London Victorians Toastmasters Club

Once again the sun enlightened the upstairs room of the Windsor Castle Pub during our last meeting. Toastmaster of the evening Sergey outlined the structure of the meeting, with the customary prepared speeches, followed by evaluations and then table topics. Covering the whole spectrum of a typical Toastmasters meeting.

Once day an unknown Toastmasters member said “Toastmasters is all about a set idea within a set period of time” and Rosie made sure that we all lived up to the saying. For her first role as a new club member, Abi (congrats Abi) was grammarian with “magnified” as word of the day. To tally up the votes and collect those all-important feedback slips, was Eddie as vote counter.

Our first speaker was Alex whose speech ‘A brief history of tattoos’ recounted the history of tattoos. Did you know that caveman Otzi already had tattoos? I did not! Until I learnt it at Toastmasters! Thomas followed on with a project #7 from the Competent Communicator manual. Answering the question of ‘What caused the 2008 Financial Crisis?’ was anything but simple. Nevertheless Thomas tackled the subject with aplomb. It all started with the subprime market in the United States, whose risks where spread out in collateral debt obligations, which were then purchased by international investors. The variety of speeches and speakers is one of the great beauty of Toastmasters, which each speech project tackled in unique ways!

Since two speakers dropped out at the last minute, our Toastmaster of the evening asked for two volunteers to do improvised speeches. Club president Florian stepped in first by doing a speech on the ‘British Summer’. Extoling the virtues of Pimms and Lemonade on grass and of a milder weather compared to other countries. VP Mentorship Edwin followed on with ‘Nuclear Power – Yes Please’ although he turned the subject on its head and outlined his opposition for the energy due to its potential dangers. Some true Toastmasters spirit on show here by just doing it! Well done both!

Eleanor evaluated the first speech, commending Alex for his effective use of visual aids but recommending that he reviews his speech structure. Fahad evaluated Thomas next, congratulating Thomas for using the full length of the stage, but highlighting that all hand gestures should be open and not closed. Natalie evaluated Florian’s improvised speech, by recommending more profound eye contact but nevertheless commending audience involvement. Finally, Terry evaluated Edwin’s speech and reminded everyone one the rule that only 7% of the meaning of a message is conveyed through the word we use. Thence, vocal variety and body language are key to emphasize a message.

The table topics session was chaired by Lindsay and featured questions such as “imagine you are an alien invading earth” or “you are taken back 200 million years ago”.

The session was evaluated by Magda, which congratulated everyone for taking part and for the use of humor in the speeches. Abi followed on with her grammarian report, including a very precise count of ‘hums’ ‘err’ and other verbal crutches.

At Toastmasters, everything is evaluated and we were very privileged to have a general evaluation Christian coming all the way from Johannesburg!

 

See you all at our evaluation workshop on August 4^th!

It was under a magnificent July sun that our latest meeting was open and that another evening of public speaking began. Leading tonight’s session was very experienced speaker and member, our VPPR Marina Lussich whose theme of the evening was ‘conquering your sumit’. Indeed, learning public speaking is all about conquering one’s fears and learning a new skill just like any other, one step at a time.

In charge of time was Stephen followed by grammarian Rosie putting forward ‘challenge’ as her word of the day and finally Thomas as vote counter.

Three different speakers were on the agenda tonight, all in various stages of their Toastmasters journey and speaking on different subjects. To start off was Lindsay ‘In the blink of an eye’ speaking on how we take everything for granted if life and how we don’t take the time to pay attention to the world around us. Giving the example of world renowned violinist Joshua Bell playing in Washington metro only to be listened by seven people. Our second speaker of the evening was Magda with ‘Oxi’ speaking on the economic situation of her native Greece and the present situation unfolded. Speaking next as third speaker was Terry ‘Sales training changes over 50 years’. In his speech, Terry spoke about the development of sales techniques from Zig Ziglar focus on closing the deal to the more consultative and research based approach to selling that pervades nowadays.

The great benefit of the Toastmasters’s approach to learning public speaking, is the focus on peer to peer feedback and evaluations. Opening the evaluations was VP Mentorship Edwin, recommending that Lindsay improves by including the audience more and using more eye contact in his speaking. Club president Florian followed on by advising Magda to finish her speech with a stronger conclusion and to prepare more beforehand. Sergey’s evaluation of Terry focused on including more facts and figures, especially references as the speech objectives of project #7 of the Competent Communicator manual are to research a topic.

The table topics session was led by Prateek using quotes as the theme, participants had to explain the meaning of quotes such as “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” or “Where the magic happens” and “if you want to become a lion, train with lions”. Numerous members and guests had a go at improving their improvisation skills. Everyone was provided feedback on their speeches by Yvonne in her first time as table topics evaluator (congratulations Yvonne!).

Another great evening of public speaking was closed off by Rosie’s grammarian report commending on the use of phrases such as “delicate details”. Followed by local area 8 director Laurent evaluating the whole evening as general evaluator.

Edwin our acting President opened a very warm meeting – literally! The room had never been hotter in the story of London Victorians. Nonetheless a great crowd of 20+ members, new guests, repeating guests and Toastmasters from other clubs joined us at the Pub for a super tropical meeting.

Hiram as Toastmaster of the Day introduced his team for the evening: Yvonne as Timer for the first time, Alex ditto as Grammarian urging us to use the word RESPECT, and Steve as Vote Counter. With so many new members it is wonderful to see them grow and take new roles for the first time. Well done guys!

Eddie was up first in the speaking row with Speech #2 on how technology and mobile and change our world. He highlighted the power we gained with having the world in our hands, but also warned us of the distraction it can prove to be – and how we need to stay human. Eleanor, also doing Speech #2, was quite contrasting as she depicted private moments in medieval times, very unlike our superconnected, very public and shared-on-Facebook world today! Her speech described vividly what personal space meant in an age where people shared living and sleeping rooms. Desire for privacy was solved, ironically, outdoors. And Prateek in his Speech #4 took us up in the sky by sharing a vivid memory of his first time skydiving and how that taught him a lesson for life.

We had then our Evaluation section, essential for improving as a Toastmaster. Edwin in his double role evaluated Eddie, Rosie did the same for Eleanor and Marina provided feedback and tips for Prateek. As well as the speech objectives themselves, evaluations challenged speakers on the use of voice power, how to build suspense, pace the speech, use the stage and leverage body motions to give the speech more purpose and power.

Just before the break our Sargent at Arms Prateek narrated his story in the Club after just four months being a Toastmaster, and invited the guests to introduce themselves. James, Harry, Jessica, Barbara, and Winston were some of our new guests and Sandra and Abby as repeating guests are considering joining us. Chris and Edem from sister clubs were thrilled to see the vibrant atmosphere in London Victorians.

Alex led a fun Table Topics session on “first times” such as your first day driving, your first meeting or the first job (which included washing the boss’s car, apparently – at least in Hiram’s case). A mix of guests and members including Winston, Chris, Steve, Hiram, Sandra, Marina, Prateek braved it out on the stage and made us laugh.

Eddie also double role as TT Evaluator ran through our topic speeches providing useful tips to everyone. A challenging role beautifully delivered in his very first time doing it!

After our GE Edem had delivered his view and recommendations for improving our meetings, and Timer Yvonne and Grammarian Alex had provided their reports, it was time for awards. Vote counter Steve tallied vote slips to present Edwin with the best Table Topic, Marina with the best Evaluator ribbon and Prateek with the best Speaker ribbon.

A hot and brilliant meeting to inaugurate London Victorians first summer!

See you next week, July 7th!