Liberty Village Toastmasters Toronto

At the January 26 meeting, Toastmaster John talked about a recent advertising study that indicated it takes 6.5 seconds for today’s selective audience to accept the messaging presented to them. That’s why it’s crucial for speakers to get to the point quickly and not lose the attention of their audience. John concluded his speech by challenging all the night’s presenters – with the exception of our prepared speakers – to cut their allotted speaking time by half.

Our first speaker, Julian kicked off speech number 2 – “Organize your speech” with a roaring start. A lot of eyebrows perked up with extreme interest when he asked us if we wanted to know how to make a million dollars. His explanation was really insightful Well done, Julian! You really intrigued us!

While Julian raised eyebrows, our second speaker, Hazel gave us an eye-opening account of birthing choices. Hazel’s speech was also from the Competent Communicator’s “Organize your speech”. From doctors, midwives to doulas, the birthing choices are quite diverse. It was certainly a great learning opportunity for all of us. Great job organizing this speech, Hazel!

Navita, the final speaker immediately grabbed our attention when it was announced she once had the opportunity to travel to Switzerland. She threw a curve ball at us by talking about the finer points of etiquette instead. Navita stepped away from the podium to ensure she delivered speech number 5 – “Your Body Speaks” with the right amount of poise and confidence.

We also managed to squeeze in some time for members and mentorees to meet and discuss goals for presenting speeches. This was followed by Table Topics, which was led by Bing. We had a lot of speakers during the Table Topics segment. Bing posed a variety of questions that ranged from “what is your favourite ad campaigns” to “describe a moment when you made a split second decision”. We had around five guests and it was great to see almost all of them volunteer to participate in Table Topics. Our guests did quite well with their speeches. In fact, our Table Topics winner was a guest too —congratulations Chris for giving a very poignant speech on what matters to you.

Overall it was an enjoyable evening and our presenters stepped up to the challenge of cutting down their speaking time. It’s a skill we’re all striving towards making us better Toastmasters!

Looking forward to the next meeting!

Our January 19 Toastmasters meeting was chock-full of fun and information. Toastmaster Vivienne told us about the inspirational “3 A’s of Awesome”. The concept was developed by a blogger, who during the darkest time in his life, dug deep to come up with ways to see life’s wonderful moments through attitude, awareness and authenticity. The attitude is how you take on life’s challenges. Through awareness you should embrace your inner child and remember how you saw things for the first time. Finally, be authentic with what you love the most – just like the hulking football player Roosevelt “Rosey” Grier did when he was true to himself and followed his heart and pursued needlepoint.
Simon was the only speaker of the night. He did a really great job with his interpretive reading of a poignant scene from “The Sweet Hereafter” in which a lawyer travelling on a plane recalls a terrifying childhood moment of his drug addicted daughter when he had to save her from a spider bite. Kudos to Lily for playing the supportive role of the fellow passenger. Simon recited his part expressing to us the fear and discomfort of a parent forced to perform emergency tracheotomy on his own child. You could certainly hear a needle drop when he made this passionate delivery. Well done Simon!

The second half of the meeting was a workshop on the ingredients to developing a great speech. This version of Liberty Village style TED Talks, was led by our Advanced Speaker Ted, and it did not disappoint. We had a great turn out — close to a dozen new guests, in addition to our members. Everyone agreed the workshop was worthwhile. A lot of people took copious notes and some of our guests admitted they learned a lot from the workshop. Great presentation Ted! We’re looking forward to more high calibre workshops.

The meeting concluded with the reports from our General Evaluator Kevin and his team. Despite a slightly longer meeting, there was an overwhelming sentiment that it was an outstanding meeting.
Looking forward to the next meeting

Michelle