How to pick a topic, and win at Contests

As we have entered the spring season with nights a little warmer, the heating system didn’t have to work any overtime in the Greenmeadows East Community Hall for Monday's meeting. It did bode even better, as there were three speeches on the program, plus an educational session, along with the normal Table Topics, and evaluations.

The meeting opened on time with the vibrant and cheerie smiles of Toastmaster Dee, who acknowledged the apologies from six Toastmasters (Steve and Christine, Sarah, Paul, Sally and Peter).

We had one guest, in Jimmy, who is canvassing some of the Clubs in an effort to see which one is best for him.

The normal explanation of roles were called on and special mention must be made of Ashley's word of the night 'agog' - which,  as it turns out, is a real word; meaning with great excitement and interest!

Straight into the program, we had Chris, who was right on target with his table topics by reaching back into his early days as a collector of matchboxes. A concise outline of what was expected of all participants was given; a) stick to the topic, b) always have an open, body and conclusion, c) and most importantly do not play with the matches as they are live.  Of course, on the underside of the matchbox, was an animal theme with each box having a characterised picture of an animal to which the participants had to make up a story. All speakers spoke well and were even encouraged to make the sound of the specific animal. Amy once again came to the fore and was only too willing to assist our shyer speakers and showed her dexterity with calls ranging from a seal right through to a seagull.

It just goes to show, that even after a break from Toastmasters, James hadn’t lost any of the knowledge and skills previously gained. James gave excellent feedback to all speakers, clearly providing praise to each and then providing a recommendation by way of illustration, which was intended to show our speakers how they could get out of their comfort zone and really get into the story line.

Emma opened the speeches with her experiences of 'back in the saddle' although as the story progressed it did appear to be more about being out of the saddle. Emma outlined the nasty experience of being bucked off Fern on the weekend - not once but twice. This led to the heart of the story of when a horse is not quite in the mood, with it being windy and cold and also one of 'lets show who is in charge today' then maybe having a day off, is well worth consideration. Lots of hands gestures and body language to vividly describe the auspicious event(s).

Emma - "Back in the saddle"

A great story, with some great tips on riding and what to look out for in a dodgy horse.

Our second speaker, Kate, started her story with the 8% success rate headline. Yes, of all people who set goals only 8% achieve the stated goal, whether that is to lose weight, improve fitness or maybe go on an overseas trip. Kate outlined her own 5 year plan and how she was going about monitoring it and most importantly ensuring she is on track to achieving her goals.

Kate even highlighted how she wants to challenge herself and even go against some medical advice to prove she is capable of great things. The use of the flipchart was used to re-enforce key points and strategies so that all of the audience could both hear and see the points being made.

There was no doubt in anyone’s mind as one could hear and feel the determination in Kate's voice, and it is inevitable that Kate is going to be joining other motivated people in that elite 8% group.

A pumped-up Kate, outlining her goals

Our third speaker was none other than our esteemed President, Craig. Doing the CC manual, for the 11^th time, and starting all the way back at Speech One, is some achievement. Still Craig had new material relating to his career in the banking industry with some emphasis on the good and not so good times within that environment.  I believe we saw a different side of Craig, a man with empathy with his customers and always wanting to do the right thing – even lending a customer money from his own bank account (when the bank wouldn’t). Of course, we know this has continued into his TM career (not the money lending!), but the empathy, the passion and dedication he has not only to Toastmasters but also to members by providing support and guidance.

Craig, doing his icebreaker speech for the 11th time

Our speech evaluators, Wayne, Rachel and Robyn all provided good feedback to our speakers, together with some thoughts on how one could improve on what were three great speeches.

The educational speech by Amy capped off a wonderful meeting. The topic, topic selection i.e. how can one  go about selecting a topic to give that award winning speech. Simple; take one part knowledge/expertise about the topic, mix with your passion of the topic and then ensure there is interest and a takeaway for the audience.

Amy used a simple three-ring illustration to re-emphasise her point. So sit down and brain dump all those ideas, experiences, incidents and other knowledge one has stored upstairs. Rule out what is not relevant, bring together some contributing material and craft into that speech.

Three rings to a speech topic

Some speech material can be engineered to focus on the objectives so as to meet the assignment goals.  An opportune time to re-think our topic selection(s) and as illustrated in a practical way by Craig’s speech, there is still a lot of stories to tell...

Once again, an enjoyable evening, with great chairmanship by Dee, who then announced the "winners" of the Toastmasters awards

Best Table Topic : Robyn McCool

Best Speaker : Emma George

Best Evaluator : James Kan

James also got the double by scoring the Best Contributor of the evening for both stepping in and evaluating Table Topics at the last minute, but also providing such an exuberant display of recommendations when performing his evaluation.