Temat: "Books for Verbal Victory" - relacja ze spotkania 21.03.

On 21st March Toastmasters Verbal Victory Club had its meeting in Toastmasters tradition in a unique location. As this was March’s special event we were waiting in anticipation for Monday.

University Of Adam Mickiewicz’s British Library established in cooperation with British Council became a host for the evening to a group of ambitious speakers. The Library, part of the British Council Library Network, has been established in 1986 in Poznań. Its resources contain a wide variety of British authors and poets, reference materials for language learners and students, compendiums, audiobooks and a collection of educational and movie DVDs. We were warmly welcomed by the head of the library, Joanna Kopel and staff.

The meeting started early – 4 pm - with a slight delay due to the unusual location. Jerzy Zientkowski, Club President, was Toastmaster of the Evening and played well the topic of the meeting which was “Books for Verbal Victory”. The first part, Table-Topics session, had the participants answering questions about their favourite books and negotiating with your publisher. There were two prepared speeches that evening – both of them early projects from Competent Communicator manuals. Daniel Mendalka in his second speech titled “Dare to listen” touched upon the importance of being an able listener and gave thought-provoking examples of misguided communication. Krystian Rother in his third speech titled “Minister of Self-Defence” presented a case-study on academic citation and scientific duty basing on the example of the recently defamed German Minister. After the break the meeting was taken over by General Evaluator - Kaja Milanowska – and her evaluation team. At the end of the meeting Word of the Day award went to Krystian Rother, who was the only one to use ripple in his prepared speech. Winning Table Topics speaker was Kaja Milanowska with the majority of audience’s votes.

Next Monday is going to be “Evaluation Night: Open the Doors” with a speechcraft segment from Successful Club Series called “Evaluate to Motivate”. We’ll have a chance to learn how to give constructive feedback in working environment and everyday life. Also we’re invited to the Polish Club to help with their club speech contest, so if you’d like to see some of the best speakers in Poznan and attend an unusual event be sure to visit us and our friends from the Polish Club on 30th March, 7pm at Wyzsza Szkola Bankowa, ul. Powstancow Wielkopolskich 2, room 101.