Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 27^th April 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who compared Toastmaster Competent Communicator Manual to Marathon. Beyond that Manual there are a variety of manuals, which enables you to continue the process of self-improvement as a public speaker.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening, Henry, who introduced the theme of the day which features of human character do you like and why. 

Henry introduced the functionaries of the day: Zita the Timekeeper and Janet (whose preferred feature of character is confidence), the Grammarian, introduced the word of the day “incandescent” and encouraged to use language as power.

There were four prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker was Olga Kruglova (whose most cherished character features are kindness and tact) who delivered a very thoughtful and informative No. 1 Icebreaker Speech, entitled “With a Little Help of My Friends” devoted to a personal story of her early life in London to this day. Throughout her journey of a young IT professional her friends were her greatest asset.

Conor delivered her No.2 speech entitled “Becoming a NOMAN” – was a personal story of how he research and was deeply moved by the plight of people with HPV and decided to raise awareness about this preventable disease. He also decided that the best way to do it would be fund raising; he currently devotes all of his free time to power training to participate in a canoeing competition for that cause.

Sheldon delivered her No.2 speech entitled “Nature’s Best?” in which he educated us on so many paradoxes about what is good and what is bad disguised by advertisers. 

Helen delivered her Speech No. 10 entitled “Taste and Smell” in which she educated us on the importance of savouring flavours and tastes of any food or drinks, which we consume. It makes life more enjoyable and food habits more healthy as our brain receives and processes information brought to us by thousands of taste buds.

We had warmly hosted guest introductions from Swarajit and well-balanced and well-structured thorough evaluations from Michelle, Peter, Bronia, and Ahmed.

Table topics

The table topics session was conducted by Svetlana (who favoured sense of freedom, sense of responsibility, and compassion – qualities that characterise sound mind and kind heart), who offered the impromptu speakers a variety of questions linked to the theme of the day – whether we like certain things and why.

“Do you like spring and why?” went to Hari, who said he was a summer person and spring wasn’t his favourite season. However, he appreciated spring for the spirit or renewal it carried and changes he could see taking place in the nature and people.

“What colour do you like and why?” went to Paul, who said he preferred white for surroundings and blue for clothing because those seemed to be his most comforting and harmonious colours.

“Which political party you prefer and why?” went to Philip who said it Tory although he wasn’t too happy with of the parties out there.

“Do you like arguing and why?” went to Kola, who said he certainly liked arguing because it posed a chance for intelligent victory.

“Where do you prefer traveling – in Britain or abroad and why?” went to Hannah who said she travelled abroad a lot and she travelled to many places in Britain as well, but perhaps there was more to explore in Britain which she hasn’t seen yet.

“Do you like your weekends and why?” went to Amira who said her weekends were packed with training in boxing, body building, yoga and other power and health oriented practices.

“Do you prefer reading books or watching movies and why?” went to Egor, who said he certainly preferred reading because they had a big library at home where he grew up and that explained his love of books.

“Do you like Toastmasters clubs and why?” went to Abdo, who said he is researching and exploring various Toastmaster clubs to decide which one to join. He needs public speaking skills for his professional development and he thinks he tends to like TM.

Emma gave an impressively thorough and informative evaluation for each of the 8 topics speakers, which was a record number of speeches on our memory.

Grammarian Janet’s report was very encouraging, substantive, and entertaining.

Sandra provided an excellent and thorough general evaluation of the evening with recommendations to all functionaries of the evening and evaluators who were not evaluated.

Awards

Icebreaker ribbon has handed to Olga; best speaker award was handed to Helen; best evaluator award went to Peter L.; and best impromptu speech award went to Amira!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 13^th of April upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Written by Sheldon

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 16^th March 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who gladly mentioned that there were six first-time guests present – 3 of whom she had just met at the bar – and how Bloomsbury Speakers prides itself on the large numbers of guests and being able to serve as the introduction to toastmasters for so many of them.  Jo went on to explain the evolution of Toastmasters and the warm and nurturing atmosphere that meant that participation can only lead to positive consequences.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening, Femi, who brought his warm energetic style to the proceedings and urged the audience to keep the intensity high, especially with the enthusiastic clapping as speakers are welcomed up to the stage.  Femi kept the mood buoyant as he introduced the theme of spring, and before asking each audience member what they liked best about the season, he shared with the room his own enthusiasm for the prospect of his gas bills going down and moving from debit to credit with his supplier.

Femi introduced the functionaries of the day: Mengbing the Timekeeper and Sheldon the Grammarian.  Mengbing’s fondness for spring was in its unexpected nature: that you could just wake up one day and it would be there.   Sheldon, for whom spring was a time of looking forward to not having to worry about getting his coat stolen when he didn’t want to pay the cloakroom fee, introduced the word of the day “sanguine”; he explained how the roots of its meaning were from medieval physiology and implored the audience to use it throughout the meeting.

There were four prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker was Zita, who described spring like coming out of hibernation.  Her No. 1 Icebreaker Speech Project, aptly titled “Facing Fears”, began with a recollection of childhood inhibition which led her to give a self-commissioned violin performance outside of a church; she went on to describe the exhausting deliberation that eventually led her to leave a well-paid, but essentially unwanted, career in Financial Services, and told of how the surprising positivity from this decision spurred her into facing up to many more fears and stepping out into the unknown.  Despite admitting to a fear of public speaking at the very beginning, Zita showed no sign of nerves and delivered a highly enjoyable and articulate Ice Breaker.

 

Axel (for whom Femi postulated the sanguine nature of spring to be what he likes about the season) delivered his No.3 speech – freshly titled “Time Sanguine” – which he began by referring to the rushed nature of the preparation of the speech itself, and how an encouraging email from our president Jo convinced him to go ahead with it despite his intention to cancel.  Axel’s anecdotal style brought casual humour throughout, as he told of his woes with “parasite” estate agents and the complications of moving home.

Alefiyah (who likes the beautiful colours of spring) gave her No.3 entitled “How to Transmute a Question Mark?” in which she gifted the audience with an image of several large question marks going about their activity around us, representing all those people unknown to us or who we are too shy to talk to.   In a well-structured discourse, Alefiyah told us of her own journey in overcoming her self-perceived shyness, and gave the audience a practical, informative, and highly amusing guide to being able to speak to strangers. 

Helen (who likes the promise that summer was just around the corner) gave her No. 9 speech “It’s Not Her Fault!”; this started with a sombre story of a friend who remains adamant that her first sexual experience was the result of her being drugged.  Helen then brought up some powerful statistics to highlight prevalence of sexual assault in our society, and highlighted the disparity between the ubiquitous message to women to protect themselves from the stranger in the dark and the fact the 90% of rape survivors knew the men who raped them.  As her words became more impassioned, her message resounded: a message that the best way to protect women is to educate men, and a message of the necessity of affirmative consent.  The closing moments were marked by the repeated challenge to the audience: “What means yes?” 

We had warmly hosted guest introductions from Femi and well-balanced and well-structured thorough evaluations from Tracy (who loves the flowers of spring), Ahmed (who likes the Bank holidays), Rufina (who gets excited that the winter is finally letting go), and Renars.

Table topics

The table topics session was conducted by Peter L, who devised an original and humorous topics theme on the rules and regulations of Toastmasters itself.

“Should table topics speakers always be volunteers?” went to Conor, who spoke of his previous Toastmaster experiences as a guest where he sat quietly in the corner, having in subsequent sessions decided to make more of the experience and volunteer.

“Should Toastmasters be allowed to use swear words?” went to Axel, who made his preference clear from the onset by going straight for the easy laugh, and to much effect.  He went on to take a vote from the audience to reveal about 50% share his views.

“How would it be if Toastmasters could wear a mask while giving their speech?” went to Matteo who immediately joked that his English was “too perfect” for the audience.  He answered in the affirmative, yet cunningly reset the question to be “can someone speak in front of an audience without understanding the topic?”

“Should Toastmasters be allowed to give speeches on every topic under the sun?” went to Andrew, who said that this should indeed be the case since we live in a democracy, and a free country.   “Why not?”, he quipped, on the idea of being able to talk about religion.

“Should Toastmasters be allowed to give wordless performances?” went to Liliana who spoke of her Tango classes where she discovered how to communicate without words and through dancing.  However, since it takes far longer to learn how to dance than to learn how to speak in front of an audience she recommended that Toastmasters stick to public speaking.

“What would be suitable for the Timekeeper to give to really overrunning speakers?” went to Sebastian who asserted that taking more time than was on offer was disrespectful to others, and ultimately it was about an understanding of sharing and mutual respect.

“What would be a good initiation for someone reaching their 10^th speech?” went to Hannah who recommended that such a feat should require you to “push the boat out” and go television for a political debate.

Henry gave an impressively thorough and informative evaluation for each of the topics speakers, which was well articulated and with good humour and language throughout.

Grammarian Sheldon reluctantly conceded that the standard of language had been excellent and noted the diverse range of speaking styles used for different effects throughout the meeting.

Unfortunately there was no general evaluation in this meeting

Awards

Icebreaker ribbon has handed to Zita; best speaker award was handed to Helen; best evaluator award went to Henry; and best impromptu speech award went to Andrew!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 30^th of March upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter!

The build-up to contest season is picking up pace – ours is just a few days away now – so get yourself booked in to speak at our International Speech and Evaluation contests on Monday.  Even if you’re not competing, we are still looking for a second timekeeper (no speaking, just checking contestants don’t get disqualified for going over on time) and two vote counters (get to know the result first!)  so book yourself in on ClubPlan now.  And of course we definitely need an enthusiastic audience on Monday night!

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?

February was short but sweet, but we packed in two regular meetings and an incredibly useful and well-received workshop from Simon Bucknall which I hope will encourage all who attended to enter the contests next week.

What’s planned for March?

Lots! The dates below are just those directly related to our club, but keep reading through the rest of the newsletter for even more exciting events this month:

• Monday, 9^th March – International Speech & Evaluation Contest Night – At the time of writing, only three members have signed up for the International Speech contest, although we have six for the Evaluation contest!  It’s not too late to enter either contest and, remember, that all members are eligible for the Evaluation contest, and there’s no preparation required, so get yourself booked in on ClubPlan for the chance to represent the Bloomsbury Speakers at the next level.
• Monday, 16^th March – Regular Meeting – Our first club meeting this month. The programme is filling up but, incredibly there is still a speaking slot left plus an evaluation slot and, you could also grab one of the last couple of pre-bookable table topic slots on ClubPlan.
• Thursday, 19^th March – Area 34 International Speech & Evaluation Contest – The winners from our club contests on the 9^th will go on to compete against winners from the other clubs in our area of London. See immediately below for the details – registration is required to attend!
• Saturday 28th March – Division L International Speech & Evaluation Contest – I don’t have the location details yet but this will be somewhere in Central London.  It’s usually a day of workshops and, of course, the contests and is a great learning opportunity as well as a chance to see some of London’s best Toastmasters competing against each other.
• Monday, 30^th March – Regular Meeting – At the time of writing, there is the grammarian, an evaluator and table topic slots available – again, book yourself in on ClubPlan to make use of the opportunity.

Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 9^th February 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who emphasized how important guests and new members are to keep Toastmasters meetings vibrant and diverse in talent, and how exactly they can take advantage of Toastmasters clubs to reach their objectives, overcome fears and grow into confident and effective communicators with the help of the enabling learning environment, resources, and expert support from fellow Toastmasters.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Carrie, whose energetic manner and the theme of the Evening turned the event into the type Bloomsbury Speakers is famous for – true intellectual entertainment and the best place to be on a cold and damp February evening! The theme of the night was our experiences of Tactlessness: whether we were affected by someone else’s tactlessness or acted tactlessly ourselves. Carrie generously shared her experience of being subject to very loving and caring but nevertheless outrageous tactlessness from her dear ones as she was growing into an independent unmarried young lady!

Carrie introduced functionaries of the day: Mengbing the Timekeeper and Jo (our President) the Grammarian. Mengbing’s story of experiencing tactless treatment was short. Someone dared to say to her face that she was not pretty. She thought that they could not be serious! What a great spirit!  Jo introduced the word of the day “ingenious” and encouraged the meeting participants to use it as well as to be aware of their speech habits and try and use beautiful language so she could provide feedback at the end of the meeting on language usage.

There were four prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Tadgh (whose experience of accidentally offending a friend was when he asked very unflatteringly about his friend’s spouse and that spouse was standing next to his friend!  No. 1 Icebreaker Speech Project “Me, My Name, and I” started with a much valued explanation of the pronunciation of his name and some other typically Irish names, then focused on his family and weddings of a large and jolly family, also typically Irish. Tadgh’s speech was quite entertaining and peppered with humour. We all thoroughly enjoyed it!

Peter L. (who is fighting his own tactless behaviour of being late to Toastmaster meetings) delivered Speech No. 5 “Sartorial Semiotics” devoted to the meaning of clothes and that we intentionally or unintentionally disclose a lot about ourselves to the society by wearing them in a certain way. We are judged by our clothes. Our attire sends a coded message about a social group we belong to as each social group uses certain style of clothes as “a uniform” to identify itself among many others. When we try to break boundaries and express personal freedom through clothes we inadvertently fall out of one social group into another. There is no freedom from sartorial semiotics. Peter L. used props – various hats to show how the message was changing with just that one item of clothing.

Sam (who wrote “Happy Birthday” on his colleague’s leaving card) in his advanced entertaining speech called “Predators of the Concrete Jungle”, compared deadly dangers of jungle such as leopard, venomous snake and Ebola virus to hazards, which surround us in cities, such as staircases, ladders, vehicles, and fire. Statistics shows just how much more dangerous these were for people than the feared predators of the jungle. Sam gave us instructions on how exactly we could safeguard ourselves from being injured or worse. His closing piece of advice was to take care not to start a fire as we sit at a candlelit romantic dinner table on St Valentine’s.

Rufina (who finds it tactless when men claim they can discipline women) in her advanced informative speech called “What’s Wrong With Me?” explored why people cannot be content and happy with what they have.  She shared about various stages of her life when she was getting what she wanted but the attainment of the desired things did not make her happy. She found out from reading a research results that the level of happiness sometimes depended on the overall happiness level of people around us and that also depended on other things present in that area, therefore, there were cities and towns where happiness level of people was simply higher than in other places.

We had warmly hosted guest introductions from Carrie and well-balanced and well-structured thorough evaluations from Ash, Joe, Svetlana, and Peter F.

Table topics

Table topics session conducted by Egor (who confessed he didn’t have any sense of tact and could judge his tactlessness by the reaction his remarks make on others; he told a lady that he thought she was the same age as him, and she turned out to be 8 years younger) had a number of quite tricky and interesting questions.

“How can you tactfully reject someone you don’t like?” went to Emma, who told us a story about being rejected in a French manner, being invited to Paris to a nice dinner with a man with a fancy name Fabrice who then let her know he had a wife and children.  She compared it with a manner of rejection, which an Englishman would probably use simply by saying, sorry, I am married and unavailable. It would probably been less embarrassing although maybe just as hurtful.

“What’s your response to a colleague’s tactless comment: speak to HR, forget it, or plan a bitter revenge?” went to Robert, who said he would have pondered all possible ways to react and at the end after rehearsing them in his head he would find that the cons outweighed the pros and would drop the issue and forget about it.

“Should we only say good things about dead people or not to speak about them at all, as the Russian proverb suggested; would you agree with it or not?” went to Svetlana who gave an example of an anecdote of perestroika and glastnost period in the former Soviet Union, when newspapers were obsessed with Stalin’s theme. An old “babushka” said how much she hated Stalin because of the atrocities he was committing every day. When told that he was dead for many years she said then why newspapers were writing about him as if he was alive, and not about current affairs. When we speak of the past we should be more analytical and speak of its relevance for today.  Speaking about the dead we shouldn’t take advantage of them just because they cannot defend themselves.

“Should tactlessness from a drunken person be tolerated?” went to Luca, who said he didn’t drink and didn’t have any excuse if he behaved tactlessly.

“Should we be tactful with religious people or should we be honest and defend equality and freedom?” went to Lio who said she grew in a Christian household and stopped being religious as an adult. Contentious issues arise quite often.  Her policy is to smile, accept it, and have peaceful relationship especially in the family.

Grammarian Jo’s report was thorough and very educational as usual with many examples along with some recommendations to the speakers.

It was followed by General Evaluation from Stephen Costin, ACCA members Breakfast Club, who provided a lot of positive feedback and very helpful recommendations to all participants who were not evaluated. His speech was enthusiastic and peppered with dry humour.

Awards

Icebreaker ribbon has handed to Tadgh; best speaker award was handed to Peter L.; best evaluator award went to Henry; and best impromptu speech award went to Emma!!!

Next meeting

Our next event is our Inspiring Evaluations Workshop on Monday, 23rd of February upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm. To attend please register at: https://inspiring-evaluations-bloomsbury-2015.eventbrite.co.uk.  More details about the event are included in our Feb Newsletter: https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/2015/02/february-newsletter-contests-approaching/