Feedback | Toastmasters Madrid – Public Speaking and Leadership Club

Weren’t you able to attend our June 17th meeting? If that’s the case, keep reading to know what you missed.

Being an international group means that our guest usually come from all over the world. This time we had people from US, New Zealand, Colombia and of course some Spanish people. Around 30 people filled Anthony’s place back room.

John was the Toastmaster of the Day. He chose music as the general theme for the meeting, but accidentally, motivation became the common thread of the session. In any case, we got Pink Floyd playing during all the evaluation pauses.

Christian introduced us to Napoleon Hill work: “the Law of Success”. A book aimed to identify the secret of the success of self-made rich men as Henry Ford or Thomas Edison. Something worthy to be checked out!

Raquel explained us who the new club officers are. Quite impressive team, to be honest. We are taking our new members development so seriously that we have now two VP of Mentorship.

The two main Speakers of the day were Alberto and Eric. Alberto’s “Earn your Black Belt” speech inspired us to remember that “where there is a will, there is a way”. Rely on your internal energy and do not give up. Eric’s “Chants, affirmations, songs… and haka” electrified our unconscious mind. Eric started with an impressive haka that left us breathless and I mean all of us, including him. But 2 minutes later he was singing, could you believe it?

Eva and Julian were the speeches evaluators. Both of them demonstrated why feedback is the heart of the Toastmasters Educational program.

Finally, Jane, Benito, Pablo, and Alex were the “victims” of Juliet, the table topic master. She made them communicate difficult information while motivating the audience. Could you imagine having to explain in your company that a new company rule force employees to dress according to their salary?

Written by Javier.

Somehow in contrast with the required formality and ceremony of the Club´s International Speech and Evaluations Contest held in the previous meeting, the session on March 18th was a showcase for entertaining conduction of a meeting. In addition, high quality feedback for the participants rounded an enjoyable evening. Let´s review the highlights.

With at least half the audience composed of guests, Toastmaster of the Day Eric David nailed it with a cheerful and funny flow of his introductions of the participants. Humor always works with new audiences. Also important on his side was the clear explanation of the titles and merits of the speakers (Competent Communicators, etc…) to the guests so that they could get an glimpse on what the progress in Toastmasters means.

The members in supporting roles such as Timer (Catalina) and Grammarian (Rosa) displayed humour in their explanations as well, thus easily conveying the message on what their roles were about.

The two first speakers, Anselmo and Iñaki, delivered both their project #3 speeches, with the focus on getting to the point. Different use of body lenguage from their side to tell us about professional matters and personal journeys. Maria, on her side, reached project #5, so she will get soon her recognition for the achievement (as other members recently did, read about it here). She also mastered her facial expressions and body language to tell about personal growth.

All three speakers, and the audience as well, were fortunate to listen to high quality feedback from their evaluators. In this meeting they deserve special attention. Aline and Jane provided feedback to Anselmo and Iñaki, who had same objectives for their speeches. Great value came from the direct comparison between the two evaluations. Aline touched many aspects of Anselmo´s speech, i.e. from body language to structure so the audience got a thourough reiview of the speech, also addressing specific points of the speech that had been agreed beforehand with Anselmo, showing preparation. Jane, approached it differently. She focused on less points of Iñaki´s speech but could ellaborate more on each of them, i.e. providing detailed example on how to improve the informative value of the speech.

Alex Hristov came handy as replacement for a last-minute drop, acting as experienced evaluator for Maria. He made the introduction of the objectives of body language with a great example of it himself. The audience, again especially newcomers, would then have a visual reference to measure the upcoming speech against. He provided a comprehensive evaluation of Maria´s progress from her previous speeches regarding facial expression. His candid evaluation about a somewhat confusing use of props rounded his task.

For the improvisation part, the Table Topics, the entertainment gained the stage again with John Gonzalez as Table Topic Master, creating a musical and provoking atmosphere very engaging for the audience. All selected speakers (Jesús, Julian, Pilar, Mabel and Jaime) came up with answers to his questions. Afterwards Luci gave, in her role as Table Topic Evaluator, specific praise to all speakers and to the overall conduction of this section. However, the general evaluator (myself) did not let go unnoticed that no critic had been made about the absence of the presentation of the purpose and goals of Table Topics to the many guests present there.

To close the meeting, Eric went on with his last jokes, rounding a succesful and entertaining meeting that could prove useful in converting guests into club´s members. Great job Eric.