Swarajit, current president of Bloomsbury Speakers, started the meeting by extolling the benefits of public speaking. He used the analogy of playing the piano to emphasise the importance of practising in front of others for maximum gain.
Swarajit then introduced the evening’s toastmaster, Ahmed. Ahmed introduced his role and explained the importance of supporting people entering the stage by clapping enthusiastically. He introduced his theme for the night which was “what is your ultimate vacation?” he provided a response for all speakers and functionaries on this theme.
Sarah fulfilled the time keeper role, explaining her responsibilities and the importance of completing speeches punctually. She demonstrated the use of the lights signalling the timings for each speaker.
Ahmed then introduced Renars, the grammarian for the evening. His word of the day was “anticipate”, which means to expect or wait on something to happen.
Prepared speeches
The first prepared speech was an icebreaker delivered by Emma entitled “3 Steps to Success: How Passion and Drive Got Me Here”. She illuminated us with her rags-to-riches tale from being a college dropout, claiming state benefits, to a media mogul managing her own radio show and DJing for prestigious companies like the BBC.
The second speaker, Egor, on his speech No. 2 entitled “Ethics for Dummies” informed the audience on the philosophy of ethics. He spoke about ways to live an ethical life, and the best methods to understand morality and answer moral questions.
Rufina, the third speaker, delivered her No. 10 speech about ‘unforgiveness’. Rufina’s speech was about the benefits of forgiveness and how to forgive others. She used a personal anecdote about a close friend with whom she’d had a disagreement. Rufina explained how forgiving her friend had helped her to move on.
The final speaker was Jo, delivering an advanced speech called “Let’s Outsmart Ourselves”. Her speech focused on procrastination, and how to manage this weakness through delayed gratification. Jo cited research on college students to support her argument.
Evaluations
Bronia evaluated Emma’s icebreaker speech, on her steps to success. She commended the structure of her speech, her elocution and engaging delivery. Bronia noticed that Emma’s enthusiasm decreased towards the end of her speech, and gave advice on how to sustain the speech’s momentum.
Hari evaluated Egor’s No. 2 speech, praising his ability to use lots of facts to support his message. He felt the speech was very informative, fulfilling the objectives of the No. 2 speech to organise and inform. Hari recommended that Egor improve his voice projection and volume for future speeches.
Peter evaluated Rufina’s speech, and started by commending it’s content, structure and delivery. He noted that Rufina projected her voice well, and offered inspirational advice.
Carrie evaluated Jo’s advanced speech. She praised her choice of subject, which the audience could easily identify with. She also commended Jo’s use of props, and her useful advice which people could benefit from.
Table topics
Rebecca, the table topics master continued the meeting’s theme by inviting several members to give impromptu speeches about their thoughts and experiences on holidays, including:
Hari, who was asked what environmental considerations he makes when choosing a holiday destination;
Renars, who was asked whether he was “a folder or a tosser” when packing holiday clothes;
Femi, who was asked if he preferred the experience of leaving home or returning from a holiday;
Faith-Rose, who was asked if she preferred holidays with friends or family; and
James, who was asked what type of accommodation he prefers on holiday.
Tracey, the table topics evaluator, gave a balanced and encouraging evaluation of all the speakers. She commented on the bravery of the first-time guest speakers delivering topics, and the high standard of all the responses.
Awards
Closing the meeting, president Swarajit handed out the awards, including those based on the audience votes:
Emma was recognised with an icebreaker ribbon for her maiden speech
Rufina was awarded a Competent Communicator ribbon for completing her 10th speech
Best Table Topic Speaker was awarded to James
Best Evaluator was awarded to Carrie
Best Prepared Speech was awarded to Jo
Next Meeting
Our next meeting is on Monday, 23rd June at the usual venue: upstairs at The Clerk & Well, 156 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5DU.
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It’s with a tinge of sadness that I write this, my last introduction to my last monthly newsletter as your president – but I also feel much pride, as it’s been a fantastic year for Bloomsbury Speakers. Not only did we have two of our members, Glen and Janet, representing us at the district contests, but I’m delighted to announce that the club as a whole has managed to achieve Toastmasters International’s highest level of recognition – President’s Distinguished Club – for the second year running!
I’d like to place on record my sincere thanks to our committee officers, without whom none of this would have been possible. So thank you to Jo, Rufina, Ahmed, Paula and of course my predecessor Femi – not forgetting Rajeev, Marie and James who also served on the committee for part of the year. It was a pleasure to work with all of them and they each contributed significantly to the club’s success.
But perhaps the biggest thanks of all should go to our individual members, both old and new, whose enthusiasm for the club continues to make our meetings such a pleasure to attend and – I believe – the envy of many a visiting general evaluator! Thank you, one and all!
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.
We’ve also had two more new members join in the last few weeks, so welcome to Peter and Emma – we look forward to hearing your Icebreaker speeches this month.
What’s planned for June?
There are just two more meetings left for this Toastmasters year – the new year starts in July – but they both promise to be packed with the usual high standard of speeches and evaluations.
Monday, 9th June – Regular Meeting – For our first meeting this month we’re pleased to welcome last month’s UK & Ireland International Speech Contest finalist Flavia Gordon from Lewisham Speakers as our general evaluator. There’s a packed agenda, including a No. 10 speech from Rufina, but a couple of pre-bookable table topic slots may still be available on ClubPlan.
Monday, 23rd June – Regular Meeting – My last meeting as president 🙁 and, again, the programme is full. Do check back on ClubPlan regularly to see if any slots become free but, even if they don’t, come along anyway to mark the end of an amazing year for the club!
Distinguished Club Programme (DCP) – the final result!
The Distinguished Club Programme (DCP) is Toastmasters International’s framework of objectives that clubs should aim to achieve within the Toastmasters year (1st July to 30th June), and different levels of recognition are awarded depending on how many of the ten criteria are met.
As already mentioned above, Bloomsbury Speakers has now achieved the highest level of recognition, President’s Distinguished Club status, for the second year in a row – and we’re also the first club in Division L to pass this milestone this year! To attain this level of recognition, we had to achieve nine of the ten goals set by Toastmasters International in their DCP, and here’s a breakdown of everyone who helped us do it:
Two Competent Communicator awards: Swarajit and Paula
Two more Competent Communicator awards: Henry and Ahmed
One Advanced Communicator award: Hari
One more Advanced Communicator award: Not yet achieved
One leadership award: Glen
One more leadership award: Swarajit
Four new members: Sarah, Tracey, Aislinn and Nathaniel
Four more new members: Stella, Rebecca, Michelle, Grace, Svetlana, Egor, Faith-Rose, Emily and Jon
At least four club officers trained at each of two training events: Swarajit, Jo, Ahmed and Paula
On-time submission of club officer list and membership dues: Femi and Ahmed
Thanks to everyone involved, as you’ve helped cement our reputation as one of the best Toastmasters clubs in London, if not the world! 🙂
Meet your new leadership committee
After last month’s sneak peek, I’m very pleased to be able to announce our new executive committee which will take over leadership of the club from July. As is now semi-traditional for Bloomsbury Speakers, our current Vice President Education, Jo will take over as president of the club. Below is the full list of committee members with their main responsibilities, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t other ways to get involved – all of our committee members will need assistance with their roles every now and again, so please get in touch if you’d like to help!
President – Jo Higham
The president has overall responsibility for the successful running of the club by supporting committee members in their roles as well as opening and closing every meeting, writing these newsletters and helping the club meet its goals in the Distinguished Club Programme – and much more besides!
Vice President Education – Helen Hosein
The VP Education is the second most senior position on the committee and is responsible for putting the programme together for each meeting along with keeping track of the educational progress of individual members and the club as a whole.
Vice President Membership & Mentoring – James Hallinan
The VP Membership & Mentoring converts guests into happy members by keeping track of the membership waiting list, inviting an appropriate number of guests to join as new members each month, ensuring that new members have all the information they need when they first join and assigning them a mentor.
Vice President Public Relations – Svetlana Rakhimova
The VP Public Relations is responsible for raising the club’s profile and attracting new guests e.g. via social media. They also oversee the team that produces our meeting reports.
Treasurer – Rebecca Griffith
The treasurer holds responsibility for the club’s finances. Their duties include keeping track of the club’s income and expenditure to ensure financial stability, paying dues and other costs on behalf of members to Toastmasters International and making sure members pay their renewal fees to the club on time.
Sergeant at Arms – Michelle McNicholas
The Sergeant at Arms is in charge of logistics. They are responsible for enlisting others to prepare the venue for each meeting and also clear up afterwards, welcoming guests as they arrive and running the guest introductions section of the programme, organising club socials and liaising with venue management on behalf of the club.
Secretary – Liz Walsh
The club secretary is responsible for club administration, particularly with regards to committee meetings and decision making.
Immediate Past President – Swarajit Das
The immediate past president stays on the committee for at least one more year in an advisory capacity, using their experience to support the new president and committee in running the club.
I wish Jo and her team all the best going forward and I’m sure they will achieve even more in the year ahead!
Two table topics workshops from two champions
If you’d like to learn how to give a winning impromptu speech every time, then who better to learn from than two of the best table topic speakers in the country?
David Jones, who has won the UK & Ireland table topic speech contest five times and Paul Carroll who took the crown in 2003 will be giving separate workshops in the next couple of weeks. Here are all the details:
PAUL CARROLL’S WORKSHOP
Date: Thursday, 19th June Time: 6:45pm-8:30pm Venue:Citi Criers, Citigroup Centre, 33 Canada Square, Canary Wharf, E14 5LB Cost: FREE but limited spaces Booking:katywoolcott@hotmail.com
District 71 conference DVD and looking ahead to District 91
After our member Janet made it all the way to the last ever UK & Ireland final of the International Speech contest last month, we decided, for the sake of posterity, to purchase the official conference DVD for the club. This DVD is available to lend out to members and contains recordings of the District 71 International Speech and Evaluation contest finals that took place in Dublin last month.
If you’d like to borrow the DVD (and it’s well worth a watch!), just speak to one of the committee members at one of our regular meetings, but in the meantime you can whet your appetite by enjoying Janet’s semi-final performance of her speech “The 5 Stages of Grief” on YouTube:
Meanwhile, preparations are well underway for the first ever District 91 (Southern England and Southern Wales) conference in Brighton. The conference will, amongst other things, play host to the Humorous Speech and Table Topics contest finals – hopefully with representation from Bloomsbury Speakers again – and the ‘early bird’ discounts for booking sooner rather than later end this month. Details are below.
As a member, the meeting role I find the most enjoyable and simultaneously the most challenging to perform is that of the Toastmaster. It can appear to be quite a daunting task at first, and many members shy away from the role, but it’s definitely the most rewarding and valuable experience in our regular meetings. Here are a few of the reasons why:
It maximises your stage time. We all know the importance of taking as many opportunities to speak as possible and, as you’re required to address the audience before and after every single speaker on the programme, no one gets more stage time in a regular meeting than the Toastmaster.
It’s both prepared and impromptu. As we like to have themes in our meetings, the role of Toastmaster requires almost as much preparation as a prepared speech. You need to introduce your theme (and role) at the start, as well as familiarise yourself with the speakers’ responses – perhaps adding your own take on them – but you’ll also have to think on your feet when something unexpected happens, whether that’s a change to the programme or an interruption at the venue.
It combines skills from the other roles such as time management and listening. The Toastmaster is responsible for keeping the meeting running to time and therefore needs to make on-the-spot decisions about the length of the break and table topics session. Listening carefully to each speaker means that they can also make smooth transitions between each segment by referring back to what the audience just heard.
As you can see, the benefits (and challenges) are plentiful and, speaking personally, the ‘buzz’ I get from performing the Toastmaster role is unlike any other and needs to be experienced first-hand – so if you’ve performed all of the other functionary roles at least once, why not try out the Toastmaster role at the next opportunity? You won’t regret it!
That’s all from me – it’s been a pleasure serving you and I look forward to seeing the club continue to go from strength to strength. See you at a meeting soon!
Swarajit Das
Outgoing President
Bloomsbury Speakers
Key facts – just the stuff you really need to know
Our regular meetings in June are on the 9th and 23rd – check ClubPlan for speaking slots.
Bloomsbury Speakers has again achieved the title of President’s Distinguished Club, the first club in Division L to do so this year.
Welcome to our two newest members, Peter and Emma, who will be giving their icebreaker speeches this month. Contact membership@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you’re interested in becoming a member.
A new committee will take over running the club from July, led by Jo (President) with Helen (VP Education), James (VP Membership & Mentoring), Svetlana (VP Public Relations), Rebecca (Treasurer), Michelle (Sergeant at Arms) and Liz (Secretary).
Table Topics champion, David Jones will be running a workshop for Phoenix Speakers on Thursday, 12th June. Tickets are £5 from Eventbrite.
Former table topics champion, Paul Carroll will be running a workshop for Citi Criers on Thursday, 19th June. Contact katywoolcott@hotmail.com to book.
The club has a copy of the last District 71 conference DVD which is available for members to borrow on request.
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Written by Tracey
