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Past meetings Toastmasters International

Definitive speeches – 2nd February

The year seems to be flying by as we’re already in February. In charge of another evening of fantastic speeches, was AK who took command of the stage as Toastmaster of the meeting. Ably assisted by Annabel as timekeeper, Edwin as grammarian with “definitive” as word of the day; Prateek as harkmaster and Toby as vote counter.

Grammarian Edwin listening the grammar and vocabulary in tonight's speeches
Grammarian Edwin listening the grammar and vocabulary in tonight’s speeches

Starting the flurry of speeches of all kind was Alessia. Alessia did her first speech, The Icebreaker. In “Shiny Juliet” we embarked on a journey to her native city of Verona to visit local attractions but most importantly meet Juliet and be blessed by touching her right breast! The second of five speeches “D&G” was by Sophia. This time were transported back in time in Israel in the middle of a battlefield occupied by the Philistine army. The battle was decided by a slingshot shot from puny David striking gigantic Goliath in the face. Why did he took on the challenge? Because he had faith in his good! Epic! Eleanor followed with “Kawaii” (cuteness in Japanese) an entertaining speech about different attitudes to sexuality and dating in Japan. Our last two speeches were from advanced speaking projects. The first was by Kate “Bored Brenda” a story of how important it can be to appreciate the simple things in life. As after all being a pop star or a pirate can indeed be pretty boring in some ways. Closing the flurry of speeches was “LOCPY” by Fahad, from the Special Occasion Speeches manual where the purpose was to give an award to someone.

Alessia telling us all about Verona
Alessia telling us all about Verona

Evaluating our five speeches tonight. We had John evaluating Alessia, Terry for Sophia, Nuala for Eleanor, Florian for Kate and Stephen for Fahad. It is important to remember that “less is more” when writing or doing a speech. Indeed 3 main points are enough and overdoing gestures or vocal variety can be counter-productive for some speeches.

Nuala evaluating Eleanor's speech
Nuala evaluating Eleanor’s speech

Thomas was in charge of the table topics session. As Chinese New Year is closing on, participants had to tackle interesting questions along the lines of the Chinese Zodiac. From being an Ox in Yellowstone, to a rat on the tube or even a dog or a monkey in other situations. You had to explain what you would do. Giving feedback on all of the table topic speeches was Andy.

Topicsmaster Thomas
Topicsmaster Thomas

Prateek and Edwin came back to give their reports followed by Warren who evaluated the entire meeting as general evaluator.

Fahad delivering his Presenting an Award speech project
Fahad delivering his Presenting an Award speech project

See you all for our next meeting on February 16th!