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Past meetings

Holiday themed meeting

This week’s meeting had a holiday theme, with the hopes of extending the bank holiday even further. Not only did all speakers state what they got up to over the bank holiday, but there were also two speeches about holidays!

Fahad was acting President and gave an articulate introduction to the Toastmasters history and manuals. Fahad also encouraged members to consider becoming a member of the committee, with the Toastmasters New Year starting in July. He highlighted how serving as a club officer can really accelerate your development. Voting for committee members takes place at the AGM on 6th June. Click here for more information on the committee roles.

Fahad as acting President

Fahad handed over to Christophe, our Toastmaster for the evening. Christophe loves this role and has chiselled it down to perfection. He clearly described the role and welcomed each speaker to the stage with their bank holiday activities. Some activities were energetic, such as swimming, fitness classes and playing squash. Some were inspiring like walking on fire or presenting a workshop at a Toastmasters convention in Palma.

Christophe, introducing the holiday theme
Toastmaster Christophe describing the bank holiday theme

Christophe was supported by Thomas as Timekeeper, Alex as Grammarian and Vahagn as Harkmaster. Narayan took up his first role as Sergeant at Arms and greeted the 12 guests.

Alex, ecstatic that the word of the day, pragmatic, was used 9 times!
Vahagn getting ready to reward those who were listening!

Speeches

The initial section of the meeting was for prepared speeches. First up was Pascale, performing a number 4 speech, on Paradise. Pascale took the audience on an immersive trip to the Caribbean. She had the audience dancing at carnival in Trinidad to relaxing on an idyllic beach in Tobago.

Pascale, very happy to win the best speaker ribbon!

Next was Alexandro, who performed speech number 5 about why we travel. He used storytelling to great effect, describing his travels to Tehran, Dubrovnik and Kathmandu. Alexandro used body language to mirror his speech and to convey his message that traveling helps you learn and make the most out of life.

The third speaker Stephen, also performed speech 5. He performed an extremely well structured and clear speech, with three tips on persuasive techniques. Each tip was humorously highlighted with an active example about the audience should vote for him as best speaker!

Annabel gave the final speech of the night from the advanced Entertaining speaker manual on Obsessions. She used light hearted humour and rich content to describe the “cocktail for success”: morning routines, positive mantras and evening classes.

Evaluations

After the speeches, Diane, Paul H, Florian and Fahad performed evaluations for Pascale, Alexandro, Stephen and Annabel respectively. Audience members also completed feedback slips.

Speech feedback tip for persuading people (from Florian): Use open hand gestures, with palms facing the audience to convey sincerity. Focussed eye contact (rather than scanning around the room) is also essential for persuading people.

Fahad - best evaluator
Well done Fahad for winning the best Evaluator ribbon!

Table topics

The second section of the meeting was for Table Topics. Negin took to the stage as Table Topics Master. She gave each participant 3 words: a person, a place and a thing, which members and guests had to link together into a 2 minute table topic.

Great job David for your entertaining table topic about the Pope, a temple and a tiger!

For his second role of the day, Thomas gave some fantastic tips as Table Topics Evaluator. These included:

  • Run with the first thing that comes into your head
  • Make the topic into a story that you can relate to
  • Smile to increase the energy of your words

Well done to Florian, Narayan and guests Andrea, Dee, David, Bola, Abi and Manik for taking part!

Congratulations to Pascale, Fahad and David, who were tonight’s respective speech, evaluator and table topics winners and to all who helped make this a brilliant meeting as usual. We look forward to everyone at next Tuesday!

 

Categories
Past meetings

Spontaneous themed meeting

This week’s meeting celebrated being spontaneous. Andrew, our Toastmaster for the evening, signed up to the role the previous night in true spontaneous style. In his introduction, he emphasised that while it is good to plan, it’s also great to be spontaneous. Andrew then guided us through the meeting with a smile, welcoming each speaker to the stage with a spontaneous story. Examples ranged from attending an Italian Toastmasters meeting without knowing the language, to skydiving on the spur of the moment to romantic rendezvous.

Andrew: our spontaneous Toastmaster
Andrew spontaneously takes up the Toastmaster role!

Negin (Timekeeper), Florian (Grammarian) and Pascale (Harkmaster) supported Andrew in functionary roles. Andy was Sergeant at Arms and greeted the guests with gusto.

Florian introducing word of the day: versatile

Speeches

The initial section of the meeting was for prepared speeches. First up was Isabelle who delivered an extremely moving speech no. 7 about the controversial subject of Euthanasia. As a journalist, Isabelle used first hand research to support her views. Consequently, she captivated the audience with her personal stories.

Next was George, who performed speech number 8. He used visual aids seamlessly to educate us all about high level and low level aircraft. George wowed us all with video clips of these planes alongside his informative description.

Terry gave the final speech of the night from the advanced public relations manual. He passionately discussed his campaign to stop the government from using people migration as a negotiation tool. He physically moved people to show who would be affected by Brexit, and also used humour to great effect. At the end of the speech, Terry persuaded us to take action and visit his “Do not Brex them” website.  If you also feel strongly about this subject – click here.

Well done Terry for winning the best speech ribbon!

Evaluations

After the speeches, Fahad, Nuala and John performed evaluations for Isabelle, George and Terry respectively. Audience members also completed feedback slips.

Speech feedback tip for using visual aids (from Nuala): If you are using a pointer to demonstrate visual aids, use open body language to increase viewers’ engagement. Think about what hand you are pointing with, to avoid blocking off the audience with your arm.

Speech feedback tip for persuading people (from John): A good persuasive technique is to use lots of facts to back up your points.

Great job John on winning the best evaluation ribbon!

Table topics

Table Topics took up the second section of the meeting. As Table Topics Master, Eleanor H presented the original theme: what story is behind the headline? She read out real, yet unusual news headlines, then the name of the unsuspecting member or guest.

Well done Paul for a winning table topic about a 1-eyed ferret in Liverpool (street station)

Afterwards, Alex evaluated all table topics succinctly and energetically. He advised all future table topic speakers to compose themselves by taking a deep breath. Well done to Christophe, Narayn, Paul H, Paul M, Bruna and guests Manik, Joe and Ajanta for taking part!

Florian headed the final part of the meeting, with a grammarian tip to avoid using “and” and “so” as verbal crutches. Pascale then faced the rather raucous/hungry audience, as harkmaster, to reward those who had been listening with home-baked brownies and flapjacks.

Brownies and flapjacks for those answering Pascale’s harkmaster questions correctly!

Congratulations to Terry, John and Paul M, who were tonight’s respective speech, evaluator and table topics winners! Thank you also to those who helped make this a fantastic versatile meeting. We look forward to seeing members and guests at our meeting next Tuesday!