For me this meeting was a case of ‘doubling up’, since our President was on holiday, and as Vice President Education I was required to take on the role of Acting President, and open and close the meeting. My first task was to introduce a previous club President, Simon Cooper, as Toastmaster for the day. Perhaps confusingly for some of the guests in the audience, Simon’s first task was to introduce me in my long-arranged role of Timekeeper for the meeting.  I was therefore back on stage within a couple of minutes explaining the function of the green, amber and red signal lights in ensuring each meeting contributor kept within their allotted time slot. Simon then introduced Jerry Arulandu in the role of Grammarian, whose task is to point out any malapropisms or solecisms by any of the speakers, but also to commend creative and technically correct use of language. To add to the challenge for all the speakers, Jerry announced the word of the day as ‘Placid’, and asked all participants to work the word into their speeches wherever possible.

As usual, the first section of the meeting was devoted to Table Topics, providing an opportunity for short impromptu speeches on a variety of subjects. Ben Amthor, in the role of Table Topic Master, announced that the topics for the day would involve acceptance speeches for a number of unusual prizes: Best Tube Passenger 2009, Best Remote Control Operator, Best Late Riser, Best Reverse Reader, Best Dog Walker, Fastest Eater, The Barbara Cartland Medal 2009 and finally, winner of ‘Britain’s Got Talent’.  Following the speeches, Doug Williams took the stage as Table Topic Evaluator, and announced immediately that the secret of life is to ‘show no fear’, and praised all the topic speakers for doing just that. Doug showed an in depth knowledge of what makes a good speech, commending the clear structure of some of the speeches and the vocal clarity of some of the speakers, but also making recommendations for improvement, such as greater use of the ‘power of the pause’, more relaxed stance and gestures and, importantly, to remember to shake hands with the Table Topic master before and after the speech in order to ‘transfer energy’.

The ballot for the best Table Topic of the session went to Rose, for her acceptance of the award for Best Backward Reader, in which she had explained that she had read all of the Harry Potter books in Hebrew, which of course is written right to left. Not to be kept out the limelight for long, Rose was first on stage after the break to give her Ice-breaker Speech, entitled ‘An SE20 Pom.’ This told the story of her parents’ emigration from Australia to the smog of 1950s London, and their determination to see their children get a good education. Rose also gave a vivid description of the relationship between her disciplinarian Father and his ‘Pommy brats’. Stern Australian Dads seem to be a bit of a theme for recent Northern Lights speeches (see June 15)!

A bit like buses, Ice-breakers tend to come along in groups, and the next speaker was also giving his first speech to the club. Andy Pape delivered an entertaining speech entitled ‘Yes..Why Not’? The title gives a clue as to why the speech raised a lot of laughs, as Andy described the consequences of having a default answer of ‘yes’ to every suggestion. Much of the credit goes to Andy’s mum, from whom he inherited his ‘yes’ gene, as illustrated by her recent outing as a nude calendar girl. Andy also described a shambolic venture as a would-be rock star in his band ‘Heisenberg and the Uncertainty Principles.’

The third speech came from Immediate Past President Sue Mannering, giving her first advanced manual speech to the club after achieving Competent Communicator. Sue took us back to a time when she was known as ‘Singapore Sue’ having grown up in the Far East before moving to the UK. Being unfamiliar with British cultural icons, Sue found it confusing that people constantly asked her whether she was related to Captain Mainwairing.

Speech evaluations were provided by committee members David Healy, Rona Harding and Peter Charles. David’s evaluation of Rose’s Ice-breaker was his first main speech evaluation for Northern Lights, and followed the classic Toastmaster’s format of describing ‘what I saw, what I heard, and what I thought.’ David commended Rose’s audience rapport, and discreet use of a small notepad (which I admit I hadn’t even noticed), but recommended more anecdotes and less background. Rona admitted that she has been so wrapped up in Andy’s speech that she found it difficult to take notes, and commented that she would love to meet his mum! Rona also suggested that Andy hadn’t really needed his notes, and predicted that he would soon add use of gestures and stage movement to his excellent use of eye contact, language and grammar. Peter praised Sue’s use of personal experience in her speech to add conviction and impact, and described the way she established rapport with the audience through use of facial expressions, eye contact, and use of the whole stage. Peter recommended adding more structure to the speech and adding a big conclusion, both of which might have helped Sue to avoid over-running slightly on time.

Votes cast for best speaker and evaluator came out in favour of Andy for his Ice-breaker speech, and Peter for his evaluation of Sue’s advanced speech.  Jerry’s grammatical evaluation revealed that only two participants had used the word of the day! Well done to Andy and especially Louise for using it twice. Jerry also noted some controversy over whether I had been strictly correct to instruct speakers to ‘dismount’ the stage if I should have to ring the bell in my role as Timer.

The meeting was rounded off by a General Evaluation from Rachel Ie from West London Speakers. Rachel noted that one thing missing from our venue was a clock on the wall, which might have avoided a little bit of confusion between myself and Simon as Toastmaster due to our watches being out of synch. Rachel picked out Doug’s Table Topic evaluation for commendation, noting especially his booming vocal delivery. Handing out Ice-breaker and winners’ ribbons at the end of the meeting, I tried to take on board Rachel’s recommendation that I smile a bit more when speaking as Acting President. If I get too good at it though, Rachel, the question is who’ll take over the role as Northern Lights’ Mr Grumpy?