Brian took over President Rob’s role for the evening. He told of how since joining Toastmasters his ability to present architectural projects to clients in a more informative and inclusive manner has improved. A cheerful Bea had her first time as Toastmaster. She gave an overview of the meeting and confirmed that Toastmasters had also improved her communication in groups. Niamh, a new member was Timekeeper.
After the officers for the evening introduced their roles, Helen as Topics-master presented her Topics. We had talks on sibling Rivalry, Travel, Friendship, Memorable jobs, Camping and Parties. All were entertaining and told with good humour.
The first Speech was by Brian. He gave a speech on the Toastmasters Pathways Program encouraging all members to follow one of them. The pathways have much in common but following a pathway that suits your personality, your life ambitions, job aspiration etc. helps focus your learning experience.
The second speech was by Paul who gave a speech on how Toastmasters helps one gain the confidence to speak. He talked about how speaking should be about connection and not performance or control. For him it is about knowing our shortcomings and building up the resilience to talk in public. He encouraged us to take on any role, an officer, a speaker or an evaluator and to do so frequently. Constant practice and celebration of each little step will see incremental improvement. This, for Paul, is what Toastmasters is all about.
Christine gave an educational speech and explained what a Sargent at Arms does and Warren spoke about what the VP of Membership does.
After a convivial tea break the two speeches were evaluated. Dion evaluated Brian’s speech commenting on how well presented the very informative speech on the Pathways program was. Pat in evaluating Paul’s speech showed the dangers of overreliance on reading a printed speech that did no justice to Paul’s ability to communicate.
The meeting concluded soon afterwards
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