written by aseem kapoorClub President Croydon Communicators Gina was the Toastmaster for our third meeting of the month and had set a theme of new opportunities. Troy was busy behind the scenes as SAA and Zoom Master. I was on Timekeeper duty, for the second time in two days having performed the role at neighbouring club Purley Speakers the previous evening! Matt led the warm-up session by asking everyone to select two items from their 'bucket lists'. Matt revealed one of his was an ambition to do a TED talk, and another was to leave a £100 tip at a restaurant! Travelling was by far the most popular answer with almost every other person in the meeting having that as one of their two items. Our first speaker of the evening was Stephen, delivering once again his mental health related speech "Is lockdown an introvert's paradise?" with the objective of incorporating some or all of the feedback he had received from his first presentation of this speech.
Our second speaker was Sandra with her speech "Fear-less" which was all about overcoming fear, where she explained how 'FEAR' could stand for False Evidence Appearing Real, and that for her 'LESS' was an acronym for Love, Encouragement, Sureness and Satisfaction. With only two speakers this evening we moved on to speech evaluations, and two of the club's experienced members Florence and Afia took the stage to deliver some excellent feedback on Stephen's and Sandra's speeches respectively. A session of impromptu speaking and impromptu evaluating followed the break as Table Topic Master Aminat posed some challenging questions/topics for our participants and then called for immediate feedback. It was great to see guest Fontaine take on a table topic, and then impress us all by agreeing to give an evaluation of Gina's table topic when called on by Aminat. With club elections just around the corner, committee members Aminat, Florence, Afia, Troy, Sandra and I explained our club leadership roles, and encouraged members to think about serving. Afia was voted best table topic speaker, and the President's award went to our guest Fontaine for her table topic speech and evaluation. A special mention for Troy who as Zoom Master was in the running for the President's award but for Fontaine's topic evaluation! There is the District 91 Conference to look forward to this weekend, and then our next meeting on 13th May where it's election night!
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written by aseem kapoorClub President Croydon Communicators Another Thursday night at Croydon Communicators and another reminder of what a truly wonderful club this is. Rupa, having recently joined, at our last meeting (and in her first club meeting role) delivered a fantastic warm-up session. Incredibly at this evening's meeting, in only her second role, she stepped forward as Toastmaster! The theme of the meeting set by our Toastmaster was 'success' and Rupa talked about what that meant to her, and also asked us to think about what the word meant to us. "Time is of the essence" were the words used by timekeeper Aminat to remind us of the importance of keeping to time, as she demonstrated the visual signals she would use, and warned us that her finger would be on the mute button should we overrun our allotted times! Our first speaker was Florence with her inspiring speech "The Power of Giving" that focused on her family and giving back. In her speech "Reflection of a Table Talk" Loreen revealed insights from a panel discussion she had hosted for over 200 HR professionals on topics of minorities and diversity. In his informative speech "The Middle Man Is No More" Matt gave us an introduction to 'Blockchain' technology and how it had the potential to be transformational in the way we live our lives. Our final speaker was Gina who shared her experience of communicating change in an organisation she worked for, in her speech titled "There is nothing permanent except change". After the prepared speeches and before moving onto speech evaluations, we squeezed in a late warm-up session, led by Afia who asked everyone to reveal things they were grateful for. Having listened to four really strong prepared speeches, it was time to find out what evaluators Norma, Susan, Amy, and Pearl thought of them as they each took to the stage and provided their observations, commendations and recommendations. Approaching the network break, with so much packed into the agenda already, there was plenty still to look forward to in the second half of the meeting. The meeting resumed with a brand new segment that I was really looking forward to: Knowing Me Knowing You! (inspired by the Alan Partridge TV series of the same name). We invited to the stage one member to take the role of a talk-show host (interviewer) and one member the role of their guest (interviewee). Our very first Knowing Me, Knowing You featured Gina Rocque Drayton interviewing Paul Imm, and wow, this pairing did not disappoint. Gina was a natural in the host's chair, and masterful in her questioning, I could definitely see her fronting a late night chat show of her own. The interview was delightful, we got to know more about Paul as he shared his Toastmaster experiences, hobbies, dreams, and some memorable moments involving peas, a guitar, brewing beer, and even a birth on stage! You can catch the interview and all the speeches on a replay of our meeting - as usual recordings are on YouTube and a link is available to members. I was Table Topic Master and the meeting transitioned from a talk show to a game show as I injected some familiar music and sounds from "Who wants to be a millionaire?" into our impromptu speaking section of the meeting. To round off a hugely enjoyable evening, we heard from our guests: former member Gertrude, our neighbours from Liberty Speakers Carol and Pearl, and Amy who is Area Director for H32 and a member of Worthing Speakers, Gatwick Communicators, and a new club she has launched Sussex Online Speakers! I got to spin the Knowing Me, Knowing You wheel and it landed on Dan as the interviewee, and Aminat as the interviewer for next time. I'm looking forward to a fascinating chat between our Immediate Past President and our VP of Education! A Level 3 Pathway completion was announced for Aminat. Meeting awards went to Norma (best table topic), Amy and Pearl (tied for best evaluator), Loreen for (best speaker), and of course the President's Award had to go to the remarkable Rupa for taking on the Toastmaster role so early in her Toastmaster's journey and doing a fantastic job. As there is a fifth Thursday this month, we have another meeting next week 29th April. See you then!
written by aseem kapoorClub President Croydon Communicators It was her first time in the Zoom Master / Meeting SAA role and Pamela got us off to a smooth start by explaining online meeting etiquette. Not long after, Sandra our Toastmaster for the evening took to the stage to explain the running order for the meeting. Sandra had set a theme of 'good viewing' and prior to the meeting had asked tonight's speakers which TV show or movie they had enjoyed recently they would recommend. The answers were revealed as Sandra introduced each role player to the stage. Timekeeper Troy gave a quick demonstration of the method he would be using to signal speakers and help them stay within the allotted times stated on the meeting agenda. Stephen explained his role as Grammarian and encouraged everyone to try and use his word-of-the-day which was 'imbue'. Our newest club member Rupa lead a really fun warm-up session, and got everyone in the meeting to try repeating various tongue-twisters. It was great to watch, and certainly put a smile on everyone's faces, at least until it was their turn to try not tripping up on one of Rupa's tongue twisters! After some feedback from the floor for my speech, our evaluators Matt and Paul provided their feedback on Aminat's and Adrian's speeches respectively. Good evaluations should contain both commendations and recommendations for the speaker, while also speaking to the audience, and both Paul and Matt are experts in crafting well rounded evaluations.
After the break, on the agenda as usual was our Table Topics session, an exercise that helps us to develop our impromptu speaking skills. Susan was our Table Topics Master and had prepared questions that required our speakers to describe certain favourite aspects of London (or other city if they wished). We always try to encourage any visitors to participate in this part of the meeting so it was great to see our guest Rafiat (invited by Aminat) also volunteer to have a go. Troy updated us on each speaker's timings before Stephen delivered a comprehensive grammarian's report on language he had observed during the meeting. Two Pathways educational awards were announced, one for Matt on completing Level 3 of Visionary Communication, and the second for Aseem on completing Level 2 of Persuasive Influence. Paul Rhys-Taylor picked up two meeting awards Best Table Topics and Best Evaluator. Aminat won the Best Speaker award. Finally the President's award went to Pamela for taking on the Zoom Master role! Announcements - don't forget to buy your EarlyBird ticket for the D91 Online Conference featuring 8 Keynote Speakers, 20+ Workshops and 4 Speech Contests.
Our next meeting is in two weeks where we launch the new 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' segment, our first one will feature Paul Imm and Gina Rocque Drayton. Can't wait! |
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