Meeting Report: 21st May 2018

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Introduction

Our last meeting was on Monday 21st May. We enjoyed four high-quality prepared speeches and a table topics session about artistic and scientific discoveries.

Roles

Peter R, President of the Club, opened the meeting by reminding us that being members of Toastmasters is a great way of becoming excellent communicators. He then handed over the reins of the meeting to Toastmaster Sarah who explained the agenda and introduced Timekeeper Lei and Grammarian Scott. Scott chose “ambiguous” as the word of the day.

Prepared speeches

First to speak was Andy with his Competent Communicator Speech #4 “The Greatest Briton”. Andy spoke about a more secret side of Winston Churchill, one which believed in a racial hierarchy and used racist beliefs as a basis for developing policies. Andy commented that the idealisation of Churchill to this day is likely to perpetuate the injustices of the past.

The second speaker was Chantal with her Storytelling Speech #2 “Scar Tissue”. Chantal delivered a personal and heart-felt speech about a water skiing accident her father had on the island of Majorca when she was a teenager. Now that her father has recovered and continues to water ski, Chantal keeps thinking about how lucky her family was to escape tragedy.

Third to speak was Sheldon with his Entertaining Speaker Speech #2 “You Don’t Know Me”. By explaining two experiments which had taken place at a summer camp in the US and at a university, Sheldon concluded that many of us believe we know more about others than others know about us. This is also because we tend to exhibit different personalities when in a group.

Last to speak was Helen with her Speaking to Inform Speech #2 “Who are the Windrush Generation and Why Should I Care”. Helen gave a brief powerpoint presentation on the current situation affecting the Windrush Generation and urged us to react by contacting the Home Office, contacting our local MPs and/or supporting the Windrush Justice Fund.

Luisa then led the guest introductions.

Table Topics

After the break, we heard from the evening’s evaluators – Michelle, Stirling, Peter and Atul.

After that, Table Topics Master Swarajit led a great table topics session, and Stirling, Roland, Farri, Stella, Han, Luisa and Andy participated. Highlights included Stirling predicting that humans will be less hairy in the future, and Stella concluding that washing up liquid is a pretty useless discovery compared to dishwashers!

Grammarian Scott then reported on the great uses of language during the meeting.

Finally, visiting General Evaluator Henry evaluated our club and the meeting.

Awards

Best Speaker: Helen

Best Evaluator: Atul

Best Table Topic: Stirling

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will take place at Wedge Issue Pizza & Beer (91-95 Clerkenwell Rd, London EC1R 5BX), on Monday 11th June 18:30-21:00. Come over to practice your public speaking skills!

Please feel free to get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions.

President’s Newsletter: May 2017

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Dear Members and Friends of Bloomsbury Speakers

As the days get warmer and longer and with the end of the Toastmasters now in sight at the end of June, I thought it might be a good time to reflect on our year so far.

Since July the club has welcomed 12 new members, each of them bringing their own unique stories, but a common desire to step outside of their comfort zone.  We have seen a few of existing members earn their Competent Communicator award, Competent Leader award, and even an Advanced Communication award (well done Helen!).  We’ve had to say a sad farewell to our old venue at the Clerk & Well, but we gleefully bid good riddance to our old club motto.  We’ve also modernised our website and picked up an award for our PR efforts on social media.

Most importantly though, we’ve had the pleasure of witnessing so many of our members grow in their abilities in speaking, listening and leadership, and all in the warm and supportive atmosphere that Bloomsbury Speakers prides itself on.

Perhaps now is also a good time to ask yourself what your goals are at Toastmasters over the next few months. Maybe you’re an advanced member who wants to take it up a gear by running a workshop, or booking in some challenging speeches?  Maybe are you a relatively new member looking get through the next few speeches of the Competent Communicator manual, or work on your evaluation skills?   Whatever your goals, my recommendation is to seize all the opportunities that Toastmasters brings!

On that theme, the end of the Toastmasters year is when we ask all club officers to step down from their positions to give our newer members the chance to be part of the leadership team.   Do you have creative ideas about how the club can bring in guests, drive engagement, and help our members realise their full potential?  Being on the leadership team comes with a few responsibilities and challenges, but it is through these that we learn the most.

I can honestly say my experience as VPE and then President has been huge at helping me to recognise my strengths and constructively address my weaknesses in a leadership role.  There are several roles to choose from on the committee, with varying degrees of time commitment and responsibility, so come and talk to us to find out more.

Have a great weekend, and see you at the next meeting!

Sheldon
President, Bloomsbury Speakers

Meeting Report: 10 April 2017

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Written by Margarita

Introduction

On Monday, 10 April, Bloomsbury Speakers tried out a new venue – Horseshoe Pub for their regular meeting. It was a fun and inspiring night with many guests who actively participated in this meeting.

Roles

The meeting started with a welcome speech from Acting President Peter R. who told us how Bloomsbury Speakers helped him become a confident speaker and achieve success at work. He introduced Toastmaster Swarajit who stepped in for this role last minute and entertained us with fun the facts of club members’ doubles that he found on Bing. Swarajit introduced Timekeeper Barbara and Grammarian Julian.

Prepared speeches

The first speaker was Scott, in his Icebreaker speech he suggested that limitations are not always limiting and through sharing his personal experience of studying Spanish he inspired us to take advantage of limitations we have in life and use them to have more things done.

Olga was the second to speak. She gave the first speech of an Advanced manual “Speaking to Inform” entitled “London Markets”. In her fun and engaging speech she recommended us to visit three of her favourite street markets: Columbia Road flower market, Old Billingsgate fish market and Sunbury Antiques.

The third speech was given by Margarita. She also cracked on her Advanced manual and gave her first Storytelling speech entitled “The Happy Prince”. Margarita told us a touching story about a statue of a Prince and a little sparrow, who sacrificed their lives for helping others.

Then Stella, Sergeant at Arms for the night, introduced the guests.

Evaluations and Table Topics

After the break, we heard from the three evaluators – Pao-Sheng, Heleana and Rupert. Then Yamina, the Table Topics Master, took the floor. She structured her very philosophical and entertaining questions around the theme of sun. We heard from Peter F, Heleana, Gary, David, Julian, Pao-Sheng, Anko and Charlotte, who all gave impromptu speeches for up to two minutes. Atul evaluated each speaker afterwards.

Finally, our visiting General Evaluator, Kaveh evaluated our club and the meeting. Peter, the Acting President of Bloomsbury Speakers and VPE of the Club told the members more about his role and invited those who are interested to apply to join the Committee next year. If you would like to learn more about the Committee and/or are interested in joining it, please get in touch!

Then Peter wrapped up the evening by announcing the awards.

Awards

Best Speaker: Margarita

Best Evaluator: Heleana and Atul

Best Table Topic: Helena and Gary

There was also an extra award that the Club received that night: for PR and Social Media.

Next meeting

The next meeting will take place at The Horseshoe (24 Clerkenwell Close, EC1R 0AG), on Monday, 24 April, at 6.30pm. Looking forward to seeing you there!

Please get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions!

Meeting Report: 23 January 2017

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Written by Julian

The second meeting of the year was held at Wedge Issue. Thirty people braved the cold night and showed up to practice their public speaking skills. Overall, 20 people went on stage to speak.

The evening kicked off with our President, Sheldon. Then the stage was handed over to the Toastmaster of the evening, Clare. The meeting was supported by Yamina as Timekeeper and Julian as Grammarian.

Our first prepared speech was given by Chantal who told is about a book that changed her way of looking at the streets of London and inspired us to read it.

This was followed by Sheldon‘s Speech #8 “Generally Speaking” who nearly convinced us that younger siblings were less intelligent than first childs before totally debunking the idea.

Our third prepared speech and number 10 for Margarita was about how she transformed her mindset and got rid of her fear of dogs. A powerful speech.

Lastly, Helen gave an inspirational speech on setting SMART goals to achieve new years resolutions.

Just before the break Peter welcomed our wonderful guests and gave each of them an opportunity to introduced themselves and make a short 30 second speech.

After the break, we heard from the evaluators who had delivered their feedback on the prepared speeches – Tracey Alexander, Stella, Peter R. and Swarajit.

After the break, we had a fun series of Table Topics around the concept of post-truth. We had four guests come on stage and do an impromptu speech for the first time and were evaluated by Helen.

Finally, our visiting General Evaluator, Tim Shaw from London Victorians, evaluated our club and the meeting, including participants who had not received feedback. Sheldon, the President of Bloomsbury Speakers, wrapped up the evening by announcing the awards.

Afterwards, we switched gears into networking. Several pizzas were ordered, beers were drank and new friendships were made! Come and visit us at our next meeting!

Awards

Best Speaker: Sheldon

Best Evaluator: Helen

Best Table Topic: Peter

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting will be on Monday, 13 of February, at The Clerk and Well (though the venue may be subject to change). Looking forward to seeing you all there! Please get in touch at info@bloomsburyspeakers.org.uk if you have any questions.

Meeting Report 26 October 2015

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Written by Svetlana

Introduction

Bloomsbury Speakers Club hosted its regular meeting on Monday 26th October 2015 with an enthusiastic opening from President Helen encouraging and advising the future and current speakers that each speech should contain a message, which should be delivered with clarity and athenticity.

Prepared Speeches

After the Introduction, Helen handed the meeting over to the Toastmaster of the Evening, Peter F., who introduced the theme of the day – Moments of Embarrassment. A very dramatic question was handled mainly with humour and wit.

Functionaries of the day were: Michelle, the Timekeeper, and Zita, the Grammarian, who introduced the word of the day “Alacrity”

There were three prepared speeches on the agenda. The first speaker was Peter R. who delivered his No. 2 Speech, entitled “It’s Impossible” with humour and passion revealing to us that three most widely spread technological advances such as plane, computer and television were predicted as impossible to sell and to have a market in the world. Tracey delivered her No. 6 speech project entitled “18th Birthday?” about a very memorable 18th birthday party where a family decided to have a very big guest list, but the evening turned sour and then very-very sour. Helen’s Advanced Story telling speech “The Dinner Bill” was devoted to gender equality in relationships – a rather innovative topic for toastmasters, which kept everybody’s attention high!

We had warmly hosted guest introductions from Swarajit and thorough evaluations from Svetlana, Sheldon, and Robert.

Table topics

 

The table topics session was conducted by Janet and the theme was all about those Embarrassing Moments:

Margarita told us about a real life story how her trousers ripped in parts in a public place in the presence of her co-workers and she became famous in several country offices of her company with photos!

Marco told us what happened when his best friend’s mum heard something he would not want her to hear!

Laura told us how her trousers fell down on a sports day at school!

Heleana shared her worst best case scenario about an imagined first date when a loo roll was hanging from her trousers behind her and she knew exactly what to do!

Anya told us what could happen if she was texting while walking and walked into a pole in the presence of a very good-looking guy. She would use it as an opportunity to strike a conversation depending on how badly she would hit the pole of course!

Magdalena told us that sending an incorrect email to her boss would not spoil her career as she would handle the situation towards a positive outcome.

Fabiano told us about a 10-year-old boy who confused a cop for a friend.

Sonya said she would turn around a situation where she sent a nude photo of her husband to a wrong person.

Hari gave a concise and informative evaluation of topics speakers with some useful analysis and tips for improvement.

Grammarian Zita’s report was quite substantive.

Kate McNeilly provided an excellent and thorough general evaluation of the evening with recommendations to all functionaries of the evening and evaluators who were not evaluated.

Awards

Best Speaker award went to Helen; Best Evaluator award went to Hari; and Best Impromptu Speech award was handed to Heleana!

Next meeting

Our next regular meeting is on Monday, 9th of November upstairs at Wedge Issue, 91-95 Clerkenwell Road, London, EC1R 5BX. Doors open at 6:30pm.