We practise evaluating each other's speeches

On Friday 9^th March Benjamin Toastmasters had its Evaluation Contest.

There were two contestants, both quite new members, so congratulations to them for entering. The quickest way to develop in Toastmasters is to enter into anything you can and do as many roles as you can fit in. Yuyu and Robyn are both active members and it shows. They are improving all the time.

For the contest we invite a target speaker for the contestants to evaluate, and this was Ken. He gave an amazing Icebreaker (his first speech with Toastmasters) about growing up, breaking free from his parents, and getting his first job. You would never know it was his first speech because he looked confident, had great eye contact, had amazing vocal variety, and engaged the audience for the whole 4-6 minutes. Well done Ken!

The first entrant in the contest to evaluate Ken was Yuyu who acknowledged some of Ken’s good points, made a recommendation, and summed up with more good points. I think she is a confident speaker and her evaluation showed that she listened closely to Ken’s speech and is gearing up to improve her skills across the board. Yuyu isn’t frightened to try things and she engages with the audience, which makes her a pleasure to listen to.

Robyn was the second and final contestant. Robyn amazed me with the structure of her evaluation. Like Yuyu she made commendations, a recommendation, and some more commendations. Her recommendation was about Ken’s pacing - that the effect of this is that it can tire the audience because of the amount of information they are taking in. Slowing the pace would help. Robyn did a fantastic job of bringing this to Ken’s attention in a positive way, which is what evaluating is all about. I think it was the structure and detail of Robyn’s evaluation that made her the winner of this contest. So congratulations to Robyn, who, to her surprise, will be representing Benjamin Toastmasters on Saturday 31 March in the Area 17 contest!

Well done Yuyu and Robyn, both entering their first Toastmaster contest.

Ianon was toastmaster on the day and she organised the whole meeting. Thanks Ianon. It was a tough role and she did a successful job making sure all tasks were filled by improvising on the spot - which is a Toastmaster thing: jump in and help out whenever necessary.

Claudia jumped in and took on the role of Table topics master at the last minute and selected some of us to do an impromptu speech for 1-2 minutes. It is entertaining and a challenge. I talked about ‘Cats or dogs: which is best?’, and I decided cats AND dogs are equal as I’m an animal lover but then summarised that I am a dog person after all.

We had two brand new guests, Dat and Neil, who seemed to enjoy the meeting, and our Area 17 Governor Jenny was also there. She told us she is almost a Distinguished Toastmaster - a wonderful achievement. Well done Jenny!

Thanks to the judges on the day (their identities are a secret!).

Good luck Robyn - I think you will find entering the Area 17 contest a wonderful experience.

(Thanks to Lee Dean for writing this post.)

Your body - a not-so-silent partner in public speaking

'Your body speaks' is the title of the fifth project in the Toastmasters Competent Communicator manual. At the club meeting, on 24 February, Yuyu gave her speech to complete this fifth project, and in doing so she gave the project title a whole new meaning - at least for me.
 
The instructions for Project 5 tell you how to use body movement to reinforce your message when speaking in public. I thought the title of the project referred to letting your body move, to help the speech along.
 
As you’ve probably noticed yourself as a member of an audience, a talk is often much more gripping if the speaker moves around while speaking. I don’t mean when the speaker just makes repetitive hand movements (though that is better than nothing). I mean that when a speaker lets his or her body illustrate his or her talk, the result is a much more confident – and usually more interesting and involving - ‘performance’.
 
On 24 February, Yuyu showed that the title could have more meaning than I had been reading into it.

Yuyu explained to us that soon after she had just given her very first speech at Toastmasters, she had to give a presentation at a workshop for her discipline at university.
She had been extremely nervous and had stood motionless behind the lectern during her workshop presentation. Afterwards, noone in her audience had asked her any questions in question time. (Questions put to an academic after a presentation in a workshop are like a stamp of approval – you want to have some!) It was as if her presentation hadn’t been heard.
 
Since then, Yuyu has given a number of talks at Toastmasters and gained considerably more confidence in speaking.
 
She told us that she had just recently given another presentation at a workshop or conference for her discipline. This time, Yuyu said, with her Toastmasters experience ‘under her belt’ she had moved around during her presentation, reinforcing her points with her body language and making direct eye contact with interested members of the audience as she spoke. Her body demonstrated that she was now a confident speaker.
 
And – hey presto! – this time the senior professors present used the question time after her presentation to raise some interesting points for discussion and sought further information from her – a stamp of approval indeed!
 
I suddenly saw, as Yuyu meant us to, that in this case Yuyu’s body had indeed 'spoken' for her in her two workshop presentations. When she was very nervous, her body had told her audience that fact – and they had respected that situation and not challenged her with questions. Now, several months later, they had seen from her body language that she has confidence. Her audience could now feel free to respond to Yuyu’s professional presentation at the workshop. They knew subconsciously that they could raise points for discussion and ask for more information, and she would not be terrified when they did.
 
What a testimony to the value of taking regular opportunities, such as at club meetings, to come out to the front and speak to the group!
Practice makes perfect, and evidently – in Toastmasters at least – practice builds confidence, and your body will tell everyone so!