April Newsletter – club news, contest reviews and the “WOW” factor

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Hello and welcome to the April newsletter!

This monthly email has become a bit of a “moveable feast” of late – my original plan was to send the newsletters out early in the month but I’m afraid Easter got the better of me.

However, it’s still April (I need only look out the rain-spattered window to be reminded of that) and there’s still a meeting to go before the end of the month, so I say better late than never!

(If you’re in a hurry, scroll to the very bottom for the key facts you need to know this month.)

What’s happened since the last newsletter?

Well the first half of the month was fairly quiet Toastmasters-wise due to Easter, but since then we’ve had:

  • First meeting at The Clerk & Well – very excitingly, we christened our new venue with a great meeting and lots of new guests and members. We had four cracking speeches (including a very revealing ice breaker!) – all from new or relatively new members. If you missed it check out the meeting report here.
  • London Contests and Workshops – on Saturday 21st April there was the London finals for the International Speech and Evaluation contests together with a range of educational workshops. A number of our members attended and we’ve got a report from a couple of them later in the newsletter.

We’ve also had four new members join us in April – welcome to Mike, Marco, Renars and Jason! – with at least one more due to join before the month is out. 🙂

What’s happening this month?

Well the month is almost over, but we have our second meeting at The Clerk & Well:

  • Monday 30th April 2012 – as usual arrive from 6.30pm for a 6.45pm start. If you need directions to the new venue you can find them here.

We have a packed agenda already and I have a feeling that attendance will be very good too based on the number of people who’ve already RSVP’d on Meetup.

(Are you a member of our Meetup group yet? If not it’s a great way to get automatic reminder and also to let us know you’re coming along.)

I understand we still need a Topics Evaluator so if you’ve evaluated before but not done topics evaluation then why not take the plunge! We also need a speech evaluator.

(ClubPlan has had a few technical problems over the last few days, so if you can’t get onto it, just email Femi at education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk)

On a personal note… I’m particularly excited about Monday’s meeting because as our guest Toastmaster we hope to have Craig Reid, who founded the club back in 2009 with Nazia. When I first visited Bloomsbury as a guest in early 2010, Craig was the guy I looked at and thought “if I can get as good as him, then I definitely want to join!”

What’s on the horizon?

There are a couple of events to mention, one being one of the biggest on the Toastmasters calendar:

  • From Toastmaster to Professional Speaker – a workshop led by Distinguished Toastmaster Bob Ferguson, who has won three out of the four UK & Ireland speech contests. He shares the tips he’s gleaned to help speakers make the initial transition from Toastmaster to Professional Speaker. 7-9pm on Wednesday 9th May 2012 at the Fitzrovia Community Centre, Foley Street, London, W1W 6DN. To reserve a place email Simon Cooper at simonjc@btinternet.com
  • The District 71 Toastmasters Spring Conference – the “WOW – Words of Wexford” conference is taking place from 11-13 May in Wexford in South-East Ireland. Highlights include: UK & Ireland finals of International Speech and Evaluation Contests; inspiring and educational workshops; world-class entertainments and an abundance of good “craic”. Find out more and book your place here.

Report from London Contests and Workshops

A number of our members attended this event, including our Treasurer Swarajit and regular member (and meeting report ‘scribe’) Elena.

This is what Swarajit had to say:

I went to Andrew Bennett’s workshop on body language in which we were asked to communicate certain table topic-style messages using only our bodies (no speaking). It was something of an eye-opener as I’d never realised how much thought is required to get the right body language across in a speech.

The contests were both of a very high standard. The speech contest had a variety of styles such as humorous, motivational and reflective and, for me at least, the winner was not easy to choose! The evaluation contest was also closely fought, and I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a tiebreaker vote involved.

Elena said:

Most helpful for me was Andrew’s Bennett interactive workshop which was focused on two key aspects of speech presentation – voice and body language. Especially I liked the non-speaking Table Topics and the printed material with vocal exercises.

Jacqueline Purcel’s workshop “The Journey From Shyness To Shy Less” taught me that there are different types of shyness, helped identify mine and gave some useful coping mechanisms to deal with it.

All contestants performed at high level and I picked up some useful tips for me from everyone.

Well done to Jakub Pawlowski (Polish Your Polish club) and Lynne Cantor (Excalibur and WIBF City clubs) for their victories in the International Speech and Evaluation Contests respectively. More information can be found on The London Speaker.

New committee – last call for interested parties

We’re looking to finalise the new Bloomsbury Speakers committee before the end of May. We’ve already had some people step forward but if you’ve been “umming and ahhing” about getting involved then there’s still time to throw your hat in the ring. Once we know who’s interested in what there will be a voting process involving all members. The new committee is in place from July, with a handover during June.

Also, let us know if you’re interested in getting involved in some way but not necessarily as a full committee member.

For example, we really need someone to breathe some life into our Facebook and Twitter accounts. Might be a nice thing to have on your CV in these tough economic times – “I’m currently in charge of social media for a prominent public speaking club in central London”. Just saying. 😉

Just reply to this email or come and talk to me or one of the other committee members (Femi, Hari, Swarajit, Kate, Adam or Nazia) at the next meeting.

Tip of the Month – Include a “Call to Action”

Early in the Competent Communicator programme (speech project No. 3 in fact) we are taught to make sure our speeches always have a clear purpose. Is our intent to inform, to persuade, to inspire or simply to entertain?

For any speech, but particularly for one which is intended to be persuasive or inspiring, it can also be very useful to ask yourself: “What action do I want the audience to take?”

Consider this: I personally might describe a speech as persuasive, but is it truly persuasive if it doesn’t cause me to take some kind of action soon afterwards? I might find another speech inspiring and uplifting but ultimately if it doesn’t inspire me to make some kind of change, has it really delivered on the basic purpose?

This is why it can be very effective to include a “call to action” towards the end of your speech. Having successfully sustained the audience’s attention and emotions throughout the speech, try to direct that momentum towards a specific action at the end. Tell them what you want them to do, and make it easy for them to actually do it.

For example, if you’re trying to persuade people to lead a more active lifestyle, invite them to take an extra 10 minutes of light exercise every day and give them some quick and easy ways to achieve it.

If your inspirational speech is about the value of friendship, ask them to think of one old friend they haven’t spoken to yet this year and suggest that I make a mental commitment to call them this week.

Remember, the actions don’t have to be huge, but they do have to be specific and you do have to tell your audience that you want them carried out. If the action is simply implied, then it probably won’t be carried out.

Okay folks that’s it for this month. I hope you enjoyed the newsletter.

Have a good weekend and I look forward to seeing you at a meeting soon.

Best wishes,

Glen
President
president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk

Spoilers – just the stuff you really need to know

  • Our next meeting is this Monday, 30th April upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.
  • We still need a Topics Evaluator and a Speech Evaluator for the above meeting. (ClubPlan’s a little flaky at the moment – if you can’t get on, email Femi at education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk)
  • There’s still time to book a place at the Spring Conference, 11-13th May 2012 in Wexford, Ireland
  • We’re still looking for members who are interested in being part of the next committee (starting from July) – send us an email or mention it at the next meeting

Meeting Report for 16 April 2012

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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 4th.

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 30thApril 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.