Regular Meeting report for 8 April 2015

Opening this month's regular meeting, club president Cat used a metaphor of glass balls to represent the most important parts of our lives, including our health, plus one rubber ball to represent our work and professional development. She explained that, while our commitment to Toastmasters may dip from time to time, like the rubber ball, it can always bounce back.

Cat then passed over to Karthik to introduce the word of the day, esoteric, and run the rest of the meeting as Toastmaster.

Karthik as Toastmaster

After a quick reminder of the timing rules from timekeeper Mike, Karthik introduced David S to run the table topics session. David's choice of theme tonight was the legend of King Arthur, whose infamous sword Excalibur shares its name with our club.

Carol took on the role of Arthur's mother and argued that he should not become king, and that men in general should stand back and let women run the country! Bob played Arthur's brother and decided he would 'get into bed' with their mother (not literally) to prevent Arthur from becoming king.

Carol speaking as King Arthur's mother

Visiting past District Governor and candidate for International Director of Toastmasters, Teresa spoke as Merlina, partner of the wizard Merlin, who she described as 'the woman behind the man'. David W then played Tancred, King of Sicily who was given what was claimed to be the sword Excalibur by Richard the Lionheart. David felt cheated, but got his own back by fobbing Richard off with some dodgy wine.

Teresa as Merlina

Finally, Tony explained how he'd later found Excalibur at the bottom of the ocean and had buried it in London, but regular roadworks meant that he wasn't able to locate it again! Each topic response was then evaluated by Daniel, Freddie, George, Cat and Richard respectively.

Tony explaining Excalibur's unknown fate

Tonight's prepared speeches were begun by Justine with "The Roast", based on Project 3 from the Special Occasion Speeches manual. The target for Justine's roast was Christina, a colleague due to retire from their workplace (a bank). Justine poked fun at Christina's fondness for fashion as well as making light-hearted jibes about their fellow bankers and topical jokes about politics.

Next up was Richard with Project 1 from the Interpersonal Communication manual, "Conversing with Ease". Referring to Quiet by American author Susan Cain, Richard explained that behaviours for both introverted and extroverted people are often context specific, and the age of the internet means the skill of conversation is much more important. Richard demonstrated this using a role-playing exercise in which he got to know Justine through an on-stage conversation, pausing at key points to explain their interaction to the audience.

Richard describing his conversation with Justine

Lastly, Errol stepped up to practice a re-worked version of his contest speech "How to Get the 'Mmm...' Taste" which he'll be delivering at the Division B final on Saturday, 18^th April.

Errol on "How to Get the 'Mmm...' Taste"

Each prepared speech was then evaluated by other experienced members of the club. George evaluated Justine's roast, praising her use of exaggeration and prepared jokes while still managing to appear spontaneous.

George evaluating Justine

Daniel evaluated Richard, commending his strong opening and logical argument but recommending that he share more about himself before expecting the same of others. Freddie evaluated Errol's contest speech, which he felt had improved since last time but still needed to get to the point quicker and structure certain sentences so that the laughter occurs at the end.

Finally, Swarajit facilitated a round of open feedback for each speaker, before Glen, visiting from Riverside Communicators in Twickenham, stepped up to evaluate the meeting as a whole as general evaluator.

General evaluator, Glen

Awards

Cat returned to the stage to close the meeting and hand out the awards that had been voted for throughout the evening:

• The award for best table topic went to Bob.
• The award for best evaluator went to Freddie.
• The best speaker award went to Richard.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is a Speak Out event on Thursday, 23^rd April at the Concert Artistes Association. Arrive in time for a prompt 12 noon start.

Our next regular meeting is on Wednesday, 13^th May from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. This meeting will include elections to appoint our new president and committee for the year ahead, so please make every effort to come - especially if you are a member!

Help needed

Are you available to judge at an area contest this Monday, 13^th April? Club member George is looking for Toastmasters members in good standing to judge from 6:15pm at The Windsor Castle pub near Victoria station. In order to judge, you will need to have completed at least six speeches and ideally not belong to any of the clubs in Area 6.

If you're able to help, please get in touch with George via georgechiesa@msn.com.