Happy Birthday London Victorian’s – the club is officially 2 years old! In this short time, the club has grown into one of the leading Toastmasters clubs in London, where leaders are made. The encouraging atmosphere and committed members are just a couple of examples why we love our club so much.
Founding President, Florian welcomed us to the meeting with his usual gusto and gave a very informative introduction about the history of Toastmasters. He also welcomed our newest members Paul, Andrew and Narayn.
Florian then handed over to Py, who made his debut as Toastmaster. Py did an excellent job, leading the meeting seamlessly and with confidence. He introduced the birthday theme and asked each speaker what they loved about the club and what birthday gift they would get London Victorians. Some gifts were of a practical nature – coffee machine, storage cupboard and even thrones to sit on! Others were more about public speaking development – like delivering the evaluation without saying “you”.
Py was supported by Mike as Timekeeper (1st role), Alex as Grammarian and Charlotte as Harkmaster. Each functionary accompanied their role description with an apt personal story to make their message even more memorable. Paul, one of our newest members, stepped up to take on the Sergeant at Arms role. He welcomed the guests with the confidence of a member that has been attending the club for years – well done!
Speeches
The initial part of the meeting was for prepared speeches. First up was Mickaela who gave an extremely fluid, humorous and informative icebreaker speech about her life in South Africa. Well done Mickaela for making the first step on the Toastmasters journey!
Next was Sophia, who performed speech number 8. She used facts and visual aids to great effect in her empowering speech about embracing what makes you individual.
Prateek was the final speaker, practicing his competition speech for the last time before Saturday’s contest. This speech about the vertical endurance challenge Prateek completed dramatically improved from his speech 2 weeks ago. He also inspired us to push our limits and do amazing things with our lives.
Good luck Prateek on Saturday 22nd April! Don’t forget to book your tickets to the Division B contest and show your support.
Evaluations
This week’s evaluations followed a slightly different format. Ani and Lorenzo evaluated Mickaela and Sophia respectively. Andrew, Vahagn and Florian all evaluated Prateek, to give him maximum feedback before his competition. Audience members also completed feedback slips.
Speech feedback tip of the week (provided by Lorenzo): Place visual aids somewhere in front of you/to your side. This helps you to always face the audience (and keep them engaged) when you retrieve them. Also, make sure visual aids are completely visible when you are using them to make a point.
Table topics
The second part of the meeting was for Table Topics. Pascale was Table Topics Master and challenged members and guests to talk about various Easter themed situations on the spot.
Afterwards, Paulina evaluated all table topics succinctly with helpful tips. For example, use the lighthouse technique to scan the whole room, making sure your voice travels all the way to the back. Well done to George, Florian and guests Pan, Sarah, Abi and Ajanta for taking part!
Congratulations to Sophia, Lorenzo/Florian and Ajanta, who were tonight’s respective speech, evaluator and table topics winners and to all who helped make this a fantastic birthday meeting. It was great to see newer members taking up roles for the first time and so many guests getting involved. We look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday!
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