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Thursday 2 August 2018

Excalibur Meeting Report, 25th July 2018

Meeting Report, 26th July 201

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Excalibur Advanced Speakers Toastmasters Club Meeting Report for Wednesday 25th July 2018


On a (rather too?) balmy London evening (the mercury hit 31 degrees Celsius/88 degrees Fahrenheit and off-the-scale humidity), our meeting was called to order by Marcin.


The meeting itself was opened by our President, Monika, before she handed over to our Toastmaster, Robin. Robin expertly sailed the good ship Excalibur far from the jagged rocks of boredom and whirlpools or disappointment by giving us a little background information about the role of Toastmaster before introducing the theme of the evening: fairy tales.

Before each person took the stage, their favourite fairy tale was announced, and why it was special for them.


Robin then invited our Meeter and Greeter for the evening, Freddie on stage who introduced our three guests: Moh (who was our GE for the evening), Marti and Thomas. After each had told us a little about themselves, our Toastmaster invited our immediate past president, Chinkata to explain his role as Timekeeper.


Ben was Table Topic Master for the evening and continuing the fairy tale theme, he invited a member of the audience to choose the hero of the evening’s story from a set of twelve carefully selected photos. The room fell silent with anticipation before the face of our protagonist was held up for all to see. There were gasps when (in a possibly slightly rigged vote), people recognised our Prince Charming as none other than club VPE Freddie!


Table Topic participants Cat, Lynne, Nick, Ian and David in turn picked two pictures from a hidden deck which they were invited to incorporate in what became a fast-paced and unpredictable yarn that one audience member was overheard suggesting was good enough to be long-listed for the Booker Prize.



Once the story had reached its riveting denouement, the Table Topic contestants were evaluated by Chinkata, Monika, Noor, Marcin and Lukasz (possibly even in that order). The club followed an atypical Table Topics this evening which brought a nuanced and even challenging variation to one of Toastmasters’ most popular activities. The club’s VPPR (this evening's Table Topic Master) can report that members gallantly rose to the challenge. We await confirmation of this assessment from the VPE.
     



After the Timekeeper’s report, we moved on to the prepared speeches which began with a speech by Lynne titled “Say Anything” (Pathways Strategic Relationships #2 – Evaluation and Feedback). The speech was an expertly delivered and amusing semantic feast that held the audience throughout.

Our second prepared speech, from the Story Telling Manual #2 Let’s Get Personal, was delivered by Noor. “Wisdom from an Outcast” took us on a Tantric journey of self-discovery. 

Our final speech was delivered by Ian (#2 from the Entertaining Speaker manual, “Resources for Entertainment”). Ian introduced us to the concept of “Kakistocracy” which he explained was the all too prevalent system of government in which the worst people gain positions of power. 

Speech evaluators were Ian, Nick and Freddie, all of whom delivered skilful and insightful evaluations.

Excalibur Speakers followed these evaluations with an Open Feedback session—in which the entire audience is invited to make commendations and recommendations on the prepared speeches. Expertly moderated by Cat, this session teased out more valuable suggestions for the speakers and audience to ponder.


Our General Evaluator, Moh, then took the stage to describe what he liked about our club, also making a number of suggestions. Moh demonstrated his experience with his relaxed and thoughtful delivery.
  
The evening wound down with Robin, our accomplished Toastmaster handing back to Monika, our President, who announced the evening's prize winners:

Table Topic Winner: Ian.
Speech Evaluators, Freddie and Nick shared the honours.
Best Speech: Lynne.


   

Despite the tropical heat and oppressive humidity, attendance levels were very good and the evening was a great success. A promising degree of rehydration was achieved in the  neighbouring King and Queen public house immediately afterwards.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 8th August at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, London W1W 6DN.

Guests are very welcome!









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