Did you know as Toastmasters we are Artists….Speaking Artists, so said Lynne our President as she used the analogy comparing Toastmasters to famous painting artists such as David Hockney. Artists have many different and complimenting skills, as do Toastmasters………….speeches, storytelling, table topics plus evaluations and functionary roles.
We welcomed (back) a new Speaking Artist, a former president of the club, Simon Bucknall, who has recently re-joined.
Our artistic Toastmaster of the night was Giovanna Vasaturo, who attacks everything she does with a Mediterranean passion for excellence.
Tony Winyard did an interesting Table Topics session which was won by David West on the subject of eating bugs, as long as they were covered in chocolate!
It was good to hear all the TT evaluations had a recommendation. (Which pleased Lynne no end!)
Our Speakers were Paul Andreas doing ‘Reading out loud from the Speciality Speech manual, project 4. His Story was called ‘Oh Modoc’, the story of a circus elephant who had to escape a fire. Energetically read by Paul bringing the story to life.
Lynne Cantor did a speech for her High Performance Leadership, part of her Advanced Leadership Silver, sharing her vision for the coming year, ‘Excalibur, a Club of Excellence’. This won her the best Speaker of the night.
Karthik Venugopal who is on a quest to complete as many speeches as he can, did ‘ Bringing history to life from the Story telling manual, project 5. His speech shared with us the darker side of Winston Churchill, a well researched piece of work.
Three comprehensive evaluations followed by Katja Van Koten, Simon Bucknall and Errol Williamson. With Errol winning the best evaluator of the night. Which fits in nicely with his goal to win the 2017 District Evaluation Contest.
The Open Feedback session, allowing the audience to give their commendations and recommendations to the speakers was facilitated by George Chieser. This session, plus three different speeches from 3 different manuals is what Excalibur is all about……..PLUS there was a mini workshop by Simon Bucknall, a past District Evaluation winner, which focused on evaluations.
His three key tips were -
Recommendations - Give some - as they are an opportunity to drive change. Sometimes it is a case of how to be even better versus doing something differently, especially when it comes to more experienced speakers.
Recommendations cover three main areas, Delivery, Structure and Content. Focus on Structure. With more advanced speeches this is often the best way to help them improve.
Stop writing – yes, stop taking notes. Scary, maybe, but it forces you to just listen versus trying to multi task and take notes at the same time.
Some great ideas for us all to try.
Carol West then spoke for two minutes advising us that Prince Charles, through the Princes Trust, is involved in Toastmasters. The Princes Trust and Toastmasters get together and help young people, some in care, to improve their speaking. Carol and David West do this twice a year and most recently in Eastbourne. How wonderful.
The meeting was rounded off with a reminder to set your Toastmaster goal for the year yet. Write it down and share it. You are 50% more likely to achieve it.
The club Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest is on Wed 14th Sept ….so start preparing your Humorous speeches and practicing your TT’s now. We need a good turnout and a strong competition.
Area contest is 29th September, Division Contest on Thursday15th October and District contests on Saturday and Sunday 5th and 6th November.
Next meeting is on Wednesday 10th August. See you all there.
Please note that the meeting after, on the 24th August, will be at a different venue…to be advised. It will include an impromptu session in readiness to help us all with our TT & humour …….ready for the contest.
In readiness for our next meeting please sign up on easyspeak so we know you are attending. Please do sign up for roles especially Toastmaster and Table Topics Master so you have time to prepare.
Do bring your friends from your clubs along to experience Excalibur, we had Ayse, Glenn and Shaun joining us this week. Shaun was visiting from overseas and we were his 4th foreign club he had attended. Toastmasters really is international.
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