Since our last blog, the club has continued to hold its fortnightly meetings. They are all fun, and every one is different! We have gained three new members, and had a number of interesting visitors. But those meetings are 'water under the bridge' for this blog.
In our most recent meeting, on 4 November, there were ten members present, and we also welcomed three visitors. One, our Area Governor, Jenny, comes often to lend her experience. Two other visitors on 4 November, Katie and Jenny, are friends of one of our newest members, Amy, and they came to give her moral support in giving her first speech from the Competent Communicator manual.
First speeches are called 'icebreakers', and this day we had three 'cool' people (groan - sorry!) breaking the ice: Amy, Lyndal and Ele all presented their speeches successfully.
Amy spoke about 'Middle Child Syndrome' and she made it a funny talk and had a strong opening.
Lyndal introduced us to 'My Summer'. Our imaginations were turned on by her use of facial expression. It was a good speech with smooth transitions between the topics.
Finally, Ele told us about 'Horse riding'. She captured our attention by using props and also by asking us questions, but didn't allow those to interrupt her logical flow.
All three presented their speeches without notes. This is quite a trend at the moment, started in the previous (late October) meeting by Pin who gave her icebreaker speech smoothly and humorously, without notes and also, she told me, without even having written it down first!
It is much more common for first speeches to be given with notes. Our four new members, above, may have had some previous experience in presenting a speech, perhaps through their studies. However, they all had to deal with their nerves, which (I know from experience) can seem to be paralysing! - and they managed to overcome them and carry on. Well done!
The other focus of this meeting was evaluation. There is a contest coming up, but even so, with so many new members it's important that we give everyone practice in evaluation.
Being able to evaluate well is really a very valuable skill to have - not only in Toastmasters, where we aim to commend as well as giving points for improvement - but also in life. So often in leadership roles, or in the workplace generally, or at home, we need to be able to give evaluations in a way that is constructive, not hurtful.
Our icebreaker speeches on 4 November were evaluated by experienced members. In particular, we and the speakers appreciated Claudia’s motivational evaluation.
Then we had 'Evaluation by everyone'. This was a new venture, which Jenny conducted as a group evaluation-practice session for us, and it was very useful. Jenny did a grand job of co-ordinating it all, with a professional manner. Most of the group participated in the exercise, and appeared to gain benefits from it.
'Table topics' topics were delivered by Carmen, taking her first turn in this challenging role. Our guest, Katie was one of those who took part, speaking very well (as she did last time she visited the club).
Robyn (our newest member) performed the Toastmaster role for the meeting, to a high standard. She managed and ran the meeting smoothly, and created a warm environment through her remarks to the speakers.
Overall it was greatly successful meeting.
We are looking forward to 18 November, when there should be three more speeches including another icebreaker, and we will probably try another group evaluation session, to build up those skills.
Come along and join in!
Acknowledgement: Keiko provided the notes for this post.
In our most recent meeting, on 4 November, there were ten members present, and we also welcomed three visitors. One, our Area Governor, Jenny, comes often to lend her experience. Two other visitors on 4 November, Katie and Jenny, are friends of one of our newest members, Amy, and they came to give her moral support in giving her first speech from the Competent Communicator manual.
First speeches are called 'icebreakers', and this day we had three 'cool' people (groan - sorry!) breaking the ice: Amy, Lyndal and Ele all presented their speeches successfully.
Amy spoke about 'Middle Child Syndrome' and she made it a funny talk and had a strong opening.
Lyndal introduced us to 'My Summer'. Our imaginations were turned on by her use of facial expression. It was a good speech with smooth transitions between the topics.
Finally, Ele told us about 'Horse riding'. She captured our attention by using props and also by asking us questions, but didn't allow those to interrupt her logical flow.
All three presented their speeches without notes. This is quite a trend at the moment, started in the previous (late October) meeting by Pin who gave her icebreaker speech smoothly and humorously, without notes and also, she told me, without even having written it down first!
It is much more common for first speeches to be given with notes. Our four new members, above, may have had some previous experience in presenting a speech, perhaps through their studies. However, they all had to deal with their nerves, which (I know from experience) can seem to be paralysing! - and they managed to overcome them and carry on. Well done!
The other focus of this meeting was evaluation. There is a contest coming up, but even so, with so many new members it's important that we give everyone practice in evaluation.
Being able to evaluate well is really a very valuable skill to have - not only in Toastmasters, where we aim to commend as well as giving points for improvement - but also in life. So often in leadership roles, or in the workplace generally, or at home, we need to be able to give evaluations in a way that is constructive, not hurtful.
Our icebreaker speeches on 4 November were evaluated by experienced members. In particular, we and the speakers appreciated Claudia’s motivational evaluation.
Then we had 'Evaluation by everyone'. This was a new venture, which Jenny conducted as a group evaluation-practice session for us, and it was very useful. Jenny did a grand job of co-ordinating it all, with a professional manner. Most of the group participated in the exercise, and appeared to gain benefits from it.
'Table topics' topics were delivered by Carmen, taking her first turn in this challenging role. Our guest, Katie was one of those who took part, speaking very well (as she did last time she visited the club).
Robyn (our newest member) performed the Toastmaster role for the meeting, to a high standard. She managed and ran the meeting smoothly, and created a warm environment through her remarks to the speakers.
Overall it was greatly successful meeting.
We are looking forward to 18 November, when there should be three more speeches including another icebreaker, and we will probably try another group evaluation session, to build up those skills.
Come along and join in!
Acknowledgement: Keiko provided the notes for this post.
No comments:
Post a Comment