Meeting Report for 1 December 2014

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Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 1st December 2014 with a very short but energetic and upbeat introduction from President Jo.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Ahmed, our seasoned member, awarded with the title of Competent Communicator, who dutifully explained the structure of the agenda and the procedures, such as filling up evaluation slips following commendation-recommendation-commendation format, shaking hands with the Toastmaster and supporting the speakers with warm and loud applause – and why we do that.  The theme of the Night was about our favourite jobs, which we haven’t got (yet).

Ahmed introduced functionaries of the day: Peter F. the Timekeeper (who wanted to become a CEO in the local government authority but thought it wasn’t such a great idea as he might have to deal with corruption and he decided not pursue it). Peter L. told us a story about the time and space that only God and His providence know which Time and Space is right for us. He gave an example of a poor family, which invested all of its money into tickets and missed their travel on Titanic going to the promised Land.   Bronia, the Grammarian offered a language device of the day – a rhetorical device of a dramatic pause, which is known as ellipsis – as an alternative and as a way to deal with ums and ahs.  

There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Egor in his Speech No. 5 entitled “Get Into Jeans” told us some fascinating and not very well known facts from the history of jeans and what accounts for their good quality, such as the country of origin of the cotton, quality of fibre, technology of production, durability, and washability. We all learnt something, which we would not learn if Egor didn’t tell us that evening.

Joe (whose favourite job was a tennis player, and he is currently a tennis coach) delivered Advanced Speech No. 7 entitled “Mind Over Matter” about managing emotions through meditation. Under pressure it is better to act rational. The Goliath, the emotional side, takes over the David, the rational part of the brain, which inhibits top performance. There is a battle between emotional and rational brains. Meditation slows down the brain waves to alpha-brain waves, which are more conducive to creativity. It also lowers blood pressure and eventually makes the cortex part of the brain thicker in people who meditate. If we meditate 5 minutes a day we will feel the difference in twenty days. And he taught us some meditation technique and belly breathing. You simply should have been there to know more!!!     

Carrie (who wanted to be a teacher) delivered her speech No. 10 “Finding Your Own Truth”. Carrie told us about a psychological experiment from University of Yale, which shows that people’s sensitivity to other people’s pain level is quite low, and the majority of people are not compassionate to another person’s pain especially when we are framed up to conform the pattern of the majority. This lead Carrie to extrapolating the same idea to her own life and see how it could affect her values. Conformity and obedience especially in the work situation where we conform to the majority may result in a situation where one is liked by everyone else apart from oneself, which is sad.  If we remove the social context would we do something differently? Carried made all of us think together with her. Options available to us being happy are about being congruent and preserving integrity rather than conforming to others. Be acquainted with your true values, called Carrie upon us. She finalised her speech with a quote from Henry David Thoreau, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth”. Carried earned loud and warm applause.

Swarajit performed the role of Sergeant At Arms and welcomed guests giving them an opportunity to introduce themselves.

Evaluations

Evaluations were started by Svetlana (who wants to become a professional speaker without use of notes) who gave a candid and well-rounded evaluation of Egor’s speech, followed by Jo (who is curious about working as a retired person); Jo’s evaluation of Joe’s speech was thorough with commendations and tips for improvement. Hari (who wanted to be in the World Cup) provided constructive, detailed evaluation and advice for improvement. All evaluations were peppered with light-hearted humour and interrupted with laughter quite a few times.

Table topics session conducted by Peter L. (who would like to be a philosopher) was devoted to theme of work.

“Pros and cons of working at home” went to Rui. He said that pros are plenty in theory, such as spending all day in pyjamas and chatting on Skype. In practice, small kids would be bothering their daddy with questions, cats would fight, dogs would dig in the garden all of which would demand a lot of attention and distract him, so he wouldn’t work from home if he had a choice.

“Finding a job for your uncle’s fat cat in the company” went to Luce, who described all possible kinds of personalities, intellect, and character of a cat, which needed to be tested, before assigning a cat a job. Catching spiders would be the first job; the second job would be to welcome visitors.

“What is the most dreadful job, which you would never do?” went to Helen. She described her most dreadful job as the one where colleagues to do not understand what is required to do.

“What a bad job can you give to your former boss?” was answered by Swarajit. He started his speech with saying that it is a very English thing to pay back in kind and would take an immense pleasure out of that and live a British dream.

“What is your idea of a whole day job interview, which you could offer the candidates?” went to Svetlana who would give the candidates various tasks and exercises, such as brain storming, group work, presentations as well as more controversial assignments to test various qualities of character.

“Would you take a job of a vampire hunter?” went to Stella who said she would use dramatic pause to give herself time to think the question over. And then she told a mystical story of how a vampire was caught in the Caribbean resort where she had her vacation.

Tracey (who wants to be a green peace campaigner) provided a constructive evaluation of Table Topics speakers’ with lots of commendations and useful recommendations.

Grammarian Bronia’s report was an enjoyable account of dramatic pauses and many other language devices used by all speakers throughout the night.

It was followed by General Evaluation from Mustapha Hanafi, VPE of MLP London Bridge Speakers, who provided a lot of very helpful recommendations along with commendations on friendliness, warm welcome and good organisation.

Awards

Competent Communicator Ribbon was handed to Carrie; best table topic speaker awards went to Stella and Helen; best evaluator award went to Hari; and best prepared speech award went to Carrie!!!

Next meeting

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

Meeting report for 22 July 2013

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Introductions

President Swarajit welcomed guests and members to the meeting and spoke about the benefits of visiting other clubs in order to get experience in front of an unfamiliar audience. He also mentioned that the first meeting of Bloomsbury’s sister club Clerkenwell Speakers had taken place and encouraged members to visit it for themselves.

The Toastmaster Henry commended people for attending despite the hot weather. He spoke about the format for the meeting and introduced his theme – decisions – telling his own story of how a reluctant decision to go out for a drink led to him meeting his partner and now mother of his three children.

Timekeeper Liz talked us through the green, amber and red light system for timing speeches and ended with a quote: “a man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life” – Charles Darwin.

The Grammarian, Helen, introduced the word of the day as “ineffable” and also gave a number of examples of rhetorical devices that speakers could use via quotes from her favourite films.

Prepared Speeches

In his second speech, entitled “Stress”, Peter told the story of an illness in 2005 that gave him gout, diabetes and caused a large weight gain. He explained how he had sought alternatives to drugs which were effective but caused many side effects and educated us in the three-pronged approach of visualisation, habitualisation and meditation.

In his No. 3 speech entitled “Procrastination” Michael told us that Shakespeare’s Hamlet was one of the great procrastinators. In fact his famous “To be or not to be” speech was really a delaying tactic we were told. In a very practical speech he told us about the reasons for procrastination and offered some solutions. He also told us about his friend who had painted his entire house in the final week of his MA to avoid studying!

Samuel’s No. 6 speech “Rabbits and Spiders” told of his fascination with stories from his childhood in Malawi, particularly those involving rabbits and spiders. He went on to tell a story called “Storytelling” about Anansi the spider who wanted to buy all the stories in the world from the sky god, who demanded three offerings.

In an advanced speech concerned with “Speaking to Inform” and entitled “From The Heart” Harry presented the results of his research into the causes and preventative measures for heart disease. He shared a personal story of a friend who had suffered a heart attack early in life and shared the four components of an approach proposed by pioneering specialist Dean Ornish which could not only arrest but in fact reverse heart disease: Diet, Exercise, Stress Reduction, Loving Support. In the second part of his speech Hari handled questions from the audience.

Evaluations

Kate thought Peter’s speech was very high standard for a number 2 speech. She commended him on how he felt at home on the stage, great smile,  confidence and delivered an engaging speech.

Carrie who evaluated Michael, loved the way he framed his speech with a quote “To be or not to be” and linked it to the whole speech and was recommended to include more personal experiences.

Ahmed, in evaluating Samuel’s No. 6 speech commended him on a great stage presence and good story telling skills however in conclusion he recommended Samuel uses more vocal variety.

Glen evaluated Hari’s advanced speech. He commended the way he had weaved his research into the other elements of his speech and recommended he employ a wider variety of hand gestures.

Table Topics

Table Topicsmaster for the evening was Rajeev who took his inspiration from stories currently in the news, asking fellow Toastmasters and guests to tackle a variety of questions including:

What advice would you give to the parents of the Royal baby?

How would you improve cycling in London?

What pseudonym would you choose to write a book under?

How are you personally coping with the heat?

Which comic book superheroes would you combine for a Hollywood film?
What excuse would you use to take an animal into a restaurant?

Awards

Best Table Topics award went to Glen for his impromptu justification for taking a dog into a McDonald’s.

Best Evaluator went to Kate for her precise evaluation of Peter’s No. 2 speech.

Best Speech went to Hari for his advanced fact-finding presentation about heart health.

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 29th July 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

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

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