This time last year, we were still meeting as normal at The Rugby Tavern. Twelve months later, it’s contest season once again and our first online International Speech and Evaluation contest night is this Monday, 8th February. As always, it promises to be an evening of high quality speakers fighting it out for a place in the next round, so book your ticket on Eventbrite or Meetup.
What’s in this newsletter?
- Contest night – Monday, 8th February
- Dates for your diary
- Surprise social!
- Next meetings
- And finally…
Contest night – Monday, 8th February
It’s shaping up to be an exciting night on Monday with at least three competitors in each of the International Speech and Evaluation contests – and it’s not too late for members to enter.
The Evaluation contest is open to all paid members of the club and involves each contestant giving their own 2-3 minute evaluation of the same speech.
The International Speech contest, where contestants give a 5-7 minute prepared speech on any subject, is open to paid members who have completed the first two levels in their chosen Pathways educational path (or at least six speeches in the legacy programme).
The winners of each contest will go on to represent Bloomsbury Speakers in the next round against the champions of the other clubs in our area of London, with the International Speech contest eventually culminating in the overall winner being crowned World Champion of Public Speaking. No mean feat!
If you want to see the quality of speaker they (or you!) may be up against on the international stage, check out last year’s World Championship of Public Speaking on YouTube:
Dates for your diary
The winners of our contests on Monday will go through to represent the club at the Area C2 final on Wednesday, 24th February, so please save the date and go along to show your support.
The Division C (central London) final will be four weeks later on Wednesday, 24th March, hopefully with Bloomsbury Speakers representation as we’ve regularly had in previous years!
Registration details to follow.
In the meantime, why not seize the opportunity to visit the plethora of Toastmasters meetings taking place around the world online? tmclub.eu lists meetings of clubs in mainland Europe while easy-speak.org is for the rest of the world and, of course, toastmasterclub.org is for the UK and Ireland.
Surprise social!
With the ongoing lockdown, it’s important to keep in touch with others and, on Friday, we wished a happy birth-week to our club president Yamina and former member (and good friend of the club) Stella. Our immediate past president Margarita used all her cunning to lure the two unknowing VIPs to a surprise Zoom social with their fellow Toastmasters!
Everyone sang along to Swarajit playing “Happy Birthday to You” on the piano, and Yassine later provided musical entertainment on the guitar as he has done in previous socials.
Next meetings
We’re staying online for now, with our February meetings taking place on the 8th and 22nd and continuing as usual on the second and fourth Mondays of each month going forward.
Please book your attendance on Eventbrite or Meetup and we’ll see you at Monday’s contest!
And finally…
One of our much-loved former members Svetlana Rakhimova is featured in this month’s Toastmaster magazine (which is included with membership of Toastmasters International).
After moving away from London a few years ago, Svetlana (left) founded two online Toastmasters clubs – long before coronavirus made it trendy! – and has since achieved the highest award of Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM).
You can read Svetlana’s thoughts about online mentoring relationships in this article.
