We had the pleasure to hear three stunning speeches followed by three constructive evaluations:
Julia Burge (DTM) shared her speech entitled “Why My Cat Is Like Your Kid.” With the delivery of a perfectly organized discourse, Julia provided us with key facts to get to know…her cat. Yes! Julia’s cat makes an unbearable amount of noise, he is the moodiest pet in the neighborhood, he awakened Julia’s maternal intuition –she knows better than anyone when her cat has a headache—and he is gross as a troll if he decides so. Julia was voted Best Speaker. Congratulations!
“Have you ever thought about doing something meaningful for your life?” With this strong opening Lucy Mendoza launched her speech entitled “My fundraiser”. She selected an appropriate outline that allowed the audience to easily follow and understand a speech on homeless kids: a topic that Lucy carries very deep in her heart.
Grace Weltman (DTM) presented her discourse “Mentoring”. Grace invited the audience to identify why mentoring’s importance, to describe mentor and mentee qualities, and finally to define the mentor’s role. Grace won the Most Improved Speaker ribbon.
Time for evaluators to deliver their evaluations! Vaishali Sahay—who was recognized for enthusiastically volunteering to opening roles—led the evaluation team: Steve Weltman, Larry Savell (DTM) and Shelly Lipanovich (CC). Vaishali gave a precise report of the preparation of the meeting and its development. She underlined the members’ good will that filled last minute vacant roles, making the meeting successful. Vaishali took the Best Program Manager ribbon.
Steve highlighted Julia’s appropriate use of juxtapositions, comparisons and vocal variety. He suggested the speaker to play more with voice volume, pitch, rate, and quality to reflect and add meaning and interest to the message. Steve provided reinforcement to Julia’s strengths and gently offered useful advice. Steve won the Best Evaluator ribbon. Congratulations!
Larry emphasized the brilliant organization and the fluent transitions used by Lucy in her speech. He reminded us that reading a speech calms the speaker’s nervousness. However, the discourse looses energy because the orator is focused on reading instead of engaging the audience. “Nervousness gives you energy”—Larry said. He concluded by encouraging the speaker to avoid the use of notes on next occasion.
Shelly underlined Grace’s speech preparation, complemented with visual aids and personal stories. The evaluator suggested the speaker to work on content organization and to better balance time constraints.