Hello and welcome to the April newsletter!
My fellow Toastmasters, you inspire me!
Since the beginning of this year, we have been encouraging you to develop your confidence and speaking skills through regular practice, and to stretch yourself by entering the International Speech and Evaluation contests.
Not only have you embraced this idea of growth – which is seen in the way many of you have been active in the club and how many of you entered the contests including some very new members – but you have also been supportive of the club’s successful running.
In this issue, I bring you, among other things, news on:
- how you can continue to develop your speaking skills;
- our club contests (together with how you can support the winners);
- how Toastmasters has had a positive impact on Mike – our latest competent communicator; and
- the various ways you can get involved in supporting and running Bloomsbury Speakers
However if you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter, I’m going to lead with the key points you really need to know this month.
But I’d be well chuffed if you read the whole piece. Plus see whether you get a mention.
Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know
- Area Contests – Please come along to support our club contest winners, Janet (speech) and Femi (evaluation), at the area-level round of the International Speech and Evaluation Contests which take place on Thursday, 11th April from 6:30pm at Tube Talk, London Underground, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD (above St. James’s Park tube station). Free registration via http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6183915257 is essential to attend!
- Our regular meetings in April are on Monday 8th and Monday 15th.
- Bloomsbury Speak-athon – On Monday 22nd April, this special meeting will feature only prepared speeches and evaluations.
- At the time of this newsletter, the speech slots are already filled in these three meetings but there are still functionary roles available – and remember you need to perform at least one functionary role between prepared speeches.
- Table Topics Workshop – this workshop which takes place on Monday, 29th April will help you to hone your impromptu speaking skills by providing helpful tips and lots of opportunities to practice in a super-friendly environment. Places will be limited, so if you want to attend, please email Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.
- Fancy joining the committee? We are looking for new people to join the committee – the group of members who are responsible for running the club – in the summer. If you are interested, please come and speak to myself or any of the current club officers.
- Read ‘Meet the Members – Your responses’ email (from Joe, our Vice President Membership) which was sent to members on Sunday 7th April, to discover how diverse our membership is, and to know a little bit more about your fellow members.
What’s happened since the last newsletter?
Regular meetings – We had three great regular meetings in March, complete with fascinating speeches from Renars, Barnaby, Michael, Elena, Ahmed, Hari, Adam, Carrie and myself. These meetings also featured a number of our newest members delivering their icebreaker speeches. I’m thinking of Ben, Marcin and James here. Well done guys!
I was also fascinated with Ayla, our 6-year-old special guest Madam Toastmaster, who brilliantly co-hosted the second meeting in March with her mum, Janet.
Bloomsbury Contests – Then there were the contests meeting at the end of March – the club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests!
Quite a number of people took part which I find striking; we had five speech contestants and seven evaluators three of whom were new members, namely Jowoon, Gemma and Rajeev! You can read all about it in the official contest report.
Lastly, I’d like to thank everyone who helped out especially Elena and Swarajit.
Icebreaker Awards – Ben, James and Marcin delivered their first prepared speeches from the competent communication manual and thereby received the ice–breaker award.
Competent Communicator award – Michael Abrey-Bugg is our latest member to achieve the competent communicator award. To achieve this status, Michael had to prepare and deliver 10 speeches based on projects/objectives from the competent communication manual. He achieved the status on 23rd March at Purley Speakers where he delivered a longer rendition of the speech he gave during our speech contests on 25th March. See our official contest report for more about his speech.
Advanced Leader Bronze Award – Congratulations to Hari who achieved this very distinguished award in March. It means that in addition to achieving his Competent Communicator and the Competent Leader awards, Hari has also served as a club officer for at least six months (when he was Vice President Membership on the committee). He has participated in a district-sponsored club officer training program and conducted two presentations from The Successful Club Series and/or The Leadership Excellence Series .
Meet The Members – We ran our ‘Meet The Members’ mini-questionnaire in which Joe, our current Vice President Membership, asked our members to tell us a bit more about themselves. There has been a great deal of response which Joe has compiled into a single ‘Meet the Members – Your responses’ email that you should have received by now. Check it out! See how diverse our membership is and learn a little more about your fellow members.
What’s happening this month?
We have four meetings in April: two regular meetings complete with prepared speeches and table topics, one special ‘speak-athon’ meeting with only prepared speeches and evaluations and an educative workshop meeting.
Monday, 8th April – This first meeting already has a packed agenda, but members can still pre-book into one Topics slot.
You can pick up a lot of good things on hosting a meeting simply by observing the way Hari – who is the Toastmaster for the night – runs this meeting. And some seasoned evaluators to watch out for include Elena and Kate. Our General Evaluator for the meeting, Gina Georgio, is another one to watch especially for her warm delivery style.
Monday, 15th April – Another busy agenda though there are evaluator roles still up for grabs, and the topics slots are yet to be fully booked.
An experienced person to watch out for is our General Evaluator for the night, Mildred Talabi, who is a careers speaker, writer and experienced member of one of our neighboring clubs, Tube Talk.
Monday, 22nd April – We are running this special meeting – of purely prepared speeches and evaluations – to increase prepared speaking slots given the recent influx of new members. Hence instead of the usual four prepared speeches, we will be having seven in total, and each will be evaluated.
Experienced evaluators to watch are Glen (for comprehensive analysis and great language), Ratan (encouragement and fun delivery style), Elena (in depth analysis and structure) and Renars (for confidence). I would also take notes on how the toastmaster, Swarajit, who is renowned for his dead-pan humour, leads this meeting.
Monday, 29th April – This is a Table Topics workshop meeting designed to help members and guests improve impromptu speaking.
The session will be hosted by our own member Carrie Swift who did an excellent job co-hosting our club contests a couple of weeks ago. It promises to be a fun-packed night and we would like to invite you to make it a memorable time.
Thursday, 11th April – Please join us at the Area 34 International Speech and Evaluation Contest Finals to support the winners of our recent contests as they represent Bloomsbury Speakers against the winners of the other clubs in the area.
It’s an excellent opportunity to witness, network with and learn from really good speakers, given how our area often showcases very strong contestants.
The finals will be hosted by Tube Talk from 6.30pm-9.00pm at London Underground, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD (above St. James’s Park tube station). Free registration via http://www.eventbrite.com/event/6183915257 is essential to attend!
For more news on contests in our area and in other Toastmasters clubs/areas, please visit www.thelondonspeaker.com.
Want to support the club or fancy joining our committee?
Earlier in my introduction, I promised to share ways in which you could contribute to the successful running of our club. Here are three:
Helping out
- One way is to volunteer to write meeting reports perhaps once a month or so. If you are interested in that, please contact our club officer for PR and Immediate Past President Glen (info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk).
- Another way is to help is to be a mentor, especially if you’ve done a few speeches already. If you want to be a mentor, please write Joe at membership@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk
- We are looking for a replacement Sergeant at Arms, who is responsible for co-ordinating the room set-up 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 touch with Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk
Joining the committee
But a major way to really support the club is to join the committee. This is the group of members responsible for keeping the club running and the members happy.
As it turns out, we will soon be approaching the end of the Toastmasters calendar year when a new committee takes over; the toastmaster year starts in July and ends in June. So this is an ideal time to start thinking about who the next committee members will be.
When a new committee is being selected in a typical Toastmasters club, what usually happens is that some existing committee members will step down, some may want to be considered for other roles, and occasionally others would like to stay exactly where they are.
Whatever the case, there are always opportunities for new people to get involved and we always encourage new people to join every year for diversity.
Here’s a description of the roles with their current holders. Please take a look, see if there’s any you fancy, then come and speak to myself or the incumbent committee member for the role you are interested in.
- President – Femi Asaolu – has overall responsibility for the successful running of the club
- VP Education – Swarajit Das – ensures that we run successful meetings with all roles filled and that the club’s educational goals are met
- VP Membership & Mentoring – Joe Lake – looks after new and existing members to help them get the most out of the club and meet their personal development goals
- Treasurer – Elena Fanaberova – responsible for controlling the club finances to ensure stability and continuity for all members
- Secretary – Jo Higham – responsible for club administration, particularly with regards to committee meetings and decision making
- VP Public Relations – Glen Long – responsible for raising the club profile and attracting new guests, e.g. via website and mailing list
- Sergeant at Arms – Christopher Foster-McBride (Acting) – responsible for co-ordinating the room set-up before and after each meeting. The SAA also has a regular slot giving guest introductions (unless taking on another role).
To conclude this section, here are three reasons you might want to get involved according to our Immediate Past President, Glen Long and I quote:
- You want to improve your leadership and team-working skills alongside a bunch of fun people
- You feel you’ve gained a lot from being a member now would like to “give something back” so that other people can benefit similarly in the future
- You want to become more involved in Toastmasters generally (by serving on the committee you’ll come into contact with committee members from other clubs and this can be a great to build your network)
A member’s perspective, by Mike – our latest competent communicator
This is where I would normally share a tip. But this time, I figured it would be best for a fellow member of the club to share how Toastmasters have positively transformed their speaking/career. Over to Mike…
It was a little over a year ago that I first visited Bloomsbury Speakers. At the time, I was looking at my career and working out what to do next. A number of things were not working out for me – the company had a new focus outside my current area, a new management team was in place and I still had a foot in the old camp of management, all of which amounted to me not fitting into the set-up.
I must admit my interest in Bloomsbury Speakers was to be a toastmaster, complete with red coat, so I was not really prepared for my first meeting at The Real Man Pizza Company. I found I was captivated by Toastmasters from the start, particularly the positive flow and focus of each meeting, and I was intrigued by the prepared speeches. I was impressed with how the meetings were run to time and to an agenda; these are areas that are dear to my heart. I was equally impressed by the feedback being positive but challenging and learning how to explain to people in an encouraging way that there may be a better way of delivering their message. (A book I was reading at the time, Employees First, Customers Second by Vineet Nayer – which, in short, said if you treat your people right they will treat your customers right – very much seemed to fit with the ethos of Toastmasters.)
As each meeting went by, I was absorbing new skills and renewing techniques which I had either forgotten or had lost any sense of. But on reflection it seems to me I was being repaired and the inner sparkle of the inner child was being rekindled. My dear wife even found I was actually good to be with.
Some key things that were important to me were the positive vibe of each meeting and an understanding of how to give feedback. At the time, my approach to feedback was to avoid giving it at all as I feared it may be scorned upon. It was at one meeting though, where I heard a speech from the advanced series on how to give feedback where the speaker said something like ‘the thing about feedback is that the recipient can chose to accept or reject it’. Without question that brought a dramatic change to my approach to work because I realised that, with the experience and education I already had, I actually had a great deal to contribute and it was my duty to communicate this information so that people could chose to accept or reject it. Not only did I start to make an effective contribution to meetings but I also started to lead meetings through my contribution. My colleagues noticed the difference and a new pleasant and positive demeanour from me in general. Some even said I was the natural leader of my group, which has brought new challenges.
My annual appraisal this year read ‘Mike is a joy to work with I am lucky to have his support’. Clearly it is not solely down to Toastmasters but without doubt it has had a dramatic effect as I am now much more aware of my surroundings and the ability to make a positive contribution by taking active responsibility for my actions.
I would recommend this ‘executive’ rehabilitation to anyone. I am still looking for new opportunities but my environment is positive and, as Michael Jackson sang, I’m starting with the man in the mirror.
Right, that’s all for now. See you at a meeting soon.
Best wishes,
Femi Asaolu
President
Bloomsbury Speakers
