Our last meeting had an auspicious start, with the sun stretching its rays into every single corners of our room in the Windsor Castle Pub. We were ably led by current area 33 governor, Brian Skelton as toastmasters of the evening. Assisted in this crucial role by Rosie as timekeeper, Eddie as grammarian whose word of the day was “exquisite” and George as vote counter.
Two icebreakers were on the program of the evening. The first one by new member Monica “Life as Art”. Talking about her passion for art since she was younger and how it helped defining her personality. The second icebreaker of the night was by Eleanor “The stories we tell ourselves”. Eleanor regaled us with tale of how one’s identity can shift over time, ranging from her own childhood in Cornwall with limited access to technology, to now working in a data company. What’s more her story has only just begun! A fifth speech from the Competent Communicator manual, “We’re going on a work hunt” by Terry followed. The speech’s objectives of using one’s body to convey a message was met, as we went through the morning blues of a day that does not quite start according to plan. The oratory was closed off by Warren with “Ermm”, a humorous speech on the word Erm that can be a power word in some circumstances and what’s more the word is universally understood too! A very humorous, that will clearly feature in this year’s edition of the humorous speech contest in the autumn.
The evaluations were started off by Fahad, who provided recommendation on speech structure and the use of transitional words. Following was Marina, suggesting pauses to enhance one’s message and make a stronger impact on the audience. Daniela then evaluated Terry. Alan’s evaluation of Warren was special, as it used the official judging criteria used in speaking competitions.
New member Thomas chaired the table topics session. Creatively using real-word events to ask participants how they would react to it. These including Wimbledon banning selfie sticks, a mystery tunnel in Toronto and 5.5tons of Nutella being stolen. Club president Florian Bay then evaluated the table topics session, reminding everyone that table topics should be structured as a prepared speech would by including a clear structure and a punchy conclusion. The entire meeting was finally evaluated by veteran Toastmaster Andy O’Sullivan.
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