Today, two of the club's recently joined members gave their first speeches - their 'ice-breakers' in the Toastmasters lingo. For us at the meeting, these were insights into the backgrounds of two young women about whom we knew little before, except that both had blossoming leadership skills.
More than that, though, these ice-breakers were instructive in their approaches to introducing oneself to a group.
Claudia, who has already taken on club-meeting roles as Table Topics Master (last meeting) and Toastmaster (end of July), challenged us to not 'stereotype' people before we know them. To reinforce that message, Claudia gave us all a short test to show us how much we might have already stereotyped her. Peter won easily, with 7 points out of a possible 18 (and received a small reward!) which goes to show that the rest of us had guessed even more wrongly.
For example, many of us were sure Claudia was the eldest of her siblings - her natural presence makes that 'obvious' - but we were wrong. And only one of us thought her work would be in 'caring', whereas in fact she arguably does much more than 'merely' care - her actual work is in helping people rebuild their lives.
Amazingly both women have travelled to many countries already. This was one of several similarities between Claudia and Bernice, our other ice-breaking speaker.
Not everyone has asked themselves 'Who am I?'. Bernice tackled the challenge of answering the question for herself by researching 'myself' as a word; then not finding that to be much help she asked two good friends what three things they would like to know most about her.
What a practical way to be sure your speech will interest your audience! This is a technique many communicators could do well to use!!
As a result we now know some highlights of Bernice's childhood, naughtinesses, achievements, wishes for the future and activities outside work. Canberra seems an ideal abode for her - midway between sea and snow. Her expertise both on skis and surfboards has given her opportunities to practise those sports at some of the most highly regarded slopes and waves in the world! Wow!!
And in another uncanny similarity between these two speakers, both have great love for the food prepared by cooks of Italian descent in their families.
Family matters were among the varied and sophisticated topics Yuyu had prepared for the Table Topics part of the meeting. This was Yuyu's first time as Table Topics Master. She managed well, and in the process demonstrated something of the differences between the people who attend a Toastmasters club - by which I mean that topics that are natural parts of the lives of some members are a closed book to others! So the high-finance question would have suited Peter, but instead he dealt admirably with a question about the lifting of young children - something he seemed less familiar with. Pin responded calmly to the question about dangerous dogs by positing that love is a good way to cope with them - which is something to think about further, I suggest. And, answering another of Yuyu's five or six Table Topics challenges for impromptu speaking, Carmen gave a creditable first response - to a topic about university rankings. Well done!
Welcome, Carmen, as our newest club member!
Though our meetings are short, they give quick and safe opportunities for trying out new skills. I've mentioned Yuyu, and Pin also took on a role for the first time, counting ums and ahs. Not hard, you'd think, but you have to decide how to report about a person who says um or ah frequently in just a few minutes: do you give your complete count and embarrass the person? Pin reported complete counts, but though high-ish for some speakers they were not offputtingly so. The objective of this role, in our club at least, is only to draw a speaker's attention to the fact that they use 'um'/'ah'/'you-know'/'er' frequently, and could do it less.
Ele gave us 'integrity' as her Word of the Day. It was a word that several people were able to include in their speaking, using it in the proper grammatical way, which is the aim of the Word of the Day in our club. Robyn, our guest last meeting, attended again and took on what for her was a first role in our club - General Evaluator. As you'd expect from a person involved in teaching work, she spoke with confidence, not only making recommendations but drawing our attention to the good aspects of our various roles, particularly Keiko's clever achievement as Toastmaster for the meeting.
Keiko's achievement for us was to bring the meeting to a close exactly on time. It's rare for everyone to exactly occupy their allotted times during the hour - some speak briefly and others at length. But Keiko showed excellent judgment in announcing variations to the times available for each remaining section. That is a great skill to have and one that many conference and workshop convenors need, in my experience!!
Each meeting demonstrates something. This one demonstrated skills, as I've shown above. To return to the 'ice-breakers', speech project no.1 is not only an opportunity - perhaps your first - to speak in front of an audience. It also is a chance 'to discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention' (quoted from the Competent Communicator manual). Both today's ice-breaker speakers demonstrated that they already can prepare an interesting talk with good structure. Both had their nerves apparently well under control, and both received highly commendatory individual evaluations from Lee and Peter, as well as points to focus on for the next speech.
I'm looking forward to next meeting, 23 September, and also the contest on 24 September at which Lee will represent our club in Humorous speech and in Table Topics. See you there!
More than that, though, these ice-breakers were instructive in their approaches to introducing oneself to a group.
Claudia, who has already taken on club-meeting roles as Table Topics Master (last meeting) and Toastmaster (end of July), challenged us to not 'stereotype' people before we know them. To reinforce that message, Claudia gave us all a short test to show us how much we might have already stereotyped her. Peter won easily, with 7 points out of a possible 18 (and received a small reward!) which goes to show that the rest of us had guessed even more wrongly.
For example, many of us were sure Claudia was the eldest of her siblings - her natural presence makes that 'obvious' - but we were wrong. And only one of us thought her work would be in 'caring', whereas in fact she arguably does much more than 'merely' care - her actual work is in helping people rebuild their lives.
Amazingly both women have travelled to many countries already. This was one of several similarities between Claudia and Bernice, our other ice-breaking speaker.
Not everyone has asked themselves 'Who am I?'. Bernice tackled the challenge of answering the question for herself by researching 'myself' as a word; then not finding that to be much help she asked two good friends what three things they would like to know most about her.
What a practical way to be sure your speech will interest your audience! This is a technique many communicators could do well to use!!
As a result we now know some highlights of Bernice's childhood, naughtinesses, achievements, wishes for the future and activities outside work. Canberra seems an ideal abode for her - midway between sea and snow. Her expertise both on skis and surfboards has given her opportunities to practise those sports at some of the most highly regarded slopes and waves in the world! Wow!!
And in another uncanny similarity between these two speakers, both have great love for the food prepared by cooks of Italian descent in their families.
Family matters were among the varied and sophisticated topics Yuyu had prepared for the Table Topics part of the meeting. This was Yuyu's first time as Table Topics Master. She managed well, and in the process demonstrated something of the differences between the people who attend a Toastmasters club - by which I mean that topics that are natural parts of the lives of some members are a closed book to others! So the high-finance question would have suited Peter, but instead he dealt admirably with a question about the lifting of young children - something he seemed less familiar with. Pin responded calmly to the question about dangerous dogs by positing that love is a good way to cope with them - which is something to think about further, I suggest. And, answering another of Yuyu's five or six Table Topics challenges for impromptu speaking, Carmen gave a creditable first response - to a topic about university rankings. Well done!
Welcome, Carmen, as our newest club member!
Though our meetings are short, they give quick and safe opportunities for trying out new skills. I've mentioned Yuyu, and Pin also took on a role for the first time, counting ums and ahs. Not hard, you'd think, but you have to decide how to report about a person who says um or ah frequently in just a few minutes: do you give your complete count and embarrass the person? Pin reported complete counts, but though high-ish for some speakers they were not offputtingly so. The objective of this role, in our club at least, is only to draw a speaker's attention to the fact that they use 'um'/'ah'/'you-know'/'er' frequently, and could do it less.
Ele gave us 'integrity' as her Word of the Day. It was a word that several people were able to include in their speaking, using it in the proper grammatical way, which is the aim of the Word of the Day in our club. Robyn, our guest last meeting, attended again and took on what for her was a first role in our club - General Evaluator. As you'd expect from a person involved in teaching work, she spoke with confidence, not only making recommendations but drawing our attention to the good aspects of our various roles, particularly Keiko's clever achievement as Toastmaster for the meeting.
Keiko's achievement for us was to bring the meeting to a close exactly on time. It's rare for everyone to exactly occupy their allotted times during the hour - some speak briefly and others at length. But Keiko showed excellent judgment in announcing variations to the times available for each remaining section. That is a great skill to have and one that many conference and workshop convenors need, in my experience!!
Each meeting demonstrates something. This one demonstrated skills, as I've shown above. To return to the 'ice-breakers', speech project no.1 is not only an opportunity - perhaps your first - to speak in front of an audience. It also is a chance 'to discover speaking skills you already have and skills that need some attention' (quoted from the Competent Communicator manual). Both today's ice-breaker speakers demonstrated that they already can prepare an interesting talk with good structure. Both had their nerves apparently well under control, and both received highly commendatory individual evaluations from Lee and Peter, as well as points to focus on for the next speech.
I'm looking forward to next meeting, 23 September, and also the contest on 24 September at which Lee will represent our club in Humorous speech and in Table Topics. See you there!
Excellent work Ann. Thanks for the engaging news.
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Mark