Lewisham Speakers Club

Last week may have been half term, but not at Lewisham Speakers Club.

Richard opened the meeting with his usual energy.

Then I as acting President, told how drawing on the Leadership skills expounded by Toastmasters assisted me to rescue an accountancy meeting when a speaker didn’t arrive before welcoming, Paul and Davidde who are shortly to be enrolled as members and our guests Robin and Berta plus Verna who arrived later.

Then Flavia as Toastmaster took over and  introduced her theme of ”The Ghost of Valentine Past” admitting that she wanted Obama to her Valentine, for a great meal and very large bouquet of flowers, though not sure if Michelle would be happy.

David our warm up leader, asked how we liked to unwind and Red Wine and TV are both popular.

Anne as Grammarian introduced the word of the Romantic, and in her report complimented our speakers on evocative phrases and started he journey as a Leader as did Paul who took on the role of Timekeeper and fortunately did not need to use the bell.

We then had three speeches all based on personal stories which always give a speech power,

Ali, giving his Icebreaker, “Is Your Dream Too Small” shared how he had big dreams so was laughed at, but he had the last laugh as his dreams came true, and as the speech went on he came more relaxed and used good body language and encouraged us to have big dreams and be laughed at!

Max, whose ideal was Cleopatra  presented “Getting Into Trouble” involved us all by asking how many of us had been victims of crime, before recounting three occasions when playing football he was encountered problems but learnt how to overcome by standing his ground and was respected.

Finally, Habibu presented his sixth speech “Film Creation and Effects” explained how his favourite films when younger featured superheroes, though Toastmasters and others now fulfil that place, but he recalled how he was upset by a horror type film and asked us all not to overload childrens senses.

Our evaluators, Didier, Richard and Chris, largely built our speakers up, complimenting them on an easy to follow structure, use of questions to draw us in and the use of pauses for effect.

After the break John led the Topics session involving largely based around Birthdays included Julie on birthdays recounted how she still has gifts from hr son, Robert on being President for the day became a politician and gave us all the day off, Robins ideal birthday was a surprise 30^th party leaving much to the imagination, proving that less can be more.

After evaluating the Topics, Jenny as General Evaluator complimented everyone whilst wanting more encouragement from our evaluators before I presented the awards to Max, Chris and Robert.

All that remains is for me to thank everyone who took part and encourage everyone who can to take part in the Speech and Evaluation Contest on 4 March 2015 as this could be the start of an amazing journey, ending in The Tower Hotel and Las Vegas for the best speaker in South England.

Philip