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 [email protected] for more information.

Autumn contests
Finally, we would like to announce our Humorous and Table Topics contests taking place online on 14^th 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 27^th July, 10^th August and 24^th 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!

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
  

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  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!

  

  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.

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  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 –

  

  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…

  

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  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.

  

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  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.
    
    

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    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!

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    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 [email protected].

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    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 [email protected].
    

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    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

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    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!

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

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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.

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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.

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.

Thanks to the organisers- Swarajit, Yassine and Sterling for organising and making both the events a grand success.

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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.

Quick note:

We’re always happy to receive ideas for more social events, so do get in touch via [email protected] or the WhatsApp group with any suggestions you may have.

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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!

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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 [email protected] for any questions you may have.   

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Upcoming meetings 

Our first meeting of the new year is on 13^th 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.

• 13^th January
• 27^th January
• 10^th February
• 24^th February
• 9^th March
• 23^rd 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.

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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.

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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.

Hello and welcome to the Autumn 2019 newsletter

The days are growing shorter and the light is getting dimmer in the sky. After an abundance of sun, flowers & heat amid bouts of unceasing rain & boisterous winds- it’s now time to say goodbye to this year’s rather frenzied London summer.

But we hope you had a good one.

Lots of exciting things are happening at Bloomsbury Speakers. Our new committee team has now taken charge and is working hard to ensure the club runs smooth and fine. Check out who’s who here.

Feel free to reach out to our committee members for any questions about the club, membership fees, pathways, mentorship, or for any support you may need in your Toastmasters’ journey.

  What’s in this newsletter?

• Contest season
• 10-year anniversary
• Beyond public speaking
• Club socials
• Events
• Useful links & upcoming meetings
• New members

Contest season

Autumn in the UK means it’s Humorous Speech & Table Topics contest season, and the Bloomsbury Speakers’ club contest date has been set for Monday, 30^th September.

It’s a fun & unpredictable night of public speaking and all members of the club are eligible to compete.

• Humorous Speech contest involves contestants delivering a 5-7 minute prepared speech on a topic of their choosing.
• Table Topics contest involves delivering a 1-2 minute impromptu speech on a topic set by the contest chair. This could be about absolutely anything – so be ready to test your spontaneous speaking skills.

The winners of each contest will go up against the winners from the other clubs in our area – the date for the Area contest will be announced soon.

Members are encouraged to enter both contests, but we also need functionaries to help run the show on the night – contest chairs, timekeepers, a sergeant at arms and a couple of vote counters.

Do volunteer by signing up on EasySpeak or write to us at [email protected].

Be an audience

Even if you are not contesting, please do come along to the meeting. It’s an excellent opportunity to learn and pick up some handy speaking tips & tricks from our versatile speakers.
And our speakers could do with some cheering and encouragement too!   

Judging the contest

Judges are normally invited from other Toastmasters clubs, which means we need our members to reciprocate by judging at their club contests. Please get in touch via [email protected] if you’re interested in helping out. It’s a great opportunity to see and judge some entertaining speeches from speakers outside our own club – and you don’t need any previous experience as a full briefing will be given in advance.

We are 10 years old! It’s time for a celebration

This year marks the tenth anniversary of Bloomsbury Speakers. Over the years we have grown as a club, improved our presence, won competitions, and helped our members become better public speakers.  It’s time to celebrate our success and accomplishments.

To mark the occasion, we are holding two very special celebratory events!
1. Saturday, 26^th October – dinner & drinks get together with all members and guests at old haunt, The Clerk & Well pub, more details on this to follow.

2.  Monday, 28^th October – we will be holding a special Toastmasters meeting featuring some of our most legendary members, past and present, performing speeches and functionary roles – including several former presidents of the club. This will be from 6:30pm at one of our more recent venues, The City Pride.

Formal invitations will go out nearer the time, but for now please save the dates in your diaries – we look forward to seeing you there!

Beyond public speaking

Our members are set to make a difference – and we are not just confined to our stage.

In July, our long-standing Toastmaster, Jamie completed a relay swim of the English Channel with 4 other people in her team, the Aspire Panthers – to raise money for the spinal injury charity Aspire.

They swam 21 miles in 16C water, swimming all through the night, with lots of jellyfish! It took them 13 hours and 8 minutes.

Earlier this month, our very own Chantal also completed a relay swim for Aspire. Chantal’s team – Aspire Tigers swam through the night and battled seriously rough waves to complete their Channel relay in 14 hours and 46 minutes. Chantal had the privilege of being the one to land in France! 

It requires enormous courage and unceasing passion to swim in chilly waters and for gruelling hours. Well done to both of you!

To support the charity – Jamie & Chantal had also organised a fundraising pub quiz earlier this year and gave all members of Bloomsbury Speakers the privilege to be a part of the cause.

As a club, we are always keen on supporting training, workshops, charity events/ social activities organised by our members. If you are organising an event or have some interesting ideas to share with the club, please get in touch with our committee members or send us an email at [email protected].

Club socials

Another July highlight – our ex-president Peter Richardson celebrated his 28^th birthday with the Bloomsbury bunch. Highlights of the evening – great food, music, dance, a friendly dog and polaroid camera – here are some cool pictures to relive the day.

What else to look out for?

Fancy an Autumn hike?

What better way to enjoy the Autumn colours – join us for an all-day hike on Sunday, 29th September followed by a pub dinner at the end of it.

Location TBC but it will be just a train ride from London.
For more updates, keep an eye on the Bloomsbury Speakers chat group or get in touch with our organiser Jamie for more info.

Bloomsbury Speakers Christmas party

The festive season is not far off and we have started gearing up for our club’s Christmas social which will take place on Saturday, 7^th December.

Our very thoughtful Sergeants at Arms, Yassine & Sterling, are on the task of looking for possible venues, food & drink and entertainment options.

More details to follow closer to the time. Meanwhile, if you have any suggestions for the Christmas party feel free to drop these at [email protected].

Events you may be interested in  

A Masterclass in Public Speaking & Presentation, by Kings Cross Speakers

Saturday, 28th September

This is an excellent course for anyone who wishes to improve public speaking or communication skills. The course will help you to:

• Develop skills, including voice, clarity, intonation and body language
• Prepare for a public speech, understand audiences and tailor the talk to different audiences
• Minimise nervousness and increase confidence
• Apply delivery techniques, including memorable delivery, how to use findings from science to increase effectiveness, how to create & maintain positive energy, persuasion, and how to combine all skills & knowledge gained for effective public speaking.

Investment: £30- £40

Timings: 10:30am – 5:00pm BST

Location: SamsungKX, Coal Drops Yard, Stable Street, Kings Cross N1C 4DQ

For full details and to register visit here

Other useful info

Need a mentor?

Need someone to guide, inspire and challenge you through your Toastmasters’ journey?

Anyone who joins Toastmasters can request for a mentor and at Bloomsbury Speakers, our experienced Toastmasters are always happy to help & support members. Do get in touch with our VP of Mentoring Stella for more info.  

EasySpeak

Getting ready for the next meeting? The fastest way to book a role or a speech is through our website – using the handy EasySpeak feature. All you need is your login details – so do give it a go.

Check your progress

Want to check your next Pathways project? – Go to Base Camp on https://www.toastmasters.org/.
Base Camp is your online gateway to the Pathways learning experience – here you can work on projects, track your progress, connect with club members and have access to a wealth of useful resources, videos, tools & tips.

Upcoming meetings

Only six meetings left until the end of the year. Make sure you have booked your speeches!

• 23^rd September
• 14^th October
• 11^th November
• 25^th November
• 9^th December
• 16^th December

New members

Finally, we would like to extend a warm welcome to our newest members –Mykal, Joseph, Jeremy and Fabio. We look forward to hearing your ice breaker speeches soon.