Just a quick one this month, as we’ve already had our last proper meeting of the year, but there’s one more event to come – keep reading to find out more.

What’s in this newsletter?

• Online Christmas social – including Member of the Year award!
• Confidence workshop available on demand
• Holborn Speakers’ 20^th Anniversary
• Puzzled by Pathways?
• Next meetings
• And finally…

Online Christmas social – including Member of the Year award!

Although we’ve had our last meeting of the year, we’re still having one more get-together next Monday, 14^th December on Zoom.

Join us from 6:45pm for games, festive table topics and musical performances, plus our inaugural Member of the Year award! Please send your nominations to our president Yamina, either directly on WhatsApp or by e-mail via president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.

Confidence workshop available on demand

We had an amazing workshop night last month, including a session on Confidence for Speaking and Life from wellbeing guru and TEDx speaker Hari Kalyminios.

If you weren’t able to make it or would just like to benefit from watching it again, you can do so here:

https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/2020/11/confidence-for-speaking-and-life/

Holborn Speakers’ 20^th Anniversary

As you may know, Bloomsbury Speakers was formed 11 years ago as an offshoot of Holborn Speakers, who will be celebrating their 20^th anniversary this Tuesday, 8^th December. Our clubs have supported each other greatly over the years, so do join them in marking this major milestone. Follow the link below for all the details.

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/holborn-speakers-online-20th-anniversary-celebration-open-house-tickets-129714013105

Puzzled by Pathways?

With a break for Christmas before our next full meeting, why not use the time to re-familiarise yourself with the Pathways programme and start planning your next speeches? As explained in our October newsletter, every path starts with the same three projects in Level 1. The projects in Level 2 onwards depend on the path you’ve chosen.

This handy Pathways Reference Guide, produced by Toastmasters in Australia, contains a useful reference table (starting on page 6) showing all of the required and elective projects in all currently available paths.

If you need any help understanding how to progress in your path, please do get in touch. And if you’re not yet a member, do come along to our next meeting and see how these projects are delivered in practice.

Next meetings

Start planning for 2021 now! Our next meetings are on the 11^th and 25^th of January and we will continue to meet online for the time being. You can sign up on our Eventbrite or Meetup pages to receive reminders and login details nearer the time.

And finally…

As mentioned in last month’s newsletter, our member Matt achieved the brilliant feat of winning the Division C Table Topics speech contest.

If you weren’t there on the day, you can see his winning impromptu speech right here.

Matt will compete in the District 91 (UK South) final in May next year.

What effects your emotional state?

On 9th November Hari Kalymnios, an ex TEDx speaker and well known coach in resilience, health and well being, public speaking and confidence speaking delivered a 45 minutes workshop for Bloomsbury Speakers on becoming a confident public speaker online and in any situation.

This was an informative and a highly interactive workshop where Hari shared his three main ideas which you could apply at any event, meeting or speech to gain greater confidence and help you to change your perspective dealing with difficult, challenging situations.

While this was a one-off event, we want many more people to benefit from principles Hari shared with us. The workshop is now available for you to watch On Demand for the next 30 days.

Visit the link below and enjoy the workshop.

 Hari Kalymnios’s website

The big news this month is our free workshop night which we’ll be running on Monday, 9^th November on Zoom with two amazing speakers – keep reading to find out more!

What’s in this newsletter?

• Workshop night – Public Speaking with Confidence Online
• Claim your free Pathway
• Contest news
• Our members’ experiences
• Next meetings

Workshop night – Public Speaking with Confidence Online

This is one night you really want to be in front of your computer! Join us from 6:30pm on Monday, 9^th November for a special free event with two exceptional speakers delivering workshops on confidence and public speaking in an online world.

In the first workshop, former Bloomsbury Speakers member and wellbeing expert Hari Kalymnios will be sharing the principles you need to be more confident in your public speaking, or indeed any situation where it’s needed.

Then, in the second part of the event, trained actor and communication skills coach Richard Fallon will show you how to keep your audience’s attention when speaking and avoid the dreaded death by Zoom that can be so common these days.

There are only a few tickets remaining so, if you find we’ve sold out, please join the waiting list and we’ll release any returns we have, if and when we get them.

Click here to book your free ticket.

Claim your free Pathway

It’s been a tough year for organisations of all kinds – including Toastmasters clubs, which are run not-for-profit and rely on their membership fees to cover costs and keep their meetings going. As a token of appreciation for members who renew their membership for the current period, Toastmasters International is giving all existing members a free additional Pathway.

Everyone gets a free educational Pathway to follow when they first join Toastmasters, but then have to pay for the second one, which is needed if working towards the Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM) award – the highest level of educational achievement in Toastmasters.

By simply renewing your membership for the current period, you will now receive your choice of second Pathway absolutely free! See the Frequently Asked Questions page on the Toastmasters International website for full details. Just make sure you renew your membership with Bloomsbury Speakers by the end of the year and claim your free Pathway by 31^st March 2021 (and don’t forget, our membership fees are lower for everyone at the moment, so you make an even bigger saving).

If you haven’t started Pathways yet, why not have a look at the projects in Level 1 as covered in last month’s newsletter?

Contest news

After placing first in the Area contest last month, our member Matt did it again by winning the Division C final of the Table Topics speech contest!

If you don’t know what a Table Topic is, it’s where you’re given an arbitrary topic and asked to give a 1-2 minute speech on it straight away. Needless to say, it can be challenging (which is why we practise them all the time at our club meetings), and doing it in a contest takes that to another level.

Giving a brilliantly structured on-the-spot response to a question about which other person he’d like to be for a year, Matt wowed the judges and beat some stiff competition to take the title.

Matt is now through to the grand (District) final of the contest which, unfortunately, won’t be held until May next year – don’t worry, we’ll remind you nearer the time!

Our members’ experiences

Check out this short new video from some of our members telling us why they joined Bloomsbury Speakers and what they really think makes a great public speaker.

If you can’t see the video above, please view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/xmLdRY22eVw.

Next meetings

As well as our special workshop night on 9^th November, we also have one last regular meeting for the year on 23^rd November from 6:30pm on Zoom.

After that, we’re planning an informal online social on 14^th December to see the year out.

See you online soon!!!

What’s in this newsletter?

• Public speaking in lockdown
• A member’s experience
• Contest news
• Puzzled by Pathways?
• Next meetings
• And finally…

Public speaking in lockdown

The “new normal” shows no signs of going away, and Bloomsbury Speakers intends to continue with online meetings for the foreseeable future – but this isn’t bad news! Many of us also have to attend our work meetings and even job interviews online too, so Toastmasters meetings are still perfect practice for public speaking in the real world. The real world has changed and we’ve simply changed with it – but, of course, we still provide the safe and encouraging environment and constructive feedback from other members that we always have.

What’s more, you now have the chance to attend meetings at clubs all around the world from the comfort of your own home, or indeed anywhere you please. Have you ever given a speech at 1 o’clock in the morning?! It’s also a great way of feeling more connected if you’re quite isolated at this time.

To support people during this difficult period, the club’s committee has taken the decision to reduce our membership fees, so now is the perfect time to join or re-join as a member. See our website for more details: https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/join.

A member’s experience

We’ve been asking some of our members to tell us why they joined Bloomsbury Speakers and why they continue coming after so long. Here’s the 3-minute version of Helen’s story.

If you can’t see the video above, please view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gzTtYZlkeyM?t=1.

We’d love to hear about your own experiences of personal development and how you think Toastmasters could help you further, so please get in touch. In the meantime, do have a read of what our president Yamina has had to say about her journey: Get on the stage, tell your story.

Contest news

It’s contest season up and down the country and our members have been rising to the challenge of competing online. In the club’s Humorous Speech contest, Yassine joked about his identity as a French-Moroccan in the UK and the pressures of turning 30, while Swarajit gave a speech about a possible impending robot uprising that would be far scarier than any shown in the movies!

The results were:

• 1^st place – Yassine
• 2^nd place – Swarajit

In the Table Topics contest, Kamakshi, Swarajit, Yassine, Mara and Matt were each asked on-the-spot to give a 1-2 minute impromptu speech on why 2020 has been the best year ever! It was a challenging question, but everyone gave their own unique and fascinating response.

The results were:

• 1^st place – Matt
• 2^nd place – Yassine
• 3^rd place – Mara

Swarajit and Matt went on to represent the club at the Area C2 finals (with Yassine qualifying for the next round in a different area through his second club, Experience French). Swarajit again placed second in the Humorous Speech area contest, while Matt went on to (again!) win the Table Topics contest. Congratulations!

Matt qualifies for the Division C final which will be held on Saturday, 31^st October and you can register to watch and support him at this link.

Yassine’s area contest will be on Thursday, 22^nd October and you can register to attend at this link.

Puzzled by Pathways?

Pathways is the Toastmasters educational programme that all members follow to improve their public speaking and leadership skills. It currently offers a choice of 11 different paths including Presentation Mastery, Engaging Humour and Visionary Communication.

Each path is made up of 5 levels in which the projects let you gradually build up core skills in public speaking, interpersonal communication, strategic leadership, management and confidence.

The new system may seem daunting at first for our longer-serving members, but it’s actually relatively straightforward when you look into it. For example, Level 1 is identical for every path and so everyone starts in exactly the same way with the same three projects:

1. Ice Breaker
2. Evaluation and Feedback
3. Researching and Presenting

We’ll include further tips on Pathways in future newsletters, but why not get started today by following the links above? And why not book in your next (or first) Pathways speech slot straight away on our meeting management site at ToastmasterClub.org?

As an added incentive, the club is also offering up prizes to those members who perform the most speeches and roles for the rest of the year – it’s going to be a closely run race, so don’t wait to get started. We’re really looking forward to hearing your speeches!

Next meetings

Our next meetings will be on the 12^th and 26^th of October from 6:45pm, and will be held online using Zoom. Please register on our Meetup or Eventbrite pages to receive the login details and a reminder nearer the time. Guests are always welcome to attend.

And finally…

Bloomsbury Speakers has a new mascot – meet Peter the Pangolin! As a gift to our immediate past president Margarita, and the club as a whole, our current president Yamina has adopted a pangolin family on our behalf at a conservation project in the Central African Republic.

Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world and we are now helping Born Free to protect them in the wild from trade and exploitation.

We received a certificate and a stuffed toy for our generosity, so please give our new honorary member a warm welcome at our next meeting!