Introduction

The meeting was opened by incoming president Glen Long who first thanked his predecessor and club founder Nazia Soon for her hard work in establishing Bloomsbury Speakers and then gave an overview of the club for new guests (of which there were quite a few!). He then told the story of his own first visit to a Toastmasters club where he was hooked by a speech which was a “masterclass of content, structure and delivery”.

He shared his personal goal to help make Bloomsbury Speakers the best place in London to practice public speaking – and have fun at the same time! – before handing over to the evening’s Toastmaster Hari Kalymnios.

Taking the reins, Hari explained the format of the meeting – speeches, then evaluations, then impromptu speaking – plus a guide to the Toastmasters “CRC” approach to feedback, that is commend (something that was done well), recommend (something that could be improved), and then commend (something else).

He also asked us all to stand up and proceeded to teach us the basic mechanics of the hand clap but confessed it was partly because he had never received a standing ovation before!

Next he introduced our Timekeeper, Swarajit Das, who explained the importance of time in Toastmasters meetings and urged all participants to avoid making him use the gavel and thus “bring shame on themselves and their families”!

Then Todd Wade took the stage as Harkmaster and challenged everyone to pay close attention to all the speakers as he would be testing our listening skills at the end of the meeting. He also told a personal story of recently having to put his Toastmasters skills to the test when he had to speak in front of 150 people. He was very pleased to report that the confidence and skills he had learned saw him comfortably through the challenge.

Hari took the stage again and in his new capacity as VP of Mentoring explained the benefits our the mentoring programme giving us a preview of some new mentoring guides that he’d put together for existing and potential mentors.

Prepared speeches

The first speech was an ice breaker speech by one of the club’s newest members Joe Lake. In his speech “Lessons” Joe talked about having an entrepreneurial spirit from a very young age and related several episodes including a very humorous tale about an early car washing business which unfortuately would always leave a dirty stripe at the top of the cars due to the small stature of its workers!

The next speech was another ice breaker, this time from our most recent member Karan Daswani. Telling the very dramatic story of his upbringing in Sierra Leone, Karan told us how his early experiences had fostered three important qualities that still serve him well: not accepting the status quo, a great sense of curiosity, and persistence in the face of challenges.

In a No. 5 speech (focussed on effective use of body language) Adam Horne invited us to join his “Working On Sunday Appreciation Society”. In a very humorous speech he attempted to convince us that heading to the office was the best way to pass the latter half of the weekend. His reasons? You get to wear what you like, you’re guaranteed a seat on the tube, and when you get into work, there’s no-one else there so you can turn the music up as loud as you like!

After Adam’s speech, past president Nazia Soon led the guest introductions inviting each person to tell us what had brought them to Bloomsbury Speakers that evening.

Speech evaluations

After a short and very precise (!) eight minute break, it was time for each of the three speakers to receive a formal evaluation from an existing member.

Femi Asaolu evaluated Joe’s ice breaker and reminded us what an important step the first speech is, quoting Woody Allen: “80% of success is just showing up!”. He felt that Joe had naturally adopted a good position in relation to the audience and commended him on a good choice of a chronological struture but he cautioned him against using “and” too often and instead recommended he try using other “connective” words.

Kate Osborne evaluated Karan’s ice breaker and started by commending his “confident stance” and added that she felt his hand gestures were “spot on”. She felt he made great use of humour and was impressed that he was already using the recommended “rule of three” structure. Her only recommendation was that he should put his notes to one side and refer to them as needed, rather than holding on to them throughout the speech.

Joyanta stepped up next to evaluate Adam’s speech and opened with a very encouraging rhetorical question: “Didn’t Adam do well?” He felt that Adam’s style was “concise, clear and approachable” and that his content was “well-structured”. He recommended that Adam tries to make more use of the space available and – since it was a speech about body language – to not be afraid to experiment with more exaggerated gestures.

Table topics

Following the evaluations, Todd stepped up again, this time in the role as Topicsmaster. He spoke briefly about the very valuable skill of being able to talk on a subject without preparation and introduced his own very inventive take on the session. He’d prepared several pieces of paper – each with the name of an animal – and invited volunteers to explain to the room why they thought that particular animal would soon be the dominant species on Earth.

In all an impressive eight people took up Todd’s challenge:

• Glen tried to convince us that Parrots would prevail, since they were already showing a gift for language – an important skill for any dominant animal!
• First-time guest Micah argued instead that Turtles would win the struggle for supremacy with the advantage of a protective shell and proven fighting skills as evidenced by the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
• Fellow guest Neil entertained us with the notion that Kangaroos are already very similar to humans in many ways and felt strongly that they would soon kick us humans back into the Stone Age.
• Nazia defended the humble but “much-maligned” Pigeon against accusations of being simply “flying rats” and championed the idea of these “beautiful birds” being a catalyst for world peace and unity!
• Grant – another brave guest – had a clear three-point manifesto for the rise of the Chihuahua as evolutionary top dog: they’re man’s best friend, they’re cute and furry, and you can eat them if times get tough!
• Mohammed put forward the case for the Elephant and recommended that we should take the opportunity to ride one if we ever get the chance – one presumes before they take over the world…
• Femi played ambassador for the Penguin, using the fact that they mate of life as proof of their loyalty. Tackling Glen’s feathered species head-on, he said that although penguins were “a bit fishy and smelly” at least they weren’t always “mouthing off” like parrots.
• Our final guest speaker Ann had the tough challenge of defending rats – difficult sincethey’re not even cute like chihuahuas she said. Dominant or not, she admitted that she did see rather a lot of them on the underground – but for some reason it was usually after she’d had a few drinks.

Henry Playfoot had quite a task in evaluating all eight speakers in a short amount of time but did a sterling job as usual.

He commended Glen on good humour and pace but wanted a stronger ending; he loved Micah’s warm smile but urged him to stay the distance; he thought that Neil had “great confidence” and was impressed by his “enormous kick” (kangaroo style); Nazia drew him in with her open gestures and had a great finish; Grant had a “fantasic opening” and a great nodding technique that had Henry nodding along with him; Mohammed had great authority and a gentle style; he was dazzled by Femi’s “1000 watt smile” which could apparently power a small principality; and finally he acknowledged Ann’s bravery in stepping forward despite nerves and felt she had made a great connection with the audience.

As General Evaluator, Simon Maggs (from MLP London Bridge Speakers) commended the club on its “feelgood factor” and gave a number of great recommendations to help the club to get even better.

Awards

Bringing his first meeting as president to a close, Glen announced the awards based on votes from the audience. He was simultaneously pleased and slightly embarrassed to announce that he’d won best Table Topic himself but revealed that Femi and his penguins had been a close second. Best evaluator went to Henry for his mammoth topics evaluation and the coveted Best Speaker award went to Karan for his Ice Breaker. The president’s discretionary award went to brand new guest Ann for bravery in the face of anxiety.

Our next meeting is on Monday 25th July, upstairs at the Rugby Tavern as usual. See you there!

Introduction

In her very last meeting as Club President, Nazia Soon opened with the great news that Bloomsbury had recently achieved Select Distinguished Club status – a great accomplishment for a relatively young club.

Describing Bloomsbury as small branch in the much larger Toastmasters family tree she she urged members to really push themselves to meet their communication goals – for some it could be the start of launching themselves into the “stratosphere of public speaking”.

She handed over to first-time Toastmaster Kate Osborne who did a fantastic job of explaining her role as meeting host and setting the tone for the evening. She said it was her responsibility to “keep the energy alive” in the room and to make sure all of the speakers received the warm welcome from the audience they deserved.

Kate congratulated Nazia for having built such a thriving club and introduced the theme of the evening – “What has changed in your life recently?”

Following Kate, the evening’s Timekeeper Terry Freedman opened his own introduction with the surprisingly existential question “why am I here?” before answering his own question – to keep everyone in the meeting to time! He explained the role and then with a cautionary flash of the feared gavel he returned to his seat to start timing the first prepared speech.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker was Glen Long, whose No. 6 speech “Stranger in a Strange Language” (concentrating on vocal variety) used humour to describe his various attempts to learn Spanish for a number of different trips abroad. A highlight was a glimpse into language learning 1970s style with Glen recreating an extract from a Linguaphone language cassette found in his parents’ loft.

Following Glen was Alex Goldsbrough with another No. 6 speech. “A Great Swim Outdoors” told the story of Alex’s recent introduction to outdoor swimming. Initially put off by London’s rather grotty selection of outdoor pools, Alex was lured by way of an altogether more upmarket sounding “lido” into 12 degree waters – considerably colder than he had braved previously.

In yet another No. 6 speech (we don’t have one for ages and then three come along at once!) Todd Wade introduced us to three social networks that he felt went way beyond either Facebook or Twitter in terms of their ability to change the world (or at least improve your life):

• Busuu – a “crowd-sourced” language learning tools where you can hook up with native speakers to practice a new language, and help them out with English
• Ushahidi – a platform for collaborative data collection and visualisation – e.g. mapping violence hotspots in Africa
• Jolitics – a “political networking” platform allowing people to debate, vote and campaign about issues important to them

Our final speech was from club regular and advanced speaker Raj Jain who gave a prepared dramatic speech. In “Changes” Raj told the story of childhood love gone awry – the experience of being replaced in the affections of his favourite “girl” Sonu by a new arrival next door. A sad story indeed until he turned it on its head by revealing that his beloved Sonu was not human but canine!

Evaluations

After guest introductions led by Hari Kalymnios and a short break, the second half of the meeting kicked off with Joyanta Raksmith evaluating Glen’s speech.

He commended Glen on his choice of topic – even the title suggested many opportunities for vocal variety. His main recommendation was although this variety was demonstrated very effectively in the section where Glen played different roles, it could have benefited from more variety in other sections.

Evaluating Alex’s speech, Swarajit Das said particularly enjoyed Alex’s use of an internal monologue at the start of his speech with a corresponding shift in tone to pull us into his thought processes. His recommendations were that Alex adopted a more central position on the stage and made better use of breathing and pauses to minimise the occasional stumble.

Guy Smith evaluated Todd’s speech and admitted that for him, the idea of a speech about social networking and “crowd sourcing” was not particularly enticing, feeling it was a very dry subject. But he confessed he was soon proved wrong by Todd’s nuanced delivery which used tone to great effect to convey emotion and lead the audience. Guy recommended that Todd “showed off his language abilities” when discussing the language learning platform and also varied the pace of his delivery more throughout.

Henry commended Raj on his great presence – like a “young Elvis”! – and the very effective use of his now signature long pauses to build dramatic tension and draw the audience in. He cautioned Raj on his use of possibly contentious language but felt that overall the speech showed “huge economy and great delivery”.

Table topics

Moving to table topics, Topicsmaster Hari Kalymnios introduced a very inventive format for impromptu speaking. He had printed the front covers of several different books (some famous, some obscure) and invited volunteers to “sell” these books to the audience from the standpoint of being the book’s author or simply as an enthusiastic fan:

• Dave Longley enthusiastically extolled virtues of Internet for Dummies by way of Jeremy Clarkson
• Guy Smith explained “How I Stole Johnny Depp’s Alien Girlfriend” by starting with a jazz odyssey that ended up on a Hollywood film set
• Douglas Williams told us how he had made mistakes in his life but “turned his mess into a message” with his cautionary tale “The Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter”
• Brand new member Joe Lake had to convince us that “The Da Vinci Code” was worth a read, but cleverly feigned amnesia and asked us to tell him what it was all about
• And finally guest Karan told us about Guinea Dog – the tale of a guinea pig who thought it was a dog and on stage he made a most convincing author

As stand-in Topics Evaluator, Glen Long commended Dave on his enthusiastic delivery but cautioned against using paper as a crutch; he thought that Guy had a slightly surreal start but gave a great demonstration of the power of a strong ending; he loved Douglas’s improvised “Mess to Message” but suggested he resisted a tendency to creep forward; he felt Joe also finished strongly and recommended an early choice of “angle” and to stick to it; and he felt Karan had a great stance and showed confidence but recommended he fully embrace the conceit of the topic.

General evaluation

Douglas Williams from Northern Lights in Camden gave a very positive general evaluation and said he’d be delighted to come back. He commended Bloomsbury on beng very organised and welcoming. His main recommendation was that we try to fill the room from the front so there were fewer gaps in the audience.

When it became time for the award-giving, the prize for best speaker went to Todd for his speech on social networks, best evaluator to Henry for his critique of Raj’s dramatic speech, and best table topic to Guy for his tall Hollywood tale. Well done all!

Awards and announcements

With the meeting almost over, it was time for Nazia to hand over to the brand new committee: Kate Osborne (remaining as Secretary), Swarajit Das (Treasurer), Dave Longley (VP Education), Hari Kalymnios (VP Mentoring), Fabrizio Palmucci (absent but VP Membership), Adam Horne (Sergeant at Arms) and Glen Long (President).

Glen thanked Nazia for her hard work and dedication in building up the club from nothing and presented her with an engraved crystal decanter on behalf of the club.

The next meeting is Monday, 11 July, upstairs at the Rugby Tavern as usual.

Introduction

Club President Nazia Soon opened the meeting with a reminder that Toastmasters is an “experiential” learning environment – it’s all about learning by doing. She gave a topical example from the world of tennis – that Andy Murray didn’t get good at the sport just by reading about it!

As the evening’s Toastmaster, Alex Donald introduced the theme of “injustice” and spoke about his personal view that it was injust that so many young people left education without reaching acceptable standards of numeracy and literacy, or being able to communicate effectively. Perhaps the curriculum should include more elements from Toastmasters he ventured!

Passing to a fellow Alex, he introduced Alex Goldsbrough as timekeeper who explained the purpose of the role – to keep all the speakers to time. He explained how he felt his timekeepers’ stopwatch was a symbol of the forthcoming Olympics – an event for which he had singularly failed to get tickets. He promised to channel his frustration into his timekeeping and use the gavel without mercy for those speakers who overran their allotted time.

Despite the Toastmasters “rule of three” almost demanding the appearance of a third Alex, we instead were met with Adam Horne in his role as Harkmaster. Adam invited us all to listen carefully to the meeting as he would be testing this at the end and rewarding good listening.

Prepared speeches

Toastmaster Alex then introduced the first speaker, club stalwart Henry Playfoot, who took as his subject – breakfast and its myriad possibilities. For Henry, the very first meal of the day afforded a great sense of freedom and he painted a vivid picture of key stages in his life via the breakfasts that had characterised them.

Our second speaker was a visiting member from another Toastmasters club, Jennifer Zou, who delivered an advanced speech focused on storytelling. Jennifer treated us to the story of St Francis and the Wolf of Gubbio, an enchanting tale excellently told whose moral was that sometimes it is better to befriend your enemy than to fight him!

Our third speech was another advanced speech, this time from club regular and recent international speech contest finalist Raj Jain. In Giving Effective Feedback, Raj gave numerous useful tips including a powerful reminder that the overriding responsibility of the evaluator is to provide feedback that will be helpful to the speaker. He warned us against losing sight of this, perhaps by trying to entertain the audience, or even by using the evaluation as an opportunity to deliver a mini speech of our own.

Evaluations

After the break, each of the speeches was discussed by an evaluator, no doubt with Raj’s wise words still ringing in their ears!

Hari Kalymnios evaluated Henry’s breakfast-inspired speech, commending Henry on his use of language and fluid delivery and confessing that he himself found it quite hypnotic. He also commended Henry on his natural gestures and body language but cautioned him not to allow them to distract from the verbal elements of the speech.

Next, Kate Osborne gave a very confident evaluation of Jennifer’s children’s story which she found “extremely entertaining” and “great for adults too”. She loved Jennifer’s smile and use of vivid language but invited her to use more vocal variety.

Thirdly, Glen Long took on the task of evaluating Raj’s advanced speech on giving feedback. He was impressed by Raj’s confident introduction which had included various improvisations to incorporate elements from the evening itself. Glen also commended Raj on his insightful and helpful tips but challenged him to keep an eye on maintaining an even tone throughout.

Table topics

As Table Topicsmaster, Swarajit Das challenged willing volunteers to speak for 1 to 2 minutes on some challenging topics of his choosing, including:

• Should premiership footballers have the right to keep their extramarital affairs out of the newspapers?
• Should the rich be taxed more to help the poor?
• Are human rights more important than animal rights?

As Table Topics evaluator, Nazia had praise and pointers for all participants…

She commended Todd for his great presence and booming voice but felt his speech ended a little too abruptly. She commended Fabrizio’s philosophical view of his topic and his “valiant attempt” at a rule of three. Returning guest Joe gave a “balanced view” but Nazia encouraged him to share eye contact with both sides of the room.

Nazia liked the way that Dave took control of the stage, paused a moment to pick his subject then “just went with it”. Michael’s speech was confident and humorous but she invited him to keep his eyes on the audience rather than the floor. Hari made a good argument but could also have benefitted from sharing his eye contact around the room more. And Mehnaz developed a considered response but Nazia felt it was a little short – she would have liked to hear more.

Other reports

Returning as Harkmaster, Adam tested our listening skills with a series of questions and rewarded correct answers with chocolate – many going to a particularly attentive Hari!

Carlos Johnson from Broadgate Speakers provided a general evaluation, giving some useful hints for improving the club and also providing evaluations for all those participants not yet evaluated. He said it had been very interesting for him to witness the progress of this “Holborn offshoot” and commended Bloomsbury on its “unique style”.

Awards

Bringing the meeting to close, Nazia handed out the evening’s awards, based on votes cast throughout the meeting by the audience. Best Table Topics Speaker was awarded to our guest Michael, Best Evaluator to Kate, and coveted Best Speech award went to Henry. The President’s discretionary award went to Alex Donald for his performance as the evenings Toastmaster.

Next meeting

The next meeting is at 6.45pm on Monday 27 June at our normal venue – upstairs at the Rugby Tavern.

By Alex Donald, Vice President Public Relations

Introduction

Our meeting opened with acting President Femi telling the story of how in the beginning, Bloomsbury Speakers almost never happened as it came up against quite a lot of opposition. People were saying there weren’t enough members for a new club to be successful. However in the face of this tidal wave of darkness, a small band of heroes braved the tides and made our club the success it is today.

From that story, we were led smoothly on to the topic of ‘leadership’ and Toastmaster Ratan revealed to us the characteristics of a good leader: someone who is honest, future focussed, competent, inspiring and intelligent. From then on, we were asked who our favourite leader is.

Timekeeper Dave gave clear instructions regarding the green, amber and red lights, but also warned us of the dreaded “gavel of embarrassment” if you go over time.

I played the Harkmaster tonight with the word of the day being “sybaritic”, a rarely used word meaning hedonistic, luxurious and pleasure-loving.

Prepared speeches

Hari’s favourite was JFK, and he went on to deliver a very descriptive piece on water, comparing it to liquid gold. We learnt how important the drink is for our health and the planet, and we were also led through Hari’s field trip in Wales where his bottled water wasn’t so visually appealing (what harm can a few insects do?) and he didn’t stick around to taste it either.

Fabrizio began with a quote (always a good start) in Latin. With lots of martial arts and stomping, we were taken on a fascinating historical and cultural experience of Belgium, including Caesar’s description of the “bravest” Belgians and a re-enactment of St George and the Dragon (the dragon being the dastardly plague who the Belgians defeated).

In a first for Bloomsbury Speakers (at least for me anyway), the TV at the front was dusted off and used by our advanced speaker Raj who took us through a highly interactive presentation on how internet users have (or have attempted) to profit from domain names.

Evaluations

Swarajit commended Hari’s descriptive language on water, but warning us to avoid those dreaded “ums” and “ahs”.

Douglas commended Fabrizio on being a great speaker and leader. He emphasised the importance of pausing and how it adds to the tension, like Chris Tarrant in Who Wants to be a Millionaire.

Todd took on the role of commending Raj’s speech, advising him to be aware of hand gestures and not to overdo them.

Table topics

Tonight Elena (whose favourite leader is Margaret Thatcher) took us for a ride with her transport-themed Topics.

Femi talked about walking and how it should be a time of reflection, soaking up the environment around us and clearing our heads.

Jennifer appealed to the men of the audience in their desire to attract the ladies. The answer? Skateboarding.

Joe gave us a glimpse into the world of top executives in their high buildings by recommending we all ride a hot air balloon into work.

Ivan blasted us into space on a rocket. He mentioned how the first spaceman Yuri Gagarin was from his native Russia, and how contrary to the visual handout astronauts don’t usually ride on a rocket with their legs either side.

Tony continued the theme of sexual attraction in transport by describing the bicycle as no less than a “babe magnet”.

Swarajit proclaimed the benefits of riding a helicopter into work, but warned of parking limits.

Alex G evaluated the topics speakers in his usual relaxed and authoritative style.

Other reports

Dave gave an accurate time report, admitting that it’s sometimes difficult to concentrate on the stopwatch when you have an interesting speaker.

I (other Alex) then gave recognition to Ratan, Dave and Alex G who used the word of the day “sybaritic”, and also mentioned some of the good grammar uses in tonight’s meeting.

Our guest General Evaluator was Dele who ran down the list of everyone who hadn’t been previously evaluated. One comment that stood out was his evaluation of Swarajit who he described as having a “Tony Blair” smile, as Blair had great presentation skills (compliment?).

The next meeting is on Monday 13th June at our normal venue the Rugby Tavern.