12^th May in our usual location – upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30 for a prompt 6:45 start.