“If I'm going to sing
like someone else, then I don't need to sing at all” by Billie Holiday was the
opening line for our meeting on 23rd of August. Our President Katja
used this quote in her introduction and inspired us to find our own strength
and aspire to excellence.
Then, our Sergeant at
Arms Brian greeted the guests and we proceeded with the meeting.
Our Toastmaster Monika,
who is also our VPPR, gave us a little introduction on how quickly it is to
find a piece of information on Facebook, LinkedIn or Google and how that can
help with getting to know people better.
Then, Monika
introduced the Timekeeper who was Marcin. He gave us a very precise overview of
his role.
The subsequent part of
the meeting was a bit unusual. We welcomed again Brian to run a Table Topics
session, but instead of questions, we were requested to tell a story with each
Table Topic speaker adding more detail to it. What a great fun it was! And a
very bizarre story… 😊😊
Brian started the game
with saying that we see elephants on the street. Then, he called Freddie to the
stage, who explained that these elephants must be here because of too much
alcohol and/or drugs… Freddie’s imagination carried us very far away, and his
evaluator Katja mentioned that it was perhaps too much information. Our 2nd
Table Topics speaker was our guest Tom. He spoke about the jet engine. Firstly,
it landed on the road, and the next second Tom was in it, flying. Ian commended
Tom on taking on the story, especially that the 1st speaker left it
at a turning point. With the jet engine, Lynne ended up in America and admired
the Statue of Liberty. Lynne was evaluated by Errol who mentioned that it was a
bit theatrical. Then, being in the US, Tadija took us to a visit to Donald
Trump. And what a visit it was! Marcin, who evaluated Tadija, really enjoyed
the plot. Finally, Marc finished the story by bringing up the LSD drugs
mentioned in the beginning. He was evaluated by Giovanna who mentioned that she
would like to see more flow to the story.
After the Table Topics
session, we moved to the prepared speeches section of the meeting, where we had
3 speaking slots.
Our first speaker was
Tadija. His speech was entitled “Paradise” and it was project 2 from the
Storytelling manual. Tadija told us about his childhood and how as a little boy
he was in a paraside after his dad gave him a box of Swedish chocolates. It was
also Tadija’s first speech in our club, so well done! And thank you for sharing
this fantastic memory!
The 2nd
speaker was Errol who did a project 2 from Special Occasion Speeches. Error
spoke in praise of a very special person- his father. The speech was entitled
“The Spirit of a Leader” and was full of beautiful words such as: “the
decisions you make as a leader have an effect on those who you lead”. It was a
truly heartening and inspiring speech. Thank you!
Our final speaker was
Marc who told us “How dangerous it is” to go on holidays to South Africa and
watch animals. Marc wanted to teach us that observing animals’ behaviour raises
questions about humans. It was a very thought-provoking speech delivered as
project 4 from Humorously Speaking manual.
Next, we moved to
evaluations!
Our first evaluator
was David A. who evaluated Tadija. David mentioned that he loved the stories
about childhood and he would like to hear more detail especially about Tadija’s
home.
The 2nd
evaluator was Ian. Ian commended Errol on the use of anecdotes, but mentioned
that Errol’s voice could have been more powerful in some places.
The final evaluator
was Lynne. Lynne said that she liked how Marc’s speech made us think, but she
suggested that he should think about rearranging the order of his stories used
in the speech.
The open feedback
session was led by Giovanna and was not only full of great comments, but also
very warm because of Giovanna’s smile!
The last part of the
meeting was the general evaluation from our guest from Data Science Speakers
Sayara. She gave us a lot of very insightful comments about the meeting.
Finally, Katja handed
in the awards for Best Evaluator and Best Table Topic Speaker to Lynne (a
double winner!) and for the Best Speaker to Errol. Congratulations!
And then, we went to
the pub 😊
PS Next meeting is 13th
Sept and it’s a contest night! Don’t miss it 😉
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