Regular Meeting report for 13 August 2014

Club president Cat opened this month's meeting promptly at the new start time of 7pm by giving an introduction to Toastmasters as an organisation and then inviting the guests to introduce themselves. She then passed control of the stage to VP Education Ken to run the rest of the meeting as Toastmaster of the evening and introduce each of the speakers on the programme.

First up was new member Tony S to chair the impromptu speaking session, which included a mixed bag of topics for the participants:

• Karthik considered how he'd cope in the role of media spokesperson for the Prime Minister if Jeremy Clarkson was elected into office.
• Jane told us about how she'd previously met Mayor of London Boris Johnson just before he gave an off-the-cuff speech about car seats.
• David L spoke briefly but passionately about his hatred for cyclists and argued for them to be banned from the roads.
• Finally, Simon thought about what he could possibly spend a mere £1 on these days and eventually settled on a box of matches to light a candle for the dinner table.

Each topic was evaluated immediately afterwards by Cat, Andrew, David A and Peter respectively.

Freddie started off the prepared speeches section of the meeting with "Gillian", a touching personal story based on Project 4 of the Storytelling manual. Gillian was Freddie's first love at school but, after overcoming his shyness and getting to know her, an unfortunate accident meant that Freddie caused Gillian to break her arm! Gillian left the school soon after that, and Freddie sadly never made his peace with her.

Freddie giving his speech "Gillian"

The second speaker was Jane, who gave a speech based on Project 4 from Speeches by Management. In "122", Jane asked the audience to think about how they would make the most of the 122 days from 1^st September to 31^st December. Jane set herself the goal of reading 100 books in the last third of the year (based on a similar challenge set by motivational speaker Tony Robbins) and gave three tips of her own for ensuring it was achieved: tell as many people as possible about her plan; spend every spare minute reading; and learn how to speed-read!

Jane giving her speech "122"

The final speaker of the evening was David L with his speech "Freedom of the Press Workbook" based on Project 5 of the Speaking to Inform manual. David spoke about the importance of the right to express ourselves and some of the potential threats to it that exist, even in democratic countries, where much of the print media is owned by a monopoly.

David speaking on the "Freedom of the Press Workbook"

After the prepared speeches had received individual evaluations from David A, Karthik and Simon respectively, Tony W stepped up to facilitate the open feedback session where the whole audience was asked to provide additional feedback for each speaker.

Awards

In a new element to our meetings, audience members were asked to vote for the best table topic, evaluation and prepared speech during the evening and, after a constructive general evaluation from Richard, visiting from Covent Garden Speakers, Cat returned to the stage to hand out the awards.

• The award for best table topic went to Jane
• Simon was voted the best evaluator
• The best prepared speech was also awarded to Jane

Next meeting

Our next meeting is our Humorous Speech & Table Topics contest night on Wednesday, 10^th September at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. It promises to be great fun, both for the contestants and the audience, so why not sign up and indicate your attendance on our Meetup group?

Before that, Bloomsbury Speakers is hosting a Humorous Speech & Improvisation Workshop by award-winning Toastmaster and public speaking coach Gayna Cooper on Monday, 1^st September. Book your free ticket at humorous-speech-workshop-2014.eventbrite.co.uk.