Hello and welcome to the summer 2019 newsletter!
If you’re free this Monday evening (3rd June), please come along to a special charity pub quiz being run by two of our members. Bloomsbury Speakers itself is entering a team and we need a few more participants – see below for the details.
2019 is a significant year for the club as this October will be the 10th anniversary of our first ever meeting! Details of a special celebratory event will emerge nearer the time, and obviously all former members will be invited, but keep reading to find out how to get involved.
What’s in this newsletter?
- Spring contests – Division C results
- Club socials – a charity quiz night!
- 10-year anniversary plans
- Your new committee
- Summer 2019 Toastmasters Leadership Institute
- Opportunities for mentoring
- New members
Spring contests – Division C results
As mentioned in the last newsletter, our member Matt did a marvellous job in getting through to the Division C final of the International Speech contest. In April, Matt once again gave a brilliant performance of his speech “Magic Maketh Man”, which cleverly structured the story of his personal development in Toastmasters using an interactive card trick. Sadly he didn’t win this time, but we’re sure Matt and the club will continue to be a force to be reckoned with in future contests.
Matt at the Division C final
Club socials – a charity quiz night!
This Monday, two of our members (Chantal and Jamie) are hosting a charity pub quiz in aid of Aspire, an organisation supporting people with spinal cord injury. Bloomsbury Speakers is entering a team and we’re still looking for more members to join us so that we can win! Here are the details to book your ticket:
Date: Monday, 3rd June
Time: 6:30pm onwards
Venue: The Star of Kings, 126 York Way, King’s Cross, London, N1 0AX (Map)
Price: Minimum £10 donation
Tickets: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chantal-jamie
Back in March, we visited the Natural History Museum in South Kensington where we looked around some of the museum’s collections of specimens and attended a talk on how humans are copying some of nature’s solutions to the world’s problems – maybe it will have inspired those of us there to give more scientific speeches at our future Toastmasters meetings!
Bloomsbury Speakers at the Natural History Museum
10-year anniversary plans
Bloomsbury Speakers first met on 26th October 2009 after being formed as an off-shoot of Holborn Speakers when they grew too large to cope with the demand for membership. In the decade since, over 170 members have joined Bloomsbury Speakers to improve their communication and leadership skills in the safe and friendly environment we provide at our meetings. Indeed, our own growth resulted in the formation of yet another club, Clerkenwell Speakers, with members also having a hand in starting Kings Cross Speakers.
Our members have also done a fantastic job in representing us at various Toastmasters speech contests over the years, and Bloomsbury Speakers was even recognised for excellence in the use of web and social media in promoting the club.
Of course, all of this should be celebrated, especially at this significant 10-year milestone, and so we are looking for a small team to help organise an event (perhaps a party or dinner) and a special meeting at the end of October. This would involve arranging the dates, venues, invitations, tickets (if required), food and drink, agendas and entertainment. This in itself is a great opportunity to develop and practise your organisation and leadership skills, so please get in touch via info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’re interested in getting involved.
Your new committee
The Toastmasters year ends this month and a new committee takes over running the club from July. We’re very pleased to announce that the following appointments have been made for the year 1st July 2019 to 30th June 2020:
- President – Margarita Sachkova
- Vice President Education – Mara Dumitru and Chantal Lyons
- Vice President Membership – Matt Robertson
- Vice President Public Relations – Kamakshi Pandya
- Treasurer – Peter Francis
- Secretary – Peter Richardson
- Sergeant at Arms – Yassine Meziane and Stirling Habbitts
- Immediate Past President – Atul Chauhan
See the Club Leadership Handbook from Toastmasters International for more information on what all of these roles involve.
Huge thanks go to our outgoing committee members, Scott, Helen, Yamina, Lei, Swarajit, Sarah and Jamie who have all done a great job over the past year. The last two club meetings under the current committee will be on the 10th and 24th of June, so come along to see them off and welcome in your new leadership team.
Summer 2019 Toastmasters Leadership Institute
Our new committee members will need to attend Club Officer Training over the summer to learn how to become better leaders for our club. The first opportunity for this is during the Summer 2019 Toastmasters Leadership Institute – a day of educational workshops and networking open to everyone (not just committee members). More details to follow at the Eventbrite link below.
Date: Saturday, 22nd June
Time: 9am onwards
Venue: NCVO Society Building, 8 All Saints Street, London, N1 9RL (Map)
Price: FREE for Toastmasters members
Tickets: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/summer-2019-toastmasters-leadership-institute-tickets-62352769813
Opportunities for mentoring
Bloomsbury Speakers offers opportunities for members to receive mentoring from others in the club, and of course for members to become mentors themselves. This is often a valuable and rewarding learning experience for both the mentor and mentee, so if you’re interested in having or being a mentor, please fill in the form at the link below.
tinyurl.com/BloomsburyMentoring
New members
Finally, please extend a warm welcome to our newest members Alicja and Aman – we look forward to seeing much more from them in the coming year.
That’s all for this newsletter – see you at a meeting soon!
