Wednesday, October 26, 2005

Oct 26, 2005 Toastmasters Meeting - Ice Breaker

Today, I delivered my Ice Breaker speech for Toastmasters. Entitled "Fast Forward", this is my first speech in the Toastmasters club. The meeting was held in the Integrity Room of the Analog Design Center or ADC. This is not the usual venue for the club meetings. It was obvious that the room wasn't set up for function meetings yet because some of the tables were stacked close together.


My Thoughts on my First Speech

For a first timer, I thought I did pretty well. I just didn't like the sensation though of feeling a dry mouth and throat after I spoke. Did I speak too fast? too loud?

Was I too serious? I noticed that many in the audience, including Gina Mapua the General Evaluator, were not smiling. Some had "frowning faces". Maybe I myself was not smiling enough nor gesturing enough to make my speech more interesting.


Evaluators' Comments

Micmic Tuason was my evaluator for this speech. He commended the speech as being delivered "naked". Apparently, this is a term in this Toastmasters circle to mean speaking away from the lectern, or in full view of the audience.

He noted that the speech exceeded the requirements for speech #1 and actually addresses speech projects #6 (Vocal Variety) and #10 (Inspire Your Audience). He liked the speech's use of questions and quotes. He also observed that there were filler words like ah's. The Ah Counter, Jane Dimapasoc, counted 9 ah's. Timer Mimi Raquena said I was overtime by 1 minute.




The big surprise in the evaluation portion came from the General Evaluator, Gina Mapua. She pondered that maybe I should have been evaluated as an advanced speaker. Wow!


My Reaction to the Evaluation

Maybe my question, "Who can swim?" probably resulted in the overtime. I practiced this speech for around 5 times? Maybe it should have been 10 or 20 times.

It was probably wishful thinking on my part to seriously take what Gina said about being evaluated as an advanced speaker. I mentioned this to Dan, the president, but said that, though commendable, we all need to undergo the same program - regardless.


Shown below is the scanned copy of the program minutes.


This is the front or cover side.


And that's... a wrap!