Hello and Welcome to the February  Newsletter  for members and friends of Bloomsbury Speakers!

Quick warning: it’s quite a long newsletter this month – but that’s because there’s lot to say!

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 happened last month?

We had a great start to the year with two busy meetings and lots of new guests eager to find out more about the club.

We’ve also had several new members so I’d like to wish a very warm Bloomsbury welcome to Zita, Sheldon and Tadhg and I look forward to finding out more about them at their Icebreakers and seeing them improve their speaking skills and confidence over the coming weeks and months.

 

What’s planned for February?  

We have our regular meetings on consecutive weeks this month as we have a special evaluation workshop, with the usual potent mix of prepared speeches, evaluations and table topics:

• Monday 9th February – this coming Monday and we have a packed speaking schedule but we still need a grammarian and an SAA to do the guest introductions.  Please sign up on Clubplan if you can do either of these roles.  We also need a couple of people to come early and help me set up the room as Swarajit and Michelle who regularly do this are both away.
• Monday 16th February – fully booked again for speakers but we still need evaluators and a SAA to do the guest introductions.

Don’t be shy – book yourself in for one of the spare roles. Remember – all meeting roles provide an opportunity to speak in front of an audience.

The above meetings are on consecutive weeks is so that we can have an International Speech & Evaluation Workshop on Monday 23rd February.  We’re hosting a special event featuring workshops from Simon Bucknall.  See below for the details.

International Speech & Evaluation Workshop – Monday, 23^rd February

In preparation for the upcoming speech contests, we’re very privileged to welcome UK & Ireland Evaluation Contest champion Simon Bucknall to give his special workshop Inspiring Evaluations on Monday, 23^rd February. 

Your ability to evaluate others in a concise, effective and empowering way is a vital skill – not just in the professional world but in our personal lives too. In this practical and interactive session, Simon will share some of the key tips and techniques which helped him become the reigning UK & Ireland champion.

The session includes video footage from both the ‘test speech’ of the contest along with Simon’s winning evaluation. As well as this, you’ll have the opportunity to put your learning into practice by evaluating some test speakers on the night!

Key take-aways include: – how to make YOUR evaluation stand out from the crowd; – valuable practice before the contest season; – how to evaluate without notes; – how to adopt an empowering mindset for the benefit of all.

Don’t miss this fantastic opportunity to refine your skills for the upcoming contests and give yourself that extra edge for these and future competitions! Unfortunately there are only a limited number of seats available, so please only book yourself in if you can definitely attend (and cancel your booking if you find out later that you can’t make it).

To sign up please go to:

https://inspiring-evaluations-bloomsbury-2015.eventbrite.co.uk

 

What’s on the horizon?  International Speech and Evaluation Contests!

For those who are new to Toastmasters, twice a year every club holds two contests. In the Spring it’s the International Speech and Evaluation contests. In the Autumn it’s the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests.

Contests are really good fun, a great way to get experience of speaking in a (slightly) more formal environment and also an opportunity showcase and celebrate the various skills learned in Toastmasters during the rest of the year.

As it says above, our contests are being held on Monday 9th March at the same venue as the regular meetings. We’d love as many members as possible to enter these contests. However, there are some restrictions.

Contestants in the International Speech Contest deliver a prepared speech of 5 – 7 minutes:

• You must have completed 6 speeches from the Competent Communicator manual by the date of the contest to participate
• You may use a speech you’ve delivered before – as long as it is original and your own work
• The speech can be on any topic of your choosing (within normal Toastmasters limits – i.e. nothing that would make your Granny blush).

(BTW The reason it’s called the International Speech contest is that it’s a global competition with the winner of UK & Ireland going to the US to compete for the glory of the “world title”. So there’s everything to play for!)

Contestants in the Evaluation Contest all evaluate the same (mystery) speaker. Everyone gets the same amount of time to write up their notes – these are then taken away until it is your turn to evaluate.

Why You Should Take Part

If you are even slightly inclined to participate (and you meet the requirements) then I strongly recommend it. It’s a great experience and although their is an extra layer of formality to make sure everything is fair, it’s still a very supportive environment and conducted with a sense of fun.

And you’ve still got a month to write a speech (or polish your evaluation skills).

(Note: you can book yourself in as a contest speaker or contest evaluator on ClubPlan, but due to a limitation of the software you can’t book yourself in both contests – just book one slot and email Helen at education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to say you’d also like to participate in the other contest too).

If you can’t (or don’t want to) compete this time round then why not take on an official role, such as one of the timekeepers or a vote counter? Or you can be a judge at another contest.  Email Helen (education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk)  if you’re interested. We rely on all members’ contributions to making this contest as successful as our previous contests so please get involved.

 Tip of the Month – throw yourself into the Club!

It’s an often quoted phrase but, when it comes to Bloomsbury Speakers and Toastmasters, it’s definitely true: “The more you put into Bloomsbury, the more you get out of Bloomsbury”.

If you are nervous about public speaking then the better you know the audience, the more you know how friendly and supportive they are.  Try starting a conversation with the people sitting near you at the next meeting or congratulate one of the speakers or evaluators after the meeting.  Come along to one of our socials (we are planning another for March) to meet a few members away from the regular meetings.

If you prefer task -focussed interaction, we also have many small tasks related to running the club which we need help with throughout the year whether that’s setting up the room and greeting attendees at meetings, helping to write meeting reports or helping to organise special events such as the workshop or socials.  If you can spare an hour or two at any point throughout the year to help out with ‘Club business’ then please speak to anyone on the Committee at one of our meetings.

It only takes a small effort from each Bloomsbury member to keep the club going from strength to strength.

 

Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know

• February Meetings: We have our regular meetings on consecutive Mondays this month 9th and 16th Feb.  There are still a few roles available and we also need one (or two) people to be SAA and come early to help set up the room and do guest introductions as Swarajit and Michelle who regularly do this are both away.  Sign up on  ClubPlan.
• Our Evaluation Workshop is on Monday, 23^rd February.  Sign up at https://inspiring-evaluations-bloomsbury-2015.eventbrite.co.uk asap as places are limited!
• Our International Speech & Evaluation Contest will be held on Monday, 9^th March. Invitations will go out to members in the next couple of weeks, but booking for contest places and functionary roles is already open on ClubPlan.
• Tip of the Month – throw yourself into the Club! It only takes a small effort from each Bloomsbury member to keep the club going from strength to strength.  If you can spare an hour or two at any point throughout the year to help out with ‘Club business’ then please speak to anyone on the Committee at one of our meetings.

Newsletter written by Jo

 

Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 12^th January 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Jo who mentioned that Toastmasters was the right place if one wanted to get rid of fear of public speaking, the palpitations of being nervous and learn to enjoy it.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Joe, whose easy and elegant manner and the theme of the Night was a good way of returning into the grove of our delightfully busy meetings. According to Joe, after the razzmatazz and the glitz and glamour Christmas, we enter a somewhat cold long month of January. In these times, he is looking forward to the evenings getting lighter, not having to eat turkey for another 12 months and spending some Monday evenings among Toastmasters! For introductions, Joe used answers to one question: however small or big, what we are looking forward to in January or later this year.

Joe introduced functionaries of the day: Hari the Timekeeper and Glen the Grammarian.

There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Alefiyah’s No. 2 Speech Project “The SSLANGmobile (self-study language-mobile)” was a very informative, instructional, and well-organised description of a self-study language learning methodology, which uses modern internet and mobile applications. She offered a number of easy tips and pieces of advice among which consistency was named as the most important one for good results and maintaining strong motivation.

Peter L. (who in 2015 was determined to promote vegetarianism as a protest against the death of millions of turkeys that have to be slaughtered every Christmas) delivered his Speech No. 4 “The Big Piece of Paper” devoted to the 800^th anniversary of Magna Carta. Peter L. addressed three questions: what it was for, what its name meant and what it meant for him. He used his personal experience of judicial system, a well-known occasion when David Cameron was asked about Magna Carta. These events brought Peter L. back to the notion of Magna Carta, which effectively limited the powers of monarchy and laid a foundation for many modern fundamental laws, such as habeas corpus, speedy trial, and due process under the law; thus, indirectly, it continues protecting main liberties and individual rights and continues being the source of law.

Damien (who looks forward to the Rugby World Cup) in this his No. 7 Speech Project entitled “The Forgotten Parrott” related a detailed account of controversies, facts and figures, which shed light onto the less known 150 years of history of records set by professional and amateur long-distance runners since 1770 when James Parrott, a fruit seller, who was also a long-distance runner, set the first record of running 1 mile under 4 minutes, but it was forgotten due to methods of measuring and recording results and lack publicity.  Since then, there were other talented and strong runners who ran the distance under 4 minutes before Roger Bannister whose result in 1954 was the first one to be officially recorded.

Swarajit (who looks forward to the next Christmas) in his advanced speech “Probability Problems” from Manual “Speaking to Inform” told us about odds of probability, statistics and our perceptions of probability, which differ.  He used an interactive probability game with a chocolate prize to test the probabilities and show us that the reality is counterintuitive and mathematics of probability is shocking.  This should help us accept the public domain discourse especially from journalists who don’t know what they are talking about with a pinch of salt.

We had warm guest introduction from Michelle and well-balanced evaluations from Egor, Faith-Rose, Svetlana, and Femi.

Table topics session conducted by Peter F. was a fun session with interesting questions and imaginative impromptu answers. Peter F. gave very positive instruction, inspired and encouraged speakers, facilitated the session with warmth.

“What is your favourite childhood memory?” went to Svetlana, who said she had lots of happy memories but told us the one that was most memorable and which gave her flashbacks from time to time; it was about her very first and last gymnastic lesson, which made her extremely happy but after which she couldn’t find her way back home. She was only 7.

“If you had a chance to do a makeover what would you do differently?” went to Henry, who said he would change the way he looks at the world and make over his soul to be happy, productive, to oose smiles and feel incredibly positive. He would try everything to find what would work – from a magic pill to change of climate.

“If you had a chance to travel where would you go and why?” went to Rachel who told us that she travelled to Moscow, New York, Ireland and visited Copenhagen, after which she decided she would go to Scandinavia, Iceland, Norway and she told us how much she liked those countries and was interested in them.

“What teacher in school made the most impact on you and why?” went to Georgia, who told us about her English teacher who instilled in her the love of arts and literature.

“What was your most defining moment of your life?” went to Graham who named quite a few defining moments starting with visits to a dentist but the most important one was meeting his current partner.

“What is your strongest quality?” went to Tom who said that it was persistence which helped in so many cases and circumstances throughout his life, such as learning languages and some others.

Hari provided a thorough evaluation of Table Topics speakers’ with lots of commendations and useful recommendations.

Grammarian Glen’s report was a thorough, very educational report on the language usage of the day which contained many examples along with recommendations.

It was followed by General Evaluation from Isabel de la Cour, Phoenix Speakers, provided a lot of positive feedback and very helpful recommendations. Her speech was enthusiastic and peppered with humour.

Awards

Best speaker award was handed to Peter; best evaluator award went to Hari; and best impromptu speech award went to Henry!!!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 26^th of January upstairs at The Clerk and Well, 156 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.

 

Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular but slightly unusual meeting on Tuesday 9^th December 2014 with not so many participants due to being the last pre-Christmas meeting of the year. President Jo announced it open and handed the Santa Claus hat over to Nathaniel, the Toastmaster of the evening, saying that the hat will pass from speaker to speaker throughout this special meeting.

Prepared Speeches

Nathaniel announced the theme of day – favourite Christmas presents ever received and introduced the functionaries of the day. Alefiyah the Timekeeper (whose favourite Christmas present is a homemade cake), told us a memorable story of a bus and opportunity costs related to switching lights of the Timekeeper, which speakers should observe to be time-conscious! Our President Jo (whose favourite present was watching a glacier in South America) acted as the Hark Master and advised us to listen carefully to the speeches as there would be a competition where she would ask questions towards the end of the meeting to test how attentive we were and win chocolates!!!

There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Mengbing’s Icebreaker Speech Project “Who Am I?” started with a story of her name and continued with a story of her and her twin brother, who was a more talented one. She wanted to challenge herself and to see how different she was from her twin brother and how her own talents could show. This accounts for some amazing life experiences and wisdom she picked from travelling, living abroad, studying at the university in Switzerland, learning foreign languages, working for a charity in Africa, moving to London, and, finally,  joining, Toastmasters.

Faith-Rose (whose favourite ever present was a family photo on the eve of the New Year because normally they all live in different places) whose No. 6 speech was entitled “Determined”. It was a personal story of overcoming challenges and being determined. She didn’t believe in good luck but in being determined and faithful. Being a member of Toastmasters International and overcoming challenges of public speaking helped her overcome the challenge of passing her driving test even through it took her three attempts to do it.

Svetlana (whose favourite Christmas present was a tea-maker with excellent green teas from her family) delivered her Speech No. 7 entitled “Sharing Life Hacks With Friends”. Svetlana started with a humorous story of how important it is to share the knowledge and experience with others and that what you share stays with you and but you don’t share in forever lost. She shared useful knowledge about healthy life style and easy tips on how to stay healthy, slim and fit at no cost.

We had warm guest introduction from Michelle.

Evaluations

Michelle (whose favourite ever childhood present was a bike) evaluated Mengbing’s Icebreaker speech. The speech was interesting and personal, light-hearted and serious, concise and well-structured and delivered without notes; it was an excellent speech for an Icebreaker as evaluated by Michelle.

Swarajit evaluated Faith-Rose’s speech as a beautiful performance, advanced speech with a confident, humorous, convincing manner with a strong message.

Rufinah’s best present was getting married in addition to all wonderful presents she received so far. Rufinah evaluated Svetlana’s speech, which contained a lot of useful learning experience from childhood to adulthood, was quite entertaining at times too, was enlightened by her smile, and she didn’t use notes. However, she should have used references to formal researches, sources, and scientists to underpin the life hacks, which she mentioned.

Table topics session conducted by Helen was really entertaining as she explained that there are situations, which the impromptu skill can save. We had a good laugh. Helen’s questions were focused on holidays.

 “If you had one day access to Santa’s elves workshop for free what would you do?” went to Rufinah. She had wonderful time in Mexico in October, and she would go back to there. The weather was wonderful, food was amazing; the sea and the beach were like heaven; people were friendly and polite.

“What would be your favourite present in childhood, which you wanted but never received?” went to Jamie, who brooded over her childhood memories when her parents’ family was somewhat broken, therefore, her best Christmas present would be being together and watching movies and eating Christmas food.

“The worst Christmas present, which you received?” went to Alefiyah. Her nightmare moment of a Christmas would be Christmas dinner without gravy because chicken would be so dry or if the TV was broken and she wouldn’t be able to watch EastEnders with the most interesting Christmas episode.

“Which do you prefer: the white Christmas or the green Christmas?” was answered by Yu Ling, who would love it equally white or green as long as the whole family was having happy time together.

“Make us believe that Santa Claus is real” went to Swarajit. He started with how implausible the whole Santa Claus idea seemed to the majority of people that he travelled overnight and put presents though chimneys. In fact by Einstein’s theory of space-time compression this is possible. Einstein proved mathematically that it’s possible and Santa Claus was the one who put it into practice. He used a special machine to compress the space.

“Convince Boris Johnson to replace cabs with sleighs during Christmas holidays” went to Glen who staged a persuasive conversation with Boris at his own apartment. He would commend Boris on his achievements and, particularly, Boris Johnson bikes. He offered him an idea of using sleighs instead of bikes and come back to office year after year again and again.

Femi provided a candid and most valuable evaluation of all six Table Topic speakers.

Hark Master Jo’s contest was very popular and successful and all questions were answered at the first instance and chocolate went out to prises very fast.

In the absence of the General Evaluator we used a very innovative way of Group Evaluation facilitated by Glen.  It was very interactive and provided a number of comments.

Awards

Icebreaker Ribbon was handed to Mengbing; best speaker and best Christmas dress award was granted to Faith-Rose; best evaluator award went to Femi; and best impromptu speech award went to Swarajit!!!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 12^th of January downstairs at The Clerk & Well, 91-95 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5BX. Doors open at 6:30pm.

 

Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 1^st December 2014 with a very short but energetic and upbeat introduction from President Jo.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Jo handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening Ahmed, our seasoned member, awarded with the title of Competent Communicator, who dutifully explained the structure of the agenda and the procedures, such as filling up evaluation slips following commendation-recommendation-commendation format, shaking hands with the Toastmaster and supporting the speakers with warm and loud applause – and why we do that.  The theme of the Night was about our favourite jobs, which we haven’t got (yet).

Ahmed introduced functionaries of the day: Peter F. the Timekeeper (who wanted to become a CEO in the local government authority but thought it wasn’t such a great idea as he might have to deal with corruption and he decided not pursue it). Peter L. told us a story about the time and space that only God and His providence know which Time and Space is right for us. He gave an example of a poor family, which invested all of its money into tickets and missed their travel on Titanic going to the promised Land.   Bronia, the Grammarian offered a language device of the day – a rhetorical device of a dramatic pause, which is known as ellipsis – as an alternative and as a way to deal with ums and ahs.  

There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker Egor in his Speech No. 5 entitled “Get Into Jeans” told us some fascinating and not very well known facts from the history of jeans and what accounts for their good quality, such as the country of origin of the cotton, quality of fibre, technology of production, durability, and washability. We all learnt something, which we would not learn if Egor didn’t tell us that evening.

Joe (whose favourite job was a tennis player, and he is currently a tennis coach) delivered Advanced Speech No. 7 entitled “Mind Over Matter” about managing emotions through meditation. Under pressure it is better to act rational. The Goliath, the emotional side, takes over the David, the rational part of the brain, which inhibits top performance. There is a battle between emotional and rational brains. Meditation slows down the brain waves to alpha-brain waves, which are more conducive to creativity. It also lowers blood pressure and eventually makes the cortex part of the brain thicker in people who meditate. If we meditate 5 minutes a day we will feel the difference in twenty days. And he taught us some meditation technique and belly breathing. You simply should have been there to know more!!!     

Carrie (who wanted to be a teacher) delivered her speech No. 10 “Finding Your Own Truth”. Carrie told us about a psychological experiment from University of Yale, which shows that people’s sensitivity to other people’s pain level is quite low, and the majority of people are not compassionate to another person’s pain especially when we are framed up to conform the pattern of the majority. This lead Carrie to extrapolating the same idea to her own life and see how it could affect her values. Conformity and obedience especially in the work situation where we conform to the majority may result in a situation where one is liked by everyone else apart from oneself, which is sad.  If we remove the social context would we do something differently? Carried made all of us think together with her. Options available to us being happy are about being congruent and preserving integrity rather than conforming to others. Be acquainted with your true values, called Carrie upon us. She finalised her speech with a quote from Henry David Thoreau, “Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth”. Carried earned loud and warm applause.

Swarajit performed the role of Sergeant At Arms and welcomed guests giving them an opportunity to introduce themselves.

Evaluations

Evaluations were started by Svetlana (who wants to become a professional speaker without use of notes) who gave a candid and well-rounded evaluation of Egor’s speech, followed by Jo (who is curious about working as a retired person); Jo’s evaluation of Joe’s speech was thorough with commendations and tips for improvement. Hari (who wanted to be in the World Cup) provided constructive, detailed evaluation and advice for improvement. All evaluations were peppered with light-hearted humour and interrupted with laughter quite a few times.

Table topics session conducted by Peter L. (who would like to be a philosopher) was devoted to theme of work.

“Pros and cons of working at home” went to Rui. He said that pros are plenty in theory, such as spending all day in pyjamas and chatting on Skype. In practice, small kids would be bothering their daddy with questions, cats would fight, dogs would dig in the garden all of which would demand a lot of attention and distract him, so he wouldn’t work from home if he had a choice.

“Finding a job for your uncle’s fat cat in the company” went to Luce, who described all possible kinds of personalities, intellect, and character of a cat, which needed to be tested, before assigning a cat a job. Catching spiders would be the first job; the second job would be to welcome visitors.

“What is the most dreadful job, which you would never do?” went to Helen. She described her most dreadful job as the one where colleagues to do not understand what is required to do.

“What a bad job can you give to your former boss?” was answered by Swarajit. He started his speech with saying that it is a very English thing to pay back in kind and would take an immense pleasure out of that and live a British dream.

“What is your idea of a whole day job interview, which you could offer the candidates?” went to Svetlana who would give the candidates various tasks and exercises, such as brain storming, group work, presentations as well as more controversial assignments to test various qualities of character.

“Would you take a job of a vampire hunter?” went to Stella who said she would use dramatic pause to give herself time to think the question over. And then she told a mystical story of how a vampire was caught in the Caribbean resort where she had her vacation.

Tracey (who wants to be a green peace campaigner) provided a constructive evaluation of Table Topics speakers’ with lots of commendations and useful recommendations.

Grammarian Bronia’s report was an enjoyable account of dramatic pauses and many other language devices used by all speakers throughout the night.

It was followed by General Evaluation from Mustapha Hanafi, VPE of MLP London Bridge Speakers, who provided a lot of very helpful recommendations along with commendations on friendliness, warm welcome and good organisation.

Awards

Competent Communicator Ribbon was handed to Carrie; best table topic speaker awards went to Stella and Helen; best evaluator award went to Hari; and best prepared speech award went to Carrie!!!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 9^th December downstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6:30pm.