Meeting Report for Wednesday 24th April 2019

Our packed meeting was called to order by Brian, before President Monika took to the stage with some inspiring observations. After she had spoken she handed over to our Toastmaster for the evening, Harsha - who introduced the theme for the evening, prompted by the arrival of spring: unconditional love.

Lynne, performing the Meet & Greet role, then invited our five guests on stage, who told us a little about themselves. 

Timekeeper for the evening was Prakash. Gosia, as Table Topics Master, then continued the unconditional love theme for the evening, with a series of well chosen questions that teased amusing and thoughtful answers from the participants.

Four high quality speeches were then delivered. The first was by Robin: "The Barnabus Finkley Award" (Special Occasion Speeches #5 - Accepting an Award). This was followed with a speech by Cat: "Failure Isn't Fatal" (Presentation Mastery Series #2 - Evaluation and Feedback 1). Nick then took to the stage with "Potent Presentations" (High Performance Leadership #2 - Presenting the Results). Our final speaker was guest and former Excalibur member David, who was practising his Division-winning speech "Summer Daze" before he competes at District level. Good luck to him! 

The speeches were evaluated by David, Ian, Simon and Errol (who was getting in a final evaluation before he proceeds to the District Competition representing Excalibur in the Evaluation Contest).

Freddie then took the Open Feedback session which is an opportunity for members and guests to make additional commendations and recommendations on the speeches. 

Our guest Ajay delivered his general Evaluator report - in which he evaluated the club in general and anyone who had performed a role on stage, who hadn't been previously evaluated.

Toastmaster Harsha then handed back to President Monika, who presented a Distinguished Toastmaster Award to Simon - many congratulations to him. This increases the number of Excalibur DTMs to seven.

Finally, it was time for the prizes. Lynne won best Table Topic, Errol was best Evaluator and Robin won Best Speaker. Congratulations to all and good luck to Errol at the District competition!

Our next meeting is at 19:00 on Wednesday 8th May at The Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, London W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!

As we will be holding club officer elections at the next meeting, it is essential we achieve a quorum of members, so to all Excalibur members: please attend! 

   

Meeting Report for 10th April, 2019

Members and guests enjoyed another fantastic evening of public speaking which kicked off with Cat and Brian performing the Meet and Greet and Call to Order roles. President Monika then handed over to Toastmaster for the evening, David A.

Cat invited our seven guests on stage to introduce themselves before Ian E took us through a fun Table Topics session.

Harsha, as Timekeeper, kept an accurate record of the minutes and seconds.

Jan then delivered her moving Area-winning speech: "Forgiving Amy" (Competition & Other Speeches #1).
This was followed with an interesting speech by Freddie: "Boosting Area L9" (High Performance Leadership #1 Sharing Your Vision").
Our third speaker was Ian B, who spoke about an inspiring woman: "Miles for More" (Special Occasion Speeches #2 - Speaking in Praise).
The speeches were evaluated by Ben, Lynne and Errol before our open feedback session, which Chinkata ran with his usual poise.

Our guest Richard then performed the GE role, as he commended and recommended his way through the evening's activities.

The Toastmaster then handed back to the President, who gave out the awards. Jan was voted best speaker. Ben picked up best evaluator and David W won best table topic.

Our next meeting is on Wed 24th April at 19:00 at The Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!

EXCALIBUR MEMBERS ON SUPERB FORM IN DIVISION 2019 INTERNATIONAL SPEECH & EVALUATION CONTEST

David McMahon, Jan Winnick and Errol Williamson represented Excalibur last night in a thrilling and high calibre contest. David and Jan delivered superb speeches which did them, and the club proud...but it was Errol's excellent Second Place that set the room alight. Errol was edged out by Aditya Maheswaran - a former World Second Place Winner, and finalist.

But Errol was ONLY WARMING UP...! He then went on to WIN the Evaluation Contest, pushing Aditya into second place. Many congratulations to Errol who now advances to the District Level competition.

The evening kicked off with an informative and fun workshop by Freddie Daniells on storytelling. He broke down the essential components of storytelling and showed how the same structure appears in the best movies and speeches.

Did I mention that Freddie is another Excalibur member?

IF YOU WANT HIGH CALIBRE...JOIN EXCALIBUR!

Meeting Report for 27th March, 2019

We met on 27th March for a lively, fun and interesting evening of high calibre, Excalibur...public speaking.
Anke was introduced as Toastmaster for the evening by our President, Monika, before Melanie, performing the role of Meet and Greet, introduced our guest, Jill, who was GE for the meeting. Mel was performing her first role for the club - as Timekeeper - a role she carried off faultlessly.

It was then time for Table Topics, hosted by Harsha, who introduced a fun and challenging (we like challenge at Excalibur!) propose/oppose session that kept us on our toes.

The first prepared speech was delivered by Ben: Ben's DIY Zombie; (Speaking to Inform - 4 - A Fact Finding Mission). The speaker presented (to an incredulous audience) a (semi?) plausible formula by which people can turn others into zombies. Levels of incredulity did not diminish in the 3 minute Q&A that followed. The speech was elegantly evaluated by Chinkata.

The second speech was delivered by David: Do You Know what it is Like to be Really Good at Something? which was a practice of his excellent Area winning speech, before he delivers it at Division. It was evaluated with great insight by Freddie.

The third speaker was David: Unlocking Creativity; (Presentation Mastery - 4 - Researching and Presenting). David explained the use of poetry to unlock creativity in the work environment. Brian then made a number of observations (commends and recommends) about this interesting this speech.

David (it was indeed an evening of "Davids") then steered us through the Open Feedback session, in which members and guests are invited to add commendations and recommendations to those previously suggested by the speech evaluators.

Jill then shared her considerable Toastmasters' experience with a thoughtful GE report.

The audience was stunned when Ben won both best speaker and Table Topics award; Freddie was rightly crowned as the meeting's most accomplished evaluator.

Our next meeting is at 19:00 on 10th April, 2019 at The Fitzrovia Centre, 2 Foley Street, W1W 6DN. Guests are very welcome!