Club in action...
1st session
Public Speaking Session
Public speaking session is marked as the initiating session of smart club. With the primary vision of enhancement of public speaking skill, this session runs. Everyone has capacity to speak but whenever the mass is considered, nervousness never spares us. Moreover, the ideas that we have may never be fruitful until and unless it’s effective presentation is made and the way one speaks counts a lot for it. This session always creates the confidence within us to speak our mind effectively and in the absence of nervousness.
This session is a formal session where there are altogether 11 roles. Prior to a week, the role takers for the next session are decided. The total roles for a session are scheduled as follows:
v Coordinator
v Pre- decided speaker(PDS)
v Self-decided speaker (SDS)
v Impromptu speaker
v Commentator for PDS
v Commentator for SDS
v Commentator for Impromptu speaker
v Grammarian
v Time-keeper
v Aah counter
v Overall critical analysis
The session starts sharp at eight on every Saturday in the cozy hall of PIC (Public information centre). Coordinator starts the session with a greeting and an introduction round. After the chairing of session by the chairperson, the formal program commences along with his/her permission. Thereafter the proceeding of the session is done along with the speech of various speakers viz: PDS, SDS and Impromptu. Especially five minutes is allocated for each speaker but if the prior information has been received then even 6-7 minutes is considered.
Pre-decided speaker (PDS) is the one who speaks on the topic decided prior to week. The next speaker that is Self- decided speaker (SDS) is to choose the topic by himself/herself and the most daring job is considered as of Impromptu speaker who has to speak on the topic given on the spot by the coordinator. Rather than the impromptu speaker, the PDS and SDS are expected to deliver an insightful and a very content filled speech as a result of their week-long research. Every speech is followed by a question/answer round. The questions are always encouraged but regarding the impromptu speaker, their content is searched. Though every sort of topic ranging from political, economic, social, cultural, gender, educational, technological, scientific to sexual issues are encouraged, the speakers seem giving priority to the political issues comparatively.
Perfection though is a far cry for every thing in this world, most of the times there is always a room for improvement ahead of us. Moreover, focusing upon the learners like us, the commentators are kept and now the floor is given to the commentators for PDS, SDS and Impromptu respectively. They are to comment over the content, body language, delivery style, eye contact, hand movement and so on. Starting with the positive points, they have to dig out the negative points ending along with the recommendations for improvement. Allocation of 2 minutes is done for every commentator.
After the job of commentators, the session always waits for the grammarian who is shouldered with the responsibility of pointing out grammatical errors made by the speakers, commentators along with the coordinator. As said, language is a dress and grammar is its tailor so until and unless the tailor is perfect, the dress cannot be beautiful. Realizing the same fact, the grammarian is appointed here.
A good speaker is the one who can present himself/herself as per the specified time frame. That’s why after the grammarian the session always heads for the time keeper who informs about the time taken by each participant during the session. Time keepers are always handled with the meta-cards that is to be shown time and again during the session in order to aware the speakers and commentators about the time.
During the speech, it’s our tendency to make aahas and pauses. The perfect aahas and pauses can make the speech sound more beautiful. However, its unnecessary use may spoil the speech as well and so the aahas counter is always there to count the unnecessary “aahas”, “and”, “but” and “long pauses” after the grammarian.
After the aahas counter, the floor is given to the observers in the session. Those who have visited the smart club for the first time are called by the coordinator so as to express what he/she felt in his first visit to smart club.
At last but not the least, there is the turn of chair person for the critical analysis of the session and to wrap up the session formally. The overall critical analyst is always expected to comment on all the other things that have not been specifically assigned to other role bearers.
In this way, the formal session ends and in the informal session the arrangement and role taking for the next session is announced.
Second Session
1st Week of Month: Documentary Viewing and Discussion
2nd Week of Month: PowerPoint Presentation
3rd Week of Month: Debate Competition
4th Week of Month: Internal Resource Mobilization/ External Expert