Hello and welcome to the March newsletter!
This month’s newsletter is rather long! This is partly because we’ve been away for a couple of months and partly because there’s quite a lot to say this month. So I’m going to lead with the key facts you need to know.
Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know
- Our regular meetings in March are on Monday 4th, Monday 11th and Monday 18th. Depending on which ones you look at, there are still evaluator and topics evaluator roles to fill. But if you can’t book any of these roles, you should be able to find a Table Topics slot at any of the meetings.
- The International Speech and Evaluation Contests take place on Monday 25th March – take part or get involved in helping to run the show via ClubPlan! (Please note that the contests will NOT be taking place at The Clerk & Well pub!! The venue will be confirmed on our website and Clubplan soon, and more details about the contests will be emailed to members by our VP Education, Swarajit.)
- Our past VPM (Vice President of Membership) Hari Kalymnios is organizing an evening social – dinner at the Suda Thai Café Restaurant in Covent Garden – on Friday 8th March at 7pm. Please email Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk by Wednesday 5th March if you’d like to attend. Places are limited!
- Our current VPM, Joe, will be emailing all of our members soon, as part of ‘The Meet the Members’ idea to tell us more about themselves by giving us a sentence or two about themselves answering three basic questions.
- We are looking for a replacement Sergeant at Arms, who is responsible for setting up the room before and after each meeting. The SAA also has a regular slot giving guest introductions (unless taking on another role). If you’d like to find out more, please get in contact.
- Membership freeze – to manage demand on speaking slots, we are now going to freeze membership again until the end of April. But we continually welcome guests to our meetings, and encourage those who are eager to join to get on the waiting list.
Now that I have covered the key news, I will provide an update on recent news, give you a heads-up on what’s on the horizon, and offer a tip of the month. However, in addition to these, I will offer more information on the forthcoming contest season, recognise members who have achieved certain awards recently, draw your attention to the Meet the Members initiative, and promote our upcoming club social.
Okay, here we go.
What’s happened since the start of 2013?
Since our first meeting this year on Monday 14th January, we have been holding meetings every week to help more people practice public speaking instead of the two advertised on our website; in our first meeting of the year alone, we had about 13 members in attendance with over 12 guests looking to join or to find out more about the club.
And since we opened membership in February, we’ve had plenty of new members joining. As such, I’d like to welcome Ben, Joowon, Marcin, Monica, Martin, Rajeev, Samuel, Sinead, Liz and Tasos to the club.
Membership freeze
We have now admitted the maximum number of new members since we re-opened membership at the beginning of the month. In order to manage demand on speaking slots, we are now going to freeze membership again until the end of April.
In the meantime, we continue to welcome guests to our meetings, and for those who are eager to join, we can put you on the waiting list.
Competent Communicator Awards
I’m delighted to welcome two new members – Joe Lake and Jo Higham – into our ranks of competent communicators.
To achieve this status, Joe and Jo each had to prepare and deliver 10 speeches based on projects/objectives from the competent communication manual.
Joe completed his award at our meeting on Monday 10th December, presenting a speech entitled “Chimps, Computers and humans” in which he inspired us to be crystal clear about our dreams; that it is this clarity and focus which partly gives us the drive to achieve our aspirations.
With her inspiring speech entitled “Flowers, Coffee and Kindness”, Jo attained her own award on Monday 11th February, when she motivated us to engage in little acts of kindness to people – especially strangers. Jo told the story of Emily, an American living in Belgium, who left small bouquets of flowers for strangers as an “unexpected pleasant surprise”.
Half-Competent Communicator Award
We recently introduced the Half-Competent Communicator award to mark the completion of the fifth speech project.
And the first member to be recognised with this milestone award is Christopher Foster-McBride. Chris reached this milestone on Monday 28th January when he delivered an informative speech entitled, “Grey power… How the old will shape our future”. He reflected on the aging population and what it means for the world.
Ice-breaker award
Congratulations are in order to Punam, Barnaby, Jowoon, Michael, Sam and Rajeev, all of whom took the bold step to complete their maiden speeches within days/weeks of joining Bloomsbury Speakers. Well done.
Evaluation Workshop
Freddie Daniells (the current UK & Ireland Toastmaster clubs Governor) ran a comprehensive workshop for us on Monday 4th February that was well attended by Bloomsbury members and a few guests including a member from our sister club, Holborn Speakers. There were some really great insights and even experienced evaluators benefited enormously.
We were reminded that every time we stand up to deliver an evaluation of a person’s speech, we hold that person’s confidence in our hands. And it is our duty to render our suggestions and recommendations in a way that builds the speaker’s confidence up.
What’s on the horizon?
We have three regular meetings and a club social planned but the big event on the horizon in March is our contest evening when we’ll be hosting the club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests.
Before I outline the meetings and discuss the contests, let me quickly deal with the club social…
Club Social – Friday 8th March – Dinner!
Our past VPM (Vice President of Membership) Hari Kalymnios is organizing another evening social for us again.
Once again, we will be dinning at the Suda Thai Café Restaurant in Covent Garden. The date is Friday 8th March at 7pm.
Please email Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk by Wednesday 5th March if you’d like to attend. Places are limited!
See you there.
Meetings in March and the Contests
- Monday 4th March – This first meeting already has a full agenda, but you can still book a Topics slot.
- Monday 11st March – Another busy agenda although an Evaluator role is still up for grabs and there are still Topics slots to be booked.
- Monday 18th March – While the speaking slots are gone, there are Evaluator slots and the Topics Evaluator role still to be filled. And don’t forget the Topics slots.
- Monday 25th March – Bloomsbury Speakers International Speech and Evaluation Contests.
(more details about the contest follows but please note that the contests will NOT be taking place at The Clerk & Well pub!!. The venue will be confirmed on our website and Clubplan soon.)
International Speech and Evaluation Contests
Our immediate past president, Glen, wrote a brief informative piece last year explaining what the contests are all about and why you should take part. Here’s what Glen had to say which still applies 100% to this year’s contests, (Please note that a much more comprehensive message about the contest has already been sent to members from Swarajit, our VP Education, so check your inbox):
“For those who are new to Toastmasters, twice a year every club holds two contests. In the spring, it’s the International Speech and Evaluation contests. In the autumn it’s the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests.
Contests are really good fun, a great way to get experience of speaking in a (slightly) more formal environment and also an opportunity showcase and celebrate the various skills learned in Toastmasters during the rest of the year.
We’d love as many members as possible to enter these contests. However, there are some restrictions.
Contestants in the International Speech Contest deliver a prepared speech of 5 – 7 minutes:
- You must have completed 6 speeches from the Competent Communicator manual by the date of the contest to participate
- You may use a speech you’ve delivered before – as long as it is original and your own work
- The speech can be on any topic of your choosing
(BTW The reason it’s called the International Speech contest is that it’s a global competition with the winner of UK & Ireland going to the US to compete for the glory of the “world title”. So there’s everything to play for!)
Contestants in the Evaluation Contest all evaluate the same (mystery) speaker. Everyone gets the same amount of time to write up their notes – these are then taken away until it is your turn to evaluate.
Why You Should Take Part
If you are even slightly inclined to participate (and you meet the requirements) then I strongly recommend it. It’s a great experience and although there is an extra layer of formality to make sure everything is fair, it’s still a very supportive environment and conducted with a sense of fun.”
(Note: you can book yourself in as a contest speaker or contest evaluator on ClubPlan, but due to a limitation of the software you can’t book yourself in both contests – just book one slot and email Swarajit at education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to say you’d also like to participate in the other contest too).
If you can’t (or don’t want to) compete this time round then why not take on an official role, such as one of the timekeepers or a vote counter? Email Swarajit if you’re interested.
Meet The Members
Last year Hari, our past VP Membership, introduced the ‘Meet The Members’ initiative as one way to maintain a sense of community and give members a sense of who else is in the club with them.
If you think about it, during every meeting we ask guests to briefly introduce themselves but we never do the same for members. Hence, the initiative is an attempt to help everyone to get to know one another a little better. It was well received last year and given that we’ve had plenty of new members joining recently, we’d like to run the exercise again. We’d like to find out a bit more about all of our members – the new ones and existing ones.
So shortly Joe, our current VPM, will be emailing all of our members to tell us more about themselves by giving us a sentence or two about themselves answering the following questions:
- What you currently do for a living? (or perhaps what would you rather be doing!)
- Which part of London (or elsewhere) you live in?
- What do you like to do outside of work? (other than Toastmasters!)
We’ll collate all your answers and send out an email to all our current members so that you have a much better idea who else is in the club with you.
Tip of the Month – Take Part in the Contests – it will make you a better speaker!
During our last meeting when I encouraged our members to get involved in the contest, do you remember what I said about the mountain climber? For those of you who were not present, I said that when the mountain climber was asked “Why climb the mountain?” his reply was “Because it’s there!”
I used that point to underscore the idea that, like mountain climbing, contests are akin to challenges; that they call on you to be a better speaker, a better person. Well, that comment was borrowed from an article that John Kinde once wrote about this same matter on inspiring members to take part in contests.
John Kinde is a Distinguished Toastmasters DTM, an accredited speaker and a humor specialist living in Las Vegas, US. He covered other reasons for taking part such as helping you: to get out of your comfort zone; to develop a sense of purpose; to get better feedback etc.
I’d like to encourage you to read his full blog “Why Enter a Toastmasters Speech Contest?” Hopefully, I will be seeing more of you entering the contest soon.
That’s it for now. I look forward to seeing many of you at a meeting soon.
Best wishes,
Femi Asaolu
President
Bloomsbury Speakers
