While you’re the kind of person who don’t need to make resolutions because you’re already on a self-improvement path, the New Year is a great opportunity to set the bar even higher and London Victorians’ has several great workshops to help you to become who you want to be:

Are you saying ‘Yes’ to too many things? Say ‘Yes’ then to the assertiveness workshop: ‘The Art of No’ on the 21^st January 2020. Learn more and practice assertiveness techniques, take more ownership of your agenda and feel empowered to reject the invite to that meeting that is wasting your time. The workshop will be delivered by this year’s winner of Division B Table Topics contest, so you can also pick up some tips how to make good excuses and be even more assertive😊.  

Are you looking for a new job? We have a session for you – ‘Interview Masters’ on the 4^th February 2020. All speakers at the meeting will be pitching for their dream job and try to persuade the audience to ‘hire’ him/her. You can choose your own job description, or we can provide a sample job description for you. It not only will help you to land your dream job, but it will also contribute to completion of Level 3 Pathways Project “Prepare for an interview”.  Everyone will have a chance to practice their interview skills at the Table Topics section by participating in the mock up interviews, again evaluated by the whole audience. 

Are you looking for a new partner? The first impression is made long before you meet in person, so make sure your presence online is as amazing as the one offline. It can be useful not only for dating but for job interviews too😊 Learn more at the personal branding online workshop on the 25^thFebruary 2020. 

Can’t get enough of public speaking? You’re in luck! There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in the International Speech Contest (club level), hosted in our club on the 18th February 2020.

• Do you want to be a Speaker at the contest? Simply sign up for the speech on that date. However, to be eligible to compete you need to complete Level 2 on Pathways or Competent Communicator manual from the old educational programme. Sign up for speeches and we also will be sharing some info about ad hoc speaking slots on WhatsApp group. Your VPEs are happy to support you in accelerating your pathways progress and can even arrange additional speaking opportunities outside the club.
• How to write a World beating speech? Find the answer from an accomplished Toastmaster – Freddie Daniels. Freddie’s workshops are in high demand and spaces are limited, so hurry up and register for the workshop on the 5th February 2020 – How to write an inspiring international speech.

In addition, any aspiring committee members are encouraged to join Committee Officers Training on the 29th June 2020 (Area 8 COT – Eventbrite link). The agenda is as follows:

• How do you put in place the people and processes for your club to succeed? – Paulina Dabrowska
• Blitz on engaging long standing members with Pathways: A casestudy from – Massimo Guadagnino
• How does your club fit in with the wider Toastmasters community? – Florian Bay

Serving as a committee member not only helps to develop sound leadership skills but it’s also an enriching experience of giving back to your community. Moreover – it means completion of Level 5 Pathways project “Leading in Your Volunteer Organization”. Simply irresistible!

Wishing you all a successful New Year! 

Club President 
Paulina Dabrowska  

We all define community differently, but what we all have in common is the sense of support in working towards the same goal. London Victorians’ mission is to provide a supportive and positive learning experience in which members are empowered to develop communication and leadership skills, resulting in greater self-confidence and personal growth. I feel very lucky to be a part of this inspiring community and as a president of the club I would love every member to achieve their full potential. However, this is a common effort from every one of us to make it happen. Keep up the good job Victorians😊!

According to this test If you want to test the strength of the community – just ask someone for a favour and see if they help. Looking at what we have done as a club so far – I left me assured this is a very strong community!

London Victorians crate a great community both offline (thanks for everyone who came over for drinks on Friday! For those who could not make it – let’s meet up for Christmas drinks after the meeting on the 10th Dec) and online.

We have a few social platforms carefully curated by Lucy Rosa.
I encourage you to check Twitter – I had a good chuckle over her posts 😊

For those who did not notice yet– we have a new social media platform – London Victorians LinkedIn

This is a place where we can network professionally and help each other to leverage our career progress. Our Vice President of Mentoring – Stephanie Walker, will be launching a buddy up programme, aiming to match members around their areas of professional interest.

You can also be a social media star by taking up a Meeting Reporter Role. It’s very easy but help us a lot! Just write a few words (up to 500) about the meeting – what made you laugh, what have you learned, you favourite tip etc.

Thanks, Paulina

We have some great workshops planned for the next few months.. Make sure you get these in your diaries!

10th Dec 2019 6:45 pm	AWARDS NIGHT & X-mas meeting
17th Dec 2019 6:45 pm	Speakaton – sign up for roles!
21st Jan 2020 6:45 pm	“The art of No” – assertiveness workshop
4th Feb 2020 6:45 pm	Special meeting: Mock-up interviews
Feb/ March 2020 – date TBC	Personal branding online

This Tuesday we has a fantastic workshop lead by NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) trainer, Maggie Albrecht!

She delved into techniques for connecting with our audience, ‘reading the room’ and channeling confidence (something all budding public speakers could use). ‘The Principles of Success’ she covered could be applied to our future speeches and also to our lives.

Maggie knows NLP back to front and her session was both informative and inspiring. She left us thinking.. What’s the best possible outcome of today?

This week at London Victorians we celebrated Halloween the only we know how.. With wonderful, wicked, whimsical words!

From Australia to Peru, cults to clocks, poems to peasants, Tuesday’s meeting took as on a journey through the underworld. Our bloody Toastmaster, Annabel, even dressed us for the occasion!

We devoured some bone chilling speeches and learnt a lot, like how to avoid the choking grasp of a cult and that most of our fellow Toastmasters grew up in countries where Halloween was just a myth.

Thank you everyone who made this a night so deadly!

Best Speaker: Massimo, ‘Cults: How To Get In / How To Get Out’
Best Table Topics: Washington, tales of Halloweens past
Best Evaluator: Lucy, on Harry’s ‘ The greatest dish in the world’