Speeches on: South America's Bolivar, Spring, and Voting at Harrovians April 27 2015

Missing Key to the Club Door
Members and committee members stood outside the door waiting for the key to arrive but by the time 12 of us had gathered everybody was chatting animatedly in pairs, welcoming newcomers, exchanging banter and networking.

I was General Evaluator, who evaluates the whole meeting, so I was busy making mental and physical notes; I suggested that we should copy a sister club in the area, ensuring that two members held keys. having two keys ensures that if one person fell ill, was on holiday, working out of town out of the country, or simply delayed by traffic or any other reason, whoever arrived first could open the venue.

Doorstep meeting!

Bereavement Takes Toastmaster
Warren was unexpectedly thrown into the role of Toastmasters of the evening because our previously listed master of ceremonies for the evening, Lorna, had lost her mother. (The whole club sends Lorna condolences and wishes her long life. Two members have said they will send messages and also visit her on their own and the club's behalf.)

Time
Warren had found a theme for the evening, time and time-keeping. He emailed everybody asking those who had a role to reply to two questions on time:
a What do you do to save time?
b What helps you keep to time?

Sanjay had replied that he was most productive first thing in the morning, so that was when he did his important tasks. A useful tip.

Speech and Marriage
President Indra had lost his voice. Warren gave a great informative introduction to the meeting, with Warren wit. He said that Toastmasters International meetings teach three key skills: speaking, listening and leadership, which are useful in both the club - and marriage.

Unusually, he said, 'Every person listed on the agenda has arrived, so the agenda is not a work of fiction.'  When Warren told us to turn off mobile phones and was interrupted by a bleep from a phone, he was unfazed and turned the interruption into a joke, saying, 'a member is testing their battery'.

Timing Time
Timekeeper Karim gave a confident good-evening to all the role holders (Mr President, Toastmasters of the evening, and welcome guests) and launched into a fluent explanation of the times of the longer prepared speeches and shorter table topics and the coloured lights. I suggested that the orange light could be explained as a signal to wrap up so that you finished prompty on or before the appearance of the stop red light.

I suggested times should be on a quick to see column on the right, rather than lost in the text of a small print agenda.

Seema was Grammarian (later evaluator of Sanjay).

Apollo, a member from the club's early days in the pub in Harrow and Wealdstone, who is now a member of Canterbury Club in Kent where he now works, was welcome back. In addition, he had brought along three visitors, Richard, Vincent, and Rikki, Vincent's wife. They are likely to return and become members. Apollo introduced Vikki as 'the wife', leaving some audience members frowning,  puzzled as to whose wife. Hecklers demanding humorously, "Whose wife! What's her name!" All in good fun.

Two Words of The Evening
Seema's word of the evening was meander and she was well prepared having placed in advance on all corners of her printout pieces of Blu-tac. (Spellchecker keeps adding an e and I cannot change the spellchecker database on a blog system).

As GE I suggested in future Grammarians could printed a second copy of the word to be displayed elsewhere in the room in front of the speakers. Only one copy behind speakers could easily be forgotten by the speakers once they are standing at the lectern, concentrating on delivering their speech forgetting the word behind them.

Challenging Table Topics
Amparo introduced 'table topics' for impromptu speeches. the name comes from how topics were originally chosen. Nowadays topics are still occasionally chosen lucky dip style from subjects placed face down on the table. But mostly the topics master holds the topics in hand and looks for a suitable candidate in the audience.

Amparo's first topic was a topical news item, voting. She correctly announced the topic first, so we all started thinking about what we would say.

She surveyed the room: "Who is my victim?" She got a laugh. But the subject was easy, voting.

Who Can Vote For Presidents?
Karen spoke about voting, saying change is costly.

A later question from the floor was about whether foreigners can vote in local elections or 'for the president'. In the UK we don't have a president, only a Prime Minister. Toastmaster of the evening, Warren, replied that in the UK we do not vote for the president but for the MP of a particular party, and the MPs chosen select their leader.

(Too complicated to explain more, but, if you are interested, you can research it.  Give a speech on the UK voting system and other countries. Compare national or international voting systems with your club.)

Amparo's other topics gave us a useful insight into the topics master as well as the speakers. She told us two things about herself related to the topics she used: that she was a landlady; and that she collects stamps.

I didn't say it at the time, not having time, but in retrospect, I should have mentioned that it's good for the Table Topics Master to pick on as seasoned speaker to open the topics session. That's what she did. Afterwards, the Table Topics Master should give opportunities to speak to newcomers or visitors from other clubs not on the agenda. That's the purpose of Table Topics, so that guests can feel involved, make a start at a short speech.

Welcoming Guests
However, Harrovians does allow time for the President or Toastmaster of the evening to welcome guests. Like many clubs, we ask guests to introduce themselves before the break, later and/or to say at the end of the evening what they noticed or liked about the evening.

Guests often arrive late at what is to them a new location. Therefore if you cannot welcome them at the start, you can do this last thing before the break. President Indra did so before the break, welcoming Apollo back and asking his guests to introduce themselves.

We found out only two facts about our trio of guests, that they are friends of Apollo and live in the area - and two are married to each other. I would have liked to have learned whether they need the skills of either speaking or leadership in their work, or whether they grew up in this area or moved here for work or education. If they attend again, as they intended at the meeting, we will learn more.

Postage Stamps Inspiring Topics
Amparo's novelty idea for topics was producing a book of stamps. She asked a member of the audience to pick a stamp from their country and talk about the subject.

I suggested that we could all use that method to create a themed set of topics, using stamps for the international subjects (for an international audience - any audience). Similarly, you could use banknotes or coins.

The winner of the Best Table Topics Speaker was Jesus, who is from Venezuela. His subject was perfect for him, Simon Bolivar - the subject of his recent speech. Jesus told us that Bolivar is the national hero of Venezuela, known as the father of the country, and (to honour him) their currency is called the Bolivar. Simon Bolivar, 'a great military leader is also the hero of several other Latin American countries, Columbia, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, even Panama'.

Afterwards Jesus and I were talking about Bolivar and trying to remember his numerous famous quotations. I just checked and one of Bolivar's quotations was about endurance, the topic of our meeting's first speech.

Hari On Buy To Let
Hari was another speaker fluent on his own expertise, 'my bread and butter', he said, which is financing mortgages. He compared the German system where citizens are content to rent long-term, with the British system where owning your own home is a common aspiration. (I thought of the old adage, an Englishman's home is his castle.)

During the break we enjoyed coffee, tea and confectionary bought and brought by Ruth. I commended the fact that she had bought both sugary snacks (marshmallows and Kit-Kts) for those of us who like a sugar rush to give a quick burst of energy for our speech or role, plus alternative plain biscuits for those trying to avoid sugar.

Speech On Endurance
The first speech of the evening by Sanjay was entitled: 'The four Ps to develop endurance.' He opened with an excellent quotation from the bible, by James. His anecdotes about practising running date back to his early years when he and a schoolfriend ran together. Sanjay spoke about 4ps: Preparation,  Practise/Persistence, People - having a friend to help, and Prayer. He also quoted Aristotle, and Branson's book and saying - just do it. Inspiring.

When you have three or four main points, all alliterative, you can count them off on your fingers. No need to read them from your script. You could remember them. You can maintain eye contact with the audience.

Indra had organised a meet-up after the previous day's marathon, inviting Seema, and our friend and occasional guest Debjani who had also run the marathon the previous day, as their photos had shown the rest of us on Facebook, so Indra, Seema, I and other members of the audience were all nodding about endurance and comradeship.

Doubling up - speaking in Table Topics as well as giving an evaluation.

Speech On Springtime
The second speech by Jay was on Springtime and the joys of spring. She wore an attention-grabbing vivid red top which would have held my attention even if she had mimed.

She spoke vividly about the washing line going diagonally across the garden and the smell of fresh blown in the breeze washing. That was visual and sensual.

Her second point was more intellectual. New buds are a novelty experiencing changes to the environment stimulates exciting chemical changes, producing dopamine, which affect animals' and humans' brains, making them feel happy and disposed to love and mating. So in a literal sense, 'love is in the air'.

The third speaker Thulasi told us why Your Country Needs Your Vote. Very topical.

She answered all the possible objects to voting, making positive points. She said giving up your vote is 'not being rebellious, it's surrendering'. 'Don't give up your power.'

The fourth speech by Ruth Vishnik was a humorous speech entitled An Apple Mac a day keeps the doctor away. She ended with a joke about her password.

Evaluators were:
Karen: on table topics.
Dupe evaluating Jay.
Seema evaluated Sanjay's speech.
Warren evaluated Thalasi.
Jay evaluated Ruth.

Evaluator Warren gave a warm evaluation of Thalasi and his useful suggestion for all of us is to  ask the audience questions, showing them 'What's In It For Me'.

Seema won the Best Evaluator ribbon.

The meeting ended on a high note, with special awards to Ruth Vishnik (a past president) and current President Indra Sikdar.

Photos above show
a) The group, members and visitors

Achievements
b) Ruth's Oscar-style award for reaching Advanced Speaker Bronze
c) Indra's award of a plaque for reaching DTM.
These awards are successes for the individuals and also for the club.

Photos by and copyright Angela Lansbury and more or edited versions of photos may be available. If you think you are in a photo from this date or earlier please contact Angela Lansbury or the Harrovians President (in April 2015 President is Indra Sikdar).

Glossary:
GE General Evaluator - evaluates the whole meeting, especially evaluators, also everyone and everything else except speeches already evaluated.

What have I learned to do better from my session as a GE? Practise saying the names on the agenda. I made the mistake of calling Amparo 'Ampara' to rhyme with Maria, because in England girls' names often end in a, whilst foreign names such as Franco are boys' names. However, after checking Amparo in Wikipedia, I have learned a lot about Amparo being a popular girl's name in a region of Spain - after patron saint of a charity set up centuries ago - check it out for yourself.)

Only one meeting in May because of the May Bank Holiday on the 4th and 25th, so be at the next meeting is May 11th 2015.

If you are Grammarian, remember to say, "If I were you (is subjunctive). 'I was' is past tense. (If anybody says, 'If I was you ..', you have my permission to interrupt, 'You never were! I was me.'
If I were you, I would remember that."