The evening began with our President Alan sharing two stories of how the course of two peoples lives were changed - in one instance by failure to tackle the fear of public speaking and in the other case by success in improving public speaking.
The first story concerned Alan's friend Dave who was studying English at University. Part of the course involved public speaking. Despite his wish to be a teacher, Dave just couldn't face speaking before an audience. He eventually dropped out of the course and for many years has worked as a barman. Sadly his dreams to be a teacher remained unfulfilled.
If only Dave had taken action and joined a supportive group such as toastmasters - his destiny could have been completely different. His dreams of being a teacher could so easily have become a reality.
The second story concerned an ex-Harrovians member - Sholom. Sholom was a rabbi. After regularly attending Harrovians the course of Sholom's life began to change. Many members of his congregation commented on the amazing improvements in his public speaking. Soholm applied for a prestigous job at the University of Detroit and his application was successful! He now has his dream job and all because he took action one evening and decided to come along to toastmasters.
The evening's table topics session, was hosted by Kimlesh and Harrovians took advantage of the chance to air their views on the current affairs of the day. Indra told us about his understanding of the large Hadron Collider experiment. Maneesha explained why she believed that class is no barrier to progression in modern Britain. In her words “ballsy people just go for it”. Linda discussed fashion and why we should all be comfortable about what we are wearing and enjoy being either in or out of fashion. Shirley had an eye for a bargain particularly at the jumble sales at the scout hut at the end of her road.
There were two excellent speeches this evening.
Bookworm Kieran shared his love of reading with us in a fantastic Speech No 2 (Competent Communication Manual) . As he put very appropriately “mankind’s greatest invention is the written word”. Kieran had actually brought in his favourite books by authors such as Stephen King and Lewis Carroll amongst others. It was wonderful to learn his opinion about certain books, how they impacted upon his life and what they meant to him. The speech also made us think about why we may choose to read certain books at different stages of our lives.
Super Mandip’s Advanced Speech was entitled “The Entrepreneur Child” This speech reminded us that by changing our own mindset we can help our children to see a different life path other the 45 year plan that the Government wants us to follow.
Illustrating his point in a chart, Mandip enthusiastically explained that the challenge was to move from the Employee/Self employed section to Business Owner/Investor area. His speech provided us with the inspiration to believe that this was possible and that our children can share our journey.
Well done to everyone who spoke this evening! See you all at the Humorous Speech Contest on the 29th September!
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