March 2014 - Bloomsbury Speakers

Contest Report for 17 March 2014

21/03/2014/1 Comment/in Meeting Reports/by scribe

Written by Rufina

Bloomsbury Speakers hosted its International Speech and Evaluation Contest on 17th March 2014, with Glen acting as the Contest Chair.

Not only did Glen do a good job of explaining the formalities of the contest and encouraging the contestants, he also did fantastically well at keeping the whole meeting charged and exciting throughout.

International Speech Contest

Setting the pace with his speech entitled “I Have a Dream”, Michael wanted to share his dream of living positive lives with us.

He described his vision of exercising this positivity through the Toastmasters programme and of companies using Toastmasters as a platform to celebrate their employees, encourage them and build giants in their respective fields.

The second speaker, Swarajit, with his speech “Why Won’t God Heal Amputees?” rhetorically asked, “is it because he doesn’t want to?” Is it because they’re less deserving or they don’t pray hard enough?

He went on to argue that humankind’s achievements have already surpassed those of any gods with science and so prayer and faith are redundant.

Kate, spoke on “The Adventures of Jeremy Fisher” her beloved childhood pet horse who was inherited from a neighbour.

Jeremy loved eating so much that nothing could stand in his way when it came to food. He was clever, cunning and very lovable, as shown by the fact that his memory still lives on.

The first part of the meeting ended on a bang note with Janet’s speech entitled “The Five Stages of Grief” where she attested that there is no ‘happily ever after’ as portrayed by Disney.

Instead, Janet used the Little Miss charaters to show the stages she went through having been dumped, starting from the go lucky Miss Happy to Miss Denial, Miss Guilty, Miss Angry, Miss Sad and Miss Hope who sees the hope of knowing herself.

Evaluation Contest

Helen, the mystery speaker with a speech entitled “Earworms”, asked the audience if they’ve ever had a tune stuck in their head and demonstrated with the song “Don’t Worry, Be Happy”. An earworm is a catchy piece of music that continually cycles through a person’s mind repeatedly. Helen encouraged us to use earworms to our advantage by repeating positive ideas.

To evaluate Helen’s speech, the Evaluation contestants Janet, Rufina, Kate, Swarajit and Michael were brought in one after the other to give their analysis of what they liked about Helen’s speech as well as what they thought could be improved.

Results

When the judges’ ballots had been counted and checked, drum rolls were provided by the audience and, with suspense built up by the chief judge Rob from Clerkenwell Speakers, the results were announced.

In the Evaluation contest, the results were:

3rd place – Kate
2nd place – Janet
1st place – Swarajit

For the International Speech contest, the top two were:

2nd place – Swarajit
1st place – Janet

Next Round

Janet and Swarajit will now represent the club in the next round, so please go along and support them at the Area 34 finals from 6:30pm on Thursday, 27th March at Transport for London, 55 Broadway, SW1H 0BD (directly above St. James’s Park tube station). The event is in a corporate building, so please register with president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you would like to attend.

Our next regular meeting is this Monday, 24th March at The Clerk & Well pub.

Meeting Report for 10 March 2014

10/03/2014/1 Comment/in Meeting Reports/by scribe

Introductions

Our Vice President for Education Jo – standing in for President Swarajit – opened the meeting by introducing this special International Women’s Day meeting. She told us that International Women’s Day had been celebrated for over 100 years although (shockingly!) Toastmasters did not admit women until 1973.

Jo then introduced past President Nazia, who was the evening’s Toastmaster. Nazia gave a brief overview of the Toastmasters communication programme before running through the agenda for the meeting. She introduced her theme of “inspirational women”, having asked all participants who their favourite woman was, and revealed her own inspiration as Cleopatra. She then introduced the first of her supporting functionaries, the Timekeeper.

Ash (most inspiring woman: her Mum) explained the role of the Timekeeper and said although it was sometimes said that a woman’s prerogative was to be late, it wasn’t true in Toastmasters and she encouraged all the speakers to keep to time.

Nazia then introduced Rebecca (most inspirational woman: her sister), the Harkmaster for the evening. Rebecca opened with a quote from Winston Churchill: “It takes courage to speak, but it also takes courage to sit down and listen”. She explained her role which was to encourage the audience to listen by offering “chocolatey bribes” at the end of the meeting for those who could answer her questions about the speeches.

Prepared Speeches

The first speech “Why Is Yawning Contagious?” was a No. 2 speech by Sarah (most inspiring woman: Marilyn Monroe). We learned that all vertebrates yawn and a number of theories exist about why: a need for more oxygen, a way of waking up if you’re tired or a “brain cooling mechanism”. We also learned that dogs “catch” yawns but cats don’t, and that one of the most widely accepted theories about yawning is that it’s linked to empathy.

The second speaker was Bronia (most inspirational woman: Robin Wright in House of Cards) with a No. 8 speech entitled “In This Together”. She told us she was interested in the discrepancy between the increasingly prominent role of women in society and the large number of negative (and highly sexualised) stereotypes. To find an answer to this conundrum she decided to dig into the male psyche and concluded that men and women need to fight together – not against each other.

The third speaker was Rufina (most inspirational woman: Hilary Clinton) with a No. 9 speech “Hear My Plea”. She opened with a quote: “It is hard to be a woman. You have to think like a man, act like a lady, look like a young girl, and work like a horse”. Despite much progress for women, she told us there are still many injustices and one particularly tough issue is female genital mutilation. Rufina gave some shocking statistics about this barbaric practice – which also happens in this country – and urged us to sign a government petition to act against it beyond current measures.

Kate (most inspirational woman: Supergirl) was the final speaker, delivering a project from the advanced storytelling manual entitled “Bored Brenda”. She told her story about Brenda, a young girl who grew up on a housing estate in Swansea who accidentally released a genie from a discarded teapot. We heard about Brenda’s various wishes: to become a pop star, to be a crime-fighting superhero in New York, to become the first astronaut on Mars, to be captain of a pirate ship called The Black Parrot. Brenda was soon bored by each of her wishes but learned to find contentment at home.

Evaluations

Femi evaluated Sarah’s speech about contagious yawning. He commended the way she had opened with a question and liked the way that she’d made a potentially dry subject interesting and in places even hilarious. He said he would have liked Sarah to yawn at the start of her speech to test the theory of yawn contagiousness.

Samuel was tasked with evaluating Bronia’s No. 8 speech. He commended a strong opening, good eye contact and body language, and great use of humour. He felt she’d definitely met her speech objectives through her adept use of visual aids.

Joe (most inspiring woman: his first tennis teacher) evaluated Rufina’s persuasive speech about genital mutilation. He felt she spoke in a very mature and composed way but still managed to evoke much emotion in the room. He recommended using the audience’s emotion in support of the cause by bringing out a physical petition for people to sign.

Hari (most inspiring woman: his girlfriend!) evaluated Kate’s storytelling speech. He felt the opening of her story created a great hook to draw us into her world and that Kate’s actions really animated her story. He recommended a little more vocal characterisation for the main characters and maintaining the actions throughout.

Table Topics

Paula was the Table Topicsmaster (most inspirational woman: Dame Kelly Holmes) and introduced her topic of – inspiring women!

Glen was asked to give Florence Nightingale an update on the NHS – he told her she would be impressed by the latest superbugs.
Swarajit was invited to comment on the current state of fashion for Stella McCartney and Victoria Beckham – he decided it was for them to give an account to him!
Faith-Rose was invited by Michelle Obama to speak at the White House about a topic of importance – she chose a sense of identity.
Svetlana was interviewed for Jackie Collins’ next spicy (Toastmasters-themed!) novel – she cleverly side-stepped the question to talk about a process for solving conflicts without wars.
Rosa Parks risked her life for a cause. Manish was asked what he would stand for in his life – he said good education for all.
Lady Godiva protested taxes by riding through Coventry naked. Elliot was asked how he would protest – he decided to lead a naked march into Soho with everyone in the room.

Henry (most inspiring women: his wife and three daughters) was the Table Topics Evaluator and opened with a personal plea for people to challenge casual sexism in everyday life. Having firmly established his feminist credentials, Henry went on to give a very thorough and entertaining assessment of the six topics speakers.

Closing and Awards

Atul (from Phoenix Speakers) was the General Evaluator and gave his assessment of all those participants who’d not previously been evaluated and also presented some great feedback for the club as a whole.

The acting president Jo handed out the awards based on the audience votes:

Best Table Topic Speaker was awarded to Glen
Best Evaluator was awarded to Henry
Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Kate

The (acting) President’s discretionary award went to Rufina for her idea of a Women’s Day meeting.

Next Meeting

Our next meeting is the club’s International Speech and Evaluation Contest on Monday, 17th March 2014 in the normal venue: upstairs at the Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.

The next regular meeting is Monday 24th March 2014 in the same venue.

March Newsletter – Help needed and learning from the best

10/03/2014/in Newsletters/by scribe

Hello and welcome to the March newsletter!

The build-up to contest season is picking up pace – ours is only a week away now – so get yourself booked in to speak at our International Speech and Evaluation contests. Even if you’re not competing, there are still plenty of ways to help run the event as a functionary, so book yourself in on ClubPlan now.

We’re also still looking for some of our members to visit other clubs’ contests as a judge. If you’re available to judge at any of the following contests, please get in touch via education@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk:

Clerkenwell Speakers – Wednesday 12^th March (6:30pm-9pm) The Apple Tree pub, 45 Mount Pleasant, London, WC1X 0AE
Society Speakers – Wednesday, 19^th March (6:30pm-9pm) Fitzrovia Community Centre, 2 Foley Street, London, W1W 6DL
London Olympians – Thursday 20^th March (6:30pm-9pm) MyHotel Chelsea, 35 Ixworth Place, SW3 3QX
Holborn Speakers – Tuesday, 25^th March (6:30pm-9pm) The Devereux pub, 20 Devereux Court, Temple, London, WC2R 3JJ

There are no special qualifications required to be a judge, so please volunteer if you can.

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?

February was short but sweet, with two regular meetings including a Valentine-themed table topics session from Grace, and icebreaker speeches from Michelle and Tracey.

Kicking off March, we also had an incredibly useful and well-received pair of workshops from district council members Hilary Briggs and Freddie Daniells last Monday, which I hope will encourage all who attended to enter the contests later this month – more from them below.

What’s planned for March?

Lots! The dates below are just those directly related to our club, but keep reading through the rest of the newsletter for even more exciting events this month:

Monday, 10^th March – Regular Meeting – Our first club meeting this month will be themed around International Women’s Day. The programme is almost full, but if you’re quick you may be able to grab one of the last couple of pre-bookable table topic slots on ClubPlan.
Monday, 17^th March – International Speech & Evaluation Contest Night – At the time of writing, only four members have signed up for the International Speech contest, while we’re still waiting for our first entry for the Evaluation contest! Remember that all members are eligible for the Evaluation contest, and there’s no preparation required, so get yourself booked in on ClubPlan for the chance to represent the Bloomsbury Speakers at the next level.
Monday, 24^th March – Regular Meeting – At the time of writing, there is one prepared speech slot available – again, book yourself in on ClubPlan to make use of the opportunity.
Thursday, 27^th March – Area 34 International Speech & Evaluation Contest – The winners from our club contests on the 17^th will go on to compete against winners from the other clubs in our area of London. See immediately below for the details – registration is required to attend!

Area 34 contest night – registration required and help needed!

Please go along to support the winners from our club contests (whoever they may be!) in the next round at the Area 34 contest night. The event is free to attend, but as it’s being held in a corporate building, pre-registration is essential – here are the full details:

Date: Thursday, 27^th March
Time: 7pm-9pm
Venue: Transport for London, 55 Broadway, SW1H 0BD (directly above St. James’s Park tube station)
Registration: president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk

The contest organisers are also looking for judges, timekeepers and vote counters to help with running the event, so please volunteer for one of these roles when you register.

World champion speakers event – Friday, 14^th March

This is a rare opportunity to learn from two exceptional speakers. Ed Tate (2000 World Champion) and Darren LaCroix (2001 World Champion) will each help you to change the way you create and deliver your speeches and presentations.

In Ed’s workshop, ‘The Story Finder: How to Create New Stories in Minutes’ you will have the opportunity to:

Discover how to be remarkable with your own material;
Practice Ed’s 4 Elements of Effective Story Telling;
Create new material immediately, using a story creation framework;
Learn 10 different ways to creatively open and close any presentation.

Darren’s workshop, ‘Create Your Keynote’ will cover:

Time-proven speech writing processes;
Common mistakes to avoid;
A whole new perspective to writing a world-class speech.

Full details are below – see you there!

Date: Friday, 14^th March
Time: 7pm-9pm
Venue: Freemasons’ Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, Covent Garden, WC2B 5AZ (Map)
Price: £7.50
Tickets: http://worldchampions.eventbrite.co.uk

Table topics workshop at Clerkenwell Speakers – Wednesday, 19^th March

Five-time UK & Ireland table topics champion David Jones will be running a 2-hour long table topics workshop for Clerkenwell Speakers on Wednesday, 19^th March. The workshop will include some of David’s top tips for giving a table topic speech, as well as plenty of opportunity to get up and practice – all are welcome, so don’t miss out if you can make it.

Date: Wednesday, 19^th March
Time: 6:45pm-9pm
Venue: The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant, WC1X 0AE
Map: http://goo.gl/maps/8qCei (with directions from our regular meeting venue)

Reminder – dates for your diary

Here’s a quick reminder of some of the important contest and conference dates announced in last month’s newsletter:

Friday, 4^th April (7pm onwards) – Division L International Speech & Evaluation Contests – City Temple Conference Centre, Holborn Viaduct, EC1A 2DE – the top placed contestants in this month’s Area 34 contests will go on to face the best speakers from the other areas in North & Central London – the prize is a place in the national semi-finals.
Friday 9^th-Sunday 11^th May – District 71 King Laoire Conference – The last ever conference for District 71 as we know it will be held in Dún Laoghaire in Ireland and will play host to the UK & Ireland International Speech and Evaluation contest semi-finals and finals, featuring the winners from each division around both countries. Booking is open on the official website and the hotel is filling up fast.
Wednesday 20^th-Saturday 23^rd August – International Convention and World Championship Finals in Kuala Lumpur – While the Evaluation Contest ends at District level, the International Speech Contest (as its name implies) continues on to the world semi-finals and finals in Malaysia, with the eventual winner being crowned World Champion of Public Speaking. Perhaps this year’s winner will be from Bloomsbury Speakers!

Tip of the Month: Workshop learning points

We try to hold at least a couple of workshops a year at Bloomsbury Speakers and this month’s tip is a bit of a cheat on my part, as it’s really just a collection of my favourite learning points from last Monday’s speech and evaluation workshops which were run for us by Hilary Briggs and Freddie Daniells. If you weren’t there, here’s just some of what you missed:

With evaluations, keep them factual. Look at it like presenting evidence in a court of law; an evaluation is your own opinion, but your comments need to be backed up by observations i.e. what you saw, heard and felt and when.
In contests, use the C-C-R-R-C format. Contest judges will give you credit for having a structured and balanced approach to your evaluation. Give two commendations followed by two recommendations and finish with your most positive commendation, ensuring that your comments are delivered to the audience i.e. in the third person – and always finish with a summary!
The majority of World Championship-winning speeches are inspirational AND entertaining. Winning speeches typically involve a personal story comprised of a situation, a protagonist (usually yourself), a goal, a problem or obstacle to overcome and a journey to success. They will also make use of humour to engage the audience and judges – eight laughs in a 5-7 minute speech is a conservative target.
But that’s not all – there are common pitfalls to avoid. It’s not enough to have a problem; the situation needs to escalate as the story progresses. The story needs to be acted out in scenes (rather than told as a narrative) to help the audience to be there with you. There also needs to be a character arc so that the character changes in some way. This is usually with the help of a mentor character, because audiences will connect better with speakers who, like them, aren’t perfect and need help.

Of course, many of these points are specific to Toastmasters competitions rather than public speaking in general, but why not try applying some of these tips in this month’s contests and in our regular meetings going forward?

And finally…

Congratulations to our VP Public Relations Rufina and Immediate Past President Femi who recently announced their engagement!

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

Our first regular meeting in March is on the 10^th and will be a special event to mark International Women’s Day, organised by committee members Jo and Rufina.
Our International Speech & Evaluation contest is on Monday, 17^th March. Register as a contestant or functionary on ClubPlan.
Our second regular meeting in March is on the 24^th and, at the time of writing, there is one speech slot available on ClubPlan.
The winners from our club contests will progress to the Area 34 finals from 7pm on Thursday, 27^th March at 55 Broadway, SW1H 0BD (directly above St. James’s Park tube station). Registration via president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk is essential to attend.
A special world champion speakers event is taking place from 7pm on Friday, 14^th March, featuring workshops from former World Champions of Public Speaking Ed Tate and Darren LaCroix. Tickets are available at http://worldchampions.eventbrite.co.uk.
Clerkenwell Speakers is hosting a table topics workshop to be run by five-time UK & Ireland champion David Jones from 6:45pm on Wednesday, 19^th March at The Apple Tree, 45 Mount Pleasant, WC1X 0AE.