A memorable night

Last Wednesday’s club meeting was anything but forgettable, as the theme for the evening was ‘memory’, selected by our Toastmaster of the evening and club chairman Anthony Brennan.

In keeping with the theme, our grammarian Zsuzsanna, selected ‘remember’ as the word of the day and every speaker of the evening, without exception, was able to weave it into their speeches.

Shayan had the role of table topics master and he put five of his fellow toastmasters on the spot to deliver mini impromptu speeches on questions all centred round the memory theme.  This week’s winner was Jill, who was asked to speak about her most memorable teacher.  Mr Dobbs – who loved an oversized cardigan.  Our table topics evaluator Ged, had some excellent feedback for Shayan and all the speakers.

Jill wins tabletopics

Our prepared speakers were once again all excellent.  We kicked off with Aga, who reached a milestone by delivering her final speech from the Competent Communicator manual all about how we can determine our own luck.  Next up was Ajeet, who shared the 7 traits an eagle has, that correspond with those of great leaders.  Chris delivered his second speech, reminding us to not give up even when the odds are stacked against us.  Last – but not least – was Jenny, who reminded us all of the importance of Armistice day, the meaning of the poppy and why we must never forget those that fought and died in the first world war.  She and Ajeet both tied for the Best Speaker Award.

Ajeet & Jen win Best Speaker

Every member delivering a prepared speech is assigned an evaluator, who introduces the speaker and provides an evaluation speech of it afterwards.  This week’s evaluators were Richard, Judy, Colin and Paul M.  It was Colin who scooped the best evaluator award for an extremely thorough analysis of Jen’s speech, full of commends and the all-important ‘recommends’.

Colin wins Best Evaluator

An excellent evening all round, evaluated in its entirety by general evaluator Andrew, aided by our timekeeper Diana and ah-counter Matt.  We were also really pleased to welcome 3 guests, 2 of whom were back for their second visit.  We look forward to seeing them again at future meetings.

Next meeting will take place on 22nd November.

Halloween themed speeches

We were all renamed ‘ghostmasters’ for our Halloween themed club meeting last week, led by Toastmaster for the Evening, Aparna.

The best costume award went to NO ONE, as not one of us decided to come as witches or ghouls, however we had plenty of other awards to give out to recognise those that excelled in their speaking roles.

Spencer wins Best Speaker

Spencer took home the Best Speaker award of the evening, for a personal tale of overcoming anxiety and not simply ‘forgetting everything and running’.  He had stiff competition from Werner who shared his experiences of when he forced himself to live off just £2 a day, for a month, to get a better idea of what it must be like to live, as many do, on a very low income; from Saulius whose third speech from the Competent Communicator manual was all about his superhero Martin Strel, the Slovenian marathon swimmer; and from Diana who absolutely killed her icebreaker speech.  We cannot wait to hear more from Diana.

Diana gets her Icebreaker ribbon

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our best evaluator award winner was a three-way tie between Zsuzsanna, Jack and Paul Goodman.  Each had their own unique style and delivered some excellent feedback for our speakers.

It’s a three-way for Best Evaluator

The table topics section of the evening was hosted by Jill on the subject of scary movies.  She had some very tricky questions that challenged even our most accomplished speakers.  It was Judy’s recollection of when she discovered that Santa wasn’t real that won her the Best Table Topics Speaker award.  Well done to everyone who stood up and spoke for the obligatory 1 minute – Shayan, Matt, Ajeet and Andrew – you all did very well.

Well done Judy!

Club business included an update from Andrew on how fulfilling it was to attend the Division conference recently, in support of club member Ryan who represented our area in the Table Topics Contest. We have also started to plan our West Herts Speakers Club Christmas party!