Female pilot tops humorous speech contest

Sandra Lutchman of Dynamic Speakers Club emerged the winner of  the Humorous Speech segment at the Area 12 Toastmasters staged a Humorous Speech and Evaluation contest at the El Dorado East Secondary School.

Lutchman, who holds the distinction of being the second female to become a certified pilot in Trinidad & Tobago, commanded the attention of the audience with her piece on aging gracefully. Second place went to Lennox Sealy of Nepuyo Toastmasters Club of Arima. The crowd erupted during Sealy’s talk on creativity when he asked, “Just imagine what I could do with three hands and three feet?” The contest brought the top two contestants from the three club level events to the Samuel Ramoutar Hall.  According to a media release from the Area 12 Toastmasters, the use of humour in speeches is a core learning objective in the Toastmasters Educational programme. Like the mythical city of El Dorado, working one’s way to humour is often easier to envisage than to realise upon delivery of the speech. 

 

Despite this difficulty, whether a toastmaster’s ultimate aim is to orate for entertainment or to improve presentations at work, they become “masters of the laugh” by employing several speaking tools and techniques. In the evaluation contest, four contenders and the audience listened to a sample speech delivered by toastmaster Nancoo of Nepuyo Toastmasters titled “Who am I?” After a short period of preparation each contestant gave an evaluation of the speech. Another hallmark of Toastmasters Education is the ability to provide feedback. Effective evaluation considers the value of the speech, its positive aspects and provides constructive suggestions for the development and improvement of the speaker. Jason Cotton of Nepuyo Toastmasters Club was chosen as the Best Evaluator and Stacey Foster of Talk Tsu Toastmasters Club placed second.

 

Cotton, an economist with Central Bank, is no stranger to winning speech contests. In 2011, he placed second in the Toastmasters Caribbean Speech Contest. The  four outstanding speakers will represent Area 12 at the Territory competition on Saturday, September 29 when they face the winners of Area 13, the other cluster of clubs in T&T. The winning speakers at that event will advance to the district-level competition next month which will be held in Grenada during the District 81 Conference. For biographies of the Area 12 winners, details for the upcoming contests including the District Conference in Grenada and location/meeting times of Area 12 Toastmasters clubs in T&T visit  www.area12toastmasters.wordpress.com or join the conversation on Twitter @A12D81Toast