September 17, 2008

This session, we had two fabulous speakers that reflect two different levels of training in Toastmasters:  advanced and beginner.

Ellen Bradshaw started out the evening with her speech, “The Brave Little Tailor.”  Having been a member of Toastmasters for two years, Ellen had already completed her first manual of speeches from the organization and was working on an advanced project that focused on folk tale telling.  For her project, she recounted the Grimm brother’s story of a smalltime tailor who outsmarted two giants and a King and became King.  As noted by her evaluator, James Scarborough, she did an excellent job of setting a “mood” of adventure and engaging the audience with her gestures and character voices.  James felt that her speech could have been improved, however, in a few ways.  First, he would have liked to see a lower reliance on notes so that she appeared more confident and comfortable with her story.  Second, he would have liked to see books or pictures to accompany the tale so that it became even more vivid in his imagination.

Tammie Kheocha-on rounded out our speakers with her icebreaker speech.  A recent addition to the GWU Toastmasters club, Tammie noted how she was eager to pick up speaking skills and apply them in her work and personal life.  A senior at GW, Tammie realized that she needed to work on skills including the ability to cater to difference audiences, the appearance of confidence by getting rid of inarticulates like “um” and “ah”, and the act of being concise and memorable.  Christine Hanson Clapp, a veteran public speaker, evaluated Tammie and was amazed about how well she organization her speech.  In addition, she noted that Tammie’s smile and eye contact demonstrated confidence.  A few areas where Christine felt Tammie could have improved were her introduction and her stance.  Christine felt that her introduction was not as straightforward as it could have been and that she was leaning forward on the podium too much.

Our Table Topics session was a time for audience members to practice their impromptu speaking.  Luckily, we had some volunteers to answer tv-related questions.  A special thanks go out to Stephen Richter, Christine Hanson-Clapp, Alexis Horn, Allie, and James Scarborough who answered questions.  It was great to hear about their respective topics: Stephen's fascination with the gameshow Jeopardy because of it's multifaceted, jack of all trades standpoint; Christine's insight into the typical day of a Mom; Alexis's entertainment by Japanese game shows; Allie's characterizing of her apartment building akin to Melrose Place; and James' feeling about some unintelligable tv shows.