Meeting Report for 22 October 2012

/in /by

Introduction

With one new member giving an Ice Breaker speech, two members of the club jointly receiving the Best Evaluator award and a general theme of “Simple Pleasures”, it was another enjoyable and well-attended meeting at The Clerk & Well pub.

Henry piloted the meeting in the role of Toastmaster and was assisted by Grammarian Carrie and Timekeeper Steven who oversaw good use of language and time management respectively and reported back to the audience on their findings.

Prepared speeches

New member of the club Eugenia gave her Ice Breaker speech “How Did I Get Here?” in which she compared herself to a dog from a Russian children’s rhyme where at the beginning of a journey the dog is tiny whereas by the end of the journey had changed completely. Eugenia related those transitions to those in her own life: a new language, a new hairstyle and her personality.

In his No. 3 speech “Big City Disconnect” Wayne shared his concern that slow walkers and unexpected interruptions on the street can be extremely annoying, especially on the way to work. One occurrence had forced him to change his mind, however, and consider that it might be him that needs help.

Michael presented his No. 4 speech “Corporate Relations” where he stated that there is no divorce in business between related companies and suggested three reasons why it is so: trust, openness and understanding.

Swarajit gave a PowerPoint presentation for his No. 7 speech entitled “Carbon”. As usual he started the speech with great humour and then gave a detailed overview of the structure and chemical characteristics of carbon and where it can be found in our lives.

Speech evaluations

Joe evaluated Eugenia’s Ice Breaker speech and commended her great posture and animated body language which were in congruence with the story, her use of the whole stage and her brilliant personality and humour. Joe recommended Eugenia work on her voice projection so that people at the back of the room could hear her speech as well.

Evaluating Wayne’s human disconnection speech, Ahmed reminded us of the purpose of the project – to get to the point – and praised the strong opening, body and conclusion of the speech which were related to one another. Ahmed’s recommendation for Wayne was to try not to use notes in the future.

Janet evaluated Michael’s corporate relations speech. She had seen a confident man, well grounded with very good hand gestures. She had also heard a sincere and honest man who called on his audience to be more mature and take responsibility for what they do. However Janet would have liked to have seen a bit more movement on stage.

Elena evaluated Swarajit’s speech about “the bad boy of Mendeleev’s periodic table”. She praised Swarajit’s passion for science, his very thorough research and clear presentation using PowerPoint. However in Elena’s opinion the speech could be improved by making more eye contact with the audience.

Table Topics

Christopher stepped in to perform the Topics Master role of the evening. His “Food” theme added a lot of fun for the participants as well as for the audience as a whole. Regular members and guests tackled the appetite-stimulating questions:

  • What is your favourite restaurant in London?
  • What is the food that makes you most happy?
  • What food reminds you of your childhood?
  • Is meat murder?
  • What is the most unusual food you have had?
  • Who has the better food: Britain or France?

Awards

Closing the meeting the club President Femi gave out the awards based on the audience votes cast during the evening and one special President’s award.

The certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster – went to Eugenia.

The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to Jo for her “favourite local restaurant” topic.

The Best Evaluator award was shared between Janet for her evaluation of Michael’s No. 4 speech and Jason for his Table Topics evaluation.

The Best Speaker award went to Wayne for his successful No. 3 speech.

The President’s discretional award went to Christopher for his interesting Table Topics section.

Next meeting

Next Monday, 29th October 2012 is our Evaluation Workshop hosted by Chris Boden, UK & Ireland Contest Champion 2011 at our usual venue, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub.

Our next regular meeting is an extra one on Monday, 5th November 2012, again upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road,London,EC1R 5BX.

Meeting Report for 8 October 2012

/in /by

Written by Elena.

Introduction

With a brand new member giving her Ice Breaker speech, the visiting General Evaluator taking the Best Table Topic award and everyone benefiting from insightful speech evaluations, it was another great meeting.

The Toastmaster was Kaveh (from our sister club Holborn Speakers) who hosted the meeting under the theme: “What would you do if money was not an object” He was supported by Grammarian Henry and Timekeeper Saija who gave short introductions to their roles.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker of the evening, Bronia, gave her Ice Breaker speech entitled “Human Rights Campaigning”. Born in France, she told us about her childhood memories relating to her grandmother, who told great stories about the Second World War. Bronia shared that she had joined Toastmasters to practise public speaking for a human rights campaign project.

Next speaker Steven presented No. 2 speech entitled “The Joker in the Pack” in which he discussed the role of jokers throughout history and what we can learn from them. From one point of view a Joker is a man who is a famous comic. Shakespeare’s “King Lear” describes a fool boy who advised powerful people but whose death was consequently very probable. At the conclusion of the speech Steven encouraged the audience to be a bit of Joker themselves and to give honest recommendations with humour or love.

In No. 3 speech entitled “The Bliss of Ignorance” Christopher told the audience about his journey from ignorance (when he was a lot happier) to enlightenment – from arrogance to gaining more social responsibility. Christopher confessed he did not have a master plan to change Britain’s current poverty statistics, but he was very passionate about being part of the change, realising how fortunate he was compared to others.

The last speaker, who stepped in last minute, was Janet with her speech No. 5 entitled “The Future of Work”. While others seemed to think that the future of work being more creative, she felt that work needed to be more human. Every company should have: a pair of eyes to see and encourage talents, ears which would be able to hear good ideas and valuable feedback, and a mouth which would speak wisely. Janet concluded the speech with the phrase: “The future of work does not exist, the future of work is now!”.

Speech evaluations

Evaluating the Ice Breaker speech Michael commended Bronia’s good presentation and great storytelling skills, her good opening and conclusion. He recommended that she concentrate more on the main details and to avoid distracting descriptions.

Jason evaluated Steven’s Jokers speech. He reminded us of the main objective of the No. 2 speech – to organise your speech. Jason liked the beginning when Steven had discussed duality of the Joker, his great use of free-flowing humour and his very engaging smile. Jason would have liked to have seen more clear points in the speech.

Joe evaluated Christopher’s No. 3 speech. He praised Christopher’s enthusiasm and jokes at the beginning of the speech which were very captivated, very good structure of the speech,visual metaphor descriptions and a call to action. However, he noticed that the lectern had created a barrier which prevented full engagement.

Glen gave a thorough evaluation of Janet’s very creative speech. He complimented her on very natural body language which helped emphasise the points and reinforce the speech. He also liked the brilliant metaphor of making a company more human by giving it human attributes like a pair of eyes, a mouth, etc. In Glen’s opinion the speech could have benefited from a clearer transition from introduction to main body.

Table Topics

Topics Master of the evening was Swarajit who took on the role of potential employer and interviewed topics participants by asking them the following questions:

  • You are being interviewed for the job of your dreams – why should we hire you?
  • What is more important: status or salary?
  • What is the worst job you ever had?
  • Are women or men better bosses?
  • What is your biggest weakness?

Awards

Closing the meeting the club President Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one special President’s award.

The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to General Evaluator David (like Kaveh, also a member of Holborn Speakers).

The Best Evaluator award was given to Joe for his evaluation of Christopher’s Enlightenment speech.

The Best Speaker award went to Janet for her brilliant “Future of Work” speech.

The President’s discretional award went to Swarajit for his job on filling in the evening’s agenda and last minute stepping in as Topics Master.

Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest

Bloomsbury Speakers is hosting the Area 34 final of these contests on Monday, 15th October, 2012. Please come along to support Glen and David who are representing Bloomsbury against other local clubs. Venue and start time are the same as our regular meetings below.

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 22nd October 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX. Arrive from 6.30pm for a 6.45pm start.

Extra meeting

We’ve had a lot of new members since we re-opened our membership and to help people get going on their speeches and other roles we’ve added a new meeting – Monday, 5th November, 2012, in the normal place at the normal time.

Book your roles in ClubPlan now!

Meeting Report for 24 September 2012

/in /by

Written by Elena.

Introduction

With a guest (visiting from London Athenians club in Hammersmith) taking the Best Topics speaker award and a regular member winning best speaker for a speech about the mystery surrounding Shakespeare’s life, it was another great meeting.

The evening was hosted by past club Secretary and experienced member Kate. Having greeted everyone upon arrival, she went through the evening’s agenda under the theme “The Future of Work”. Grammarian Wayne and Timekeeper Carrie provided functionary support by overseeing good use of language and time management respectively.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker Marco spoke passionately about his subject – Politics in Italy – in a No. 2 speech entitled “Politics or Antipolitics”. He described the background, current political situation in Italy and attempted to solve the dilemma whether future government of Italy should be political or technical. In the conclusion of the speech he stated – it does not have to be as it is!

Ahmed gave his No. 5 speech “Soul/Funk Music – Yesterday and Today”. He explained that soul music comes from America and Ray Charles had been a pioneer in this genre of music during the 1950s. It was also very popular in the 1960s when Ahmed first learned about soul music from his uncle and he has kept passion for this kind of music since then.

Jo presented a well-researched speech No. 7 entitled “Good Will Hunting” about a “mystery” writer – William Shakespeare. She revealed that there are no genuine portraits of Shakespeare or even a written description of what he had looked like. Also, signatures show six different spellings of his name, there is no diary or letters to find out more about his life, and no record (except one) of him speaking his own voice. She also argued that Shakespeare’s language had been very innovative as he had invented 2000 words that we still use.

Joe persuaded the audience to change their attitude to work in his No. 9 speech entitled “This Means Work”. He provided three tips how to do that: to find meaning in your work, work hard (like competitors in the Paralympics) and follow your heart (like Richard Branson). At the end of the speech Joe invited the audience to work hard to help overcome the current economic recession.

Speech evaluations

Angela evaluated Marco’s speech about the Italian political system. She “approbated” (word of the day: approbation = praise) his very clear message, his use of a picture from a newspaper with jokes to enhance it, relaxed pace and natural body language. Angela noticed that speech could have been improved by working on voice projection.

Steven started his evaluation of Ahmed’s soul/funk music speech by stating what Ahmed had done well – equally distributed eye contact throughout the audience so everyone felt engaged, a chronologically organised speech making it easier to understand, and the use of hand gestures to add some comedy effect. In Steven’s opinion sometimes unnecessary movements distracted the audience from the main message.

Evaluating Jo’s Shakespeare speech Christopher pointed out the subject was very engaging and Jo had collected a lot of interesting facts including statistical data. Christopher particularly liked Jo’s description of Mr Fisher (her teacher) and the finale of the speech. The only recommendation was to use the stage a bit more.

The last evaluator Glen evaluated Joe’s persuasive speech about working hard. He commended Joe’s very supportive body language, great eye contact with the audience and the use of rhetorical devices. His main recommendation was to add a call to action at the end to make the speech more powerful.

Table Topics

The Topics Master for the evening was Elena, who prepared interesting and challenging questions for volunteers within the theme “Back to School”. She asked the audience to play the role of a class of 4 to 5 year olds who are “a bit naughty” and ask the teacher lots of questions. Each Table Topics speaker played the role of the teacher who was to teach the children on a given subject and deal with any disruptions and questions.

This evening we had science lessons about:

  • British woodland habitants
  • A comparison of wild cats and domestic cats
  • How do humans differ from animals?
  • Animals found in your back garden
  • Animals with spots
  • A day in the life of a monkey!

Awards

Closing the meeting the club President Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening.

The Best Evaluator award was given to Glen for his evaluation of Joe’s speech. The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to the guest from London Athenians Speakers Mendora for her Wild vs Domestic Cats Table Topic, and the Best Speaker award went to the club Secretary Jo for her well-researched speech about Shakespeare.

The President’s discretional award went to Elena for the successful Table Topic section.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday, 8th October 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

Contest Report – 10 September 2012

/in /by

It was standing room only at the 2012 Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest on Monday evening at The Clerk & Well.

Introduction

The contests were introduced by Carrie who set the scene and explained the format of the evening for the benefit of everyone present.

The first half would be the Humorous Speech section with seven contestants giving prepared humorous speeches and the second half would be the Table Topics section – with eight contestants giving impromptu responses to a mystery question.

Swarajit in his role as Contest Chair welcomed us to the “very special meeting” and explained some of the formalities surrounding contests. He also encouraged everyone to give the contestants as much support as possible with lots of applause.

Humorous Speeches

The first speaker was Christopher – fresh from success with his recent best man’s speech – with a speech entitled “The Real You – The Do’s and Don’t’s of Exposing Yourself”. He tackled the gnarly subject of how much of your true personality should you reveal to a new girlfriend or boyfriend and how soon?

The second speaker was Ratan with his “Father of the Bride Speech” from his daughter’s recent wedding. Ratan gave a touching and humorous account of his relationship with his new son-in-law and shared fond memories of his daughter growing up.

The third speaker was Renars with “Fitness Today – How Insane!” and he came dressed to impress in a striking costume – think 1980s fitness instructor! In a very animated and amusing speech he gave us his insight into the three types of exercise regime we might encounter: army-style conditioning classes, body combat or beach bootcamp.

Michael was our fourth speaker with a speech entitled “The Great Fire of Hillbury Road”. Michael shared the humorous story of the time his in-laws offered to help him build a large fire in his back garden. With a heady mix of contrasting personalities it’s perhaps not surprising that things got out of control!

David was the fifth speaker with his emotionally-charged and energetic speech “I’ve Lost My Security Pass”. David’s boss has asked him to do one simple thing – send an important email by 9.15am – but David is challenged by late trains, packed lifts and – of course – a lost security pass.

Joe was the sixth speaker with his speech “Bad Drivers”. Joe loves driving but he’s on a mission to identify and eliminate the 5% of drivers whose bad driving can make the roads a misery for everyone else. If you’re a middle lane driver – watch out – Joe’s got you in his sights.

Glen was the seventh speaker with his speech “The Rise and Fall of a Bokashi Master”. Glen revealed himself as a fanatical recycler and described his attempts to recycle his leftover food with Bokashi – a Japanese-style of home composting.

Tables Topics

Opening the second half of the meeting, Swarajit shared a personal story where his experience with Table Topics at Toastmasters had paid off in the real world. That day he’d attended the London 2012 Parade and had been interviewed by a Sky News reporter.

He then introduced the Table Topics contest, where each contestant was required to give a 1-2 minutes response to the same question:

“In your opinion what is the greatest invention ever made, or yet to be made?”

Contestants were brought in the room one by one to speak, so that everyone had the same amount of time – just a few seconds – to think about their answer before speaking.

Each contestant tackled the topic in a distinct way:

  • David felt that the world’s greatest invention would be different for everyone – for his daughter it’s hair tongs but for him it’s his Flymo
  • Ratan believed that the greatest invention not yet invented is something to help control the butterflies he feels when speaking
  • Joe felt the best invention was the whoopee cushion for its ability to take people back to their childhood – particularly when you put one under your boss’s chair
  • For Chris the greatest invention was the Tazer gun for its ability to stop the bad guys without causing permanent harm. In fact he felt that they should be made available to the general public!
  • Renars thought that the railway was the greatest invention with its ability to transport goods more easily and promote tourism
  • Glen decided the greatest invention would have to enrich people’s lives, be available to everyone and make us happy and came to the conclusion that the answer was Guinness.
  • In Paula’s view the greatest invention ever was the juicer. Who needs cows, pigs or chickens when you can turn raw fruit and vegetables into nutritious liquid food?
  • Jo felt that best invention would be a device which could freeze time so she could come up with the perfect answer with the help of Google and a glass of red wine

The Results

When all the contestants had spoken, club president Femi took the opportunity to thank all of the judges and those others who had helped to make the contest happen. This also gave the Chief Judge Jakub time to compile and double-check the results!

On returning to the room Jakub said he felt he had the best job – because he got to know the results before anyone else!

With “drumrolls” provided by the audience, Jakub announced the winners of the Table Topics contest: David was first, Ratan was second and Paula came third.

He then announced the winners of the Humorous Speech contest: Glen came first, David was second and Renars was third.

This year the top two places will go on to compete at Area level, so Glen and David will go on to represent the club for the Humorous Speech contest and David and Ratan for the Table Topics contest.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is back to the regular format and is at the normal venue: 6.30pm upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Meeting Report for 20 August 2012

/in /by

Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

With one new member giving his Ice Breaker speech, all participants receiving constructive feedback and a mixture of humour with a general theme of crime and punishment, it was another great meeting.

At the beginning of the meeting, the club’s President Femi welcomed all members and guests and encouraged everyone to “practice, practice, practice!” giving feedback because that in itself is a very important skill.

The Toastmaster of the evening was VP of Education Swarajit, who injected a lot of humour into the meeting along the general theme of Crime and Punishment. He was supported by two functionaries who ensured good use of language and time respectively: Past President and Grammarian Glen and Timekeeper Ahmed.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker of the evening was Marco, who presented his Ice Breaker speech entitled “Holistic Wellbeing”. He familiarised the audience with different holistic techniques: therapy, massage, metamorphosis and laughing yoga, giving clear explanations of what each meant and the benefits of using them.

The next speaker, Carrie, delivered her speech No. 3 “Checking Out” in which she told us why, in her opinion, Facebook has gone too far. She shared her own Facebook experience, starting in 2006 when she joined that network with her student-friends, up to deactivating her account six years later.

Janet gave her speech No. 4 entitled “The Cave”. She relayed to the audience a personal story about how her daughter had asked her: “What is the Holocaust and how come so many Jewish people died?” Not having a short, easy answer for that, Janet presented a parable “The Cave” (originally told by Socrates in 400 BC) to help her daughter get some idea.

The evening’s last speaker, Elena, performed her speech No. 6 “Nightmare Driving” about the completely different driving style in her hometown of Samara, Russia. She told (and showed some pictures) about road conditions, how road regulations were ignored by drivers and the complete inactivity of the police!

Speech evaluations

Jason gave an evaluation of Marco’s Ice Breaker speech. He acknowledged the good structure of the speech, which systematically covered each part of the therapy, and the fact that it wrapped up on time. Jason also commended Marco’s very calm, well-measured delivery. However he would have liked to have heard a more personal take on this topic, relating it to Marco’s life.

Angela evaluated Carrie’s speech and noted that she came up on stage very confidently and continued with a clear voice, good pace and eye contact. Angela also commended Carrie’s good preparation and research of the speech, especially the statistical data. The only recommendation was to not rely as much on notes in the future.

Michael, evaluating Janet’s speech, acknowledged the clarity and conciseness of the speech and its original structure in giving so vivid an answer to her daughter. Michael suggested making a more effective conclusion to the speech by bringing it back to her daughter’s question.

Paula evaluated Elena’s speech. She praised the volume and pace of delivery of the speech, the descriptive language and rhetorical questions. Paula recommended making more pauses for better dramatic effect.

Table Topics

Topics Master of the evening was Sajia, who continued Swarajit’s theme for the meeting and suggested some questions based on the classic novel Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky:

  • Define for the audience the word “Crime”.
  • If you were able to send somebody somewhere as a punishment,where would that be?
  • Have you or could you ever love a criminal?
  • Is there any crime, big or small, that you would like to confess tonight?

Awards

Closing the meeting, Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and also the certificate for successful completion of the Ice Breaker speech – an important step in Toastmaster’s programme – to Marco.

The Best Evaluator award was given to Jason for his evaluation of Marco’s Ice Breaker. The Best Table Topics Speaker award went to recently-returned member James for his ‘confessed crime’ Table Topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Janet for her fantastic speech.

The President’s discretional award went to Saija for her very successful hosting of the Table Topics section of the meeting.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is our Humorous Speech & Table Topics contest on Monday, 10th September 2012,upstairs at The Clerk and Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.