Regular Meeting report for 13 May 2015

There was a full house and a packed schedule for our May meeting, which was opened by incumbent president Cat who introduced the guests before moving on to the subject of elections.

Following the general election last week, Excalibur Speakers tonight held its own election to appoint our new president for the 2015-16 year. Long-serving member and past district governor Freddie was elected to the position unopposed and gave an acceptance speech in which he pledged to reach beyond the club to get the message out about our successes, calling on members to volunteer and help make a difference. Freddie will take up his position from July.

Starting the main body of the meeting, Marc took over as Toastmaster, assisted by Swarajit in the role of timekeeper.

Marc as Toastmaster

For the first part of the programme, Marc introduced Daniel to run the evening's impromptu speech session on the topical theme of politics.

First up was Errol, who was asked what the first item in the Queen's speech should be. Errol argued that taxes should be abolished and all public services should be provided on a 'pay as you go' basis!

Errol explaining his government's main policy

Sue M was asked to consider how Nigel Farage might try to keep his party relevant in UK politics. Throwing open the question to the audience, Sue suggested that Farage should continue producing the silliest ideas possible in order to stay in the public eye. Lynne was then asked to present the policies of a newly created Ministry of Dance Moves. In an almost entirely wordless response, Lynne illustrated her initiatives by inviting several members of the audience to dance on stage with her.

Finally, district PR manager-elect Sue F was challenged to deliver the Green Party's manifesto in song. Opting to stick with speaking, Sue encouraged the audience to take pride in our city and keep London clean. Each impromptu speech was evaluated immediately afterwards by Andrew, Mark, Bob and Mike respectively.

Francesca began tonight's prepared speeches by telling us the story of "The Soldier with the Wooden Rifle", based on Project 5 from the Storytelling manual. When she was 16, Francesca asked her grandfather for help on a school essay on the meaning of freedom - to which he responded with a story from his own youth. Several years after the First World War, much of Europe was still wary of more potential conflict and men in Italy were required to train for combat by shooting at imaginary enemies with wooden rifles. However, despite many problems, including an oppressive regime and the effects of the Great Depression, it was also a period of progress with the likes of Marconi making great strides in technology.

Francesca telling the story of "The Soldier with the Wooden Rifle"

Tony's speech, "Recovering Addict", based on Project 3 from Humorously Speaking, told of how he fell in love with football after being taken to a match by his uncle. An avid supporter of Arsenal, Tony recounted his fond memories of the 1979 FA Cup Final before pondering on how the beautiful game remains persistently popular despite extortionate ticket prices, disproportionate player wages and corruption at the highest echelons of the sport's governing bodies. Nevertheless, Tony's love for the game persists, although his priorities have changed over time with last year's Cup Final taking second place to more pressing attention from his daughter.

Justine's speech was based on Project 4 - "Read Out Loud" - from the Speciality Speeches manual, for which she read an extract from the book Wolf Hall. Set in the 16^th century, the story told of Thomas Cromwell, adviser to Henry VIII, and their conversations leading up to and following the execution of Sir Thomas More.

Lastly, visiting Toastmaster and former WCPS finalist Olivia Schofield gave us a preview of a speech she is due to give at TEDxZurichWomen later this month. In it she described the metaphorical hula hoops, juggling balls and spinning plates that women like her have to keep control of to balance all aspects of their lives. This led into a personal story about Olivia's own experience of motherhood and her eventual realisation that trying to meet all of society's expectations was unrealistic and damaging to her self-esteem.

Olivia practising her speech for TEDxZurichWomen

Tonight's first speech evaluator was Bob who, despite interruptions from Morris-dancers outside the building, gave a thorough analysis of Francesca's performance, praising her non-verbal gestures, as well as her use of an engaging character dialogue rather than a narrative. Bob recommended leaving out the formalities at the beginning of the speech as they detracted from the story somewhat.

Bob evaluating Francesca

Errol jokingly criticised Tony's allegiance to Arsenal before commending him for his large laughter count - an important and objective measure of the impact of a humorous speech. However, Errol felt Tony's speech could have been improved with more pauses to allow the audience to digest the set-up of each joke before delivering the punchline. He also recommended that Tony make more use of body language to convey his points.

Richard evaluated Justine's project, praising her choice of topic along with her calm and steadily paced delivery. He recommended that Justine make much more use of vocal variety to differentiate between the characters in the dialogues as well as the narrator.

Finally, George stepped up to facilitate a round of open feedback for each speech, including Olivia's, before new member Ovie gave his general evaluation of the meeting as a whole.

Ovie delivering his general evaluation

Awards

Closing proceedings, Cat stepped back on stage to hand out the awards that had been voted for during the meeting:

• The award for best table topic went to Lynne.
• The award for best evaluator went to Richard.
• The best speaker award went to Francesca.

L-R: Francesca, Richard and Lynne with president Cat

Next meeting

Our next meeting is a lunchtime Speak Out event on Thursday, 28^th May at the Concert Artistes Association. Arrive in time for a prompt 12 noon start.

Our last evening meeting of the Toastmasters year is on Wednesday, 10^th June from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. Don't miss it!