Meeting Report for 11 November 2013

/in /by

Introduction

How can you overcome a fear of public speaking? Our President Swarajit explained, after he had warmly welcomed us, that we can deal with speech anxiety – and at the same time gain leadership skills – through practice. Simply practising prepared and impromptu speeches at a Toastmasters meeting, and delivering evaluations of other members’ speeches will put a nervous speaker on the road to being a confident speaker. The meeting was then handed over to Hari, our Toastmaster for the evening.

Before introducing the theme for the evening, “Silence – how do you get or where do you go for a moment of silence?”, Hari applauded everyone for coming out on such a dark and gloomy night. He went on to introduce the other functionaries for the evening: Sarah, the Timekeeper who talked us through the guidelines of the timing system; and Rajeev the Harkmaster whose role it was to test the audience’s listening skills at the end of the meeting by running a quiz based on the speeches rendered during the meeting. Rajeev also gave and challenged us to use the word of the day taciturn.

Prepared speeches

The first prepared speech was by Rufina with a number 8 speech entitled ‘Hidden Treasures’, where she reminded us that talents are like hidden treasures that cannot be pick from the roadside but must be dug up from deep within the earth. In doing so, the purpose and fulfilment of life is realised.

Onto another number 8 speech and member Samuel with his speech entitled ‘Lion boy’ took us on a picturesque and emotional journey of his life with his son nicknamed Lion boy from the time he was born and through his formative years, including their separation and reunion.

Stella on her number 9 speech briefly informed us about ongoing voluntary work to support an endangered species – turtles – which was enlightening. She ended on an emotional note by appealing to us to think about how we treat the environment.

Jumping to the challenge, Femi gave an impromptu speech entitled “The Power of Silence”. However, the content of the message was opposite to the title of the speech. It was an appeal to speak up, to challenge bullies and to stand up for the right thing.

Key tips from our evaluators were as outlined below:

  • Damien evaluating Rufina commended her on the great use of metaphors, visual aids and her friendly style.  His recommendation was to vary the pace of the speech.
  • Peter commended Samuel on how the speech was delivered with flair and how he’d made it personal with the use of pictures. Samuel was encouraged to keep going.
  • Ahmed commended Stella on a strong opening to her speech, and her very powerful and convincing language in helping the audience imagine the plight of the endangered species. The recommendation given was to avoid using notes.
  • Helen commended Femi (who had no predefined objectives) on holding the audience’s attention with an impromptu speech. His pauses reinforced the theme (silence), while the use of personal stories and quotes helped bring the speech together.

Table Topics

Carrie hosted the table topics (also referred to as impromptu speeches) for the evening which was themed around the changing of the curriculum in the schools by the government. The questions went to these willing participants:

  • Noemi – What did you think of the education you received – will you recommend it?   
  • Jo – Enjoying a class at school is more about the teacher than the subject. Discuss.
  • Martin – There is a growing obesity problem in the UK. How many hours of Physical Education should be built into the curriculum?
  • Rajeev – Behaviour management is more of an issue today than before. Who should be responsible, the teacher or parent?
  • Anthony – A renewed sense of British focus has been prescribed for the history curriculum with more focus on the kings and queens at the expense of international history. Is this a good thing or not?
  • Helen – The strictest teachers are the best. Discuss.

Glen had the mantle of evaluating the table topics. His commendations included praise for launching straight into the answer, solid arguments, phenomenal voice and good reasoning. Recommendations given were to use the stage more, along with pauses and vocal variety.

Awards

The awards for the evening went to:

Best Prepared Speech: Stella for her emotional and sincere speech on the endangered turtles.

Best Evaluator: Glen for his evaluation of the table topics session.

Best Table Topic: Helen for her discussion about strict teachers.

President’s Award: This went to Jo for organising the evening’s programme under challening circumstances.

 

Notice: Please subscribe to our Facebook page for more news and updates. Just click on the link and then ‘Like’: https://www.facebook.com/BloomsburySpeakers

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 25th November 2013 upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.

November Newsletter – Results from Colchester and starting your New Year’s resolutions early

/in /by

Hello and welcome to the November newsletter!

As I write this, the District 71 autumn conference is coming to a close. No fewer than eight members of Bloomsbury Speakers attended to watch the final rounds of the UK & Ireland humorous speech and table topics contests and learn from some of the best speakers in the country. See below for news from the event.

Meanwhile, our membership base continues to grow with five new members joining in the last two months, and demand to join our club shows no signs of abating. We’re now requiring that guests on our membership waiting list attend at least three meetings before they can join, so keep coming to our meetings if you want to become a member!

If you don’t have time to read the whole newsletter, you can skip to the bottom for a short summary of the main points.

What’s happened since the last newsletter?

As mentioned above, we’ve had five new members join Bloomsbury Speakers recently, so I’d like to officially welcome Tracey, Sarah, Aislinn, Nathaniel and Stella to the club. We look forward to hearing you speak regularly at our meetings!

Once again, we had two well-attended meetings in October. Highlights included a thought-provoking speech on neuroscience from returning member Damien, an informative icebreaker from new member Sarah (who was preparing for a university presentation the next day!) and an advanced storytelling speech from Hari with which he completed his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award.

What’s planned for November?

There are only four meetings left for the remainder of 2013, so make the most of them! Don’t forget though, members of Bloomsbury Speakers can still book speech slots and roles with Clerkenwell Speakers for the rest of the year (and at no extra cost) via their ClubPlan. Meanwhile, here’s what we have coming up this month at Bloomsbury:

  • Monday, 11th November – Regular Meeting – We have a full programme for our first meeting this month, featuring an impromptu speaking session run by table topics enthusiast Carrie. There are a few pre-bookable table topics slots up for grabs on ClubPlan, so don’t miss out!
  • Monday, 25th November – Regular Meeting – At the time of writing, there is one prepared speech slot available to book, as well as the opportunity to take on functionary roles in the meeting such as timekeeper, grammarian and speech evaluator. Again, book yourself in on our ClubPlan.

Colchester conference and contest results

After the traditional pre-conference Anglo-Irish Toastmasters meeting on Thursday night, the final District 71 autumn conference officially kicked off on Friday with the humorous speech contest semi-finals. President of our sister club Clerkenwell Speakers, Ayse Lowe, impressively qualified for the grand final on Saturday by finishing in the top three of her semi-final with her speech “Culture Clash”.

The competition was tough however, and in the final on Saturday (hosted brilliantly by Tube Talk’s Ola Aralepo who ran our humorous speech workshop earlier this year) the title went to Brian Faulkner from Division G in the east of England who spoke about his experience of being a veterinary surgeon.

Next came the table topics semi-finals in which our member Glen was drawn to speak first on the challenging question, “What is a friend?”. Glen graciously acknowledged his friends from Bloomsbury Speakers in the audience and went on to speak about his personal experience of falling out with a close friend, but again the standard of public speaking at this level was incredibly high and sadly Glen didn’t progress to the final. Nevertheless, we’re immensely proud of him for being the first member of Bloomsbury to represent us at the national level – what a fantastic achievement!

The topic posed in Sunday’s final was “If you could go back in time and give advice to yourself at the age of ten, what would you say?” and the winning response was given by David Jones of our parent club Holborn Speakers. Congratulations to David, who has now won this contest five times, as well as everyone else who took part.

Tip of the Month: Start your New Year’s resolutions now

By far, the most successful New Year’s resolution I’ve ever made was one that I actually made at the end of October the preceding year! I’d resolved to get fitter by taking up running and went on to complete a 10km race the following summer – something that would have been unimaginable just eight months earlier.

As trivial as it may seem, most New Year’s resolutions fail because people simply underestimate the amount of effort involved (especially when combined with the cold weather and weakened finances after Christmas). However, making a head start on our resolutions right now alleviates some of the undue pressure we put on ourselves in the first week of January. Even the smallest steps towards your goals in the next month or two will make it that much easier when the New Year arrives. In my case, I was motivated enough to go for a run on Boxing Day that year because I already knew what I was capable of.

So what does any of this have to do with public speaking? As with anything worth doing well, it’s important to set yourself worthy objectives:

  • Are you aiming to complete your Competent Communication (CC) manual by next June or has it been a while since you last gave a prepared speech? If so, why not aim to give one more speech in the next couple of months, even if it’s at a different club?
  • Which functionary role have you not performed yet or do you feel is your weakest? Why not speak to your mentor about it and aim to perform it once before the end of the year?
  • Are you hoping to compete in the International Speech Contest in March? If so, you’ll need to have completed six of the ten projects in the CC manual in order to be eligible – how can you plan your time between now and then to achieve this?

Start thinking about your aims right now, making sure your objectives are SMART, and hopefully they’ll be the most successful New Year’s resolutions you’ve ever made.

That’s all for now. See you at a meeting soon!

Swarajit Das
President
Bloomsbury Speakers

Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know

  • We’ve had five new members join the club recently: Tracey, Sarah, Aislinn, Nathaniel and Stella – welcome aboard!
  • We have two regular meetings in November. There are pre-bookable table topic slots available for the 11th as well as a speech slot and functionary roles for the 25th.
  • Bloomsbury Speakers members still have FREE membership of Clerkenwell Speakers until the end of the year and can book speeches and roles via their ClubPlan.
  • Congratulations to Hari for completing his Advanced Communicator Bronze (ACB) award in October.

Meeting report for 28 October 2013

/1 Comment/in /by

Introduction

Our President, Swarajit, began the meeting by reminding everyone of the Toastmasters UK & Ireland convention in November, drumming up support for Glen, who will be competing in the Table Topics contest. Swarajit reflected on how we learn. Whilst we pick up the ability to speak as children by listening and copying others, we do not pick up the ability to speak publicly, and therein lies the benefit of Toastmasters.

Bronia, our Toastmaster for the evening, was introduced by Swarajit as having a lot to live up to after her last stellar performance in the role. She did not disappoint, keeping the energy up throughout the meeting with a pleasant, confident presence. Bronia’s chosen theme for the meeting was heroes.

  • Tracey – the Timekeeper – gave a brief introduction on the importance of time before explaining the timings of each speech presented on the programme and demonstrating the use of the lights to signal these timings to the speaker.
  • Rajeev – the Grammarian – presented the word of the day, “limpid”, giving several examples of its use. He also gave examples of other devices he would be listening for, such as metaphors, similes, alliteration and anaphora, despite the fact that his wife says he’s not a very good listener.

Prepared Speeches

Sarah, in her Icebreaker entitled, “Evolution and Me”, began by describing public speaking as her “worst nightmare”. As part of her Master’s programme in Human Evolution and Behaviour, she has to give two presentations and so is keen to overcome her fear. Sarah went on to describe some of the topics she is studying, as well as what drew her to study Evolution in the first place. Her speech was heart-warming and full of humour.

Barnaby spoke about his personal hero, John von Neumann, who was an extremely accomplished mathematician and economist. Barnaby presented many interesting facts about von Neumann’s mind, his key discoveries, and of course Economics, in a manner that drew the audience’s attention and highlighted Barnaby’s glowing admiration.

Jo spoke about scuba diving in her advanced entertaining speech entitled, “Out of My Depth”. She skilfully and humorously recanted her adventures on a liveaboard trip to the Red Sea, including numerous encounters with shipwrecks and sharks.

The subject of Hari’s advanced speech was the eternal greek – Odysseus. Entitled, “A Hero’s Return”, Hari’s speech captivatingly described Odysseus’ return to Ithaca after his 20 year adventure, and how he won back his wife, Penelope, as well as his throne.

Evaluations

Renars began his evaluation of Sarah’s icebreaker by inviting the audience to applaud her for starting her public speaking journey. Though he did recommend she speak more about herself, his overall tone was positive and congratulatory.

Carrie’s evaluation of Barnaby’s speech was extremely well structured with numerous commendations around his progress and presence, his research and credibility, and his obvious passion for the topic. She suggested improvements to his body language, more eye contact and more voice projection before concluding on a commendation on his skilful use of humour and pauses.

Kate found Jo’s speech clear, well-constructed and clever. She commended Jo’s expression of enjoyment throughout the speech as well as her consistent ability to engage with the audience. Kate recommended that Jo put her notes aside in future as they restricted her movements, then concluded by commending Jo’s wonderful descriptions.

Glen described Hari’s speech as a “fantastic treat,” enumerating several things that he personally loved about it. He commended Hari’s solid stance and body language, though his gestures could have had more variety, as well as his easy charm. Glen went on to observe that Hari seemed at times not fully immersed in his own story, and suggested that the story could have been somewhat reinterpreted for a modern audience.

Table Topics

Joe introduced Table Topics as being valuable for winning arguments, selling ideas and creating relationships. He took a very innovative approach by inviting participants to speak in an open ended fashion about objects he had pulled out of a bag.

  • Glen began with a useful tip for all table topics speakers, “Don’t be afraid of the first thing that comes into your mind.” However, since he had been given a container of lubricant, he swiftly added that, “Sometimes it is important to self-censor.” His response was extremely humorous and entertaining.
  • Martijn, a guest, was given a thermometer, which inspired him to speak about the weather and the temperature differences between England and his native country, the Netherlands.
  • Ash was given a lighter, which brought to mind looking out the window at smokers outside her office. She spoke about how she began smoking when she was quite young, though she has now given it up.
  • Liz spoke about lip salve, something that she uses frequently, especially in cold weather. Her daughter likes to use different flavours and colours of lip salve, but Liz herself prefers to stick with the plain sort.
  • Kate was glad not to have gotten the lip salve or the oil – instead she got a data memory stick. She remarked that she had accumulated 3-4 memory sticks and didn’t know what was on any of them. “What,” she wondered, “did we do before them?”

Femi provided an entertaining and useful evaluation, presenting unique points for each topics speaker. The level of detail in his evaluation showed how intently he listened to each topic.

Reports

Rajeev reported four uses of the word of the day before going on to give numerous examples of the best language of the evening.

Helen filled in as General Evaluator as the day’s transport chaos had prevented the scheduled GE from attending the meeting. She briefly provided feedback to each of the evaluators and functionaries.

Awards

  • The President’s Award went to Helen for stepping in as the General Evaluator.
  • Sarah earned the Icebreaker Award for her first speech.
  • Best Evaluator and Best Table Topics Speech both went to Glen.
  • Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Hari for his advanced speech.

Next Meeting

Our next regular meeting will be held on Monday, 11th November upstairs at The Clerk & Well pub, 156 Clerkenwell Road, EC1R 5DU.

Doors open at 6.30pm for a prompt 6.45pm start.