Introductions

Club president Femi opened the meeting with a reminder that sometimes progress is dependent on practising things we already know rather than learning something new.  He encouraged all participants to give feedback in a way that builds the speaker’s confidence and also to join with the Toastmaster in making speakers welcome through enthusiastic applause.

The Timekeeper Rajeev explained the purpose of his role and gave an overview of the green, amber, and red “traffic light” system used to help speakers keep to time.

Grammarian Angela introduced the word of the day, “salubrious”, gave a helpful definition – “health-giving or healthy”, and encouraged all participants to use it wherever possible.

Prepared speeches

In his ice breaker speech entitled “Heroes” brand-new member Marcin asked the question “What is a hero?”. It’s someone who inspires you to be better, he told us. Marcin’s hero was a man who loves flying – Richard Branson – and he went on to talk about his hero from three perspectives: his family, his smile, and his attitude.

In his No. 2 speech “Regression to the Mean” Barnaby opened with an interesting fact, that highly intelligent women tend to marry less intelligent men. He went on to explain the statistical basis for this – that all things tend towards the average. For example, the children of two exceptionally tall people are likely to grow up to be shorter than their parents.

The third speaker was Renars with his No. 9 speech, whose objective is to persuade. In “Stereotyping” he said that as human beings we make judgements about people many times every day. He told us how his own stereotypes of people had been proven wrong in the past and as an antidote to people making assumptions about him based on where he’s from, he now just tells people “I’m from Planet Earth!”.

The final speaker was Femi with an advanced speech from the Storytelling manual. He opened by taking us right into the action – a heated conversation with his neighbours about unreasonable levels of noise. In a passionate speech with lots of emotional language he told the story of the events which had led up to this climactic scene and how he eventually triumphed over this nuisance through sheer perseverance.

Evaluations

Paul gave a very encouraging evaluation of Marcin’s ice breaker speech. He particularly commended Marcin’s use of a specific story – about an extreme way to learn to swim –  to illustrate one aspect of Richard Branson’s character.

Ahmed gave thoughtful and detailed feedback to Barnaby on his statistical speech.  He commended Barnaby’s strong opening and closing but cautioned against using too many different examples to make the same point – better to use fewer examples and expand on each one more.

Eugenia evaluated Renars’ persuasive speech. She found much to commend but felt that he could have spent a little time explaining some of the benefits of stereotyping, since it must also serve some positive function.

Glen gave an entertaining evaluation of Femi’s advanced speech about nuisance neighbours. He loved the drama and the passion in the speech but advised Femi to keep an eye on the clock to avoid having to truncate his story at the end.

Table topics

The topics master for the evening Elena explained the benefit of regular impromptu speaking – “practice makes perfect” – and introduced her theme for the session: Health.

Volunteers drawn from the ranks of members and guests alike were invited to spend 1 to 2 minutes answering questions such as:

• What was your most “salubrious” holiday?
• Where is the healthiest place to eat?
• What is the healthiest type of job?
• What is the healthiest way to travel?
• What is the healthiest type of relationship?
• What is the healthiest type of sport?

Reports

Our visiting topics evaluator Doug, from Angel Speakers, had wise and thoughtful feedback for all – no mean feat when evaluating six speakers almost immediately after they have spoken!

Returning to give her report the grammarian Angela commended multiple uses of the word of the day and highlighted other effective uses of language, such as rhetorical questions. She particularly enjoyed Doug referring to Toastmasters as being “like crack cocaine”  he confessed he was addicted!

Awards

Closing the meeting, Femi gave a few announcements – including news of an upcoming storytelling workshop – and then gave out the awards based on votes from the audience:

• best evaluator went to Glen for his detailed evaluation of Femi’s own speech
• best table topic went to Henry for talking about his most salubrious holiday
• best speaker went to Femi who had to give the award to himself!

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 11th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter!

This month’s newsletter is rather long! This is partly because we’ve been away for a couple of months and partly because there’s quite a lot to say this month. So I’m going to lead with the key facts you need to know.

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Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know

• Our regular meetings in March are on Monday 4th, Monday 11th and Monday 18th.   Depending on which ones you look at, there are still evaluator and topics evaluator roles to fill.  But if you can’t book any of these roles, you should be able to find a Table Topics slot at any of the meetings.
• The International Speech and Evaluation Contests take place on Monday 25th March – take part or get involved in helping to run the show via ClubPlan! (Please note that the contests will NOT be taking place at The Clerk & Well pub!! The venue will be confirmed on our website and Clubplan soon, and more details about the contests will be emailed to members by our VP Education, Swarajit.)
• Our past VPM (Vice President of Membership) Hari Kalymnios is organizing an evening social – dinner at the Suda Thai Café Restaurant in Covent Garden – on Friday 8th March at 7pm. Please email Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk by Wednesday 5th March if you’d like to attend. Places are limited!
• Our current VPM, Joe, will be emailing all of our members soon, as part of ‘The Meet the Members’ idea to tell us more about themselves by giving us a sentence or two about themselves answering three basic questions.
• We are looking for a replacement Sergeant at Arms, who is responsible for setting up the room before and after each meeting. The SAA also has a regular slot giving guest introductions (unless taking on another role). If you’d like to find out more, please get in contact.
• Membership freeze – to manage demand on speaking slots, we are now going to freeze membership again until the end of April. But we continually welcome guests to our meetings, and encourage those who are eager to join to get on the waiting list.

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Now that I have covered the key news, I will provide an update on recent news, give you a heads-up on what’s on the horizon, and offer a tip of the month. However, in addition to these, I will offer more information on the forthcoming contest season, recognise members who have achieved certain awards recently, draw your attention to the Meet the Members initiative, and promote our upcoming club social.

Okay, here we go.

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What’s happened since the start of 2013?

Since our first meeting this year on Monday 14^th January, we have been holding meetings every week to help more people practice public speaking instead of the two advertised on our website; in our first meeting of the year alone, we had about 13 members in attendance with over 12 guests looking to join or to find out more about the club.

And since we opened membership in February, we’ve had plenty of new members joining.  As such, I’d like to welcome Ben, Joowon, Marcin, Monica, Martin, Rajeev, Samuel, Sinead, Liz and Tasos to the club.

Membership freeze

We have now admitted the maximum number of new members since we re-opened membership at the beginning of the month. In order to manage demand on speaking slots, we are now going to freeze membership again until the end of April.

In the meantime, we continue to welcome guests to our meetings, and for those who are eager to join, we can put you on the waiting list.

Competent Communicator Awards

I’m delighted to welcome two new members – Joe Lake and Jo Higham – into our ranks of competent communicators.

To achieve this status, Joe and Jo each had to prepare and deliver 10 speeches based on projects/objectives from the competent communication manual.

Joe completed his award at our meeting on Monday 10th December, presenting a speech entitled “Chimps, Computers and humans” in which he inspired us to be crystal clear about our dreams; that it is this clarity and focus which partly gives us the drive to achieve our aspirations.

With her inspiring speech entitled “Flowers, Coffee and Kindness”, Jo attained her own award on Monday 11th February, when she motivated us to engage in little acts of kindness to people – especially strangers. Jo told the story of Emily, an American living in Belgium, who left small bouquets of flowers for strangers as an “unexpected pleasant surprise”.

Half-Competent Communicator Award

We recently introduced the Half-Competent Communicator award to mark the completion of the fifth speech project.

And the first member to be recognised with this milestone award is Christopher Foster-McBride.  Chris reached this milestone on Monday 28th January when he delivered an informative speech entitled, “Grey power… How the old will shape our future”. He reflected on the aging population and what it means for the world.

Ice-breaker award

Congratulations are in order to Punam, Barnaby, Jowoon, Michael, Sam and Rajeev, all of whom took the bold step to complete their maiden speeches within days/weeks of joining Bloomsbury Speakers. Well done.

Evaluation Workshop

Freddie Daniells (the current UK & Ireland Toastmaster clubs Governor) ran a comprehensive workshop for us on Monday 4th February that was well attended by Bloomsbury members and a few guests including a member from our sister club, Holborn Speakers. There were some really great insights and even experienced evaluators benefited enormously.

We were reminded that every time we stand up to deliver an evaluation of a person’s speech, we hold that person’s confidence in our hands. And it is our duty to render our suggestions and recommendations in a way that builds the speaker’s confidence up.

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What’s on the horizon?

We have three regular meetings and a club social planned but the big event on the horizon in March is our contest evening when we’ll be hosting the club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests.

Before I outline the meetings and discuss the contests, let me quickly deal with the club social…

Club Social – Friday 8th March – Dinner!

Our past VPM (Vice President of Membership) Hari Kalymnios is organizing another evening social for us again.

Once again, we will be dinning at the Suda Thai Café Restaurant in Covent Garden. The date is Friday 8th March at 7pm.

Please email Femi at president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk by Wednesday 5th March if you’d like to attend. Places are limited!

See you there.

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Meetings in March and the Contests

• Monday 4th March – This first meeting already has a full agenda, but you can still book a Topics slot.
• Monday 11st March – Another busy agenda although an Evaluator role is still up for grabs and there are still Topics slots to be booked.
• Monday 18th March – While the speaking slots are gone, there are Evaluator slots and the Topics Evaluator role still to be filled. And don’t forget the Topics slots.

• Monday 25th March – Bloomsbury Speakers International Speech and Evaluation Contests.

(more details about the contest follows but please note that the contests will NOT be taking place at The Clerk & Well pub!!. The venue will be confirmed on our website and Clubplan soon.)

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International Speech and Evaluation Contests

Our immediate past president, Glen, wrote a brief informative piece last year explaining what the contests are all about and why you should take part. Here’s what Glen had to say which still applies 100% to this year’s contests, (Please note that a much more comprehensive message about the contest has already been sent to members from Swarajit, our VP Education, so check your inbox):

“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.

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

(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 there 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.”

(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 Swarajit 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? Email Swarajit if you’re interested.

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Meet The Members

Last year Hari, our past VP Membership, introduced the ‘Meet The Members’ initiative as one way to maintain a sense of community and give members a sense of who else is in the club with them.

If you think about it, during every meeting we ask guests to briefly introduce themselves but we never do the same for members. Hence, the initiative is an attempt to help everyone to get to know one another a little better.  It was well received last year and given that we’ve had plenty of new members joining recently, we’d like to run the exercise again. We’d like to find out a bit more about all of our members – the new ones and existing ones.

So shortly Joe, our current VPM, will be emailing all of our members to tell us more about themselves by giving us a sentence or two about themselves answering the following questions:

• What you currently do for a living? (or perhaps what would you rather be doing!)
• Which part of London (or elsewhere) you live in?
• What do you like to do outside of work? (other than Toastmasters!)

We’ll collate all your answers and send out an email to all our current members so that you have a much better idea who else is in the club with you.

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Tip of the Month – Take Part in the Contests – it will make you a better speaker!

During our last meeting when I encouraged our members to get involved in the contest, do you remember what I said about the mountain climber? For those of you who were not present, I said that when the mountain climber was asked “Why climb the mountain?” his reply was “Because it’s there!”

I used that point to underscore the idea that, like mountain climbing, contests are akin to challenges; that they call on you to be a better speaker, a better person. Well, that comment was borrowed from an article that John Kinde once wrote about this same matter on inspiring members to take part in contests.

John Kinde is a Distinguished Toastmasters DTM, an accredited speaker and a humor specialist living in Las Vegas, US.  He covered other reasons for taking part such as helping you: to get out of your comfort zone; to develop a sense of purpose; to get better feedback etc.

I’d like to encourage you to read his full blog “Why Enter a Toastmasters Speech Contest?” Hopefully, I will be seeing more of you entering the contest soon.

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That’s it for now. I look forward to seeing many of you at a meeting soon.

Best wishes,

Femi Asaolu
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

Introductions

In his introduction Club President Femi expanded upon the old adage “practice makes perfect” by saying that it is in fact “practice with insight” that makes perfect – so feedback is essential. Which is why it is such a fundamental part of the Toastmasters experience.

He also spoke about an article from the “Toastmaster” magazine (which every member receives) about making not just eye contact but meaningful eye contact and encouraged those members present to take another look at this valuable resource.

Jo, the evening’s Toastmaster, encouraged the audience to give each participant a warm round of applause in order to keep the energy levels high. Her theme – inspired by the Oscars – was “Awards” and prior to the meeting she’d asked each participant to name an award they had won in the past or felt could – or should – win in the future.

Starting the ball rolling, Jo said she felt she should win an award for most time spent on the Internet researching trips she never actually went on!

Eugenia, in the Timekeeper role, told the pertinent story of being kept waiting in the cold while a colleague took 26 minutes to tell her just three things. The moral of the story being that the ability to communicate information within a fixed period of time is crucial!

The Grammarian was Chris (who felt he deserved an award for being completely awful with money). He explained that it was important to be “clear, precise and well understood” and told us he would be looking out for effective uses of language during the meeting. He also introduced the word of the day – “interminable” – meaning relentless or neverending.

Prepared speeches

In a very impressive icebreaker entitled “The Bicycle Diaries”, brand-new member Rajeev (who said he deserved an award for always going to the pub for just one pint but staying for many more) told us about his childhood growing up in Sri Lanka where he learned to ride bikes which were much too big for him. He also described swapping sunny blue skies for damp grey ones when he moved from Sri Lanka to the UK at the age of 21.

In her No. 3 speech the second speaker Angela (potential winner of the “changing her hairstyle frequently” award) told us about the “invisible to do list” that she suddenly felt she needed to get through as she approached the age of 30. In “13 Days ’til 30” she also talked about the “upgrade generation” and its attitude to relationships, the difficulty of saving money in an expensive city like London, and getting her “baby toe” on the property ladder. In the end she decided to postpone it all until 35!

Regular member Paula (who felt she deserved the award for most unworn items in her wardrobe) gave her No. 5 speech entitled “Weekend Magic” in which she described the special moments in those two days off per week that can make a weekend magical. She herself enjoyed watching Columbo, doing aerobics and generally being active and jumping around. In a particularly entertaining segment she told us about the various characters she had met on a raw food weekend, including “Mr Miserable” and “Miss Sexy”.

Hari (wanted to win numerous awards including an Oscar, an Emmy and a Nobel Prize – but felt he was most likely to win one for daydreaming!) was the final speaker with an advanced speech entitled “Eliminate to Invigorate”. He told us about a seven and a half day fast and detox experience in Thailand and gave us details of a rather severe cleansing process which involved a bucket full of coffee, a long tube and an open mind. He said he was “in Thailand, but thinking of England”.

After the last of the prepared speeches, President Femi led the guest introductions where new visitors to the club were given the opportunity to introduce themselves and say a few short words.

Evaluations

After the break it was time for the evaluations, where each of the four prepared speakers received detailed spoken feedback from a fellow member.

The first evaluator was Gemma (who hoped one day to win an award for being an inspirational teacher). She evaluated Rajeev’s ice breaker speech and started by reassuring guests that it had been exceptional and most people did not start at this level! She felt his descriptions were fantastic, particularly the comparisons between Sri Lanka and London and thought he made good use of opening questions.

The next evaluator was Mike (who felt he should receive an award for always coming second!) giving feedback on Angela’s No. 3 speech. He said she had made a “fantastic start” which got him thinking about his own 30th birthday some years ago. He used the analogy of a “clothes horse” – on which Angela had draped various areas of her life. He loved the strong ending – postponing her responsibilities until 35.

Elena (who would like to win a speech award at the next contest) was responsible for evaluating Paula’s No. 5 speech. She loved the use of hand gestures and body language but recommended “counting off” her magic moments so that we could follow them more easily. She also felt Paula could have used fewer but more expressive examples to support her main points. She liked Paula’s choice of language, her entertaining style and the strong conclusion.

The final evaluator was Adam (he wanted an award for excessive coffee drinking) who evaluated Hari’s advanced speech (also coincidently coffee-related). He told us up front he would be looking at the speech’s “purpose, structure and language”. He felt Hari’s strong introduction had led us through the speech very effectively, liked the level of personal detail and particularly loved Harry’s “Dr detox” character. He was also very impressed by the use of props and humour.

Table Topics

Swarajit (wanted to be awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics, but didn’t know enough about Physics) introduced the Table Topics session by describing the benefits of participation – speakers would become “more and more un-phased” by real-life situations involving speaking without preparation.

Swarajit’s theme was Business and Careers. He invited members and guests to tackle a range of questions including:

• What is your dream job?
• How would you argue for a six-day week?
• What charity would you set up?
• What would you be fired for on The Apprentice?
• What business idea of yours should we invest in?

Table topics evaluator Glen (who felt he deserved an award for “Best DIY Procrastinator”) evaluated all six of the table topics speakers providing praise and recommendations for each, including numerous specific examples.

Grammarian Chris returned to report 11.5 (!) uses of the Word of the Day and was impressed by “a fantastic array of rhetorical devices”.

The General Evaluator George from Berkeley Square Speakers evaluated all those participants not yet evaluated and themed his commendations and recommendations around the idea “Less is More”.

Awards

Closing the meeting President Femi handed out the awards based on the votes cast by the audience members during the meeting:

• Best Table Topic went to brave guest Mark for his topic about his (non) cooking skills
• Best Evaluator went to Glen for evaluating all the topics
• Best Speaker went to Hari for his speech about detoxing

The President’s discretionary award went to the PR team behind the meeting reports and website: Glen, Elena, Jo and Swarajit.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 4th March, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

Introductions

Club president Femi opened the meeting by welcoming returning members and new guests and talking about the history of Toastmasters. He said the phobia of public speaking was “innate” in many of us – so Toastmasters would be perpetually in business! Regular practice, he said, would help to “drive away Mr Nerves and welcome up Mr Confidence.”

The Toastmaster for the evening Paul gave a brief overview of the programme and, encouraging the audience to give the speakers warm support, told us to “clap everything that moves”. He also introduced the meeting’s theme – heroes – and revealed his own hero to be screenwriter Aaron Sorkin.

The Timekeeper Barnaby gave a very bookish introduction to his role, touching upon A Brief History of Time, War and Peace and Proust’s À La Recherche du Temps Perdu.

Grammarian Gemma explained that in her role she would be looking for use of rhetorical devices such as alliteration, similars, metaphors and introduced the word of the day: Quintessential. She gave the example “James Bond is the quintessential British spy”.

Prepared speeches

New member Joowon was the first prepared speaker with her ice breaker speech entitled “Planning”. She explained her simple approach to planning and how she used it for various aspects of her life, including dieting and learning a new language. We learned that she had improved her English by offering her services as a free tourist guide.

The second speaker was recent member Samuel, with a No. 2 speech entitled “Why I joined Toastmasters”. In a very humorous speech he told us about his lifelong fear of speaking out loud and how it tended to trigger his “fight or flight” instinct. He also amusingly told us how he once used direct sales techniques to get girls’ telephone numbers!

In another No. 2 speech entitled “the joy of singing” Punam told us about her unconventional way of relaxing at the end of the day. She would sing a duet of Summertime with Billie Holiday and this acted as a “balm” as she “connected through song” with Billie. She encouraged us to try it as singing is good for mental health.

In a No. 7 speech entitled “The Purest Drink in the World” regular member and club treasurer Elena told us about the history of vodka, which was first distilled in the 9th century. We learnt that in 1885 vodka was only sold in 12 litre buckets and that the distillation process can produce up to 95% alcohol. She warned that the Russians are very good at drinking vodka and could drink any of us “under the table”!

Evaluations

Glen commended Joowon for her expressive hand gestures and great eye contact. He loved the way she was already using some rhetorical devices in her speaking but recommended a slightly clearer setup at the beginning and having a third main point in the body of her speech.

Evaluating Samuel’s speech, Paula started by commending a “really clever structure”. She felt she could empathise strongly with one of his points in particular – “we’ve all been there” she said, referring to his comment about only thinking of the right thing to say when it’s too late. She recommended a clearer introduction to lead us into the structure but commended his great humour. Ending, she said she felt Samuel had inspired her to “fight” on his behalf.

Steven congratulated Punam for an “inspiring job” and liked that her speech had been grounded in science. He felt she had made great eye contact but recommended pausing and relaxing more, and also more using more volume on her conclusion.

Peter loved Elena’s use of examples and facts and the way that she had asked the audience questions. He recommended that she increased her volume and tried to reduce any hand clasping.

Table Topics

Table Topicsmaster Mike introduced the impromptu speaking session with topics inspired by Toastmaster Paul’s theme of heroes.

He invited members – and one or two brave guests – to tackle a variety of hero-related questions, such as:

• Who is your hero in the community?
• Who is your hero at work?
• Who is your hero in sports?
• Who is your hero in the media?
• Who is your hero in business?
• Who is your hero in politics?

Seasoned member Kate had the tough job of evaluating all of the table topics, providing commendations and recommendations each of the speakers.

Reports

In her Grammarian’s report Gemma highlighted interesting uses of language and particularly commended those people who had incorporated the word of the day – quintessential – into their speeches.

Visiting General Evaluator Joy, from Covent Garden Speakers, evaluated the club and meeting as a whole and also any participants who had not received evaluations elsewhere. She particularly loved the club’s venue, the Clerk & Well pub.

Awards

Wrapping up the meeting, president Femi handed out the evening’s awards based on the votes cast by the audience:

• Best Table Topic went to Jo for telling us about her mother, who was her hero in business
• Best Evaluator went to Glen for his encouraging evaluation of Joowon’s ice breaker speech
• Best Speaker award went to Samuel for his speech about public speaking fear

Femi gave his president’s discretionary award to the Toastmaster Paul for running such a tight ship.

He finished by reminding everyone of the upcoming speech and evaluation contests on March 25 and told us all to “watch this space” for details of the venue.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is Monday 25th February, upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU. Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.