Regular Meeting report for 11 February 2015

This month, club president Cat opened the meeting talking about the power of Just Do It - inspired by a speech that she had heard at another Toastmasters club that morning. She challenged the audience to just do it when it came to next month's International Speech and Evaluation contests at the club (Wednesday, 11^th March) - a fantastic opportunity to get more stage time!

Cat then passed the meeting's proceedings on to Simon as Toastmaster of the evening, who filled the room with love in the air as his theme for the Valentine's meeting.

Simon as Toastmaster

After a reminder from David A about the timing rules, Topics Master Lynne took over to lead an impromptu speaking session on the theme of famous events from Februaries past.

Lynne as Topics Master

Lynne continued with the theme of love with her first question posed to Errol, who spoke about his first love being his precious freedom-bringing first car.

Errol giving his impromptu response

Mark M was challenged to write a leaflet on any subject he wanted - and he said he would want to empower people as a group of individuals to have confidence to get from where you are today to where you want to be, acknowledging that one of the biggest stumbling blocks is the fear of the unknown.

Next up, first-time Toastmasters guest Nick gave a cracking debut table topic on whether London should gain independence from the rest of the UK, with a balanced argument and great stage presence.

Inspired by the anniversary of Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin, Lynne asked Carol to answer a question as to whether we've become a nation of pill-poppers. Carol gave a personal answer, speaking about how she subscribes to taking both conventional and homeopathic medicine - anything that works!

Finally, Chinkata was asked, subsequent to the smoking ban and all sorts of other bans out there, what would he ban... and his controversial response was to ban the ban!

Each table topic was evaluated immediately afterwards by guest Daniel, guest Mike, Lyn, Anton and Sue, respectively.

Daniel evaluating Errol's table topic

Tonight's prepared speeches were from a diverse selection of Advanced Manuals, as is usually the case at Excalibur.

The first speaker was Cat with the final project from the Interpretive Reading manual, The Oratorical Speech. Cat had carefully chosen a speech that resonated with her and had relevance to the whole audience: Emma Watson's UN Speech on Gender Equality. Using Emma's words, Cat urged the audience to stand up for gender equality, and ask themselves "if not me, who; if not now, when?"

Justine was speaking from the Special Occasion Speeches manual, Project 4 - Presenting an Award. The fictional lucky recipient was being presented their Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award - a level that less than 2% of people who join Toastmasters achieve. She gave the speech with respect and reverence, whilst interweaving some fantastic humour to make the presentation more lighthearted.

The final speech was give by Anton - his Excalibur speech debut - with the final project from the Storytelling manual, Bringing History to Life. He recounted a time when British general elections were much more interesting, when Winston Churchill was in power and subsequently lost to Clement Attlee. Anton brought the story to life with vivid language and well-selected quotations.

Anton delivering his speech "The General Election"

The speech evaluations started with Marc evaluating Cat's speech, which he thought was better coming from Cat than Emma Watson, as it was more appropriate and believable. Marc recommended that Cat worked more on the connection with the audience, which could have been achieved by explaining more in her introduction as to why she had picked this speech and why it was important to her.

Chinkata enjoyed Justine's warm presentation style, and felt that the fictional character was actually a real friend. He thought the way she weaved humour in throughout worked well. He would have preferred to see more of a build-up and a proper handover of an award at the end to emphasise the success.

Chinkata evaluating Justine

Lastly, new member Francesca evaluated Anton's storytelling speech. She commended his colorful language and the images it created in her mind. While she enjoyed the characterisation of Churchill, she would have liked Anton to put more energy into the impression and to bring this out more in selected historical dialogues.

Francesca evaluating Anton's speech

David W facilitated a session of open feedback, during which the stage was thrown open to the audience to provide further commendations and recommendations for the evening's prepared speeches. Visiting dignitary Nazeer wrapped up the session with feedback on the meeting and the speakers in his general evaluation.

David W facilitating the open feedback

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 Errol.
• We had a tie for best evaluator between Marc and Chinkata.
• The best prepared speech award went to Anton.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is a Speak Out event on Thursday, 26^th February at the Concert Artistes Association. Arrive in time for a prompt 12 noon start.

Our next evening meeting will be our International Speech and Evaluation contest night on Wednesday, 11^th March from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre.