Contest Report for 25 March 2013

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Introductions

Club President Femi opened this special meeting by giving a short history of the club and the Toastmasters organisation.

The Chair for the speech contest was past president and club co-founder Nazia, who welcomed guests and participants and reminded everyone why we compete – to stretch ourselves and go beyond our comfort zone.

International Speech Contest

janet-contest

The first half of the meeting was given over to the International Speech contest where the winner could end up competing at the world championships in America!

Nazia read out the order for the speakers as decided by random ballot and explained that each speaker would have five to seven minutes to give an original speech – more than 30 seconds under the minimum or over the maximum would result in disqualification.

The first contest speaker was Joe with a speech entitled “Mountainous Adventures” in which he told the story of a visit to Morocco in his early twenties. He was captivated by Marrakech and the main square with its “maze of shops” and “buzz of enthusiasm”. From Marrakech there were three options: sleeping under the stars in the desert, chilling out on the beach or trekking in the Atlas mountains. He chose the trek but what should have been a relatively easy climb became a nightmare with the onset of food poisoning!

The second contest speaker was Hari with a speech entitled “Power In The Present”. He started the speech holding an envelope in one hand and took us back to the day he was waiting to find out his ‘A’ level results. On that day he said he thought he could influence the results – before he opened the envelope – by sheer power of thought. In a very thought-provoking speech he discussed a fascinating theory about being able to change what had happened in the past – as long as you didn’t know the previous outcome.

The third contest speaker was Mike with his speech “We Are Family”. He took us on a journey which began 12 months ago with him as “a grumpy person” not wanting to get involved with things, to someone who “had something to contribute, who could move things forward”. He drew a vivid picture of his work “family” and in parallel described the changes – catalysed by his experiences at Toastmasters – which had transformed him over the course of a year.

The fourth contest speaker was Swarajit, with a speech entitled “They Don’t Work Together”. “If there’s one subject people avoid,” he said, “it’s religious belief”. Over the course of his speech he laid out – in a thoughtful and measured fashion – the various reasons he felt that science and religion were fundamentally incompatible. He introduced us to the concept of “The God of The Gaps” who was often used to explain those areas not yet fully understood by science and concluded that attempts to unify the two points of view could never be successful.

The fifth and final contest speaker was Janet with a speech simply entitled “Love”. She took us back to a period in her life where her inspiring boss had just been fired and she decided to leave the security of that big organisation for a role in a small, growing company. It was on a trip to Nepal between the two jobs that she found out she was pregnant, lost her job offer and started a life-changing transition which culminated in the birth of her beautiful daughter. Looking back, she said that she “measured that year in love”.

After the break – filled with lively conversation and free pizza! – it was time to begin the second contest of the evening, the Evaluation Contest.

Evaluation Contest

femi-contest

Contest Chair Carrie welcomed everyone back from the break and gave a description of the role of evaluation within Toastmasters. She then went on to explain the ground rules for the contest before introducing the “mystery speaker”, who would be evaluated by each of the contestants in turn for two to three minutes.

The speaker was revealed to be another Femi, this time visiting from City of London Speakers. He gave an impassioned speech entitled “The Second Amendment” in which he promised to help us “piece together the complex puzzle” of the second amendment – the right to bear arms. He told us about the historical role of organised militias in maintaining order and the subsequent establishment of the first “standing army” during the time of William the Conqueror. In his conclusion he argued that the second amendment “was never meant to be a pretext to personal gun ownership”.

At the end of the speech the seven contestants – Joe, Hari, Kate, Joowon, Gemma, Rajeev and Femi – were led out of the room and given five minutes to organise their notes before returning one-by-one to give their evaluations.

Results

After the judges’ ballots had been counted under the watchful eye of Chief Judge Jay (from Holborn Speakers) it was time to announce the results!

In the Evaluation Contest:

  • Third place went to Hari
  • Second place went to Kate
  • First Place went to Femi

In the International Speech Contest:

  • Third place went to Mike
  • Second place went to Hari
  • First place went to Janet

Congratulations to all contestants and particularly to Femi and Janet who go on to represent the club at the Area contest in April.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 8th April, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Have a great Easter!

Meeting Report for 18 March 2013

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wordle-18.03.2013

Introductions

The club president Femi opened the meeting with an inspiring introduction which quoted famous US Senator Daniel Webster: “If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest”. Femi went on to recommend regular practice to really help you to “hone your confidence”.

Femi handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Joe, who described himself as the “orchestrator” of the meeting and introduced his theme, goodwill. He told a recent personal story of a time when he had saved a young child’s toy from the middle of a busy road and been labelled a “hero” by the child’s mother!

Barnaby, the Timekeeper for the evening, stressed the importance of speakers not going over their allotted time and gave the example that in a contest they would be disqualified for going more than 30 seconds past the red light.

Alex, the Grammarian, explained that she would be looking out for “nice uses of language” and also for “ums” and “ahhs”, recommending that speakers pause instead. She also introduced the word of the day “nebulous”, which means indistinct and vague.

Prepared Speeches

In his icebreaker speech “A Job for Life” James made an interesting comparison between job expectations now and in the past – 100 years ago everyone had a job for life. If your father was a coal miner, you would also be a coal miner. These days, he said, if you haven’t had three careers by 40, people might think you’re a little strange! He told us about his own career changes from a teacher of English as a foreign language, to a paralegal, to now pondering his next career move.

In a very humorous No. 4 speech entitled “Maid for the 21st Century” Carrie (who’s been a bridesmaid four times) told us why being a bridesmaid is not a dream role, why you should avoid it, and how to spot engagements before they happen so that you can “reposition” your friendships. Her frustration came from the trend that each hen ‘do’ had to be “more extravagant, more memorable, more raucous” than the last.

In another very humorous speech, this time a No. 8 from Adam, we were given his rather unique take on the Tube. According to Adam this is in fact an acronym for “Total Urban Battlefield Experience”. Each time you descend the escalator down into the tube, he warned us, you’re actually heading into war. He identified key aggressors on the battlefield – the “pole dancers”, newspaper readers and “make-up models” – and gave us tips for fighting back, including the use of an umbrella as a weapon.

The final speaker was experienced member Hari who delivered an advanced speech from the storytelling manual – “The Folk Tale”, whose objectives were as follows:

  • To tell a folk tale that is entertaining and enjoyable for a specific age group.
  • To use vivid imagery and voice to enhance the tale.

He chose to tell a story from Ancient Greece – Theseus and the Minotaur – using great vocal variety and rich body language to bring the story to life.

Evaluations

After the break each of the speakers was given a spoken evaluation by a fellow club member.

Ahmed evaluated James’s icebreaker speech and commended his strong opening, his sign-posted speech structure and good voice projection. He recommended calmer hand gestures and looking down at the floor less.

Henry opened his evaluation of Carrie’s speech about being a bridesmaid with a review of her objectives. He commended her use of rhetoric and also her “vivid” and “evocative” language. He recommended using more vocal variety and giving her jokes time to sink in.

First time evaluator Joowon reviewed Adam’s speech about the Tube. She commended the way he had grabbed the audience’s attention from the very start and his creative use of props to illustrate his points. She recommended he slowed down a little and shared his attention evenly among both sides of the audience.

Eugenia evaluated Hari’s advanced speech. She commended him on his good use of the stage and a setting a great example for less experienced speakers. She recommended sticking more closely to the project brief as she felt the Greek Legend was not strictly a folk tale.

Table Topics

The Table Topicsmaster, Glen, used a well-known Rudyard Kipling poem as the inspiration for his questions.The poem includes the lines:

I keep six honest serving men (they taught me all I knew);

Their names are What and Why and When and How and Where and Who

He asked the topics volunteers to answer the following questions:

  • WHAT do you know now that you wish you’d known a year ago?
  • WHY do so many people have a fear of public speaking?
  • WHEN did you last make a big decision that changed the direction of your life?
  • HOW did you get what you wanted as a child?

Awards

Closing the meeting Femi handed out the awards based on votes from the audience:

  • Best Evaluator award was shared between Jo and Henry
  • Best Table Topic was won by visiting Toastmaster Kevon
  • Best Speaker was won by Adam

James received an ice breaker ribbon to commemorate his first speech and the President’s discretionary award went to the Toastmaster Joe Lake.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is our special contest meeting on Monday 25th March – please note the change from our normal venue:

The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London. (This is directly opposite our regular venue!)

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

Meeting Report for 11 March 2013

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wordle-11.03.2013

Introductions

Femi opened the meeting by introducing himself as “the proud president of this great club”. He then quizzed members on the history of Toastmasters and reminded everyone of the club contest on 25 March, which would be held in the Real Man Pizza restaurant across the road from the normal venue.

Using Mothers Day by way of introduction, Femi handed the meeting over to the joint “Toastmistresses” of the evening, regular member Janet and her daughter Ayla.

In a first for Bloomsbury Speakers, Janet and Ayla performed the Toastmaster role as a team and started things off by introducing their theme for the evening – childhood fairytales.

Timekeeper Joe (favourite fairytale Rapunzel) gave an overview of his role and stressed the importance of keeping time.

Michael our Grammarian (favourite tale Finn Mac Cool and the Salmon of Knowledge!) explained that he would be keeping an eye on good language use throughout the meeting and introduced his word for the day – “conversant”.

Prepared speeches

In his icebreaker speech “The Glastonbury Festival” Ben (favourite fairytale The Magic Faraway Tree) told us about growing up near the site of the festival and how it has formed the backbone of his life ever since. His speech took us from his early love of music (and stalking his favourite musicians by post!) to returning to the festival in an official capacity with his job in music promotion. Despite a miserable experience in 2011 – when his wellies were stolen and his tent ran with muddy water – he said he would be returning to the festival this year, but this time staying in a caravan.

Our second speaker Ahmed (favourite tale the Jungle book) opened his No. 7 speech “The London Underground” with the question “great institution or the bane of our lives?” It quickly became clear on which side of the question Ahmed’s feeling lay as he gave a very informative and passionate speech describing the underground as, amongst other things, a “great feat of engineering”. He also described how the original London Underground map was replaced with the version we now know which he felt was a “radical breakthrough in communication graphics”. In his summary Ahmed described the London Underground as “the beating heart of the city”.

In his No. 8 speech entitled “Fuel Poverty” Mike promised to “put cash back into our pockets” and went on to describe the energy bill revolution, an initiative to spend fuel tax on insulating homes instead of it disappearing into the Government’s coffers. We learnt that the definition of fuel poverty is spending 10% or more of household income on fuel and the fact that over 6 million households in the UK fall under this category. Finishing up, he urged us to “complete the circle” by supporting this initiative and lobbying the Government.

In another No. 8 speech, this time entitled “Public Transport in Samara” club treasurer Elena gave an entertaining speech about the transport system in her hometown in “Mother Russia” and her concerns should it host any of the games in the 2018 World Cup tournament. With visual aids including a transport map and a pie chart she told us about the buses, trams, trolleybuses, underground trains and commercial buses that carried people around the town. She also acted out a very humorous role-play of a ticket collector trying to check fares and sell tickets in the middle of the Russian winter.

Evaluators

Hari evaluated Ben’s icebreaker speech and commended the fact that he had opened with a question and also that he had shown “a great deal of composure”. He felt Ben had definitely met the speech objectives and recommended projecting his voice, looking up at the audience more and not trying to include quite so much information next time round.

Nazia evaluated Ahmed’s speech about the London Underground. She felt it was well-rehearsed and met the objectives. She liked the fact that Ahmed “told us what he was going to tell us” at the start of the speech and commended his three point structure. She recommended that he cut down the “huge amount of information” in future because it was a little “overwhelming”.

Swarajit gave a very encouraging evaluation of Mike’s No. 8 speech. He liked Mike’s conversational style and his use of props such as a £20 note. He also liked the fact that Mike ended his speech with a call to action but recommended that he rethink some of his visual aids to make it easier for people to read them.

Eugenia began her very amusing evaluation of Elena’s speech by saying that Samara would be “stuffed” if it hosted the World Cup – as she had personal knowledge of the place and its transport. She commended the statistics, action, visual aids, audience interaction in the speech and the way that Elena had dominated the stage. She felt that “all aspects of Toastmasters” were on display in the speech but recommended working on a stronger ending.

Table topics

As table topics master, Paula continued the theme of fairytales during this part of the meeting, which she described as “an opportunity to think and speak on your feet”.

Her topics for those who volunteered to speak without preparation included the following:

  • Little Jack Horner has been fired for eating his curds and whey in the corner. It is your job to defend him at his tribunal.
  • You are Cinderella and have just discovered that Prince Charming is already married. What do you do?
  • Jack and Jill are suing Richmond Borough Council for injuries sustained whilst falling down a hill. You are a witness in the court case.
  • The Three Bears have moved out and Goldilocks is now forced to pay bedroom tax. What should she do?
  • As Rapunzel what do you feel about the portrayal of beauty in the media?

Reports

Michael gave his report as Grammarian and commended those speakers who’d incorporated his word of the day in their speeches. He also praised participants generally for their “vivid, striking language”.

General Evaluator Steve Maguire from Angel Speakers gave a very positive evaluation of the club and gave feedback to those participants who’d not been evaluated elsewhere.

Closing the meeting Femi handed out the awards based on votes cast by the audience:

  • Hari and Eugenia shared the prize for best evaluator for their evaluations of Ben and Elena respectively
  • Glen won the award for best table topic for his eyewitness account of Jack and Jill’s tumble down the hill
  • Elena won the award for best speaker for her description of the transport system in her hometown of Samara

Wrapping up, he urged members to join in the Meet The Members initiative by sending in some information to share with other members.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 18th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Meeting Report for 4 March 2013

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wordle-04.03.2013

Introductions

Club president Femi opened the meeting with a reminder that sometimes progress is dependent on practising things we already know rather than learning something new.  He encouraged all participants to give feedback in a way that builds the speaker’s confidence and also to join with the Toastmaster in making speakers welcome through enthusiastic applause.

The Timekeeper Rajeev explained the purpose of his role and gave an overview of the green, amber, and red “traffic light” system used to help speakers keep to time.

Grammarian Angela introduced the word of the day, “salubrious”, gave a helpful definition – “health-giving or healthy”, and encouraged all participants to use it wherever possible.

Prepared speeches

In his ice breaker speech entitled “Heroes” brand-new member Marcin asked the question “What is a hero?”. It’s someone who inspires you to be better, he told us. Marcin’s hero was a man who loves flying – Richard Branson – and he went on to talk about his hero from three perspectives: his family, his smile, and his attitude.

In his No. 2 speech “Regression to the Mean” Barnaby opened with an interesting fact, that highly intelligent women tend to marry less intelligent men. He went on to explain the statistical basis for this – that all things tend towards the average. For example, the children of two exceptionally tall people are likely to grow up to be shorter than their parents.

The third speaker was Renars with his No. 9 speech, whose objective is to persuade. In “Stereotyping” he said that as human beings we make judgements about people many times every day. He told us how his own stereotypes of people had been proven wrong in the past and as an antidote to people making assumptions about him based on where he’s from, he now just tells people “I’m from Planet Earth!”.

The final speaker was Femi with an advanced speech from the Storytelling manual. He opened by taking us right into the action – a heated conversation with his neighbours about unreasonable levels of noise. In a passionate speech with lots of emotional language he told the story of the events which had led up to this climactic scene and how he eventually triumphed over this nuisance through sheer perseverance.

Evaluations

Paul gave a very encouraging evaluation of Marcin’s ice breaker speech. He particularly commended Marcin’s use of a specific story – about an extreme way to learn to swim –  to illustrate one aspect of Richard Branson’s character.

Ahmed gave thoughtful and detailed feedback to Barnaby on his statistical speech.  He commended Barnaby’s strong opening and closing but cautioned against using too many different examples to make the same point – better to use fewer examples and expand on each one more.

Eugenia evaluated Renars’ persuasive speech. She found much to commend but felt that he could have spent a little time explaining some of the benefits of stereotyping, since it must also serve some positive function.

Glen gave an entertaining evaluation of Femi’s advanced speech about nuisance neighbours. He loved the drama and the passion in the speech but advised Femi to keep an eye on the clock to avoid having to truncate his story at the end.

Table topics

The topics master for the evening Elena explained the benefit of regular impromptu speaking – “practice makes perfect” – and introduced her theme for the session: Health.

Volunteers drawn from the ranks of members and guests alike were invited to spend 1 to 2 minutes answering questions such as:

  • What was your most “salubrious” holiday?
  • Where is the healthiest place to eat?
  • What is the healthiest type of job?
  • What is the healthiest way to travel?
  • What is the healthiest type of relationship?
  • What is the healthiest type of sport?

Reports

Our visiting topics evaluator Doug, from Angel Speakers, had wise and thoughtful feedback for all – no mean feat when evaluating six speakers almost immediately after they have spoken!

Returning to give her report the grammarian Angela commended multiple uses of the word of the day and highlighted other effective uses of language, such as rhetorical questions. She particularly enjoyed Doug referring to Toastmasters as being “like crack cocaine”  he confessed he was addicted!

Awards

Closing the meeting, Femi gave a few announcements – including news of an upcoming storytelling workshop – and then gave out the awards based on votes from the audience:

  • best evaluator went to Glen for his detailed evaluation of Femi’s own speech
  • best table topic went to Henry for talking about his most salubrious holiday
  • best speaker went to Femi who had to give the award to himself!

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 11th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Meeting Report for 25 February 2013

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wordle-25.02.2013

Introductions

In his introduction Club President Femi expanded upon the old adage “practice makes perfect” by saying that it is in fact “practice with insight” that makes perfect – so feedback is essential. Which is why it is such a fundamental part of the Toastmasters experience.

He also spoke about an article from the “Toastmaster” magazine (which every member receives) about making not just eye contact but meaningful eye contact and encouraged those members present to take another look at this valuable resource.

Jo, the evening’s Toastmaster, encouraged the audience to give each participant a warm round of applause in order to keep the energy levels high. Her theme – inspired by the Oscars – was “Awards” and prior to the meeting she’d asked each participant to name an award they had won in the past or felt could – or should – win in the future.

Starting the ball rolling, Jo said she felt she should win an award for most time spent on the Internet researching trips she never actually went on!

Eugenia, in the Timekeeper role, told the pertinent story of being kept waiting in the cold while a colleague took 26 minutes to tell her just three things. The moral of the story being that the ability to communicate information within a fixed period of time is crucial!

The Grammarian was Chris (who felt he deserved an award for being completely awful with money). He explained that it was important to be “clear, precise and well understood” and told us he would be looking out for effective uses of language during the meeting. He also introduced the word of the day – “interminable” – meaning relentless or neverending.

Prepared speeches

In a very impressive icebreaker entitled “The Bicycle Diaries”, brand-new member Rajeev (who said he deserved an award for always going to the pub for just one pint but staying for many more) told us about his childhood growing up in Sri Lanka where he learned to ride bikes which were much too big for him. He also described swapping sunny blue skies for damp grey ones when he moved from Sri Lanka to the UK at the age of 21.

In her No. 3 speech the second speaker Angela (potential winner of the “changing her hairstyle frequently” award) told us about the “invisible to do list” that she suddenly felt she needed to get through as she approached the age of 30. In “13 Days ’til 30” she also talked about the “upgrade generation” and its attitude to relationships, the difficulty of saving money in an expensive city like London, and getting her “baby toe” on the property ladder. In the end she decided to postpone it all until 35!

Regular member Paula (who felt she deserved the award for most unworn items in her wardrobe) gave her No. 5 speech entitled “Weekend Magic” in which she described the special moments in those two days off per week that can make a weekend magical. She herself enjoyed watching Columbo, doing aerobics and generally being active and jumping around. In a particularly entertaining segment she told us about the various characters she had met on a raw food weekend, including “Mr Miserable” and “Miss Sexy”.

Hari (wanted to win numerous awards including an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel Prize – but felt he was most likely to win one for daydreaming!) was the final speaker with an advanced speech entitled “Eliminate to Invigorate”. He told us about a seven and a half day fast and detox experience in Thailand and gave us details of a rather severe cleansing process which involved a bucket full of coffee, a long tube and an open mind. He said he was “in Thailand, but thinking of England”.

After the last of the prepared speeches, President Femi led the guest introductions where new visitors to the club were given the opportunity to introduce themselves and say a few short words.

Evaluations

After the break it was time for the evaluations, where each of the four prepared speakers received detailed spoken feedback from a fellow member.

The first evaluator was Gemma (who hoped one day to win an award for being an inspirational teacher). She evaluated Rajeev’s ice breaker speech and started by reassuring guests that it had been exceptional and most people did not start at this level! She felt his descriptions were fantastic, particularly the comparisons between Sri Lanka and London and thought he made good use of opening questions.

The next evaluator was Mike (who felt he should receive an award for always coming second!) giving feedback on Angela’s No. 3 speech. He said she had made a “fantastic start” which got him thinking about his own 30th birthday some years ago. He used the analogy of a “clothes horse” – on which Angela had draped various areas of her life. He loved the strong ending – postponing her responsibilities until 35.

Elena (who would like to win a speech award at the next contest) was responsible for evaluating Paula’s No. 5 speech. She loved the use of hand gestures and body language but recommended “counting off” her magic moments so that we could follow them more easily. She also felt Paula could have used fewer but more expressive examples to support her main points. She liked Paula’s choice of language, her entertaining style and the strong conclusion.

The final evaluator was Adam (he wanted an award for excessive coffee drinking) who evaluated Hari’s advanced speech (also coincidently coffee-related). He told us up front he would be looking at the speech’s “purpose, structure and language”. He felt Hari’s strong introduction had led us through the speech very effectively, liked the level of personal detail and particularly loved Harry’s “Dr detox” character. He was also very impressed by the use of props and humour.

Table Topics

Swarajit (wanted to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, but didn’t know enough about Physics) introduced the Table Topics session by describing the benefits of participation – speakers would become “more and more un-phased” by real-life situations involving speaking without preparation.

Swarajit’s theme was Business and Careers. He invited members and guests to tackle a range of questions including:

  • What is your dream job?
  • How would you argue for a six-day week?
  • What charity would you set up?
  • What would you be fired for on The Apprentice?
  • What business idea of yours should we invest in?

Table topics evaluator Glen (who felt he deserved an award for “Best DIY Procrastinator”) evaluated all six of the table topics speakers providing praise and recommendations for each, including numerous specific examples.

Grammarian Chris returned to report 11.5 (!) uses of the Word of the Day and was impressed by “a fantastic array of rhetorical devices”.

The General Evaluator George from Berkeley Square Speakers evaluated all those participants not yet evaluated and themed his commendations and recommendations around the idea “Less is More”.

Awards

Closing the meeting President Femi handed out the awards based on the votes cast by the audience members during the meeting:

  • Best Table Topic went to brave guest Mark for his topic about his (non) cooking skills
  • Best Evaluator went to Glen for evaluating all the topics
  • Best Speaker went to Hari for his speech about detoxing

The President’s discretionary award went to the PR team behind the meeting reports and website: Glen, Elena, Jo and Swarajit.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 4th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.