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, 11^th 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, 25^th 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 11^th as well as a speech slot and functionary roles for the 25^th.
• 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.

Introduction

Our President, Swarajit, began the meeting by reminding everyone of the Toastmasters UK & Ireland convention in November, drumming up support for Glen, who will be competing in the Table Topics contest. Swarajit reflected on how we learn. Whilst we pick up the ability to speak as children by listening and copying others, we do not pick up the ability to speak publicly, and therein lies the benefit of Toastmasters.

Bronia, our Toastmaster for the evening, was introduced by Swarajit as having a lot to live up to after her last stellar performance in the role. She did not disappoint, keeping the energy up throughout the meeting with a pleasant, confident presence. Bronia’s chosen theme for the meeting was heroes.

• Tracey – the Timekeeper – gave a brief introduction on the importance of time before explaining the timings of each speech presented on the programme and demonstrating the use of the lights to signal these timings to the speaker.
• Rajeev – the Grammarian – presented the word of the day, “limpid”, giving several examples of its use. He also gave examples of other devices he would be listening for, such as metaphors, similes, alliteration and anaphora, despite the fact that his wife says he’s not a very good listener.

Prepared Speeches

Sarah, in her Icebreaker entitled, “Evolution and Me”, began by describing public speaking as her “worst nightmare”. As part of her Master’s programme in Human Evolution and Behaviour, she has to give two presentations and so is keen to overcome her fear. Sarah went on to describe some of the topics she is studying, as well as what drew her to study Evolution in the first place. Her speech was heart-warming and full of humour.

Barnaby spoke about his personal hero, John von Neumann, who was an extremely accomplished mathematician and economist. Barnaby presented many interesting facts about von Neumann’s mind, his key discoveries, and of course Economics, in a manner that drew the audience’s attention and highlighted Barnaby’s glowing admiration.

Jo spoke about scuba diving in her advanced entertaining speech entitled, “Out of My Depth”. She skilfully and humorously recanted her adventures on a liveaboard trip to the Red Sea, including numerous encounters with shipwrecks and sharks.

The subject of Hari’s advanced speech was the eternal greek – Odysseus. Entitled, “A Hero’s Return”, Hari’s speech captivatingly described Odysseus’ return to Ithaca after his 20 year adventure, and how he won back his wife, Penelope, as well as his throne.

Evaluations

Renars began his evaluation of Sarah’s icebreaker by inviting the audience to applaud her for starting her public speaking journey. Though he did recommend she speak more about herself, his overall tone was positive and congratulatory.

Carrie’s evaluation of Barnaby’s speech was extremely well structured with numerous commendations around his progress and presence, his research and credibility, and his obvious passion for the topic. She suggested improvements to his body language, more eye contact and more voice projection before concluding on a commendation on his skilful use of humour and pauses.

Kate found Jo’s speech clear, well-constructed and clever. She commended Jo’s expression of enjoyment throughout the speech as well as her consistent ability to engage with the audience. Kate recommended that Jo put her notes aside in future as they restricted her movements, then concluded by commending Jo’s wonderful descriptions.

Glen described Hari’s speech as a “fantastic treat,” enumerating several things that he personally loved about it. He commended Hari’s solid stance and body language, though his gestures could have had more variety, as well as his easy charm. Glen went on to observe that Hari seemed at times not fully immersed in his own story, and suggested that the story could have been somewhat reinterpreted for a modern audience.

Table Topics

Joe introduced Table Topics as being valuable for winning arguments, selling ideas and creating relationships. He took a very innovative approach by inviting participants to speak in an open ended fashion about objects he had pulled out of a bag.

• Glen began with a useful tip for all table topics speakers, “Don’t be afraid of the first thing that comes into your mind.” However, since he had been given a container of lubricant, he swiftly added that, “Sometimes it is important to self-censor.” His response was extremely humorous and entertaining.
• Martijn, a guest, was given a thermometer, which inspired him to speak about the weather and the temperature differences between England and his native country, the Netherlands.
• Ash was given a lighter, which brought to mind looking out the window at smokers outside her office. She spoke about how she began smoking when she was quite young, though she has now given it up.
• Liz spoke about lip salve, something that she uses frequently, especially in cold weather. Her daughter likes to use different flavours and colours of lip salve, but Liz herself prefers to stick with the plain sort.
• Kate was glad not to have gotten the lip salve or the oil – instead she got a data memory stick. She remarked that she had accumulated 3-4 memory sticks and didn’t know what was on any of them. “What,” she wondered, “did we do before them?”

Femi provided an entertaining and useful evaluation, presenting unique points for each topics speaker. The level of detail in his evaluation showed how intently he listened to each topic.

Reports

Rajeev reported four uses of the word of the day before going on to give numerous examples of the best language of the evening.

Helen filled in as General Evaluator as the day’s transport chaos had prevented the scheduled GE from attending the meeting. She briefly provided feedback to each of the evaluators and functionaries.

Awards

• The President’s Award went to Helen for stepping in as the General Evaluator.
• Sarah earned the Icebreaker Award for her first speech.
• Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics Speech both went to Glen.
• Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Hari for his advanced speech.

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 11^th November upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Introductions

It was standing room only at The Clerk & Well for our first regular meeting in October. In a warm welcome from President Swarajit, we were reminded of how Toastmasters continues to be a safe and friendly platform to practise and gain confidence in public speaking. The meeting was then handed over to Glen, our Toastmaster, to host.

Glen introduced the theme for the evening as “favourite Toastmasters role” – which for many members was the Toastmaster role itself! – and went on to introduce the other functionaries – Samuel, the Timekeeper, and Marie the Grammarian who gave us the word of the day, “arbitrary”.

Prepared speeches

On to the prepared speeches and Damien started us off with a No. 4 speech entitled “Thoughts as Actions – Imagine That”. He dispelled the conventional view that damaged or ‘dead’ human brain cells cannot be replaced or regain function, with new findings in neuroscience that show it is possible for patients with neurological problems to regain some reflex.

In his No. 6 speech entitled “Twenty-One”, Rajeev shared his experience of training for a half-marathon (21 kilometers) even though his body testified he was ill-prepared for it. His advice to us was to train and execute well if you are participating in a race.

With her No. 7 speech, “Are you a tech’ or social media addict?” we had the privilege of hearing how the damage to Rufina’s smart-phone led her to examine how she might indeed to be one of the 11 million UK social media addicts.

Finally there was a humorous speech – “Parachutes” – from Joe, who narrated a story about a school boy, a wise man, a clever man and a doctor who between them had to strategically fight for 3 parachutes to save their lives.

Evaluations

The second half of the meeting opened with some key tips from our evaluators:

• Jo, evaluating Damien, commended him on his good body language, great speech structure and clear examples, and recommended more pauses.
• Henry commended Rajeev on his great conversational style and interesting speech topic. His recommendation was, again, to slow down and use more pauses.
• Nazia commended Rufina on the use of effective language, on her delivery without notes and her great body language. Her recommendation was to do a bit more research into the subject.
• Ratan commended Joe on an entertaining speech with a moral, as well as great stage presence and gestures.  The recommendation was for Joe to have woven the story and moral together more explicitly.

Table topics

The table topic talks (also referred to as impromptu speeches), hosted by Ahmed, were based on the theme of the evening.

• Peter was asked for his evaluation of Prime Minister’s Question Time. 
• Janna told us which celebrity she thought could benefit from joining a public speaking group.
• Jo tackled the question of which Toastmasters role most helped her critical thinking skills.
• Ratan debated whether public speaking should be added to the school curriculum.

Hari, evaluating the table topics, praised participants’ smiling and use of humour as effective ways of connecting. His recommendation was for speakers to not highlight their own mistakes, because no one notices. Other tips included controlled voice projection and he urged speakers to always attempt to answer the question asked.

Awards

The awards for the evening went to:

Best Prepared Speech: Joe for his humorous speech with a moral.

Best Evaluator: Hari for taking on the unenviable task of evaluating the impromptu table topic speakers.

Best Table Topic: Ratan, who entertained us with a humorous table topics speech.

President’s Award: This went to the evening’s grammarian Marie, who is also the club’s loyal Sergeant at Arms.

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 28^th October 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Notice: Please ‘Like’ us on Facebook for more news and updates – https://www.facebook.com/BloomsburySpeakers.

Hello and welcome to the October newsletter!

This month kicked off with a healthy turnout of members for a Friday night dinner social in Covent Garden. Socials are a great way to get to know your fellow members outside the club context, and we hope to have another one soon.

The main event so far this month though took place the day after our social; the Division L “Champions Conference” included seminars led by some of the best speakers and former contest champions from clubs around London, as well as the humorous speech and table topics division finals – results are below!

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 expected, September was an eventful month with an impressive run of wins in the table topics contests from Glen being a particular highlight!

• Even with the contests keeping everyone occupied, we still had time for two regular meetings in which Barnaby passed the half-way point in his competent communication manual and I (Swarajit) finally completed my tenth speech to achieve the title of Competent Communicator.
• In the middle of the month, we had our humorous speech and table topics contest night. Renars won the humorous speech contest with his speech about the English language, while Glen triumphed in the table topics with his discussion about people who believe that aliens built the pyramids.
• Glen and Renars both progressed to the Area 34 contest in which they competed against the respective winners from other clubs around our part of London. Renars placed second in the humorous speech contest, while Glen won the table topics contest for us with an impromptu speech about the HS2 rail proposal.
• Finally, just last Saturday at the Division L contests, Glen once again beat the competition with a response on the table topic, “laugh and the world laughs…”. Furthermore, the president of our sister club Clerkenwell Speakers, Ayse Lowe, won the humorous speech contest with her speech “Culture Clash”. Glen and Ayse both progress to the UK & Ireland semi-finals next month – see below for the details.

What’s planned for October?

The 2012-13 Toastmasters year was an exceptionally busy one for the club, with lots of extra meetings, ‘speakathons’ and workshops. Since then, our new sister club Clerkenwell Speakers has got off to a strong start and so Bloomsbury Speakers will be winding back down to its usual two meetings a month for the rest of the year. The committee will of course keep this under review and will consider reintroducing extra meetings should there be further demand for them in the future.

• Monday, 14^th October – Regular Meeting – We have a full agenda for our first meeting this month, which will be chaired by our reigning table topics champion Glen, but there are a few pre-bookable table topics slots up for grabs on ClubPlan if you’re quick.
• Monday, 28^th October – Regular Meeting – While the prepared speech slots are all taken for this meeting, we’re still looking for an advanced speech evaluator, a timekeeper and a grammarian for the night. Again, book yourself in on ClubPlan if you’d like to take part.

District 71 UK & Ireland conference and contests – 8^th-10^th November, Colchester

Full details of this season’s Toastmasters District 71 conference – including the UK & Ireland semi-finals and finals for this year’s humorous speech and table topics contests – are on the official website, but here’s a quick summary of all the important details:

• The conference will take place over the weekend of Friday, 8^th-Sunday, 10^th November at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Colchester.
• The nearest rail station is Kelvedon, which is a 49-minute journey from London Liverpool Street. Off-peak day return tickets are priced at £20.70.
• The resort is still a further 10-15 minute taxi journey away from Kelvedon station – local firm WoW Cabs can be contacted on 01206 331 000.
• While the conference spans three days, ticket prices range from £35 for the Sunday morning to £190 for the full weekend.
• The programme for the Friday includes two workshops, the humorous speech contest semi-finals – in which Ayse from Clerkenwell Speakers will be competing – and (optionally) a buffet dinner plus fancy dress disco.
• Several members of Bloomsbury Speakers are planning to attend on the Saturday, which includes a choice of four workshops, the humorous speech contest final and the table topics contest semi-finals – in which Glen will be competing!
• Financial support may be available for club members to meet the cost of their conference ticket. The level of this support will depend on demand, so please contact our treasurer Ahmed at treasurer@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk to apply.

Youth Leadership Programme

Although there is a requirement that members of Toastmasters clubs should be at least 18 years old, Toastmasters International provides a way for younger people to benefit from the tried and tested format of club meetings. Last month, Bloomsbury Speakers’ founding president Nazia embarked upon the Toastmasters Youth Leadership Programme at the UCL Academy in Swiss Cottage. So far, she has been ably assisted by our member Hari, and below is his review of the experience so far.

As part of the Youth Leadership Program, Nazia has volunteered to take Toastmasters into an after-school program. I’m her (lovely!) assistant and last week I had my first visit to the school –  in fact, my first visit to any school in almost 20 years! Wow! And what an experience it was.

The meeting is typically only an hour and the kids aren’t really known for their punctuality, so getting the agenda items completed was challenging. The kids seemed full of laughter though and after some (well, much) coaxing, we got three of them to perform ‘prepared’ speeches. I say ‘prepared’ because they mostly winged it, which just goes to show that if teenagers can talk for up to 5 minutes unprepared, we shouldn’t be daunted by table topics!

I instructed them on the art of giving feedback – the classic Toastmasters sandwich style – and they all seemed very responsive in giving some great feedback back to the speakers by following this format.

Next week we continue into more prepared speeches and even table topics. It’s certainly very different to running a meeting at Bloomsbury, but they seem to have just as much fun, if not more! For more information on the Youth Leadership Programme, speak to Nazia, or to hear more about my experiences, just get in touch with me.

If you’re interested in getting involved in the Youth Leadership Programme, feel free to get in touch with Nazia or Hari via ClubPlan.

Reminder about PechaKucha 20×20 – The art of concise presentations

This is just a reminder to contact Helen – me@yafetica.com – with expressions of interest to take part in a “PechaKucha” event. See last month’s newsletter for more information.

You can read more about the PechaKucha concept on its official website and the Wikipedia entry.

Tip of the Month: Visit other clubs

In London we’re quite spoilt for choice with over 50 Toastmasters clubs to choose from. Here are just a few reasons to get out and sample some of them for yourself:

• Learning from others. Although we like to think Bloomsbury Speakers is probably the best Toastmasters club in London, if not the world, that doesn’t mean we’re perfect and can’t learn from others. In fact, the idea of awarding ribbons to mark the half-way point in the Competent Communication manual was one that we lovingly borrowed from St. Paul’s Speakers, and if you spot any other great ideas that other clubs use to recognise their members or improve their meetings, we’d be glad to hear about them!
• Speaking to a different audience. A potential drawback of speaking to the same group of familiar faces in your own club is that you become too comfortable. Most clubs will prioritise table topic slots for Toastmasters visiting from other clubs, and smaller clubs may even have prepared speech slots available, giving you the opportunity to speak to an unfamiliar audience and keep pushing yourself out of your comfort zone.
• Networking and being a general evaluator. Toastmasters clubs attract people from all sorts of backgrounds and professions and are a great way of meeting new people. Furthermore, clubs (ours included) are always looking for general evaluators to come and evaluate their meetings and will usually be happy to set up reciprocal arrangements. Being a general evaluator also counts towards certain projects in your competent leadership (CL) manual, and achieving the CL award entitles you to a discount on your next membership renewal.

Don’t forget, all members of Bloomsbury Speakers still have FREE membership of Clerkenwell Speakers until the end of the year, meaning you can book speeches and roles on their ClubPlan.

However, visiting Toastmasters clubs as a guest is always free, and if you’d rather not go by yourself, why not invite one or more of your fellow members to go along with you? A full list of clubs in and around London is available on The London Speaker.

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 have two regular meetings in October. There are still some table topic slots up for grabs on Monday, 14^th and timekeeper, grammarian and speech evaluator slots on Monday, 28^th. Sign up on ClubPlan.
• 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 Glen for winning the Division L table topics contest last Saturday. Glen will now go on to compete in the UK & Ireland semi-finals at the District 71 conference below.
• The District 71 UK & Ireland conference and contests will take place on the weekend of 8^th-10^th November at the Crowne Plaza Resort in Colchester. Full details are available on the official website and financial support may be available for members via our Treasurer, Ahmed (treasurer@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk).
• We’re looking for expressions of interest from members to take part in a “PechaKucha” night jointly run with Clerkenwell Speakers, most likely in November. Contact Helen via me@yafetica.com.