Regular Meeting report for 10 June 2015

Cat opened her last regular meeting as club president by recounting the introduction from her first - in which she described herself as 'caretaker' for the club - before encouraging the guests in the room to introduce themselves.

Cat welcoming the evening's guests

Tony, arriving just in time, took over proceedings as Toastmaster and, after a quick explanation of her role from timekeeper Kate, passed over to Sue to chair the table topics session. The first topics speaker was incoming club president Freddie, who was asked how he would feel once he reaches pension age. Freddie answered that he'd spend his free time trying to get even more out of life by undertaking activities such as travelling.

Sue as Topics Master

Lynne was challenged to tell the club something about herself that would surprise us. Of the many surprising things about her, Lynne chose to share the story of how she became stranded after putting petrol in a borrowed diesel car.

Lynne giving her impromptu response

Guest Tia was asked to share her most memorable school trip with the audience. Tia told of how she was caught with sweets hidden under her bed, although she and her roommates were really suspected of harbouring boys! Karthik was asked who he thought should replace Sepp Blatter as president of FIFA. Pondering various alternatives including Ed Miliband and fellow club member Simon, Karthik finally settled upon himself as the ideal successor.

Karthik making his case for the FIFA presidency

Lastly, Francesca was asked how much she had previously been inebriated. Revealing herself to be a teetotaler, Francesca explained how she'd become inebriated with joy at various points in her life, including last month's meeting where she was named best speaker! Each table topic was evaluated immediately afterwards by guest Paul, Cat, visiting general evaluator Ignatius, Mike and David W respectively.

Tonight's prepared speeches were begun by David A with a speech entitled "How to Write a Book", based on Project 1 from the Speaking to Inform manual. David told us that we should visualise who it is we're writing for, the concept of the message and how each chapter will look, perhaps by drawing a mind map. He also suggested having a mentor to hold ourselves accountable to.

David A speaking on "How to Write a Book"

George's speech "Bring the Kite", based on Project 5 from the Storytelling manual, was the re-telling of Benjamin Franklin's famous lightning experiment from the perspective of his son William. Re-enacting the dialogue between the two, George portrayed William as the frustrated unsung hero of the story without whom important discoveries about the nature of electricity would not have been made.

The last speaker was Ovie with his speech "Two Men". Based on Project 5 from the Persuasive Speaking manual, Ovie's speech opened with the surprising statistic that only three per cent of people actively work towards achieving their dreams. The main story told of two men who dreamt of bringing joy and peace, wealth and justice to their part of the world.

Ovie telling the story of "Two Men"

Daniel kicked of tonight's speech evaluations with his commentary on David's informative speech. He liked how David ended his speech by showing the finished product of his very own book in print, but would personally have liked to have been more persuaded to write his own book.

Evaluating George, Swarajit commended him for his choice of topic and for making a factual, scientific event more accessible through storytelling. He recommended that George vary his voice more to differentiate between the characters in the story and use swearing only sparingly where it was appropriate for the character.

Simon then evaluated Ovie's speech, praising his naturally powerful voice and theatrical delivery. He noted that Ovie was swaying rather mechanically on stage and suggested controlling this more as well as making more eye-contact with the audience.

Finally, Justine facilitated a round of open feedback for all three speeches, before Ignatius came on stage again to evaluate the meeting as a whole.

Ignatius giving his general evaluation of the meeting

Awards

President Cat returned to the stage singing "My Way" and thanked her committee and club members for taking Excalibur Speakers to even greater heights over the last year. Two members who contributed to the club's success in the Distinguished Club Programme were Justine and George, who were presented with certificates of achievement for their Advanced Leader Bronze and Competent Communicator awards respectively.

Cat then presented the awards that had been voted for throughout the evening:

• The award for best table topic went to Francesca.
• Simon was voted best evaluator.
• The best speaker award went to George.

Finally, Freddie made one more unscheduled appearance back on stage to congratulate Cat for her achievements as president.

Next meeting

Our final meeting of the Toastmasters year is a Speak Out event on Thursday, 25^th June at the Concert Artistes Association. Arrive in time for a prompt 12 noon start.

Our next regular meeting, and Freddie's first as president, will be on Wednesday, 8^th July from 7pm at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. See you there!