Meeting Report for 8 August 2011

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By Elena Fanaberova

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen Long who explained, for the benefit of guests, that Bloomsbury Speakers is part of a huge Toastmaster’s family which has 250,000 members across the world, emphasizing that it is a “learning by doing” environment because practice is absolutely the best way to get better.

Then he told us the personal story of having his mood lifted one rainy morning by seeing a grown man racing down a big hill on his bicycle shouting “wheeeee!”. He then invited everyone in the room to stand and ride their own imaginary bike down a hill with the same enthusiasm. The aim of regular practice of public speaking, he suggested, was to turn self-consciousness and nervousness into the fun and exhilaration of freewheeling down a big hill. Allowing everyone to sit back down, Glen then handed the meeting over to the evening’s Toastmaster Alex Goldsbrough.

Alex announced changes in the agenda and outlined the structure of the meeting. After that he introduced his helpers for the evening, the Timekeeper Adam Horne and the Grammarian Stella Meadows, who gave us the Word of the Day – “girdle” – and invited as many people to use it as possible.

Prepared Speeches

Well known to the club for his entertaining Table Topics speeches, Terry Freedman kicked off the prepared speeches by giving his ice breaker speech entitled “How Did We Get There?”. Terry shared with us his experience of a train trip to Venice, where he smelt the Mediterranean herbs as the sea and land glided past at 60 miles per hour. He observed that people these days tend to try to get somewhere as quickly as possible and often miss many special moments of travelling.

In his No.2 speech “Social Networking” Joe Lake tackled the topic of social networking from different points of view and asked if it was taking over our lives. In his conclusion, Joe decided that it is a force for good when used to build positive relationships as long as people also get to talk face to face on a regular basis!

In another No. 2 speech entitled “Social Proof – Revealing Truths” Karan Daswani discovered through his research that we tend to be influenced a lot more by what people around us say or do than by any facts. Karan also told a personal story about his brother who would not swim without his “Mr Duck” inflatable toy until he saw another boy do it, despite his parents attempts to convince for 3 months without success.

In his No.4 speech “The Best Years Of Your Life” Swarajit Das used great humour to tell stories from his school days, likening his experiences to a campaign of war! We heard how he had confronted a girl who terrorized him about his weight with some verbal terror of his own, and later how he had bought a top-of-the-range mobile phone to impress fellow pupils – only to discover there was no reception at the school!

Before the break, new member Ann Connolly did a fantastically warm job of leading the guest introductions, inviting new visitors to explain what had brought them to the meeting.

Evaluations

After the break Toastmaster Alex welcomed us back for the second part of the meeting and introduced the first evaluator, Femi Asaolu, who evaluated Terry’s ice breaker speech.

First of all Femi noted that the main objective of the ice breaker is simply to speak in front of the audience and Terry had met this soon after joining the club over a year ago with his numerous Table Topics! The second objective is to discover skills that a speaker already has and Femi commented that Terry already has a very good style of delivery and on the content side his language is very descriptive.

The next evaluator, Guy Smith, evaluated Joe Lake’s speech about social networking. Guy said that the structure of the speech was very good with a clear introduction, making his arguments in the middle, and finishing with an effective conclusion. He commended the use of rhetorical questions and effective use of statistics. Guy’s only recommendation was to put positive and negative arguments into separate chunks to reduce frequent changes between positives and negatives, which is more difficult to follow.

The third evaluator was Dave Longley. Evaluating Karan’s speech, Dave commented that fundamental objective of the speech No.2 is to organise one’s speech and Karen had certainly achieved that with his good structure. Dave also noted that Karen’s speech was well delivered and researched. Dave simply suggested expanding the eye contact to include the edges of the audience – not just the centre of it.

The last evaluator, Glen Long, evaluated Swarajit’s speech. Glen commended the great comic premise in Swarajit’s speech, his effective structure, and his good use of tone and hand gestures. Among his recommendations were suggestions to use a slightly more upbeat tone to offset some of the darker elements for comic effect, change the tone and pace to signpost the jokes and have a stronger conclusion that returned to the main theme.

Table Topics

Standing in at short notice as Topicsmaster, new member Neil Ward introduced the theme of job interviews and invited volunteer impromptu speakers to tell us why they were the best person to fill a number of interesting vacancies:

  • Adam said he would be ideal as the Head of European Space Agency because: he likes space, is the right build for an astronaut’s suit, and will get on well with all Europeans as he’s Australian!
  • Will made a strong case as a future Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police: he has always been interested in law and order (though not necessarily sticking to it!), has a short enough criminal record to get the job and would bring a lot of passion as he really likes London.
  • Ray, interviewing for the British Embassador to Iceland emphasised the value of having just six months experience in his current role (just enough apparently!), told us he knows more about finance than most Icelanders and has even been to Iceland recently!
  • Terry staked his claim on the job of Lady Gaga’s Business Manager saying he will ensure that everyone loves this singer as much as he does!
  • Karan, applying for job of Pelican Master General in Hyde Park explain how he admires these birds and how they fly, likes animals (he has had dogs, rabbits and other animals at home) and is good at organising things so the animals are well fed and taken care of.
  • Guy, trying to get the job of Royal Advisor to the Duke & Duchess of Cambridge, told us they were the perfect couple, that he had been the first person in the queue the day they got married, and also revealed that he has walls at home dedicated to them individually and as a couple!
  • Marty as a potential new CEO of Tesco said he had the right experience, having been CEO of Sainsburys for 3 years, would single-handedly revolutionize what people think about wine and would get employees who were happier and more ready to serve people.

Table Topics Evaluator Hari Kalymnios presented his evaluation of all seven impromptu speakers, doing a great job of pinpointing the strong sides of their speeches as well as indicating things that could have been better.

Grammarian Stella gave her report on the use of language in the meeting: the Word of the Day “girdle” was used in an appropriate context eight times, and she noted there were some great use of humour and colourful expressions, but she recommended that people watch their crutch words and phrases, such as “you know”, “ok”, and “erm”.

General Evaluator Jennifer Zou gave an evaluation for all those participants who had not yet been evaluated and this was followed by Glen as President bringing the meeting to a close with awards and announcements.

Awards and Announcements

Best Table Topics speech was awarded to Guy for his Royal Advisor application. Best Evaluator went to Dave for his evaluation of Karan’s speech. Best Speaker went to Karan for his speech about Social Proof. And the President’s discretionary award went to Neil for his first-time role as Topicsmaster.

Glen reminded attendees of the special Story Workshop being held on 5th September, and the club’s Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest on the 12th September.

The next meeting is Monday 22 August 2011 at The Lamb, 94 Lambs Conduit Street, London.

Meeting Report for 25 July 2011

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By Elena Fanaberova

Introduction

Club President Glen Long opened the meeting by welcoming new guests and explaining what Toastmasters is all about and how it works. Inspired by a book he had recently read called “Poke The Box” by Seth Godin, he encouraged the audience to use Toastmasters meetings as their opportunity to try something different and see what happens. After introducing new members Neil Ward and Ann Connolly he handed over to the evening’s Toastmaster Dave Longley.

Dave took over and outlined the agenda, followed by Karan Daswani, this evening’s Timekeeper, who explained the timing aspects when delivering speeches, and then by Adam Horne, this evening’s Harkmaster, who encouraged the audience to listen to the speakers carefully.

Prepared Speeches

New member Neil Ward gave his Icebreaker speech entitled “Entrepreneurship – The Willingness To Be Different”, describing his early entrepreneurial attempts at the age of seven, earning (then losing!) a million pounds in his mid-twenties and then talking about his future business plans.

In a No. 7 speech “Circle Of Influence” (which is focussed on researching your topic thoroughly) Todd Wade talked about our comfort zone and why some people tended to expand it while others tended to stay within it. He gave some useful tips for coping with the fear that often prevents the latter from being the former.

In another No. 7 speech entitled “The Importance Of Chewing Your Food”, Kate Osborne educated us in how important it is to chew our food properly in order to be healthy, explaining in detail what affects digestion and how to improve it.

Speech evaluations

After the break, Toastmaster Dave introduced the first prepared speech evaluator, Swarajit Das, who evaluated Neil’s Icebreaker speech. Swarajit underlined the strong points of Neil’s presentation, namely that he was already very confident speaking in front of the audience, his speech was detailed with a good chronological structure and he rounded up nicely. Swarajit suggested more eye contact with the audience and would have like to have heard more information about when Neil was (temporarily!) a millionaire.

The next evaluator was Glen Long. Evaluating Todd’s speech Glen noted his confident tone, command of the stage and “well-measured” speech delivery, all of which made it very easy to listen to. As a recommendation he said would have liked to have also heard a personal story in connection with the subject of the speech.

The last evaluator, Jennifer Zou, evaluated Kate Osborne’s speech. Jennifer commended a good choice of the topic and noted that Kate must have carried out a lot of research while preparing her speech. She also commended Kate’s very good body language and recommended using diagrams and other visual materials for better illustration of the subject.

Table Topics

The last part of the meeting was a Table Topics session. Joe Lake stepped up to the stage in the role as Topicsmaster and invited the audience to practise valuable impromptu speaking skills with a fun topic he had selected.

He asked us to imagine a situation where we wake up in the morning in a foreign place and find ourselves to be a completely different person.

What would we do that day?

  • First-time guest Andreas transformed himself into the Queen for one day.
  • Terry woke up as David Cameron and thought how he could change the world.
  • Guest Rupinder imagined himself as Kate Moss and spent one very active day shopping, meeting friends and partying.
  • Guest Saija woke up as Bugs Bunny and had a carrot picnic with friends.
  • Guest Jem woke up as David Beckham and enjoyed his family, children, friends and encouraged the audience to be creative in their own lives.
  • Neil woke up on a lost desert island with Jeremy Clarkson and tried to make the best of it.
  • Returning guest Amitoj woke up as Michael Winner and really got into the part.

Dave stepped up again – this time as Table Topics Evaluator – and gave very positive and useful recommendations to the participants and more general advice useful to all.

In his Harkmaster’s report Adam generously awarded good listeners with sweets for the right answers to his questions relating to the content of the evening.

General Evaluator Petra Jakubekova, the President of Riverside Communicators in Twickenham, said that she would recommend Bloomsbury Speakers to others as a very encouraging club and added that the meeting had started on time and praised Glen’s quick adaptation of the agenda in response to absences.

Awards

At the end of the meeting, president Glen gave out the awards based on votes from the audience. Neil was awarded his Icebreaker certificate for his brilliant first speech, the award for the best Table Topics Speaker was given to guest Saija, the award for the best Evaluator of the evening went to Jennifer, and the coveted best Speaker award went to Kate.

Next meeting

The next regular meeting is Monday 8th August 2011 – arrive from 6.30pm for a 6.45pm start.

Please note there is a change of venue due to refurbishments in the Rugby Tavern.

The new venue will be: Upstairs in The Lamb, 94 Lambs Conduit Street, London, WC1N 3LZ.

Meeting Report for 11 July 2011

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Introduction

The meeting was opened by incoming president Glen Long who first thanked his predecessor and club founder Nazia Soon for her hard work in establishing Bloomsbury Speakers and then gave an overview of the club for new guests (of which there were quite a few!). He then told the story of his own first visit to a Toastmasters club where he was hooked by a speech which was a “masterclass of content, structure and delivery”.

He shared his personal goal to help make Bloomsbury Speakers the best place in London to practice public speaking – and have fun at the same time! – before handing over to the evening’s Toastmaster Hari Kalymnios.

Taking the reins, Hari explained the format of the meeting – speeches, then evaluations, then impromptu speaking – plus a guide to the Toastmasters “CRC” approach to feedback, that is commend (something that was done well), recommend (something that could be improved), and then commend (something else).

He also asked us all to stand up and proceeded to teach us the basic mechanics of the hand clap but confessed it was partly because he had never received a standing ovation before!

Next he introduced our Timekeeper, Swarajit Das, who explained the importance of time in Toastmasters meetings and urged all participants to avoid making him use the gavel and thus “bring shame on themselves and their families”!

Then Todd Wade took the stage as Harkmaster and challenged everyone to pay close attention to all the speakers as he would be testing our listening skills at the end of the meeting. He also told a personal story of recently having to put his Toastmasters skills to the test when he had to speak in front of 150 people. He was very pleased to report that the confidence and skills he had learned saw him comfortably through the challenge.

Hari took the stage again and in his new capacity as VP of Mentoring explained the benefits our the mentoring programme giving us a preview of some new mentoring guides that he’d put together for existing and potential mentors.

Prepared speeches

The first speech was an ice breaker speech by one of the club’s newest members Joe Lake. In his speech “Lessons” Joe talked about having an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age and related several episodes including a very humorous tale about an early car washing business which unfortuately would always leave a dirty stripe at the top of the cars due to the small stature of its workers!

The next speech was another ice breaker, this time from our most recent member Karan Daswani. Telling the very dramatic story of his upbringing in Sierra Leone, Karan told us how his early experiences had fostered three important qualities that still serve him well: not accepting the status quo, a great sense of curiosity, and persistence in the face of challenges.

In a No. 5 speech (focussed on effective use of body language) Adam Horne invited us to join his “Working On Sunday Appreciation Society”. In a very humorous speech he attempted to convince us that heading to the office was the best way to pass the latter half of the weekend. His reasons? You get to wear what you like, you’re guaranteed a seat on the tube, and when you get into work, there’s no-one else there so you can turn the music up as loud as you like!

After Adam’s speech, past president Nazia Soon led the guest introductions inviting each person to tell us what had brought them to Bloomsbury Speakers that evening.

Speech evaluations

After a short and very precise (!) eight minute break, it was time for each of the three speakers to receive a formal evaluation from an existing member.

Femi Asaolu evaluated Joe’s ice breaker and reminded us what an important step the first speech is, quoting Woody Allen: “80% of success is just showing up!”. He felt that Joe had naturally adopted a good position in relation to the audience and commended him on a good choice of a chronological struture but he cautioned him against using “and” too often and instead recommended he try using other “connective” words.

Kate Osborne evaluated Karan’s ice breaker and started by commending his “confident stance” and added that she felt his hand gestures were “spot on”. She felt he made great use of humour and was impressed that he was already using the recommended “rule of three” structure. Her only recommendation was that he should put his notes to one side and refer to them as needed, rather than holding on to them throughout the speech.

Joyanta stepped up next to evaluate Adam’s speech and opened with a very encouraging rhetorical question: “Didn’t Adam do well?” He felt that Adam’s style was “concise, clear and approachable” and that his content was “well-structured”. He recommended that Adam tries to make more use of the space available and – since it was a speech about body language – to not be afraid to experiment with more exaggerated gestures.

Table topics

Following the evaluations, Todd stepped up again, this time in the role as Topicsmaster. He spoke briefly about the very valuable skill of being able to talk on a subject without preparation and introduced his own very inventive take on the session. He’d prepared several pieces of paper – each with the name of an animal – and invited volunteers to explain to the room why they thought that particular animal would soon be the dominant species on Earth.

In all an impressive eight people took up Todd’s challenge:

  • Glen tried to convince us that Parrots would prevail, since they were already showing a gift for language – an important skill for any dominant animal!
  • First-time guest Micah argued instead that Turtles would win the struggle for supremacy with the advantage of a protective shell and proven fighting skills as evidenced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
  • Fellow guest Neil entertained us with the notion that Kangaroos are already very similar to humans in many ways and felt strongly that they would soon kick us humans back into the Stone Age.
  • Nazia defended the humble but “much-maligned” Pigeon against accusations of being simply “flying rats” and championed the idea of these “beautiful birds” being a catalyst for world peace and unity!
  • Grant – another brave guest – had a clear three-point manifesto for the rise of the Chihuahua as evolutionary top dog: they’re man’s best friend, they’re cute and furry, and you can eat them if times get tough!
  • Mohammed put forward the case for the Elephant and recommended that we should take the opportunity to ride one if we ever get the chance – one presumes before they take over the world…
  • Femi played ambassador for the Penguin, using the fact that they mate of life as proof of their loyalty. Tackling Glen’s feathered species head-on, he said that although penguins were “a bit fishy and smelly” at least they weren’t always “mouthing off” like parrots.
  • Our final guest speaker Ann had the tough challenge of defending rats – difficult sincethey’re not even cute like chihuahuas she said. Dominant or not, she admitted that she did see rather a lot of them on the underground – but for some reason it was usually after she’d had a few drinks.

Henry Playfoot had quite a task in evaluating all eight speakers in a short amount of time but did a sterling job as usual.

He commended Glen on good humour and pace but wanted a stronger ending; he loved Micah’s warm smile but urged him to stay the distance; he thought that Neil had “great confidence” and was impressed by his “enormous kick” (kangaroo style); Nazia drew him in with her open gestures and had a great finish; Grant had a “fantasic opening” and a great nodding technique that had Henry nodding along with him; Mohammed had great authority and a gentle style; he was dazzled by Femi’s “1000 watt smile” which could apparently power a small principality; and finally he acknowledged Ann’s bravery in stepping forward despite nerves and felt she had made a great connection with the audience.

As General Evaluator, Simon Maggs (from MLP London Bridge Speakers) commended the club on its “feelgood factor” and gave a number of great recommendations to help the club to get even better.

Awards

Bringing his first meeting as president to a close, Glen announced the awards based on votes from the audience. He was simultaneously pleased and slightly embarrassed to announce that he’d won best Table Topic himself but revealed that Femi and his penguins had been a close second. Best evaluator went to Henry for his mammoth topics evaluation and the coveted Best Speaker award went to Karan for his Ice Breaker. The president’s discretionary award went to brand new guest Ann for bravery in the face of anxiety.

Our next meeting is on Monday 25th July, upstairs at the Rugby Tavern as usual. See you there!

Meeting Report for 27 June 2011

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Introduction

In her very last meeting as Club President, Nazia Soon opened with the great news that Bloomsbury had recently achieved Select Distinguished Club status – a great accomplishment for a relatively young club.

Describing Bloomsbury as small branch in the much larger Toastmasters family tree she she urged members to really push themselves to meet their communication goals – for some it could be the start of launching themselves into the “stratosphere of public speaking”.

She handed over to first-time Toastmaster Kate Osborne who did a fantastic job of explaining her role as meeting host and setting the tone for the evening. She said it was her responsibility to “keep the energy alive” in the room and to make sure all of the speakers received the warm welcome from the audience they deserved.

Kate congratulated Nazia for having built such a thriving club and introduced the theme of the evening – “What has changed in your life recently?”

Following Kate, the evening’s Timekeeper Terry Freedman opened his own introduction with the surprisingly existential question “why am I here?” before answering his own question – to keep everyone in the meeting to time! He explained the role and then with a cautionary flash of the feared gavel he returned to his seat to start timing the first prepared speech.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker was Glen Long, whose No. 6 speech “Stranger in a Strange Language” (concentrating on vocal variety) used humour to describe his various attempts to learn Spanish for a number of different trips abroad. A highlight was a glimpse into language learning 1970s style with Glen recreating an extract from a Linguaphone language cassette found in his parents’ loft.

Following Glen was Alex Goldsbrough with another No. 6 speech. “A Great Swim Outdoors” told the story of Alex’s recent introduction to outdoor swimming. Initially put off by London’s rather grotty selection of outdoor pools, Alex was lured by way of an altogether more upmarket sounding “lido” into 12 degree waters – considerably colder than he had braved previously.

In yet another No. 6 speech (we don’t have one for ages and then three come along at once!) Todd Wade introduced us to three social networks that he felt went way beyond either Facebook or Twitter in terms of their ability to change the world (or at least improve your life):

  • Busuu – a “crowd-sourced” language learning tools where you can hook up with native speakers to practice a new language, and help them out with English
  • Ushahidi – a platform for collaborative data collection and visualisation – e.g. mapping violence hotspots in Africa
  • Jolitics – a “political networking” platform allowing people to debate, vote and campaign about issues important to them

Our final speech was from club regular and advanced speaker Raj Jain who gave a prepared dramatic speech. In “Changes” Raj told the story of childhood love gone awry – the experience of being replaced in the affections of his favourite “girl” Sonu by a new arrival next door. A sad story indeed until he turned it on its head by revealing that his beloved Sonu was not human but canine!

Evaluations

After guest introductions led by Hari Kalymnios and a short break, the second half of the meeting kicked off with Joyanta Raksmith evaluating Glen’s speech.

He commended Glen on his choice of topic – even the title suggested many opportunities for vocal variety. His main recommendation was although this variety was demonstrated very effectively in the section where Glen played different roles, it could have benefited from more variety in other sections.

Evaluating Alex’s speech, Swarajit Das said particularly enjoyed Alex’s use of an internal monologue at the start of his speech with a corresponding shift in tone to pull us into his thought processes. His recommendations were that Alex adopted a more central position on the stage and made better use of breathing and pauses to minimise the occasional stumble.

Guy Smith evaluated Todd’s speech and admitted that for him, the idea of a speech about social networking and “crowd sourcing” was not particularly enticing, feeling it was a very dry subject. But he confessed he was soon proved wrong by Todd’s nuanced delivery which used tone to great effect to convey emotion and lead the audience. Guy recommended that Todd “showed off his language abilities” when discussing the language learning platform and also varied the pace of his delivery more throughout.

Henry commended Raj on his great presence – like a “young Elvis”! – and the very effective use of his now signature long pauses to build dramatic tension and draw the audience in. He cautioned Raj on his use of possibly contentious language but felt that overall the speech showed “huge economy and great delivery”.

Table topics

Moving to table topics, Topicsmaster Hari Kalymnios introduced a very inventive format for impromptu speaking. He had printed the front covers of several different books (some famous, some obscure) and invited volunteers to “sell” these books to the audience from the standpoint of being the book’s author or simply as an enthusiastic fan:

  • Dave Longley enthusiastically extolled virtues of Internet for Dummies by way of Jeremy Clarkson
  • Guy Smith explained “How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend” by starting with a jazz odyssey that ended up on a Hollywood film set
  • Douglas Williams told us how he had made mistakes in his life but “turned his mess into a message” with his cautionary tale “The Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter”
  • Brand new member Joe Lake had to convince us that “The Da Vinci Code” was worth a read, but cleverly feigned amnesia and asked us to tell him what it was all about
  • And finally guest Karan told us about Guinea Dog – the tale of a guinea pig who thought it was a dog and on stage he made a most convincing author

As stand-in Topics Evaluator, Glen Long commended Dave on his enthusiastic delivery but cautioned against using paper as a crutch; he thought that Guy had a slightly surreal start but gave a great demonstration of the power of a strong ending; he loved Douglas’s improvised “Mess to Message” but suggested he resisted a tendency to creep forward; he felt Joe also finished strongly and recommended an early choice of “angle” and to stick to it; and he felt Karan had a great stance and showed confidence but recommended he fully embrace the conceit of the topic.

General evaluation

Douglas Williams from Northern Lights in Camden gave a very positive general evaluation and said he’d be delighted to come back. He commended Bloomsbury on beng very organised and welcoming. His main recommendation was that we try to fill the room from the front so there were fewer gaps in the audience.

When it became time for the award-giving, the prize for best speaker went to Todd for his speech on social networks, best evaluator to Henry for his critique of Raj’s dramatic speech, and best table topic to Guy for his tall Hollywood tale. Well done all!

Awards and announcements

With the meeting almost over, it was time for Nazia to hand over to the brand new committee: Kate Osborne (remaining as Secretary), Swarajit Das (Treasurer), Dave Longley (VP Education), Hari Kalymnios (VP Mentoring), Fabrizio Palmucci (absent but VP Membership), Adam Horne (Sergeant at Arms) and Glen Long (President).

Glen thanked Nazia for her hard work and dedication in building up the club from nothing and presented her with an engraved crystal decanter on behalf of the club.

The next meeting is Monday, 11 July, upstairs at the Rugby Tavern as usual.

Meeting Report for 13 June 2011

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Introduction

Club President Nazia Soon opened the meeting with a reminder that Toastmasters is an “experiential” learning environment – it’s all about learning by doing. She gave a topical example from the world of tennis – that Andy Murray didn’t get good at the sport just by reading about it!

As the evening’s Toastmaster, Alex Donald introduced the theme of “injustice” and spoke about his personal view that it was injust that so many young people left education without reaching acceptable standards of numeracy and literacy, or being able to communicate effectively. Perhaps the curriculum should include more elements from Toastmasters he ventured!

Passing to a fellow Alex, he introduced Alex Goldsbrough as timekeeper who explained the purpose of the role – to keep all the speakers to time. He explained how he felt his timekeepers’ stopwatch was a symbol of the forthcoming Olympics – an event for which he had singularly failed to get tickets. He promised to channel his frustration into his timekeeping and use the gavel without mercy for those speakers who overran their allotted time.

Despite the Toastmasters “rule of three” almost demanding the appearance of a third Alex, we instead were met with Adam Horne in his role as Harkmaster. Adam invited us all to listen carefully to the meeting as he would be testing this at the end and rewarding good listening.

Prepared speeches

Toastmaster Alex then introduced the first speaker, club stalwart Henry Playfoot, who took as his subject – breakfast and its myriad possibilities. For Henry, the very first meal of the day afforded a great sense of freedom and he painted a vivid picture of key stages in his life via the breakfasts that had characterised them.

Our second speaker was a visiting member from another Toastmasters club, Jennifer Zou, who delivered an advanced speech focused on storytelling. Jennifer treated us to the story of St Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, an enchanting tale excellently told whose moral was that sometimes it is better to befriend your enemy than to fight him!

Our third speech was another advanced speech, this time from club regular and recent international speech contest finalist Raj Jain. In Giving Effective Feedback, Raj gave numerous useful tips including a powerful reminder that the overriding responsibility of the evaluator is to provide feedback that will be helpful to the speaker. He warned us against losing sight of this, perhaps by trying to entertain the audience, or even by using the evaluation as an opportunity to deliver a mini speech of our own.

Evaluations

After the break, each of the speeches was discussed by an evaluator, no doubt with Raj’s wise words still ringing in their ears!

Hari Kalymnios evaluated Henry’s breakfast-inspired speech, commending Henry on his use of language and fluid delivery and confessing that he himself found it quite hypnotic. He also commended Henry on his natural gestures and body language but cautioned him not to allow them to distract from the verbal elements of the speech.

Next, Kate Osborne gave a very confident evaluation of Jennifer’s children’s story which she found “extremely entertaining” and “great for adults too”. She loved Jennifer’s smile and use of vivid language but invited her to use more vocal variety.

Thirdly, Glen Long took on the task of evaluating Raj’s advanced speech on giving feedback. He was impressed by Raj’s confident introduction which had included various improvisations to incorporate elements from the evening itself. Glen also commended Raj on his insightful and helpful tips but challenged him to keep an eye on maintaining an even tone throughout.

Table topics

As Table Topicsmaster, Swarajit Das challenged willing volunteers to speak for 1 to 2 minutes on some challenging topics of his choosing, including:

  • Should premiership footballers have the right to keep their extramarital affairs out of the newspapers?
  • Should the rich be taxed more to help the poor?
  • Are human rights more important than animal rights?

As Table Topics evaluator, Nazia had praise and pointers for all participants…

She commended Todd for his great presence and booming voice but felt his speech ended a little too abruptly. She commended Fabrizio’s philosophical view of his topic and his “valiant attempt” at a rule of three. Returning guest Joe gave a “balanced view” but Nazia encouraged him to share eye contact with both sides of the room.

Nazia liked the way that Dave took control of the stage, paused a moment to pick his subject then “just went with it”. Michael’s speech was confident and humorous but she invited him to keep his eyes on the audience rather than the floor. Hari made a good argument but could also have benefitted from sharing his eye contact around the room more. And Mehnaz developed a considered response but Nazia felt it was a little short – she would have liked to hear more.

Other reports

Returning as Harkmaster, Adam tested our listening skills with a series of questions and rewarded correct answers with chocolate – many going to a particularly attentive Hari!

Carlos Johnson from Broadgate Speakers provided a general evaluation, giving some useful hints for improving the club and also providing evaluations for all those participants not yet evaluated. He said it had been very interesting for him to witness the progress of this “Holborn offshoot” and commended Bloomsbury on its “unique style”.

Awards

Bringing the meeting to close, Nazia handed out the evening’s awards, based on votes cast throughout the meeting by the audience. Best Table Topics Speaker was awarded to our guest Michael, Best Evaluator to Kate, and coveted Best Speech award went to Henry. The President’s discretionary award went to Alex Donald for his performance as the evenings Toastmaster.

Next meeting

The next meeting is at 6.45pm on Monday 27 June at our normal venue – upstairs at the Rugby Tavern.