Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

This meeting was just a day before St. Valentine’s Day and the speeches were full of love too: a birthplace (India); children and a blonde-haired lady.

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular and new members. He described a typical Toastmasters meeting and assured the audience of a safe and friendly environment in the club for practising public speaking.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was one of our most experienced members and also the Club VP of Education Femi. As he introduced members up to the stage, he reminded the audience how many speeches have been given by each speaker and which roles in the club they performed. Femi was assisted by the Timekeeper, Paula, and Grammarian, Hari, who were performing their roles for the first time.

Prepared speeches

Since the beginning of this year six new members have joined our club, which is great news. This evening we had an Ice Breaker speech entitled “I Miss Those Days” from our new member Nimit. He told us about his hometown Kolkata (East India) and his warm childhood memories: about his house; climbing a tree, his neighbours and friends and his school days.

The second speaker was Elena, who presented her No. 3 speech (the main purpose of which is to get to the point) entitled “How to Get On with Children”. She described how to get on with children by emphasising three main points: kids have huge energy, a natural curiosity and the need for a feeling of safety.

The third speaker this evening was Neil with his No. 5 speech (which focuses on body language) entitled “$12,000 Gamble“. He told us how attending a business seminar allowed him to meet an amazing woman and take a risk of attending an expensive master class business programme that helped him improve his business.

The last speaker this evening was Swarajit, who presented his No. 6 speech (which focuses on vocal variety) entitled “If Newspapers Could Speak”. He imagined and demonstrated the sound of the voice of different newspapers: for instance broadsheet newspapers would have a highly educated and almost patronising voice, while tabloid red-top newspapers would have a drunken town crier’s voice. Swarajit also tried to interpret for us some newspapers’ headlines such as “Toy Boys Sex My Hubby and Me”, which often have their own rules for punctuation, grammar and style.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting which is related to the Toastmaster’s Competent Leadership Programme where, through different roles, a speaker can develop their leadership skills.

Femi gave an evaluation of Nimit’s very informative Ice Breaker speech in his familiar, confident and encouraging style. He commended Nimit’s engagement with the audience through asking questions, as well as the chronological structure of his speech. The main recommendation for Nimit’s future speeches was to keep to no more than five points which can help the audience to follow a speech more easily.

Jo was performing the evaluator role for the first time and gave a studied and well-considered evaluation of Elena’s No. 3 speech. She commended Elena’s good three-point structuring of the speech and use of similes such as the comparison of children with a “nuclear power station”. Jo recommended that Elena use more body language in the future.

Joyanta evaluated Neil’s No. 5 speech and commended his very natural delivery style and vivid gestures and movements when Neil spoke about different characters. In Joyanta’s opinion, Neil could have improved the speech by making it more structured.

Kate gave a very descriptive and comprehensive evaluation of Swarajit’s No. 6 speech. She commended Swarajit’s use of humour and vocal variety when reading out sensationalist newspaper headlines, but recommended that he concentrate on holding eye contact with the audience.

Table Topics

The Table Topics part of the meeting is where members and guests are invited to think on their feet and speak for a minute or so on a topic they’ve only just been given.

Joe performed as the Topics Master this evening and chose quite challenging questions for the theme “On an interview”, such as: If you are an animal what would you be and why?; What super power would you have and how would you use it?; Is a Jaffa Cake a biscuit or cake?; What are the three things you would like to take to a desert island?; When you were young what did you want to be?; Which two people who would you invite to a dinner party?

Six members and one new guest took part and were evaluated by the Table Topics evaluator this evening, Nazia. She commended people using the technique of repeating the question as well as the “rule of three” to structure their impromptu speeches.

Finally, Hari presented a comprehensive Grammarian report and Connell, the General Evaluator for this evening and a guest from Northern Lights Speakers in Camden evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and characterised our club as being very warm and welcoming. Connell’s recommendations useful for all speakers were: do not speak too fast and use more pauses; centre yourself on the stage.

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 Kate for her evaluation of Swarajit’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Hari for his fantastic “Three Animals” topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Neil for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to Richard for his humorous table topic on exploiting the power of time travel.

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

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 27^th February at The Real Man Pizza Company, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX.

Hello and welcome to the February newsletter for members and friends of Bloomsbury Speakers!

Quick warning: it’s quite a long newsletter this month – but that’s because there’s lot to say! (Anyway, January’s was short and sweet so you could argue I’m just trying to maintain the average…)

This month we’ve got the normal round up of recent news, together with information on the forthcoming contest season and a preview of a new initiative to get to know our members better.

Okay, here we go. See you on the other side…

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What happened last month?

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

We’ve also had lots of new members so I’d like to wish a very warm Bloomsbury welcome to Sye Yuet, Nimit, Wayne, Janet, Eleanor and Carrie who’ve all joined since the start of the year.

I’m really looking forward to watching everyone take their first steps in Toastmasters and improve their speaking skills and confidence over the coming weeks and months.

Here’s a summary of the highlights from January:

• New venue – for the first meeting in January we moved to our new venue – The Real Man Pizza Company on Clerkenwell Road. As with any new home, we’re still working out a few things (e.g. room layout and how to minimize any noise from upstairs) but it seems to be working pretty well and the half-time pizza has been going down (figuratively and literally speaking) very well!
• Bloomsbury in Print – our VP Membership and Mentoring Hari Kalymnios had an article published in the January edition of Toastmaster magazine (page 5) – which goes out to over a quarter of a million people worldwide – thus cementing his worldwide fame! It’s a great article about The Three Peaks Challenge and is fantastic publicity for the club. You can read it online here: http://magazines.toastmasters.org/publication/?i=92560
• Evaluation Workshop – Chris Boden (current UK & Ireland evaluation champion) ran a great workshop at our sister club Holborn Speakers and a number of Bloomsbury members attended. There was some really great advice for even quite seasoned evaluators and I’m going to talk to Chris about getting some of the main points out to members who weren’t able to attend.

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What’s happening this month?

We have our regular meetings as usual this month, with the usual potent mix of prepared speeches, evaluations and table topics:

• Monday 13th February – this is this coming Monday and we have a packed speaking schedule but still a few slots for evaluators – speech evaluators and topics evaluator
• Monday 27th February – fully booked again for speakers but we still need evaluators and a topics master.

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

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What’s on the horizon?

The big event on the horizon is our contest evening where we’ll be hosting the club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests (more on these below).

The winners will compete against the winners from City of London Toastmasters, Holborn Speakers, London Business School Speakers and Tube Talk in the area contest.

• Monday 12th March – Bloomsbury Speakers International Speech and Evaluation Contest – The Real Man Pizza Company
• Thursday 29th March – Area 34 International Speech and Evaluation Contest – hosted by Tube Talk, Templar House, 81 – 87 High Holborn

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International Speech and Evaluation Contests

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

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

As it says above, our contests are being held on Monday 12th March at the same venue as the regular meetings. We’d love as many members as possible to enter these contests. However, there are some restrictions.

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

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

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

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

Why You Should Take Part

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

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

(Note: you can book yourself in as a contest speaker or contest evaluator on ClubPlan, but due to a limitation of the software you can’t book yourself in both contests – just book one slot and email Femi 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 Femi if you’re interested.

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Meet The Members!

Hari and I have been talking about how to make sure with a growing membership that we maintain a sense of community and give members a sense of who else is in the club with them.

During every meeting we ask guests to briefly introduce themselves but we never do the same things for members. There wouldn’t actually be time, but it would be nice for everyone to get to know each other a little better.

This month we’d like to find out a bit more about all of our members – the new ones and the not so new ones.

So next week we’ll 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? (and perhaps what you’d 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 – Don’t Be Afraid To Be Ordinary!

When selecting a topic for your next speech it’s only natural to seek out a subject you think other people will find interesting, even fascinating.

One approach is to think back to the last time you discovered something really interesting. Maybe you were bowled over by the ideas in the latest bestselling business or personal development book. It blew your mind, so it should blow other people’s minds, right?

Well, maybe it will, but a potential pitfall is that you might end up delivering speech that anyone who’d read the same book could deliver. In fact, if the book’s a bestseller, you’ll probably find that people in Toastmasters clubs all over the country are delivering very similar speeches.

Not to say this is a bad thing, but it’s all too easy to overlook the ordinary in pursuit of the apparently extraordinary. Don’t forget that what’s ordinary for you can often be fascinating for other people. (Just look at the phenomenon of reality TV!)

Your job, your family, your friendships, your everyday experiences – they may seem dull and ordinary to you but they are also unique and might just be a rare treat for other people.

For example, let’s say you’re a G.P. and you’ve just returned from an exotic holiday in Peru where you visited the ruins at Machu Picchu. There’s a pretty good chance your next speech will be be about your visit to Machu Picchu.

Now I’m not saying it wouldn’t make a fine speech, but to be honest I’ve heard people talk about visits to exotic places before. Whereas I’ve never heard anyone talk about what it’s actually like to be a G.P. Now that would be really interesting.

So… Don’t be afraid to be ordinary!

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Phew, okay that’s it for another month. I look forward to seeing many of you at a meeting soon.

And if you’re not a member, perhaps February is the month to join. Think of it like this – the sooner you get involved, the sooner you’ll be a skilled and confident speaker!

https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/join/form/

Best wishes,

Glen Long
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

Written by Jo and Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new and returning guests as well as regular members. He invited the audience to use the Toastmasters educational programme as a guide to better public speaking and leadership.

The Toastmaster of the meeting was Mike–a guest from west London club London Athenians– who was making his debut in the role of Toastmaster. His theme for the evening was days of the week which participants liked or disliked and why, with each speaker limited to two words. Mike was assisted by the Timekeeper Jo, who was performing the role for the second time, and Harkmaster Adam.

Prepared speeches

This evening we were fortunate enough to have an Ice Breaker speech from our new member Ahmed, who made his first step into his Toastmasters career through the Competent Communication programme.  Ahmed’s speech was entitled “Growing up in the Docklands East End” and he gave us a very descriptive overview of his life and how London’s Docklands have changed over the years including the impact these changes have had on his community.

The second speaker was Joe, who presented a No. 6 speech (which focuses on vocal variety) entitled “Ice Cream Sandwich”. Joe explained his trials in getting through to his mobile phone company to upgrade his phone and learn about his upgrade options.  (The title of his speech referred to the latest Android operating system and is, apparently, an upgrade to Gingerbread!)

The third speaker was Femi with his advanced speech from the ‘Speaking to Inform’ manual entitled “The Game of Unspeakable Fun“. The main aim of this speech project is to explain and demonstrate a process. Femi presented a very entertaining speech in which he shared his enthusiasm for the game Taboo and, after he explained the rules,volunteer Neil from the audience took a part in an impromptu game.

The last speaker this evening was Glen with his seven-minute impromptu speech on a topic chosen by the audience– recent cinema release, The Iron Lady. He told us how the film (which Glen himself had not yet seen) presented the Hollywood version of Margaret Thatcher’s life:  she was born to be a superhero, went through difficult times when she was Prime Minister and the biggest challenge she faced – the public vote.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting, where speakers,  evaluators and the rest of the audience gain some useful tips and experience of public speaking.

The first evaluator Nazia evaluated Ahmed’s Ice Breaker speech. She commented that Ahmed had used anecdotes, dates and very descriptive language for drawing his personal story and we really got to know him. Only one recommendation for further improvement was a bit more eye contact with the whole audience.

The second evaluator was Neil, who evaluated Glen’s impromptu speech. He commented Glen’s very solid posture and body language, openness and power. He liked Glen’s use of humour and his smiling through out the speech. The main recommendation for Glen was to vary the tone of his voice more.

The third evaluator, Swarajit, evaluated Joe’s No. 7 speech. He commented on Joe’s excellent use of emphasis on certain words, and pauses to express emotions as well as humour. The main recommendation from Swarajit was regarding the structure – to make smooth transitions from the body of the speech to its conclusion.

The fourth evaluator this evening was Hari, who evaluated Femi’s advanced speech. He commented that Femi had definitely met the speech objective – he was very warm, smiled, used props to explain the rules and found a volunteer for the demonstration of the game. This all was very engaging for the audience, though Hari would like to have heard a final recap in the conclusion of the speech.

Table Topics

The Table Topics part of the meeting is not only a great practice for both new and experienced members but also a great fun.

The Topics Master of the evening was Joyanta. He introduced the theme – “Where I would like to live”. Members and guests were invited to explain over 2-3 minutes why they would want to live in Joyanta’s rather unconventional suggestions of places to dwell, including a cave, a rainforest and North Korea!

The Table Topics evaluator this evening was Kate, who evaluated all six participants. She encouraged the participants to use more eye contact around the room and hand gestures.

After Adam’s Harkmaster report, in which he rewarded the most alert listeners with Olympic-themed chocolates, General Evaluator Jane evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and gave useful recommendations for all.

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 Hari for his evaluation of Femi’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to Terry for his fantastic topic, and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Femi for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to David for a brilliantly tackled table topic.

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

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 13^th February.  Also on Monday 12^th March we will be holding our speech and evaluation contests.

Please note we have a new venue.

The new venue will be: Real Man Pizza Company, 157-163 Gray’s Inn Road, London, WC1X 8UE.

Written by Elena (edited by Swarajit)

Introduction

This was the first meeting of 2012, with a new venue for the club and a lot of new faces!

The meeting was opened by Club President Glen who welcomed new guests, returning guests, regular members and the club committee. He invited the audience to use the Toastmasters educational programme as a guide to better public speaking and leadership.

The Toastmaster of the first meeting in 2012 was past president, and very experienced member, Nazia. She announced the theme –The goals for 2012– and introduced every speaker to the stage with what they had chosen as their own goal summarised in one word, which was quite a challenge! Nazia was assisted by the Timekeeper Richard, who did this role for the first time.

Prepared speeches

This evening we were very happy to have two Ice Breaker speeches from our new members Maureen and Paula, who made their first step into their Toastmasters careers through the Competent Communication (CC) programme.

This part of the meeting was opened by Paula with her Ice Breaker speech entitled “Going for Gold”. She gave us a very descriptive overview of her life from school age up to the present and also her plans for the near future, including setting up her own website, in the 2012 Olympic year – going for gold.

The second speaker was Maureen, who presented her own Ice Breaker speech entitled “How Risk-Averse Mo Became a Bloomsbury Speaker”. Maureen told us her life story over the last few years explaining how she learnt about Toastmasters through an acquaintance and finally pushed herself to take the plunge and join Bloomsbury Speakers to enjoy the opportunities on offer.

The next speaker was Jo with her speech No.2 from the CC manual entitled “Unexpected Sights in Buenos Aires”. The main objective of this speech project is to organise your speech so that it has an opening, body and conclusion with appropriate transitions between each. Jo told us about several unusual but very popular sights which she had seen during her travels to Argentina including a cemetery, a branch of the famous department store Harrods, the Mothers of Plaza De Mayo and tango dancing.

The fourth speaker was Neil with his No. 4 speech, “Finding a Room in London“. The main purpose of this project is focused on “how to say it” using rhetorical devices. Neil vividly described several highly amusing situations that arose during his search for a room in London, and the characters he met along the way. Happily, it ended with him eventually finding a beautiful place to live earlier in the day.

The last speaker this evening was Swarajit with his No. 5 speech entitled “Evolution of an industry”. The main purpose of this speech project is to make use of body language and physical gestures to convey your message. Swarajit explained how the UK music industry had changed over the last few decades and why he thought this was a bad thing. He argued, using humour, that the rise in popularity of live concerts was unjustified due to the considerable discomfort of attending such events.

Speech evaluations

After the break we had the evaluations part of the meeting, where speakers can get constructive feedback on their speeches and some useful ideas for further improvements.

The first evaluator, Nazia, evaluated Paula’s Ice Breaker speech. She commended a very well structured speech containing three short stories about moving to South Asia, becoming a psychologist and how Paula set up her own business. Nazia also noted Paula’s confident and good strong voice. The only recommendation was to make a more powerful conclusion.

The second evaluator was Joe, who evaluated Maureen’s Ice Breaker speech. He commented that Maureen had excellent vocal variety, used humour that was very engaging with audience, and the structure was good which made it easy to follow the story. Joe made only one minor recommendation: to move on the stage slightly more.

The next evaluator, Adam, evaluated Jo’s No. 2 speech. He commended a very clear message, the great opening and structure of the speech, and an engaging voice and humour. Adam would have liked to have seen a bit more body language from Jo.

The fourth evaluator this evening was Joyanta, who evaluated Neil’s No. 4 speech. He commented that Neil is a very good storyteller, he had fairly successfully joined three small stories into one in the speech and concluded with a memorable quote – “Good luck!” Joyanta encouraged Neil to speak on something like a technical subject in his next speech in order to stretch himself further.

The last evaluator, Elena, evaluated Swarajit’s entertaining No. 5 speech. She recapped the aim of the project and commented that Swarajit had used gestures, facial expressions, eye contact to express his message when delivering his speech, and met that goal. Elena recommended that Swarajit should try to rely less on notes.

Table Topics

During the meeting everyone has a chance to speak and the Table Topics section is one part which ensures this. Participating in Table Topics is great practice for both new and experienced members as well as brave guest volunteers.

The Topics Master of the evening was Hari. He transformed the audience into a group of potential investors and the topics speakers into people looking for investment to realise their goals. The investment seekers were:

• One of the Wright brothers who have a goal to build an aeroplane.
• Computer scientist Tim Berners-Lee who needs to convince us to have a world wide web.
• Creator of a web site where people can reveal all of sorts of details about themselves – a social network.
• Percy Spencer, looking for investors for an experimental way of cooking food using microwaves.
• An unemployed IBM scientist whose goal is to start up new business to produce computer.

Five guests took part in the Table Topics including a visiting member from Holborn Speakers.

The Table Topics evaluator this evening was Glen, who evaluated each participant. Common recommendations were: do not be repetitive during the speech, grab the stage and try to use the whole allotted time.

General Evaluator Rosalind, also visiting from Holborn Speakers, evaluated all the meeting participants who were yet to be evaluated and encouraged us to not be afraid to give a few more recommendations because they are gifts for the speakers.

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 Adam for his evaluation of Jo’s speech, the Best Table Topics speaker award went to guest David for his well-structured topic and the highly coveted Best Speaker award went to Neil for his excellent speech. The President’s discretional award went to a guest Oli for his very impressive Table Topic.

Two certificates for successfully completing their Ice Breaker speeches– an important landmark for any Toastmaster– went to Paula and Maureen.

Next meeting

Our next meeting is on Monday 23rd January at The Real Man Pizza Company.