International Women's Night at Croydon Communicators

written by daniel magill

Club President Croydon Communicators

We had another fabulous meeting at Croydon Communicators as our Toastmaster, Matt not only delivered an impressive first performance in the role but also gave us a theme of celebrating International Women's Day.

And, how appropriate it was that our four speakers for the evening were all women at very different points on their Toastmaster journeys. 

Our newest member, Aminat bravely delivered an expert Icebreaker speech, titled, The Malachite. 

The objective of an Icebreaker speech is to introduce yourself to the club, discover speaking skills you already have and learn which skills might need more work.

Aminat's speech was a perfect introduction to the club and we all discovered that she already has an abundance of speaking skills. The future is looking very bright for our newest member. 

Next up we had our Past President, Gina giving her speech, Sun, Sea and Siesta. Gina told us all about the blog she'd recently written as part of her chosen Path from the Pathways programme. It was an entertaining and engaging speech and the only question we all had at the end was, where can we read it? 

The good news is, you can read it here, right now! Thanks for sharing, Gina. 

Our third speaker was Roz who is one of our very favourite regular guests. 

Roz spoke to us about 'The F Word'. Leading us down the garden path, allowing us to think the 'F'  word might be something else, before expertly revealing that the word in question was, in fact, 'Feminism'. 

Roz delivered a powerful and and highly entertaining speech on the plight of women around the world, which fitted in perfectly with our theme for the evening. 

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Last, but certainly, certainly, certainly not least was our very own Vivian. 

Vivian was delivering her 10th and final speech from the Competent Communicator manual. 

Vivian's job was to inspire us and she certainly did that.

The audience were hanging on every word as Vivian used all of her speaking skills to deliver one of the most impressive performances we've seen at our club.

The cornerstone of Vivian's story was a Ted Talk given by Scott Dinsmore. 

Many members and guests were asking where they can find Scott's talk so they can watch it themselves....

Watch it here, right now.
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Our evaluators then had the unenviable job of evaluating the four impressive speakers.

Aseem, Rob, Caroline and Alison all focussed on what the speakers did well and pulled out examples of how things were done particularly  well, which everybody in the audience could learn from. 

There were also some great recommendations for each of the speakers too.
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After a short break, we all gathered back together for our Table Topics session.

Gertrude led the session and she stuck tightly to the theme of International Women's Day, giving both the speakers and the audience plenty to think about.

It was great to see a couple of our first-time guests getting involved and it was especially nice to see our returning guest, Luqman scooping the Best Table Topics award.  Luqman first visited with his wife, Lourena for the contest a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely to have them both come back and visit. Who knows, maybe they'll be joining as members soon...

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Overall, it was another spectacular evening at the club and id like to single out a few people for special praise.

Matt did an awesome job leading us through the evening as a first-time Toastmaster.

Susan took on the role of warm-up for the first time and gave a great performance.

Stephen, who has also recently joined the club took on his very first meeting role and didn't put a foot wrong as timekeeper.

Well done to all.

The Winners

Best Speaker
Roz

Best Evaluator
Alison

Best Table Topics
Luqman 

Icebreaker Award
Aminat

Competent Communicator Award
Vivian