Club Newsletter – October 2020

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What’s in this newsletter?

  • Public speaking in lockdown
  • A member’s experience
  • Contest news
  • Puzzled by Pathways?
  • Next meetings
  • And finally…

Public speaking in lockdown

The “new normal” shows no signs of going away, and Bloomsbury Speakers intends to continue with online meetings for the foreseeable future – but this isn’t bad news! Many of us also have to attend our work meetings and even job interviews online too, so Toastmasters meetings are still perfect practice for public speaking in the real world. The real world has changed and we’ve simply changed with it – but, of course, we still provide the safe and encouraging environment and constructive feedback from other members that we always have.

What’s more, you now have the chance to attend meetings at clubs all around the world from the comfort of your own home, or indeed anywhere you please. Have you ever given a speech at 1 o’clock in the morning?! It’s also a great way of feeling more connected if you’re quite isolated at this time.

To support people during this difficult period, the club’s committee has taken the decision to reduce our membership fees, so now is the perfect time to join or re-join as a member. See our website for more details: https://www.bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk/join.

A member’s experience

We’ve been asking some of our members to tell us why they joined Bloomsbury Speakers and why they continue coming after so long. Here’s the 3-minute version of Helen’s story.

If you can’t see the video above, please view it on YouTube: https://youtu.be/gzTtYZlkeyM?t=1.

We’d love to hear about your own experiences of personal development and how you think Toastmasters could help you further, so please get in touch. In the meantime, do have a read of what our president Yamina has had to say about her journey: Get on the stage, tell your story.

Contest news

It’s contest season up and down the country and our members have been rising to the challenge of competing online. In the club’s Humorous Speech contest, Yassine joked about his identity as a French-Moroccan in the UK and the pressures of turning 30, while Swarajit gave a speech about a possible impending robot uprising that would be far scarier than any shown in the movies!

The results were:

  • 1st place – Yassine
  • 2nd place – Swarajit

In the Table Topics contest, Kamakshi, Swarajit, Yassine, Mara and Matt were each asked on-the-spot to give a 1-2 minute impromptu speech on why 2020 has been the best year ever! It was a challenging question, but everyone gave their own unique and fascinating response.

The results were:

  • 1st place – Matt
  • 2nd place – Yassine
  • 3rd place – Mara

Swarajit and Matt went on to represent the club at the Area C2 finals (with Yassine qualifying for the next round in a different area through his second club, Experience French). Swarajit again placed second in the Humorous Speech area contest, while Matt went on to (again!) win the Table Topics contest. Congratulations!

Matt qualifies for the Division C final which will be held on Saturday, 31st October and you can register to watch and support him at this link.

Yassine’s area contest will be on Thursday, 22nd October and you can register to attend at this link.

Puzzled by Pathways?

Pathways is the Toastmasters educational programme that all members follow to improve their public speaking and leadership skills. It currently offers a choice of 11 different paths including Presentation Mastery, Engaging Humour and Visionary Communication.

Each path is made up of 5 levels in which the projects let you gradually build up core skills in public speaking, interpersonal communication, strategic leadership, management and confidence.

The new system may seem daunting at first for our longer-serving members, but it’s actually relatively straightforward when you look into it. For example, Level 1 is identical for every path and so everyone starts in exactly the same way with the same three projects:

  1. Ice Breaker
  2. Evaluation and Feedback
  3. Researching and Presenting

We’ll include further tips on Pathways in future newsletters, but why not get started today by following the links above? And why not book in your next (or first) Pathways speech slot straight away on our meeting management site at ToastmasterClub.org?

As an added incentive, the club is also offering up prizes to those members who perform the most speeches and roles for the rest of the year – it’s going to be a closely run race, so don’t wait to get started. We’re really looking forward to hearing your speeches!

Next meetings

Our next meetings will be on the 12th and 26th of October from 6:45pm, and will be held online using Zoom. Please register on our Meetup or Eventbrite pages to receive the login details and a reminder nearer the time. Guests are always welcome to attend.

And finally…

Bloomsbury Speakers has a new mascot – meet Peter the Pangolin! As a gift to our immediate past president Margarita, and the club as a whole, our current president Yamina has adopted a pangolin family on our behalf at a conservation project in the Central African Republic.

Pangolins are the most trafficked animals in the world and we are now helping Born Free to protect them in the wild from trade and exploitation.

We received a certificate and a stuffed toy for our generosity, so please give our new honorary member a warm welcome at our next meeting!

Yamina bloomsbury speakers

Get on the stage, tell your story

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Welcome to Toastmasters and to Bloomsbury Speakers. I am Yamina Bakiri, and I am the president of Bloomsbury Speakers Toastmasters year 2020/21.

As you probably know, Toastmasters is a worldwide organisation dedicated to public speaking with hundred thousands members sharing the same goal: become a better speaker and leader. To succeed, there is only one golden rule: go on the stage – at the moment, a virtual stage – and start speaking and repeat it again and again. As Aristotle said: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”

In the public speaking arena, a set of key rules and tools allows any neophyte to master this art.

The rule of 3, figures of speech, pauses, strong eye contact, hand gestures, voice modulation – you will be taught all this and more during your Toastmasters journey through specific educational programs. At Bloomsbury Speakers, we are very proud of our mentorship program tailored to members’ needs, where our most experienced members guide the newer ones through their journey and help them achieve their educational goals.

To me, Toastmasters is much more than public speaking. Ultimately, it is a place to learn how to communicate well. In any setting professional or personal, communication is one of the essential skills to master in life. Communication is a 2-way exchange: speaking and listening. From the speaker’s view, communication is the ability to share a story. Importantly, from the listener’s view, communication is the opportunity to learn something new.

As an audience member, during the same evening, you may learn about ant colonies and climbing Kilimanjaro as well uncovering the tips and tricks of speaking well and confidently. Ultimately, Toastmasters will teach you how to share a story best and adapt its delivery to what you want to achieve (what is your main message, how do you want the audience to feel?).

At Bloomsbury Speakers, we want to help you to find your voice and tell your OWN story.

Let me share about Bloomsbury Speakers and why I am so passionate about the club –

I am proud of the community we have built together. Our club is highly diverse – while we all joined for different reasons and are from all walks of life, our commitment to self-improvement and learning is unanimous. We have experienced members with masterclass like speeches and most candid ones who often share the most inspiring stories. Importantly we have fun together; often after our face to face meetings (in a non Covid19 world), we stay around for drinks and pizzas. But our virtual socials are no less, and we make a point to keep in touch with our members during this very different time.

Now let me share my own experience –

When I joined a few years ago, I wasn’t scared to be on stage, but I wasn’t comfortable either. Public speaking is no picnic, especially for a non-English native introvert-extrovert who tends to speak too fast. At the beginning of my Toastmasters journey, I was quite cautious about my time on stage, I wanted it to be as short as possible and only allowed myself a few stage appearances to present well-prepared and rehearsed speeches. I eventually realised that I was missing out as the stage is the best place to experiment, find your voice and progress.

To this day, I still have this sweet adrenaline rush before going to the stage, and I love it. I love the feeling, of course, as well as what comes next, and when on stage, I no longer want it to end.

So I invite you all to join us and start your Toastmaster journey to become a better speaker and leader! Come to our meetings, as a guest or member, get onto the stage and tell us your story.

Thank you for your time, and I look forward to meeting you and seeing you on stage!

Summer Newsletter – July 2020, plus a quick survey

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Hello and welcome to the summer 2020 newsletter!

As you know, since the beginning of the lockdown, we have moved our meetings to Zoom and on to the virtual stage to carry on with our mission to become better leaders, speakers and Toastmasters.

A very quick survey
Given the public health crisis, we will remain online for a little while longer, at least until it is safe for us to meet again in person. We have now established our new e-routine and are getting comfortable on the virtual stage… well, there’s no place like home! We would like to ask you what you would like our Toastmasters meetings to look like in this environment and, with your ideas and feedback, we will reshape our meetings as much as we can to respond to members’ needs and preferences.

Please could we ask you to take the survey here – it will take you less than 5 minutes.

Your new committee
July is the beginning of the Toastmasters year and a new committee has taken on its functions to serve the club and its members for the year to come. We would like to take this opportunity to thank our immediate past president Margarita and last year’s committee for their hard work and commitment.

Your committee for 2020-21 is:

  • President – Yamina Bakiri
  • Co-Vice Presidents Education – Matt Robertson & Tomasz Setkowski
  • Vice President Membership – Raymond Hill
  • Vice President Public Relations – Kamakshi Pandya
  • Vice President Mentoring – Yassine Meziane
  • Treasurer – Lei Li
  • Secretary – Helen Hosein
  • Sergeant at Arms – Stirling Habbitts
  • Immediate Past President – Margarita Sachkova

Irrespective of the platform we use to communicate, our top priorities for this year are education, education and education! We would like to help our members achieve their educational goals and our Vice Presidents for Education and Mentoring will make it their mission to get you there. Please feel free to reach out to them if you have specific objectives and want them to concoct you a personalised plan to grow and learn. The first rule is to show up… attend the meetings and sign up to perform a role or speech every time. Don’t wait to be READY… life doesn’t wait. A perfect speech is a delivered speech – full stop. Please follow the link here to easy-Speak to continue your educational journey NOW.

Pathways and mentoring
Last month was our final opportunity to complete any awards from the communication and leadership tracks in the Toastmasters legacy programme. Everyone is now on the new Pathways educational programme and mentoring is available within the club to help you get started. Contact our VP Mentoring Yassine via mentoring@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk for more information.

Autumn contests
Finally, we would like to announce our Humorous and Table Topics contests taking place online on 14th September 2020. Please save the date and start preparing your speech. If you would like to enter the contest, please let us know. There are no qualification requirements, you just need to be a paid up member of the club.

If your membership fee is due soon or has just expired, please note that we are offering a discount at the moment for all those renewing their membership, so join us again and don’t miss out!

Next meetings
Our next three meetings are on 27th July, 10th August and 24th August and will be hosted on Zoom unless otherwise announced. Keep an eye on our members’ WhatsApp group or public Meetup page for details of how to join.

We are really looking forward to seeing you again on the virtual stage!

Spring Newsletter – May 2020

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A mega desk show propped by virtual handshakes, muted applause and silent cheers.

An audience safely fitted within 3×4 grid boxes, proudly flaunting their unique surroundings, which are funky and fascinating, and sometimes bizarre and absurdly mind blogging.
A sunny holiday in Hawaii, trekking in Virginia Lake, an exotic bar in a classy fish free aquarium, a gigantic cat floating in the solar system, the tranquil deep blue seashore and mysteriously revolving donuts of 12 different varieties in some odd blue space!

The public speaking stage is now very different.

The entire planet is suddenly thrust and vacuumed into your digital screen. A perfect pitch for your imaginary world for that nerve racking table topic, except it’s real.

Over the last 10 weeks, the world has Zoomed in and by now we have a pretty good grasp of this bizarre virtual transformation (well almost!).

But our members and guests are making the most of this new, digital setting. Our platform is more global than ever before.

In this newsletter, we will cover more on our online meetings as well as

  • Spring contests – the results
  • Online meet ups – what’s new
  • Club socials
  • Member tips
  • New committee
  • Competent Communicator awards
  • Membership fees
  • Upcoming meeting dates

    Spring contests – the results!

    This year’s club round of the International Speech and Evaluation contests were held in February and had some mind-boggling twist and turns.

    Mara, won our Evaluation contest and Helen won the International Speech contest, with Raymond placing second. Mara and Raymond (as Helen was unavailable) then represented the club at the Area 2 final against the winners from other clubs in our locality – with Mara again placing first against some tough competition to qualify for the Division C final!

    Toastmasters Evaluation contest

    With new social distancing rules in place, the later rounds of the contests were held online. This indeed gave a very different feel to the competition, especially when the stage is at the mercy of your internet connection! Mara surpassed the challenge of both the technology and the absence of a real stage and made the club proud with her wins.

    Here’s her take on participating in the competition:

    “I learnt so much more about the evaluation process. One thing I would say is that I couldn’t have done it without the support of the club, especially not without the support of our president Margarita who encouraged me to participate in the contest and helped me become more confident in my role as an evaluator.”

    Competitions are a great way to challenge yourself, enhance your abilities and identify your true potential. While the Humorous Speech and Table Topics competition will be in the Autumn, we encourage you to participate in regular meetings, book in new speeches and take up more functionary roles.

    Toastmasters is a safe and friendly way to improve your public speaking, and also partly competitive where members are evaluated on their performance and recognised for excellence. So, keep signing up and attending the club meetings.

    Online meet ups – what’s new?

    For the time being, all our meetings are now being held online via Zoom. The agenda remains the same and all roles and speeches are performed in the same manner as you would experience in a regular setting, but with a bit of a twist!

    The timekeeper role, in particular, has taken a creative turn. Changing the screen backgrounds, the use of imagery and the novel introduction of a digital gavel by Stirling has worked very well.

    Sometimes (and as a rare event) the timekeeper himself becomes the colour or a sign post, as you can see below, our timekeeper Swarajit turned into a glaring yellow warning sign in one of the meetings –

    Bloomsbury Speakers online meeting

    Feedback and voting are done through the chatbox and the poll options, and the winners receive a hearty, (and in this case) unmuted round of applause along with our president Margarita’s very encouraging and highly energetic cheering.

    And here are some more pictures from our last meetings…

    Bloomsbury Speakers meeting

    Club Socials

    We at Bloomsbury Speakers love our socials.  While the weather is perfect to equally lure both trekkers and non-trekkers (or anything to do with the sun), our last social was a quirky and fun virtual catch up on Zoom (which also swerved into some kind of a lockdown drawing session!).

    This picture went viral on our Bloomsbury Speakers chat group. The message is loud and clear – Stay Home and Stay safe (the rest is up for individual interpretation).

    Also, a very warm welcome to Luisa who is now back from her 10 month travel expedition. It’s great to have you back!

    A quick throwback of our pre lockdown down social – Valentine’s day celebrations and Luisa’s welcome party.

     

    Excelling in your online meetings – member tips 

    The importance of being a good speaker and a communicator is even more important now as we are under greater pressure of speaking well on camera. We thought of sharing some handy tips and our long time member Matt has some interesting takeaways:

    ‘Competing on a screen is quite surreal. Sure, it’s easier as you don’t have an audience to make you feel nervous. But with an audience watching you, you can perform easily, by gauging their facial reactions to your points. When an audience is present, you also have the luxury of moving around a stage and making strong eye contact with everyone in the room. But with a laptop, you have to stand still and stare into a small dot.

    I notice a lot of people in the initial stages sitting down to do their speeches. This is a big faux pas as it lulls you into a false sense of security as if you are attending a business meeting.

    • Stand up to pitch. This also allows you to get more oxygen into your body, which will help you save breath, and add the luxury of moving your arms more to emphasise key points.
    • Make sure the virtual audience can see your entire upper body, and you have a non distracting background
    • Stop using Zoom backgrounds, they’ve been ‘rinsed’ for humour purposes. I’d recommend a wall behind you, your kitchen, or bookcase. Make sure you have the time keeper pinned as well. You have a ‘face’ to present too, and you can easily see a big green, orange or red card.

      Competent Communicator – and the award goes to…

      This year we have a record number of Competent Communicator awards. A round of applause for: Scott Burgess, Matthew Robertson, Atul Chauhan, Sarah Peacey, Raymond Hill and Yamina Bakiri!

      And for Competent Leader Bronze award: Sheldon Dee, Peter Richardson, Chantal Lyons, Margarita Sachkova

      Well done to those who reached new Pathways levels: Mara Dumitru, Peter Francis, Greg O’Grady (moved from Level 1 to level 2), Yassine Meziane and Margarita Sachkova (Moved from Level 2 to level 3).

      If you have reached a new Pathways level (or any other education award) in 2019/2020 but do not see your name here, contact us, and we’ll make sure to amend our records!

      Our club for the very first time has achieved 10 out of 10 Distinguished Club Programme Credits and received the highest level of recognition in the TM world – President’s Distinguished Club.

      Your achievements and the Committee’s hard work has paid off well. We are very proud of it and can’t wait to arrange a Zoom party to celebrate!

      New committee – Want to lead your club?

      As you may know, every Toastmasters club is run by a committee of volunteers from its membership. As we approach the last month of the Toastmasters year (which runs from July to June), it’s time to start thinking about whether you would like to lead your club in the year ahead.

      Joining your club’s committee is a fantastic way of gaining and honing your leadership skills and, just like a regular meeting, a Toastmasters committee is a safe and friendly environment in which to do so. There are roles to suit all levels of skills, experience and time commitments and you’ll also have a direct impact on the day-to-day running of your club.

      Any role can be taken up by any member of the club for the term July 2020 to June 2021, but we’re especially looking for people to fill the positions of Vice President Membership, co-Vice President Public Relations, Treasurer and Secretary.

      If you’d like to find out more about what the different committee roles entail, then feel free to speak to any of the existing members or get in touch via president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.

      Club membership – fees and renewals 

      Club members who were in good standing as of the end of February will not be charged till the end of June. The new committee will update members on fees and renewables in July.

      There’s great news for old club members who want to rejoin – join us before the end of June to receive a generous discount on both yearly and six monthly memberships:

    • £50 for 6 months instead of £80
    • £80 for 12 months instead of £100Talk to our existing committee on how you can join or write to us on president@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk.

      Upcoming dates

      Our remaining meetings for this Toastmasters year will be held on the following dates:

      • 8th June
      • 22nd June
      • 13th July
      • 27th July

      If you’re a member, the Zoom links will be posted on our WhatsApp group. Guests can see the link by indicating their attendance on Meetup.

      You can also attend other club meetings across the globe. Here are some of the places to look for online meetings –

      UK & Ireland :https://toastmasterclub.org/meetonline.php

      Mainland Europe: https://tmclub.eu/meetonline.php (

      rest of the world: https://easy-speak.org/meetonline.php

      Toastmasters International:- https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

       

      That’s all for this newsletter – hope you enjoyed reading it.

      We would love to hear any feedback that you may have and do let us know if you have anything interesting to share or contribute.

      Stay safe!

Winter Newsletter – December 2019

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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.

Humorous speech contest

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.

Bloomsbury Speakers

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.

Bloomsbury Speakers club social

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.

Bloomsbury Speakers club socials

Quick note:

We’re always happy to receive ideas for more social events, so do get in touch via socials@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk 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 mentoring@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk 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.