London Victorians Toastmasters Club

June is now upon us and with bright coloured glasses of fresh drinks aplenty. It was easy to think that summer was there or at the very least on its way! Toastmastering the meeting, was the masterful George Chiesa. Aptly helped by Monica as timekeeper, Thomas as grammarian and Yvonne as vote counter. Well done on all three of you for doing these roles for the first time. These functionary roles are a nice way to gain the stage confidence needed to become a great public speaker!

Our first speaker of the evening was Lindsay with his icebreaker speech, first step in the journey to become a competent communicator. With ‘All around the world’ Lindsay took us on a journey across his three favourite countries, India and its sacred cows. Cambodia and its numerous temples. Last but not least Australia and its spiders. Our second speaker was also breaking the ice. Alex’s speech ‘My Family and Me’ covered how his family influenced him, learning creativity from his dad and the importance of empathy from his mother. The speech concluded with “How has your family best shaped you!” Our third speaker of the evening was Fahad, with a speech from the Public Relations manual ‘The I.O.D’. In this speech Fahad helped by Edwin simulated a radio talk show, how to best approach it and how to make the best impact on listeners.

The first speaker Lindsay was evaluated by Rosie. Rosie emphasised the importance of speech organisation and of fitting in a speech within the allocated timeframe. A general guideline for a new speaker is to aim for 120 words per minute max. Our second speaker was evaluated by Lo Luong, who praised Alex for his positive body language and smiling on stage. Final speaker Fahad, was evaluated by Hiram who highlighted how repeating key words and points makes a message clearer and easier to understand.

The table topics session was headed by Terry who came up with various random images picked up from newspapers and asked our speakers to tell the story (real or made-up) behind the pictures. The session was evaluated by Prateek who gave feedback on all the table topic speakers. Our grammarian Thomas then came back up with his through report including the number of use of the word of the day ‘Penultimate’ by our speakers. The whole meeting was then evaluated by Andrés Roldan of London Olympians.

Our second meeting of May was an occasion to ponder the last few months of the club but also to prepare its future. Our newest club member was welcome at the start of the meeting. It is our official club banner that came all the way from California by post. She will now stand proud and tall at every single one our meetings and no doubt be coated with numerous ribbons in a short space of time!

Toastmastering the meeting was current Area 52 governor, Marc Lottig whose towering presence meant that we were in very safe hands indeed. Our timekeeper of the evening was Alex, (well done Alex for your first club role!). The word of the day of tonight’s grammarian Edem was ‘ponder’. Closing the trio of assistant functionaries was Monica as vote counter.

Prateek started the evening of speeches with the third speech from the Competent Communicator manual. In “Rules of Engagement’ we were treated with a very factual speech on modern day dating app Tinder and its 22 billion daily swipes! Following was Marina with a speech from the Speeches by Management manual. Her speech ‘LinkedOut’ explored how to give feedback in an unsuccessful job application. Closing off the evening of speeches was Alan Thomas, with ‘Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind’ from the Entertaining Speaker manual. A dramatic talk on the story of an author meeting sprites and spirits in a house.

The first evaluator of the evening was Terry, who emphasised the importance of not having too loud a voice tone and of moving on stage while making points for added impact. Fahad then evaluated Marina, highlighting the importance of choosing the right speech topic for the manual’s objectives. Daniela finished off by evaluating Alan, emphasising the importance of effective vocal variety and of setting up props correctly.

 

London Victorians annual general meeting then followed. Starting off with the election of the new committee. The club committee for the 2015/16 Toastmasters year will consist of:

President: Florian Bay

Vice-President Education: Fahad Alturkait

Vice-President Membership: Terry Pullin

Vice-President Public Relations: Marina Lussich

Vice-President Mentorship: Edwin Atiegoba

Treasurer: Ayokunle Sangoyomi

Sergeant at Arms: Prateek Trehun

A short overview of the past year was made by club president Florian Bay, highlighting the impressive achievement of having started the club from scratch and now having 24 members with more in the pipeline. The club’s ambition remains to become the leading Toastmaster club in London and to meet every Tuesday. The next Toastmasters year already looks promising but it is the sum of the individual achievements of all the members that will make the club great!

The table topics session led by Eleanor was themed around the titles of strange books. Participants had to tell the story behind interesting titles such as ‘Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter’ or ‘How to play with a Lion’s testicules’. Rosie evaluated the session for her first crack at an evaluation role (bravo Rosie!). The entire meeting was finally evaluated by Gagan Singh coming from London Athenians.

Our last meeting had an auspicious start, with the sun stretching its rays into every single corners of our room in the Windsor Castle Pub. We were ably led by current area 33 governor, Brian Skelton as toastmasters of the evening. Assisted in this crucial role by Rosie as timekeeper, Eddie as grammarian whose word of the day was “exquisite” and George as vote counter.

Two icebreakers were on the program of the evening. The first one by new member Monica “Life as Art”. Talking about her passion for art since she was younger and how it helped defining her personality. The second icebreaker of the night was by Eleanor “The stories we tell ourselves”. Eleanor regaled us with tale of how one’s identity can shift over time, ranging from her own childhood in Cornwall with limited access to technology, to now working in a data company. What’s more her story has only just begun! A fifth speech from the Competent Communicator manual, “We’re going on a work hunt” by Terry followed. The speech’s objectives of using one’s body to convey a message was met, as we went through the morning blues of a day that does not quite start according to plan. The oratory was closed off by Warren with “Ermm”, a humorous speech on the word Erm that can be a power word in some circumstances and what’s more the word is universally understood too! A very humorous, that will clearly feature in this year’s edition of the humorous speech contest in the autumn.

The evaluations were started off by Fahad, who provided recommendation on speech structure and the use of transitional words. Following was Marina, suggesting pauses to enhance one’s message and make a stronger impact on the audience. Daniela then evaluated Terry. Alan’s evaluation of Warren was special, as it used the official judging criteria used in speaking competitions.

New member Thomas chaired the table topics session. Creatively using real-word events to ask participants how they would react to it. These including Wimbledon banning selfie sticks, a mystery tunnel in Toronto and 5.5tons of Nutella being stolen. Club president Florian Bay then evaluated the table topics session, reminding everyone that table topics should be structured as a prepared speech would by including a clear structure and a punchy conclusion. The entire meeting was finally evaluated by veteran Toastmaster Andy O’Sullivan.