It was cold outside - and a bit nippy inside until we warmed it up

On 20^th January we experienced what happens when you have to organise a Toastmasters meeting at the last minute with many members absent due to other commitments or illness. Some members took on multiple roles, with little opportunity to prepare – and boy did they shine! We had a vibrant meeting with a number of return visitors who I think we’re going to keep seeing. Last minute preparation can really bring a team together and showed off the nurturing nature of our club.

Paul was the Toastmaster, as well as the Sergeant at Arms and evaluator of one of the speeches. It was his first time as Toastmaster and he lead us through the meeting like an old hand. Richard was our acting President for the evening as well as evaluator of one of the speeches. He enthused and entertained us with his energetic introduction. Mark took the role of Timekeeper and kept us all on track. Sharon stepped in as Grammarian, as well as evaluating one of the speeches, with only a few minutes to think up a word for the day, define the word and her role for us, then write and post it on the walls to remind us of the word we should try to use. John took the role of Topics Master as he arrived at the meeting, and used the Toastmasters Table Topics App to find random questions for us to answer for our short, impromptu speeches.

Our theme for the evening was ‘Winter’ and our word for the day was ‘Lacking’ – due to the lack of heat.

The first speaker was Anne, who talked about David Bowie and the impact he’s had on her life. This was speech number 4 in the Competent Communicator Manuel – ‘How you say it’ and the idea is to use clear, grammatically correct language with rhetorical questions. Sharon evaluated that that had been achieved and praised the use of ‘the power of three’ and the use of alliteration.

Ade spoke second, an Advanced speech ‘Speaking to inform – The abstract concept’. He explained about blood pressure. Without the use of any illustrations, he managed to paint pictures with words and hand movements to explain what high and low blood pressure are, what makes blood pressure high or low and why we need to keep our blood pressure healthy. I certainly came away with a greater understanding of the concept.

John’s task was to ‘Persuade with Power’ his 9^th speech from the Competent Communicator Manual. He informed us all about the proposed closures of Open University Regional Centres and certainly convinced me that I should sign the petition against the closures. His speech was structured clearly so that we all got to understand the current situation, the reasons why the closures were being considered and the potential impacts which meant he disagreed with the closures.

John then led the table topics, using the App on his phone. The performances were exceptional. Many guests took to the stage and gave us a couple of minutes of entertainment - and a guest was voted as the winner (soon to be member I believe!).

Commit, Communicate and Connect

On 6^th January, Flavia was our Toastmaster, as well as being our President, so she introduced the meeting, welcomed our guests and explained how Toastmasters works. Then she moved on to leading us through the meeting. She reminded us of the theme for her presidency - Commit, Communicate and Connect.

Pat was our warm up leader and asked us what we wish for in 2016. Everyone had the opportunity to express their aspirations for the coming year in a few words. David then explained his role as the Timekeeper, along with David and James who were the Ah counter and Grammarian for the evening. James gave us the word ‘loath’ to try to slip into our speaking during the evening. He explained the definition and gave examples of the different ways that it can be used.

Mark completed his Icebreaker Speech

Mark was our first speaker, giving his first ‘Ice Breaker’ speech, titled ‘The Underdog’. He started with an anecdote from his childhood about his football team being the underdogs then took us through some experiences in his life and career with the message of ‘overcoming adversity’. It was a well-structured speech, spoken clearly and with minimal use of notes. He left us with the encouraging words ‘Nothing is impossible’.

Our second speaker was Sharon, who spoke about the Art of Stopping. She suggested we ask ourselves the question ‘When did I last stop?’ She started with an anecdote from her own life, where she realised that she’d had a period of great adventures – but couldn’t remember many of the details because she had not stopped. She gave us a memorable acronym and some memorable phrases: FOMO (Fear of missing out); and ‘Focus on what matters, take time to just stop.’ Verna, her evaluator, praised her for her us of ‘the power of three’ and how she emphasised the word ‘stop’ with the way she used her hands.

Our third speaker was Paul, who stepped up to the lectern, having accepted the challenge to speak only at the beginning of the meeting. He told us about ‘Finding a Property’. Paul’s opening was exceptional. He built intrigue by slowly giving us a list, one word at a time before each pause, of all the online platforms we could possibly use and all of the different methods we could use for searching for a new property. He took us through the process and the emotions and stress of the process. Richard was his evaluator and praised him for putting his speech together at such short notice. A recommendation was that he could have used rhetorical questions to get additional engagement from the audience, to get them connecting with their own experiences.

Richard lead the table topics using a list of random words and asking speakers to choose a number to decide which word they were given. There were around ten speakers who all gave great answers but a couple of highlights were: Philip, who managed to intrigue and confuse us, and finally make everything clear with an entire story which showed us the association between the number 42 and bangers and mash; Eva also told us an entire story too, about her love for a particular umbrella – when she got it, where she got it, why she loved it and finally how she lost it and how she still misses it, decades later. Her delivery of this sentimental story had us loving the umbrella too; finally David was asked about ‘fashion’ and he used self-deprecating humour to entertain us with his speech about his attitude towards fashion.

Philip was our General Evaluator. One thing that he highlighted was that evaluations need to be primarily about how a speaker says what they say and the skills they show, rather than about the story they’ve told, emphasising that evaluations are to encourage us and to help speakers to grow their speaking skills.