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Contest Past meetings Table Topics

Happy Birthday London Victorians!

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, founding president
Florian wishing London Victorians a Happy Birthday

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”.

Toastmaster Py wishing the club a Happy Birthday
Py, making his debut as Toastmaster

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!

Mike as Timekeeper
Alex displays the word of the day as grammarian
Charlotte sharing Easter treats as Harkmaster
Paul stepping up as Sergeant at Arms

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.

Prateek at the top of an Austrian mountain

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.

Well done Ajanta for winning the best table topic ribbon!

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!

Categories
Contest Past meetings

Competition themed meeting

This week’s meeting was extra special competition theme. Not only did we have two speeches from both ends of the Toastmasters spectrum, two division finalists delivered their winning speeches! They are just 2 steps away from the international speech contest finals in August in Vancouver.

All speakers stated which competition they would most like to win (excluding a public speaking competition). Answers ranged from bake off to directing to golf and gave some interesting insights into our members’ hobbies.

Isabelle as Toastmaster
Isabelle as Toastmaster for the competition theme meeting

Isabelle was the Toastmaster for the night and guided us through the meeting with great poise. She was supported by Mickaela as Timekeeper and Andrew as Harkmaster. Negin, our newest member, was Sergeant at Arms and welcomed the numerous guests who joined our meeting.

Welcome to London Victorians Negin!

Speeches

The initial part of the meeting was for prepared speeches. First up was Charlotte who gave a very inspiring icebreaker speech about her leap into the unknown to becoming a freelancer. Well done Charlotte for making the first step on the Toastmasters journey!

Well done Charlotte for successfully delivering the icebreaker speech

Next was Florian gave a Special Occasion Speech, titled “Roasting Terry”. He used humour and vocal variety to brilliant effect to challenge our President, Terry’s, reasons for becoming a vegetarian.

Prateek was the first of the contest finalists. He captivated the audience with dramatic displays of movement and a rousing call to action to challenge yourself and follow through.

Finally Edwin, the second contest finalist, delivered a powerful speech called “Me and my dad”. His story, with a clever twist in the middle, inspired the audience to let go and move on.

Edwin, contest finalist
Congratulations Edwin, this weeks speech winner!

Good luck to Edwin and Prateek in the division contests. Don’t forget to book your tickets to the Division B contest on 22nd April and show your support.

Evaluations

After the speeches, Pascale, PY, Stephen and Nuala performed evaluations. Audience members also completed feedback slips or an official speech judging form for the contest finalists.

Competition judging slip
Terry displaying the official judging slip

Speech feedback tip (provided by Nuala): The audience are more likely to engage with your message when they feel happy and laugh. Therefore it is important to include humour in your speech. Every Toastmasters international speech contest winner has had at least 8 instances of humour in their speech (roughly 1 laugh/minute).

Congratulations Nuala for winning the best evaluation!

Table topics

The second part of the meeting was for Table Topics. Terry was Table Topics Master and presented a unique theme. Members and guests talked about the same situation involving Waitrose, a man and a dog, while expressing a different emotion such as joy, surprise, or anger. Afterwards, Fahad evaluated all table topics succinctly with helpful tips. Well done to Christophe, Negin, Hannah, Vahagn, Naryan and Andrew for taking part!

Well done Hannah for winning the best table topic!

Congratulations to Edwin, Nuala and Hannah, who were tonight’s respective speech, evaluator and table topics winners and to all who helped make this a marvellous meeting as always. We look forward to seeing members and guests at our meeting next week!