Hello and welcome to the November newsletter!
As I write this, the District 71 autumn conference is coming to a close. No fewer than eight members of Bloomsbury Speakers attended to watch the final rounds of the UK & Ireland humorous speech and table topics contests and learn from some of the best speakers in the country. See below for news from the event.
Meanwhile, our membership base continues to grow with five new members joining in the last two months, and demand to join our club shows no signs of abating. We’re now requiring that guests on our membership waiting list attend at least three meetings before they can join, so keep coming to our meetings if you want to become a member!
If you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter, you can skip to the bottom for a short summary of the main points.
What’s happened since the last newsletter?
As mentioned above, we’ve had five new members join Bloomsbury Speakers recently, so I’d like to officially welcome Tracey, Sarah, Aislinn, Nathaniel and Stella to the club. We look forward to hearing you speak regularly at our meetings!
Once again, we had two well-attended meetings in October. Highlights included a thought-provoking speech on neuroscience from returning member Damien, an informative icebreaker from new member Sarah (who was preparing for a university presentation the next day!) and an advanced storytelling speech from Hari with which he completed his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award.
What’s planned for November?
There are only four meetings left for the remainder of 2013, so make the most of them! Don’t forget though, members of Bloomsbury Speakers can still book speech slots and roles with Clerkenwell Speakers for the rest of the year (and at no extra cost) via their ClubPlan. Meanwhile, here’s what we have coming up this month at Bloomsbury:
- Monday, 11th November – Regular Meeting – We have a full programme for our first meeting this month, featuring an impromptu speaking session run by table topics enthusiast Carrie. There are a few pre-bookable table topics slots up for grabs on ClubPlan, so don’t miss out!
- Monday, 25th November – Regular Meeting – At the time of writing, there is one prepared speech slot available to book, as well as the opportunity to take on functionary roles in the meeting such as timekeeper, grammarian and speech evaluator. Again, book yourself in on our ClubPlan.
Colchester conference and contest results
After the traditional pre-conference Anglo-Irish Toastmasters meeting on Thursday night, the final District 71 autumn conference officially kicked off on Friday with the humorous speech contest semi-finals. President of our sister club Clerkenwell Speakers, Ayse Lowe, impressively qualified for the grand final on Saturday by finishing in the top three of her semi-final with her speech “Culture Clash”.
The competition was tough however, and in the final on Saturday (hosted brilliantly by Tube Talk’s Ola Aralepo who ran our humorous speech workshop earlier this year) the title went to Brian Faulkner from Division G in the east of England who spoke about his experience of being a veterinary surgeon.
Next came the table topics semi-finals in which our member Glen was drawn to speak first on the challenging question, “What is a friend?”. Glen graciously acknowledged his friends from Bloomsbury Speakers in the audience and went on to speak about his personal experience of falling out with a close friend, but again the standard of public speaking at this level was incredibly high and sadly Glen didn’t progress to the final. Nevertheless, we’re immensely proud of him for being the first member of Bloomsbury to represent us at the national level – what a fantastic achievement!
The topic posed in Sunday’s final was “If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself at the age of ten, what would you say?” and the winning response was given by David Jones of our parent club Holborn Speakers. Congratulations to David, who has now won this contest five times, as well as everyone else who took part.
Tip of the Month: Start your New Year’s resolutions now
By far, the most successful New Year’s resolution I’ve ever made was one that I actually made at the end of October the preceding year! I’d resolved to get fitter by taking up running and went on to complete a 10km race the following summer – something that would have been unimaginable just eight months earlier.
As trivial as it may seem, most New Year’s resolutions fail because people simply underestimate the amount of effort involved (especially when combined with the cold weather and weakened finances after Christmas). However, making a head start on our resolutions right now alleviates some of the undue pressure we put on ourselves in the first week of January. Even the smallest steps towards your goals in the next month or two will make it that much easier when the New Year arrives. In my case, I was motivated enough to go for a run on Boxing Day that year because I already knew what I was capable of.
So what does any of this have to do with public speaking? As with anything worth doing well, it’s important to set yourself worthy objectives:
- Are you aiming to complete your Competent Communication (CC) manual by next June or has it been a while since you last gave a prepared speech? If so, why not aim to give one more speech in the next couple of months, even if it’s at a different club?
- Which functionary role have you not performed yet or do you feel is your weakest? Why not speak to your mentor about it and aim to perform it once before the end of the year?
- Are you hoping to compete in the International Speech Contest in March? If so, you’ll need to have completed six of the ten projects in the CC manual in order to be eligible – how can you plan your time between now and then to achieve this?
Start thinking about your aims right now, making sure your objectives are SMART, and hopefully they’ll be the most successful New Year’s resolutions you’ve ever made.
That’s all for now. See you at a meeting soon!
Swarajit Das
President
Bloomsbury Speakers
Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know
- We’ve had five new members join the club recently: Tracey, Sarah, Aislinn, Nathaniel and Stella – welcome aboard!
- We have two regular meetings in November. There are pre-bookable table topic slots available for the 11th as well as a speech slot and functionary roles for the 25th.
- Bloomsbury Speakers members still have FREE membership of Clerkenwell Speakers until the end of the year and can book speeches and roles via their ClubPlan.
- Congratulations to Hari for completing his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award in October.
