Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members to our new, shiny and stunning venue, The Clerk & Well pub, which is going to be our permanent home. He described the Toastmasters organisation and the benefits that membership of a club like Bloomsbury Speakers can provide.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was one of our most experienced members and also the Club Secretary Kate. She was assisted by the Grammarian Hari and Timekeeper Sye Yuet who was performing her role for the first time.

Prepared speeches

Guests are always very welcome in our club and we are especially pleased when they become new members and give their introductory speeches.

This evening we had an Ice Breaker speech entitled “Introducing Me” from our new member Carrie. She gave us a descriptive and very humorous view of her life since she was born in Northampton, including her university activities, a year out in Sydney where she gained the most interesting experiences and the last four years since she came back to London to work as a conference producer.

The second speaker was Janet, who presented her No. 2 speech (the main purpose of which is to organise your speech) entitled “The Circle”. She told us about the circle of violence in personal relationships which has three stages: first stage is the honeymoon; the second stage is tension; and the third stage is the explosion.

The third speaker this evening was Ahmed with his speech No. 2 speech entitled “The Mayor of London Election”. He’d chosen a very timely topic and provided to the audience a comprehensive speech about the creation of the Mayor’s role in London, its responsibilities and the forthcoming elections on May 4^th.

The last speaker this evening was Jo, who presented her No. 3 speech (the objective of which is to get to the point) entitled “Dad versus Technology”. She organised the speech as a three-round contest between her smart dad and his smart phone. Dad won the first round called “Purchasing”, the second round called “Set-up” was basically a draw, but the smart phone won the third round entitled “Three months later”. As a result, a rematch is needed and so only time will tell who wins: dad or technology!

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting which related to the Toastmasters Competent Leadership Programme. Regularly providing evaluations for other speakers helps improve your own speaking skills dramatically and provides constructive tips about good practice in delivering speeches.

Joe gave an evaluation of Carrie’s Ice Breaker speech. He commended Carrie’s confidence on the stage, her very visual language and the fact that the audience could see her life as a timeline. The recommendation was that Carrie could insert more drama into the speech.

Swarajit evaluated Janet’s No. 2 speech. He commented that Janet had definitely met the speech objectives and praised her use of a vivid opening, supported by a chronological story and good transitions between the stages. Swarajit recommended that Janet work on improving her body language and voice projection.

Elena evaluated Ahmed’s No. 2 speech. She praised the structure of the speech, his announcement of what the speech would be about in the beginning, the use of statistics, and suggested vocal variety as an area for further improvement for Ahmed.

Nazia gave an evaluation of Jo’s No. 3 speech. She commented that Jo achieved the speech objectives very well by using the innovative technique of constructing her speech as a boxing match-style running commentary, as well as starting with an enthusiastic opening: “Let’s get this contest started!” Nazia would have liked to have seen a stronger conclusion to the speech from Jo.

Table Topics

The Table Topics part of the meeting is where members “think on their feet” and speak for a minute or so about a topic they’ve just been given.

Mike, a very experienced Toastmaster and guest performed as the Topics Master this evening. He chose quite challenging and interesting questions:

• The government has made a new law that bans the job that you are doing now. They have given you the money to re-train and you now have to do a new job that is totally different from what you have done before. What will it be?
• You are on stage on X-Factor and have been granted any special power that you want. What would you do?
• Superman’s role is vacant and you have got the job. What would you like to do in London that would give you immense pleasure and make citizens’ lives happier?
• You could be the queen of any country in Europe. Which country would you choose and why?
• You have been granted superhuman physical power and can apply it to any activity at the Olympic Games and you will win. Which game would that be and why?
• What have you done in your life that, five seconds after you’d done it, you wished you hadn’t?

One member and five new guests took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening Henry. He commended using the word of the day “pernicious” by participants, real engagement with the audience, laughing and smiling, using repetition and humour. The useful recommendations were: to try to speak a bit longer, make more use of pauses and to be aware of one’s body language.

The General Evaluator for this evening was Khandee, a guest from Harrovian Speakers in Stanmore, who evaluated all the meeting participants that were yet to be evaluated. In the beginning he noted that our new venue was much better than others he’d seen and suggested several useful recommendations like stamping in acknowledgement whenever the audience hears the word of the day.

Awards

Closing the meeting, Glen gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.

The Best Evaluator award went to Henry for his brilliant Table Topics evaluation, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to guest Chris for his fantastic performance, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to a relatively new member Janet for her very touching speech. The President’s discretional award went to Sye Yuet for performing her first ever role – as Timekeeper – so effectively.

The certificate for successfully completing her Icebreaker speech – an important landmark for any Toastmaster– went to Carrie.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 30^thApril 2012, upstairs at The Clerk and Well Pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

London contest finals and workshops!

On Saturday 21st there is a full day of workshops plus the Division B finals of the International Speech and Evaluation contests. Find out more and book your ticket here.

Written by Jo

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Acting Club President Femi who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members. He described the growth of Toastmasters from one club to a worldwide organisation, providing a safe and friendly environment for practising public speaking and developing leadership skills.

Making his debut as Toastmaster at the meeting was Joe, who outlined the structure of the meeting and encouraged guests and members to applaud all the participants as enthusiastically as possible to create positive energy. Joe was assisted by the Timekeeper, Jo, and Grammarian, Swarajit, who invited speakers to use the word of the day ‘audacious’ in their presentations.

Prepared speeches

The evening began with an Ice Breaker from Wayne. His speech was entitled “Coming back to London” and in it he told us about some of the key memories from his childhood and teen years, including how he developed a love of travel, what he realised while travelling and how happy he is to have now returned to London.

The second speaker this evening was Joyanta with his No. 7 speech (which focuses on researching a topic) entitled “The 6 killer apps for success”. In an historical speech, inspired by a book he’d read, Joyanta discussed the growth of Western European empires over recent centuries and explained that this was due to competition, science, democracy, medicine, consumerism and the Protestant work ethic.

The last speaker of the evening was Ratan, who presented his contest-winning speech entitled “Beyond the call of duty”. He outlined a transformation in the way he viewed some of his accounting clients after receiving some unexpected hospitality in South Africa. He also discussed how others – both famous and not – go beyond the call of duty and how this changes our lives.

Speech evaluations

After a short break, it was time to listen to the speeches from the first half being evaluated by other members of the club, in which we learn what the speakers did well and how they could improve in future.

Henry gave an evaluation of Wayne’s Ice Breaker speech in which he praised Wayne’s calmness, presence and body language. He spoke about Wayne’s interesting choice of language to add more background e.g. he was ‘compelled’ to go to school. The main recommendation was to consider the structure of his speech and add a conclusion or closing line.

Hari’s evaluation of Joyanta’s No. 7 speech commended his relaxed style and likened it to talking to Joyanta in his living room. Again, the main recommendation was around structure – Hari felt that covering all six ‘apps’ was too detailed for the time available and he suggested he might have had a stronger structure by outlining all six but covering just three in detail.

Femi evaluated Ratan’s contest speech and noted how well Ratan used the stage along with appropriate gestures throughout. As Ratan will be presenting the speech at the area final on Thursday, Femi recommended that he be very clear with his diction and encouraged him to feel confident with his well-written, well-rehearsed speech.

Table Topics

Table Topics are an opportunity for both members and guests to improve their ability to speak ‘off the cuff’ by talking for one to two minutes on a topic they’ve been given only moments earlier.

Ahmed performed as the Topics Master this evening; his theme for the evening was the Olympics and he invited speakers to discuss a variety of topics ranging from which Olympic event they would like to participate in, to their favourite Olympic memories and why the sack race should be an Olympic event.

Both members and guests took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening, Adam. He commended participants for their confidence, gestures, structure and language. His recommendations were to move around the stage more and to try to get one idea and run with it rather than attempt to cram every thought into the speech. He also noted that there was some hand clasping amongst participants.

Rounding off the meeting, Swarajit returned to review the participants’ grammar and use of the word of the day. Nigel, the General Evaluator for this evening from our sister club Holborn Speakers confessed this was his first time attending a meeting at a club other than his own in 12 years of Toastmasters, before evaluating all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and highlighting how much progress Bloomsbury Speakers has made since its inception.

Awards

Closing proceedings, Femi gave out the awards based on the votes cast during the evening and one President’s discretional award.

Wayne received a certificate for successfully completing his Ice Breaker speech – an important first step in his Toastmasters career. The Best Evaluator award went to Henry for his evaluation of Wayne’s Icebreaker, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to guest Pamela for her explanation of why we should all use bicycles to get to the Olympics. The President’s discretional award went to Swarajit for the firm delivery of his Grammarian role.

Next meeting – New venue!!!

Our next meeting is on Monday 16th April upstairs at The Clerk and Well Pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX. This is a new venue – directly opposite our old venue at The Real Man Pizza restaurant. Please also note that the date is the third Monday in April, not the usual second Monday, due to the Easter break.

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter!

This month we’ve got an update on our club contests (plus information about how you can support the winners) and some important venue news.

Also you can find out what’s going on meeting-wise in April and how you can get more involved in the running of Bloomsbury Speakers (but just remember: with great power comes great responsibility!).

SPOILER ALERT!

In a new feature, if you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter, you can scroll to the very bottom for a short list of things you really need to know this month.

But I’d really like it if you read the whole thing. 🙂

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What’s happened since the last newsletter?

Well we had two great meetings in February which, in addition to some impressive speeches from more experienced members, featured several of our newest members giving their ice breaker speeches – so well done Nimit, Janet and Eleanor!

We’ve also had another new member join our happy gang – so welcome aboard Marielle!

Here’s a summary of the other highlights:

• Meet The Members – we had our Meet The Members initiative run by Hari where we asked our members to tell us a bit more about themselves. We had a great response and learned that our members are a pretty diverse and interesting bunch!

  (Idea for members: before the next meeting why not have another read about your Bloomsbury peers and see if you can put some new faces to names during the breaks. Just look for the email “Meet The Members – Your Responses!” we sent on 27th February).

• Bloomsbury Contests – we held our club round of the international speech and evaluation contests. I was very pleased with the number of people who took part – we had six contestants in the speech contest and five evaluators. You can read all about the contest in the official Contest Report. Thanks again to everyone who helped out and especially to Femi for pulling it all together.

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What’s happening this month?

We only have one regular meeting this month due to the contests:

• Monday 26th March 2012 – this meeting is almost fully-booked but at the time of writing there’s still a chance to sign up as an evaluator.

(Please note: that this will be our last meeting at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5BX – more details below).

There is also the opportunity to support the winners of our recent contests as they represent Bloomsbury Speakers against other clubs in the area on Thursday 29th March 2012:

• Area 34 International Speech and Evaluation Contest Finals – hosted by TubeTalk, 10th Floor Meeting Room, London Underground, Templar House, 55 Broadway, London SW1H 0BD. 6.30pm – 9.00pm. (Please email John.Nyaruwa@tube.tfl.gov.uk by 27th March to attend so that passes may be arranged).

This is a great chance to see (and learn from) some really good speakers and evaluators – Area 34 always fields strong contestants.

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What’s on the horizon?

We are back to two regular meetings in April with all the normal roles and speaking opportunities:

• Monday 16th April 2012 – this one’s already pretty “chocker” but you can still sign up as an evaluator – go on!
• Monday 30th April 2012 – a few slots are still available at this meeting including Harkmaster/Grammarian, Topics Evaluator and, of course, you can be speech evaluator

There are two very IMPORTANT things to note about April’s meetings:

1. Due to the Easter bank holidays we have switched dates – for one month only – to the third and fifth Mondays of the month instead of the usual second and fourth.
2. Both of these meetings will be in our new venue: The Clerk & Well – see below for more information

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New Venue (what another one?!)

The Real Man Pizza Company has been a great place to see out the winter. Aldo and Josef have been very welcoming, we’ve made the best of the space and I think it’s fair to say we’ve certainly enjoyed their pizzas!

However, it can be a bit noisy and it does get rather cramped down there when we have lots of guests (and we love having lots of guests).

There’s also been a change of management since we arrived and the chain which owns the restaurant wants us to spend more money on food and drinks than is really realistic for a non-profit club our current size.

So, we’ve agreed – very amicably – to part ways. But fear not, the pizza place was only ever a stop-gap solution and we’ve had our eyes peeled for better alternatives. And we didn’t have to look very far…

I’m delighted to say we’ve managed to arrange a new venue which we really hope will become our permanent home. It’s a upstairs in a very smart-looking pub called The Clerk & Well – and it’s directly opposite the pizza place, so it shouldn’t be too hard for you to find!

As a club that started its life upstairs in The Rugby Tavern it feels to me like a room above a nice pub is our spiritual home and so I’m really excited about this latest move.

As before it’ll probably take us a couple of meetings to get used to the new venue and iron out any wrinkles but I’m sure we’ll have it running like a well-oiled machine in no time at all.

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Fancy joining our committee?

The Toastmasters year runs from the start of July until the end of June, so with the clocks about to go forward it’s time to start thinking about our new committee – the group of members responsible for keeping the club running and the members happy.

What usually happens in a Toastmasters club is that some existing committee members step down, some want to be considered for other roles, and occassionally some want to stay exactly where they are.

But there are always opportunities for new people to get involved and in fact it’s very important for the club to have some “new blood” every year.

Everything is subject to members’ votes but before anyone can vote on anything, we need to know which of our members might be interested in taking on a bigger role in the club.

Here’s my spin on the various committee roles and what’s involved:

• President – has overall responsibility for the success of the club through the leadership of the club committee
• Vice President of Education – makes sure each meeting has a full programme of speakers and functionaries and also that members are progressing through the educational programme
• Vice President of Membership and Mentoring – responsible for making sure the club has a healthy intake of new members and for ensuring new and existing members are supported via the mentoring programme
• Treasurer – responsible for the club’s finances, including collecting of dues, paying expenses and registering people with Toastmasters International
• VP of Public Relations – responsible for raising awareness of the club (via newsletters, emails, marketing campaigns, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) with the ultimate aim of attracting new guests to visit the club
• Secretary – responsible for various administration tasks, including writing up and distributing minutes of committee meetings
• Sergeant At Arms – responsible ensuring that the room is set up for meetings and packed up again afterwards; also responsible for club kit

All of these roles are potentially up for grabs so come and have a talk with myself or one of the other committee members if you’re interested.

For a reminder of who currently performs these roles have a look here (note that we don’t currently have a dedicated Public Relations person, but hopefully we will have one next time around).

Here are some good reasons you might want to get involved:

• You want to improve your leadership and team-working skills alongside a bunch of fun people
• You feel you’ve gained a lot from being a member now would like to “give something back” so that other people can benefit similarly in the future
• You want to become more involved in Toastmasters generally (by serving on the committee you’ll come into contact with committee members from other clubs and this can be a great to build your network)

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Tip of the Month – Read This (Short, Free) Book!

It’s ready quite a long newsletter so I’ll keep this month’s tip very short.

Quite simply, download and read The Flinch by Julien Smith. If you’ve got an Amazon account but no Kindle then download a reader app or even just read it in the cloud.

Perhaps it’s “the flinch” that’s preventing you from booking that next speech, trying that new role or – if you’re a regular guest – from taking the plunge and joining up.

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Okay folks, that’s all for this month. See you soon.

Best wishes,

Glen Long
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

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“Spoilers” – Just The Stuff You Really Need To Know!

1. Our next meeting is Monday 26th March at The Real Man Pizza Company (it’s our last meeting there)
2. The Area 34 speech and evaluation final is on Thursday 29th March hosted by TubeTalk
3. Our meetings in April are a week later in the month than normal due to Easter – 16th and 30th April
4. From April we have a brand new venue: The Clerk & Well (opposite the pizza restaurant)
5. We’re looking for people to join the committee from end of June. Drop us a line!

This meeting we saw club members competing against each other in two very special events – the International Speech Contest and the Evaluation Contest.

Club president Glen Long opened the meeting by welcoming new guests and members, and likened the contests to the joining of two great traditions from Ancient Rome – oratory and gladiatorial combat – and reassured the audience that contestants would be battling with only “words” and not “swords”.

After wishing all the contestants good luck, Glen handed over proceedings to the first contest chair – Aaron Wood from Covent Garden Speakers and Early Bird Speakers.

International Speech Contest

Aaron gave an overview of the format for the International Speech contest and invited audience members to do their own judging (just for fun!) using the criteria printed on the evening’s agenda.

The first speaker was Kate with a speech entitled “Bicycle For Life”. As a keen cyclist Kate told us in a very pragmatic and often amusing speech about her various attempts to thwart London’s bike thieves and included three tips for maintaining a bike that no-one wants to steal!

The second speaker was Neil with his speech “Riches, Rags and Waking Up”. In an inspiring speech Neil told the story of a man focussed on material goals who was given a wake-up call by a visit to Cambodia where he saw children lacking even basic essentials like clean drinking water.

The third speaker was Joyanta with a speech entitled “The Perfect Product”. He asked the audience to suggest their own perfect products and the iPhone and iPod were inevitably among the responses. But Joyanta suggested the perfect product was not something that needed to be changed and improved every year, but instead something that stayed exactly the same – something with timeless appeal. His perfect product was Coca Cola!

The fourth speaker was Swarajit with “Falling Differently”, a speech about some of history’s greatest thinkers. Over the course of a very interesting and educational speech Swarajit covered figures such as Aristotle, Galileo and Einstein. Using clever props and a passionate style Swarajit was able to explain quite complex concepts in a very engaging way.

The fifth speaker Ratan then gave his speech “Beyond The Call Of Duty”. He started by telling us he was an accountant and asked us not to hold it against him! Then he told us the story of how a holiday in South Africa and a visit to a budget B&B whose owners went “beyond the call of duty” inspired him to give a “Rolls Royce” service to his own budget clients – with great results.

The final speaker was Hari with a speech entitled “Two Wheels, a Map and a Goal”. In an interesting and often humorous speech, Hari told us about his adventure of cycling from London to Paris and how he found himself leading a group of mixed-ability strangers from England to France with the “help” of some wholly inadequate maps. By the end he felt he’d experienced first-hand the old maxim about life being about the journey not the destination.

After the final speaker had stepped down, Aaron thanked all the contestants and gave the judges a couple of minutes to determine their personal ranking for the six speakers.

Evaluation Contest

After the break it was Nazia Soon’s turn as contest chair and she introduced the format of the evaluation contest, where five contestants would have just five minutes to prepare a spoken evaluation of one speech – from a mystery guest speaker.

The guest speaker was soon revealed to be Saj from Holborn Speakers who delivered a rich and nuanced speech entitled “Regret” which told the epic tale of Hannibal’s lifelong battle against the Romans. Saj used this demonstration of the power of story as a launching pad to invite all Toastmasters present to use their skills as a force for good.

Having scribbled furiously during Saj’s speech the five contestants were led away by Henry the contest’s Sergeant at Arms and given just five minutes to write up their notes. While they did this Nazia ran a short impromptu speech session for those remaining in the room.

When the time was up, the evaluators then appeared one after the other to deliver their reports about Saj’s speech. In order they were: Elena, Neil, Glen, Ratan and Hari.

The Results

After another round of table topics to allow the judges time to complete their final deliberations, the Chief Judge Alan Mountain from Holborn Speakers took the stage to announce the results.

In the International Speech Contest, first place went to Ratan, second to Kate and third to Swarajit.

In the Evaluation Contest, first place went to Glen, second to Hari and third to Neil.

Wrapping up the meeting as president, Glen thanked everyone who had helped make the contest a success including all those members of other clubs who’d agreed to be judges and counters and particularly Femi Asaolu the VP of Education for pulling it all together.

Area 34 Final – 29^th March 2012

The winners of the two contests will compete against the winners from other clubs in the Area 34 final hosted by TubeTalk on Thursday 29th March 2012 at:

TubeTalk
10th floor meeting room
London Underground
55 Broadway
London SW1H 0BD

Note: The venue is above St James’ Park underground station – use the Broadway exit.

Please arrive at 6.30pm for 7pm start. Finish around 9pm.

IMPORTANT: Please email TubeTalk President John Nyaruwa at John.Nyaruwa@tube.tfl.gov.uk by 27th March if you want to attend as security passes need to be prepared in advance.

Next Meeting – 26th March 2012

Our next meeting is on Monday 26^th March at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

See you there!