a savvy crew

Written by aseem kapoor

Club President Croydon Communicators

Aminat was on Zoom Master and SAA duty concisely relaying the housekeeping and meeting rules before handing over to me to give the President's address.

This week I had the privilege of welcoming a new member to the club, Rupa who made the wise decision to join the crew of Croydon Communicators and begin her voyage to becoming the speaker and leader she wants to be!

Control of the meeting passed to our Toastmaster for the evening Loreen, to steer us through the choppy waters of the meeting agenda.
Loreen had some great opening remarks prepared about public speaking, how at Toastmasters we are learning to 'own the room' before moving on to explain the evening's programme and the theme of the meeting which was 'protests'.

Sandra took the stage to explain her Timekeeper role - two things to note, first Sandra's choice of phrase to impress on everyone in the meeting the importance of timekeeping "The bad thing is time flies; the good thing is that you are the pilot!".
Secondly, the amazing selection of dynamic colourful virtual background images used to signal timing. Such striking visuals would surely not be missed by our speakers, check them out below:

Our grammarian Susan was next to take the stage, and told us that she would be looking for not only good phrases, but inspiring phrases, and encouraged us all to use the word-of-the-day 'savvy' (no, not the Captain Jack Sparrow version!)

Our warm up session was run by Pam who was quick off the mark by immediately dropping Susan's word of the day into her introduction, and then asked everyone to reveal five things they had learnt about themselves or enjoyed over this past year. 
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On to the prepared speeches, and our first speaker Matt expertly demonstrated his presentation skills, and how using compelling slides can enhance a message.

You can check out Matt's speech 'The Missing Pillar' ​on our YouTube channel:

​Stephen our second speaker asked us 'Is lockdown an introvert's paradise?' and then answered that question with an insightful and deeper look into the topic of mental health.

Our final speaker on stage was Florence encouraging us to 'Start where you are now' - a speech designed to motivate and inspire us, as Florence explained how the training here at Croydon Communicators has helped in her journey to being a speaker on shows, at seminars, and workshops!

After three excellent speeches it was only fitting that we had three of the best evaluators up on deck to give feedback.
Joining Luqman and Gina, was Alex McKee from Liberty Speakers using the opportunity to warm up for the Division H Evaluation Contest​.

After the break the meeting resumed with Afia leading the Table Topics session with questions related to our theme 'protesting' posed to each speaker. As has now become the norm we had immediate evaluations of each topic.

The session was going so well until disaster struck as our ship went down and we were pitched overboard! Or rather, the Zoom meeting ended and we were all abruptly ejected.
Aminat our Zoom Master was quick to launch the lifeboats and restart the meeting, and our members clambered back on board, although sadly a couple of guests may have been lost at sea.

Susan returned to the stage to give us her grammarian's report on how well language had been used throughout the meeting, and if we had been ' savvy' enough to use the word of the day.

It was really nice to end the evening chatting with our visitors, particularly former member Gertrude, and our friends from Liberty Speakers Pearl, Carol, and Alex.

Meeting awards were presented to Aminat for Best Table Topic, Alex for Best Evaluator, Matt for Best Speaker, and the President's award went to Sandra for being an exemplary Timekeeper and of course for those stunning backgrounds!

Announcements:
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Deadlines for renewals and for claiming the free Path are 31st March! 

A new incentive to bring guests to the club and help membership growth.

Come support our Area champions Dan and Alex at the Division contest this Saturday!