Many of us want to practice our public speaking skills, so we've decided to organize our second meeting of the month (coming up on Wednesday, January 25th) like a Toastmasters meeting. (Our first meeting of the month will keep its usual format). Here's the list of activities we're planning:
1. Prepared Speeches. These can be 2-10 minutes long. You can prepare your own speech (if you need ideas for how to choose topics for your speech, this article will help), or you can read a speech by someone else (here's a list of famous speeches, and here's another).
2. Evaluations. Feedback will be given regarding pauses ("um", "ah," "you know") and repetitions, grammar, and the content and delivery of the speech (was it interesting, was it clear). At least two positive comments are required.
3. Table Topics. These are off-the-cuff speeches, 1-2 minutes long. Members prepare 1-2 questions to ask the speakers.
4. Jokemaster. The person who volunteers as jokemaster for the day will tell a joke.
PLEASE REMEMBER THAT NONE OF THESE ACTIVITIES ARE MANDATORY. You can come to the meeting and just observe. You can also give a speech but ask not to receive an evaluation if that is too much for where you are right now. Do what is useful for you, and don't worry about the rest.
Please come to the January 25th meeting and tell us what you think about this new meeting structure and how we can improve it so that you can get the most out of it. Any feedback is greatly appreciated.
Table Topics are fun. Another way to do it & have it be spontaneous is for each person to write down a topic on a piece of paper. The papers are then crumpled up & placed in a container. Each person then blindly picks one of the papers & talks on that topic. (You're not allowed to talk on your own topic.) This way no one knows what topic they'll talk about until just before they start talking. If you don't know anything about the topic, you can make it up as you go along. We've done this in 2 other NSP/NSA groups I was in. One caveat is that it's best to avoid political topics, as this may turn into arguments, shouting matches, hurt feelings, furniture being thrown (just kidding!), etc. You get the idea.
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