Tongues are twisted and a wheel is spun

written by aseem kapoor

Club 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!

​I was up to deliver the first prepared speech of the evening, and I talked about the rich history behind the ubiquitous standard deck of playing cards.

​Our second prepared speech was delivered by Aminat, who weaved descriptive language into a speech all about self-doubt and the lies we tell to ourselves.

​Our final speaker was Adrian Moore visiting us from Speakers of Croydon delivering a speech about leadership style.

​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.

Before we went in to the break, I announced a new item soon to be introduced to the agenda.
If you missed the meeting you can watch it here. I will enjoy spinning the wheel every meeting!
The new segment promises to be a fun way of getting to know our members better, especially as while we're online we have less opportunity to have a chat!

​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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