Regular Meeting report for 10 December 2014

Early arrivals to our last meeting of the year were treated to some musical entertainment from flautist Joss, visiting from 1^st London Toastmasters. Joss played pieces inspired by the story of Peter Pan and was dressed quite appropriately for the part!

Pre-meeting entertainment was provided by Joss

President Cat then stepped up to open the meeting and began by speaking to us on the theme of giving - particularly the gift of feedback to our fellow members to help them improve - before handing over to Toastmaster for the evening, Freddie.

Freddie as Toastmaster

Freddie, donning a Santa Claus hat, introduced the word of the day - festive - as well as the meeting's Topics Master Bob who took control of the stage for the first part of the programme. As a seasonal surprise, Bob took a unique approach to this evening's table topics by inviting three speakers at a time on stage to improvise in roles from some well-known pantomimes.

Bob as Topics Master

First up, guest Alex visiting from Society Speakers took on the role of Cinderella opposite his ugly step-sisters Cat and Karthik who humorously argued that they'd actually treated Cinderella quite fairly and any perceived mistreatment was entirely deserved.

Next, David S starred as Aladdin along with guest Paul in the role of the genie and Anne as the evil uncle who ended up beating the titular character into therapy!

Anne, David S and Paul in Aladdin

Finally, invited to enact their interpretation of Peter Pan, David L starred as the boy who wouldn't grow up along with Swarajit as his magical friend Tinker Bell and Richard F as their enemy Captain Hook who was initially quite secretive about his amputated limb but later discovered that Tinker Bell had identity issues of his/her own.

Richard F, David L and Swarajit in Peter Pan

The prepared speeches section was opened tonight by Ken with a speech entitled "The Big Issue", based on Project 5 from the Persuasive Speaking manual. Opening with a powerful statement that the UN's goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger was still far from being met, Ken argued that single moments of kindness from us as individuals can lead to a lifetime impact.

Next up was Chinkata with a speech on "Unintended Consequences" based on Project 2 from The Entertaining Speaker. Chinkata spoke of his experience of corporal punishment at school before questioning its effectiveness and whether punishment in general actually encourages people, and particularly politicians, to act more dishonestly.

Chinkata giving his speech on "Unintended Consequences"

Finally, Richard F told us the parable of "The Taste of Banzo's Sword" for Project 3 from the Storytelling manual: The Moral of the Story. Richard described the journey of a young man who wanted to become a great fighter to please his father and was taken under the wing of a master swordsman. However, instead of being taught to fight, he was only given menial tasks to perform until, one day, his teacher started attacking him by surprise. From then on, due to him always having to defend himself in case of an unexpected attack, our protagonist went on to become Japan's greatest swordsman.

Beginning the evaluations of the prepared speeches, Carl praised the gravitas of Ken's delivery, drawing particular attention to his use of vocal variety to convey character and emotion. He recommended that Ken be more specific in his call to action with regards to what changes people should make in their lives.

David W stepped in to evaluate Chinkata's speech and commended the way he had and backed up his points with relevant sources while delivering his message with good clarity of voice and gestures. David pointed out that the speech contained rather a lot of information, not all of which was relevant to the main point being made.

Visiting Division L Governor Graeme evaluated Richard's speech, complimenting his use of voice to seamlessly transition between the different characters in his story. However, he felt that the second half of the tale was rushed, meaning its moral was unclear. Graeme recommended that Richard spread the main plot points more evenly so that enough time was devoted to delivering the key message.

Finally, Simon facilitated a quick session of open feedback for all the speakers, after which David S - visiting from London's newest morning club City Limits - returned to the stage to deliver his general evaluation of the meeting.

David S delivering his general evaluation

Awards

David then passed straight over to Cat to close the meeting by handing out the awards that had been voted for earlier:

• The certificate for best table topic was awarded to Swarajit, David L and Richard F for their joint performance.
• Graeme was voted best evaluator.
• The award for best prepared speech went to Richard F.

Next meeting

Our first meeting of 2015 will be on Wednesday, 14^th January from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre.

On Wednesday, 21^st January we'll be hosting a special educational event, including an evaluation workshop by Excalibur Speakers member and former national champion Lynne C. There will be a small charge to attend - details will be made available nearer the time.

The following afternoon, Thursday, 22^nd January, will see the return of our Speak Out meetings from noon at the Concert Artistes Association.