Regular Meeting report for 14 January 2015

Our first meeting of 2015 kicked off with club president Cat explaining that incremental gains - much like professional athletes aim to achieve in their performance - are the key to overall improvement in public speaking and leadership, and Toastmasters clubs provide the perfect environment for this to happen.

Cat giving her introduction

Cat then passed the meeting's proceedings on to Lynne as Toastmaster of the evening who, in line with the beginning of a new year, had chose 'resolution' as the word of the day. Lynne herself had resolved to improve her memory, in part to deliver effective speech evaluations without notes.

Lynne as Toastmaster

After a quick reminder from Freddie about the timing rules, Topics Master Simon took over to lead an impromptu speaking session on the theme of predictions for 2015.

Daniel, visiting from Berkeley Square Speakers spoke about the upcoming general election and, although he was brought up in a family of staunch Labour supporters, he went on predict that the Conservative party will win an outright majority this time.

Daniel speaking about the general election

Francesca, president of MLP London Bridge Speakers spoke about her plans for finding love and romance in the year ahead. Glossing over previous failures, Francesca said she would rather play Cupid for others this year, but remained open to possibilities for herself too.

Next up, Carol was asked to predict whether Simon himself would be successful in his attempt to complete the London Marathon this year. She felt he would do well, but encouraged him to 'practice, practice, practice!'

Finally, Anton was asked whether he thought tennis player Andy Murray would make a comeback in 2015 to win at Wimbledon once again. Anton shared an anecdote about how he'd previously been to see Murray play against Roger Federer but was unimpressed by his performance and so didn't expect him to win this year.

Each table topic was evaluated immediately afterwards by Karthik, David W, Anne and Nick (a guest from Northern Lights Speakers) respectively.

Nick evaluating Anton's table topic

Tonight we were treated to four prepared speeches from our members, three of which were based on Project 10 from the Competent Communication manual.

The first speaker was Karthik with his speech entitled "Laugh at a Funeral?" Explaining how the USA's Declaration of Independence established, in part, the pursuit of happiness as each individual American's right, Karthik asked us to consider whether we were happy right now and what we need to make us happy. After a highly interactive session, including several members of the audience, he concluded that the main foundations of happiness are to live without boundaries, expand one's horizons, take risks and enjoy every moment - which may even include laughing at a funeral!

L-R: Karthik with guests Francesca, Rahul, Noor and Nick

Marc's speech "Ageless Wisdom" opened by comparing the paradox of running speech contests in the non-competitive environment offered in Toastmasters with supposed oxymorons such as 'British cuisine, German humour or French logic'. Using examples from his family's own experiences, Marc argued that placing too much emphasis on winning detracts from the learning opportunity offered by taking part in competitions and that adult expectations imposed on children only blur the boundary between the two.

Tony W's speech "Not Everyone Lives", based on Project 2 from the Humorously Speaking manual, started with a story about how his friend persuaded him to run a marathon before backing out, leaving Tony to train on his own. He went on to tell us how our best memories can often come from the events in our lives that don't necessarily go according to plan, and making the most of these moments is what's important. Quoting William Wallace, Tony reminded us that while 'every man dies, not every man really lives'.

Tony giving his speech "Not Everyone Lives"

The final speech this evening was given by Carl on the subject of "Boundaries". Carl described how we might get the best results from the limited time we have by training our minds to be more disciplined, including making use of what he called 'The Power Hour' - the first hour of the day - to work on our most important tasks. He also described concepts such as efficiency of effort and the 80:20 rule whereby 20 per cent of effort yields 80 per cent of the results. Carl, unlike Karthik, encouraged us to make more use of boundaries, such as focusing on particular tasks in short 15-minute bursts.

Carl speaking on "Boundaries"

The speech evaluations were begun tonight by George who opened by celebrating Karthik's pathway to improvement. He commended his bold style, but suggested that more goodwill should have been established in order to ask personal questions of the audience. George also suggested that the Interpretive Reading advanced manual is a useful one to work on to improve any speaker's diction.

Richard F evaluated Marc's speech, praising his affable presence and rational arguments supported with clear logic. However, Richard felt that the speech lacked an inspirational message in that it didn't take the audience to a different place by appealing to personal needs.

Glen, visiting from Riverside Communicators in Twickenham, stepped up to evaluate Tony's humorous speech. Glen liked how Tony used vocal variety to enact his conversation with his friend, as well as rhetorical questions to keep the audience engaged. He recommended that Tony should use his closing lines to emphasise his main message and smile more when delivering humour.

Glen evaluating Tony's speech

Lastly, Anton evaluated Carl's speech, highlighting his conversational style and good use of eye-contact with the audience. Anton recommended that Carl should vary his delivery more in order to avoid coming across as repetitive.

David A facilitated a session of open feedback after which Daniel returned to the stage to take his role as the meeting's general evaluator.

Awards

Closing the meeting, Cat handed out the awards that had been voted for by the audience throughout the meeting:

• The award for best table topic went to Anton.
• Richard F was voted best evaluator.
• The best prepared speech award went to Marc.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is a Speak Out event on Thursday, 29^th January at the Concert Artistes Association. Arrive in time for a prompt 12 noon start.

Our next regular meeting is on Wednesday, 11^th February from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre.

Are you able to help write the meeting reports for these two meetings? If so, please get in touch with cat.kipling@gmail.com.