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Past meetings Toastmasters International

Impromptu Speaking Galore – 19th July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 23, 2016

We last meeting basked in summer heat and guess what. With four speeches, including an impromptu one by our past President Florian, we raised the temperature yet further! Robert took charge of the meeting as Toastmaster for the very first time (well done Robert!) and quickly introduced his team of functionaries for the evening. Christophe as timekeeper, Andrew as grammarian and last but not least, Cleo as harkmaster.

Toastmaster of the meeting Robert showing the Competent Communicator manual — Toastmaster of the meeting Robert showing the *Competent Communicator* manual

Andy did the first speech of the evening ‘A Caribbean Pirate’ telling us the story of Wolfie, a dog his family adopted while he was working in the Caribbean. Thomas followed on by beginning his speech ‘Practice Pratice’ with a reference to Carnegie Hall and how only the best musicians perform here. The secret to performing here is indeed practice and Thomas told us a personal story of how as a cello player, he and a friend could have avoided making a routine mistake by practicing more. The third speech was an impromptu one delivered by Florian who was asked what he would do if he became UK Foreign Secretary. Visits to Germany, Russia, France and the United States featured in the speech and an insistence that the UK should always be open to others. Finally, Fahad in the last speech of the meeting ‘The Most Powerful Force in the Universe’ told us the power of exponential growth. A power illustrated by mankind’s population growth since antiquity, house price inflation and many more examples. The value of the pound if our pocket is diminishing as we speak, scary…

Practice makes perfect according to our second speaker!

John, Sophia, Romain and Tatiana evaluated the speakers in turn, giving them feedback on their strong points and areas for improvement.

More impromptu speaking followed after a short break with AK taking control as table topics master. AK came up with questions based on how people would behave in an alternate universe were they were infamous politicians. These could be Nigel Farage pursued by a mob or Donald Trump with his wig falling off. Guests and members took turns answering these questions and were provided feedback on their performance by table topic evaluator Terry.

John and Cleo then came back for their respective reports followed by our general evaluator Karthik.

Tags Impromptu, Past meetings, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Best Scientific Advances and Improvised Speeches – 12th July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 17, 2016

Florian was the Toastmaster of the evening and chose a very “Florianesque” theme of the evening: What are the best scientific advances? Personally, I would have picked toilet paper, but thankfully the speakers and functionary had more meaningful answers such as antibiotics, the wheel, and the Internet. Fahad as the Grammarian picked the word phenomenal and asked the audience to yell “EUREKA” whenever it was used in the meeting. This ensured plentiful usage. Cleo was timekeeper and Judy was Harkmaster.

We had four speeches from various levels of the CC. The first speaker, Christophe, started us off by explaining why veganism is trending. It was quite a deep speech with questions such as why do we call it beef rather than cow or pork rather than pig. Was it to distance ourselves from the animal? I had to think about it that night when I chowed down on my beef tartar.

The second speaker was Eleanor who successfully convinced us that Beethoven’s music is so good that NASA decided to put his music on the Voyager spacecraft that is now 15 billion kilometers away from Earth. And the craziest fact about Beethoven is that he continued to compose against all odds even as he became completely deaf.

George is an EBay guru. In his speech, he told the story of how a 3-hour PowerPoint presentation in the British Library turned into him publishing a book that is available on Amazon. And he did not stop there! He wrote three more books after that.

George delivering his speech

The last speaker of the evening was Tatiana, with a speech about her Pie Challenge. She made a bet with a friend to bake a pie in as many countries as possible. It turns out this is quite an undertaking. Think about it. You need a kitchen, ingredients, and time in order to make this happen. And she has done it 8 times now! I have never even baked a pie in my life!

Tatiana delivering her speech

Lastly on agenda were table topics with our excellent Table Topics Master Nuala. She provided pictures for the speakers to improvise on. We had several great stories including Pranav, who would build a nuclear reactor using a paper clip and bandaid and John who told the story of an old lady that kidnapped his cat Curtis.

Overall, the meeting was phenomenal! EUREKA!

Tags Past meetings, speaking, speeches, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Table Topics Night – 5th June

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 9, 2016

It was the first meeting in July and Terry’s first night as president. Nuala was Toastmaster choosing the theme of surprises for the meeting. Tatiana was Timekeeper, Prateek was Grammarian and Christophe was Harkmaster.

We had two speeches on the night, an icebreaker and a number 10 speech to complete the competent communication manual.

Romain was first on stage delivering his icebreaker. He took the audience on his journey of moving to London, from arriving to St. Pancreas station to discovering the bad weather and experiencing London’s leisure time and lifestyle.

Second on stage was Eleanor G who delivered speech 10, “Inspire your audience”. Eleanor’s speech was about grit. She explained how we are all capable of getting what we want with the right attitude, self control and ultimately harnessing the gift of grit; perseverance, resilience and ambition.

Best Speech and Best Evaluation Award Winners

We had a night packed with 11 table topics. Thomas provided volunteers with the beginning of a story which the speaker then had to continue, providing an opportunity for all to use their skills of thinking on their feet. The beginning of the stories ranged from being a lone cowboy in a ghost town, to discovering the World is flat, right through to being on Noah’s Ark and discovering that two cows are missing.

An excellent, fun-filled night. Join us next week for more table topics, speeches and evaluations!

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Speeches that inform – 28th June

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 3, 2016

28th June marked London Victorian’s last meeting of the Toastmaster year and what a special meeting it was! Florian Bay our founding president was awarded Distinguished Toastmaster by Neil Coleman the Division B Director, who was also general evaluator of the meeting. Terry the incoming president presented Florian with a token on behalf of the club to thank him for his relentless hard work and dedication throughout the time he served as club President.

Terry presenting Florian a gift from the club

Owen took on the role of toastmaster of the night, injecting his personality and comedic charm throughout. He had a team to assist him; Laurence as timekeeper and John as grammarian utilizing the word “Panic” as the word of the day. Terry was Sergeant at Arms introducing the guests who attended the meeting.

Christophe delivered his icebreaker on the night, introducing himself to the club by informing the audience of his life’s journey and career from an entrepreneur to now investor. He informed the audience of the struggles he has overcome and the changes in his life’s direction which lead him to present day.

Second speech was Annabel delivering her 6th speech from the competent communication manual. Annabel informed the audience of the unwritten handbook of the office, the rules she has observed over her four years working. Her tips included etiquette of communication, personal branding and things you should never do.

Third on stage was Ernesto delivering a speech from an advanced manual, “speeches to inform”. Ernesto delivered a visually rich speech informing the audience of the universe in relation to the Earth and the possibility that we are not alone. He supported his research with facts, info-graphics, and stunning images.

The speeches were evaluated by Eleanor B, Edwin and Nuala who provided feedback to the respective speakers they were evaluating. The evaluations included techniques to improve eye contact, body language and methods of increasing the impact of the speech.

Tatiana was table topic master and asked impromptu speaking volunteers imaginative questions. She intertwined magic and technology in the subjects she selected. Speakers on the topics were then evaluated by Sergey.

Join us next week when we have our first meeting of the new year with more speeches, evaluations and table topics!

Uncategorized

Best Man’s Speech – 21st June

Post author By London Victorians
Post date June 26, 2016

Thomas was toastmaster for the evening taking command of the stage and introducing each speaker with a visual of their ideal place to live. He had a team to assist him, Bruna was timekeeper, and Christophe was Sergeant at Arms. Cleo was Grammarian with Allure for the word of the day and Paul was Harkmaster. We had three speeches from the competent communication manual and a Best Man’s speech.

There were four speeches during the meeting. First on stage was founding Club President Florian, in his 50th speech he revisited the icebreaker, the first speech from the competent communication manual. In this speech Florian shared personal stories of his background and how he overcame adversity to realise his dreams.

Second on stage was Tatiana delivering speech 3 from the competent communication manual. Her speech provided the audience with potential solutions on how to stay awake, ranging from changing your environment, exercises, and the consumption of caffeinated beverages.

Eleanor H was on stage delivering speech 5 from the competent communication manual, opening her speech with the question “What stops you from taking risks?” Citing, fear, regret and grudges as three main elements of what stops people when dealing with fear, Eleanor encouraged the audience to “Let It Go”

Fourth on stage was Robert who took the opportunity to practice his best man’s speech, even having a prop of the future husband and wife. Many members initially join Toastmasters because of an upcoming speech in order to receive feedback and learn the critical skills of successful public speaking.

The four speakers were provided feedback by the respective evaluators Annabel, Hannah, Isabelle and Sophia.

The second half of the meeting involved impromptu speaking, Prateek the Table Topic Master selected the Brexit referendum for the topic for the impromptu speeches. Regardless of their opinion each speaker had 1-2 minutes to voice either why they want to stay in the EU or leave the EU. The table topic speakers were then evaluated by Nuala.

A successful meeting with lots of excellent speakers and entertaining table topics. Join us on Tuesday for our next meeting.