Harrovian Speakers Meeting Monday 19th March 2018 and the Blueprint For Happiness

Amparo had set up the room with the word of the day, Empathy, written large. As we had no grammarian, I (Angela Lansbury) took over that role and explained that I would be looking for similes (which I explained for the benefit of those in the audience who did not know) and metaphors.

Reetika presented her Icebreaker entitled Coffee with Reetika. She said she was born in Lucknow, India, which her slides showed on a map. She painted the Hindu God Ganeesha who has an elephant head and the body of a man.

Reetika presenting an Icebreaker with the help of projected slides.

President Sushil Shal gave her the Icebreaker ribbon as a reward and memento of making her first speech at Toastmasters. 

Nas Azam also received the ribbon for his Icebreaker.

Sushil used a system which his company utilises at work, asking the audience to cast their votes by logging into a website which gives you four choices, what you liked about the speech and what should be improved.

Rachel Speid's speech was the Blueprint for Happiness. She explained that we had three choices if we were not happy with what was happening in our life:

1 Blame others, which is non-productive, 

2 Change the world, or, if we cannot,

3 Change our attitude so that our idea of happiness is closer to reality. 

She won the ribbon for best speaker.

I evaluated Reetika and praised her use of slides, usually introduced at a later stage, and the map of India showing the location of Lucknow. I suggested adding a landmark of Lucknow. her family photos were good but the room is large and I could not see the faces of each person in the group photo. Perhaps show each face separately as she described the person. I loved the art pictures which were personal and demonstrated a skill.
I suggested cutting the last sentence about joining Toastmasters to improve - which has become a cliché. Instead end with her quotation.
Speeches are like short stories and novels. Often they can be improved by dropping the first and last paragraphs.
As language evaluator I drew attention to the unnecessary use of words and phrases such as actually, like and you know. I ended humorously: drop these words and your speech will improve, actually, like, you know.

I was awarded the ribbon for Best Evaluator.

Table topics or impromptu speeches gave the visitors a chance to speak.

Giles Speid, Rachel's husband, won the ribbon for the best table topic. When asked what power he would like to have, he said, "I want to find out what makes American President Trump tick, and why he won enough votes to get voted in as president and is still popular according to the latest polls."

Amparo showed the Toastmasters magazine to guests.

Alex was happy in his role as timekeeper.

Our guests enjoyed themselves.

Author Angela Lansbury, ACG, ALB