Hello and welcome to the winter 2019 newsletter!
Hope you are enjoying the festive season.
We are just one day away from saying goodbye to 2019, and welcoming, handshaking, hugging, high fiving a whole new decade.
While we wait for the clocks to turn, with some looking back in time, reflecting on the learnings & developments over the past 12 months and some looking ahead, ready with new (or old or renewed) resolutions & goals, here’s our review of the past three months at Bloomsbury Speakers as a part of our winter newsletter. And a few updates for the coming year.
It’s been an eventful few months – our members had great success in the Autumn’s Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests. We celebrated our 10th anniversary, welcomed four new members, got off the ground with mentorship, and found a new venue for 2020.
Along the way arranged a few club socials, because what’s life without pizza (and burgers etc.) and some banter!
Keep reading to find out more.
What’s in this newsletter?
- Autumn contests – the results!
- 10-year anniversary meeting
- Club socials and Christmas party
- Spring contests – looking ahead
- Upcoming dates and venue
- New members
Autumn contests – the results!
Getting humour into your speech is a tough call. But our contestants absolutely smashed it at the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest in October this year.
Peter Richardson won the area contest for the best table topics and represented the club to the Division C finals. Peter was funny and charismatic as ever, as our president Margarita put it ‘Peter was a total rock star at the division contest’.
Peter has been a consistent table topic winner at the club and his remarkable ability to come with impromptu speeches always takes us by surprise. This was a truly deserving win, and we wish him even more success in the upcoming contests.
Atul Chauhan (winner of humourous speech contest) represented the club at the area level and enthralled the crowd with his peculiar & hilarious yet very relatable speech on ‘The Sermon’.
Peter and Atul, well done on your success. And thanks for your efforts, you made us proud.
A few snapshots of our well-deserving contest winners.
10-year Anniversary
This year we celebrated a decade of success. Bloomsbury Speakers 10th anniversary was on 28th October. To mark the occasion, we held a special Toastmasters meeting with some of our most legendary members and presidents past and present performing speeches and functionary roles.
It was an honour to have all our presidents from 2011 attend the event. The evening commemorated with some fantastic speeches, anecdotes, evaluations and table topics speeches.
There was also welcome champagne, glitter, décor, balloons, smiles, and a lot of excitement. When it comes to enthusiasm, Bloomsbury Speakers clan hits the spot.
Here are some highlights of the evening.
Our esteemed presidents – happily posing in order of their presidency.
- 2011-12 Glen Long
- 2012-13 Femi Asaolu
- 2013-14 Swarajit Das
- 2014-15 Jo Higham
- 2015-16 Helen Hosein
- 2016-17 Sheldon Dee
- 2017-18 Peter Richardson
- 2018-19 Atul Chauhan
- 2019-20 Margarita Sachkova
And some more pictures.
Anniversary social
We also hosted a dinner & drinks get together with all members and guests at the old haunt, The Clerk & Well pub, the same weekend.
Thanks to the organisers- Swarajit, Yassine and Sterling for organising and making both the events a grand success.
Christmas Party
This December we relished our Christmas dinner with some Indian spices and flavours at the Cinnamon restaurant in Farringdon.
An enjoyable evening hyped by curries, baltis, red wine, banter and an unexpected typo! Followed by after dinner drinks and some silly, out of the blue pictures and memes.
Here’s a bit of the evening for everyone.
Quick note:
We’re always happy to receive ideas for more social events, so do get in touch via [email protected] or the WhatsApp group with any suggestions you may have.
Spring contests – looking ahead
The annual International Speech and Evaluation contests will take place in March. Though it’s a few months away, it’s never too early to start thinking about it.
What to expect at the contest?
The Evaluation contest requires all contestants to evaluate one speech given by a mystery speaker. This pushes one’s critical thinking and evaluation skills to a great extent as the evaluators have less time to prepare than they do in a regular meeting (just 5 minutes).
However, it is a great experience. To learn and to offer feedback is a skill which is much required not only in our professional lives but also in our everyday conversations and interactions, so do take part in the contest and be ready to challenge yourself.
International Speech involves writing and delivering your own 5-7-minute speech on any subject, with the eventual winner being crowned World Champion of Public Speaking.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible for the International Speech contest, you need to have completed at least six speech projects from the Competent Communication manual or a minimum of two levels in a Toastmasters Pathway. All members are eligible to enter the evaluation contest.
Both contests will take place on the same night in March, so get preparing and practising!
Mentoring
As members of Bloomsbury Speakers, many of us have benefitted from having a mentor within the club. A mentor is someone (usually a more experienced member of the club) who can give help and advice to guide you on your Toastmasters educational path.
This can involve helping you draft your first speech, watching you practice and giving you immediate feedback or advising you how to prepare for functionary roles at club meetings.
Working with a mentor is an excellent way to learn and to progress, especially when you are new to Toastmasters or the club. We strongly recommend that you ask for a mentor- speak to our VP of Mentoring Stella to learn more or write to us [email protected] for any questions you may have.
Upcoming meetings
Our first meeting of the new year is on 13th January. Below are the dates of all upcoming meetings for the next three months. To learn more about the agenda visit our Meetup group or check out our website for more info.
- 13th January
- 27th January
- 10th February
- 24th February
- 9th March
- 23rd March
Venue
Our new venue will be Rugby Tavern in Holborn
Full address: 19 Great James St, Holborn, London WC1N 3ES
For now, the venue is booked for January, but we are hoping to get an extension. More details to come your way in the coming weeks.
New members
Finally, a big welcome to our newest members – Greg, Anastasia, Angeliki and Tomasz. We look forward to your speeches in the coming year.
That’s it from us.
Here’s a to a fabulous 2019 and to all the Toastmasters at Bloomsbury Speakers, who have made public speaking an essential part of their journey. Looking forward to more learning, training, mentoring and winning in 2020.
Happy new year everyone and see you in January.
