Our second meeting in our new airy venue of St James Church was special as three of our member took to the stage with their icebreaker speech. The very first speech one gives during the course of their Toastmasters journey.
Toastmastering the session was legendary Croydonian Joyce Reid, who launched the meeting with her usual energy and enthusiasm. Assisting her as timekeeper, was Isabelle. Followed by John as grammarian and “fluid” as his word of the day. Karen then introduced the harkmaster role and urged everyone to open their ears wide and listen. Finally Sandra explained her vote counter role.
Our first icebreaker was by Eleanor “Bowler Hats and Pin Stripes”. Eleanor talked about her career as a civil servant, from working in the excise department in Heathrow’s customers to influencing policy and saying “Yes Minister”. Following on with her icebreaker was Nuala “Creative Threads” on her passion for art and creativity. Said creativity led her to study textile design and she now works in this industry. The third icebreaker was “Cymru” by Hannah. During this icebreaker speech, we learnt everything there was to learn about Wales, including some Welsh and the local traditions of Hannah’s hometown of Porthcawl. Our fourth speech of the evening was my club president Florian “Travel by Train”. A humorous speech peppered with anecdotes from his various experiences of travelling by train all over Britain.
Evaluating the first icebreaker was Alex who praised Eleanor limited use of notes but suggested that she tell more about herself. Edwin then evaluated Nuala’s icebreaker, highlighting her purposeful use of the stage and recommending more eye contact next time. Thomas followed on as the evaluator of Hannah’s speech, praising her effective use of visual aids but recommending more vocal variety and stage presence. Finally, Florian’s speech was evaluated by Fahad who suggested a cleaner and more seamless delivery.
Tonight’s table topics session led by Prateek featured ten random words such as royalty, bikini, Viking, boulevard, alligator. Each participant had to make up a story feature as many of the words as possible with the next speaker taking on where the story had left. An intriguing concept that went down a treat! Yvonne evaluated the table topics session and gave feedback to all the speakers taking part.
John and Karen than came back for their reports. With general evaluator Kate then giving feedback on the entire meeting.
See you all at our next meeting on November 3rd for our speakathon!
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