Newsletters - Page 18 of 22 - London Victorians Toastmasters Club

Beyond Victorians Toastmasters International

Behold the Toastmaster! – 18th August

Post author By London Victorians
Post date August 22, 2015

Our last meeting on Tuesday 18th August was opened up by our club president Florian Bay, who highlighted the importance of overcoming one’s limits and always striving for more. Giving the example of one of our member’s brother, who completed the Arch to Arc triathlon from London to Paris. Taking on as Toastmaster of the evening was Eddie (well done Eddie for your first time as Toastmaster!)

Eddie introduced the functionaries of the helping one by one. First on stage was Toby as timekeeper, followed Alex as grammarian with “beholden” as word of the day and finally Eleanor as vote counter. Well done both Toby and Eleanor for your first roles!

Behold our grammarian Alex: — Behold our grammarian Alex!

Our first speaker introduced by Toastmaster Eddie was Eleanor. In her very informative speech “the Malleable Mind” Eleanor told us all there is to know about the human brain, its 90bn neurons and its changes during someone teenage years. Following on was Terry “Jolly hockey sticks” who recounted us is newly rekindled interest for Hockey and his present dilemma of what type of kit to purchase. Indeed, with sticks made up of wood, Kevlar or carbon fiber, there is plenty to choose from! Our following two speakers gave speeches from advanced manuals. Daniela started off with a speech from Speeches by Management “Well done!” whose objectives where to appraise with praise. After giving us general hindsight of what makes good feedback, with a key message of “highlight the positive”. Daniela the proceeded to do a roleplay exercise incorporating various feedback giving techniques. Our final speaker was Fahad with a project from the Public Relations manual “Know Yourself”. Fahad shared with us the key lessons he learnt by practicing Russian martial art, Systema and how it could be used both for self defence and for learning more about oneself.

Fahad outlining Systema's benefits! — Fahad outlining Systema’s benefits!

Following the timekeeper’s report. Our Toastmaster Eddie called on tonight’s evaluators to give their evaluation of the speeches. Stephen evaluating Eleanor, recommended repeating complex words and sentences to enable better understanding. Joyce evaluation of Terry’s highlighted the need to pause for more often while speaking. Florian suggested that to give feedback even more effectively, Daniela should look at incorporating three way communication to her communication arsenal. Finally, Sergey evaluated Fahad’s speech.

Joyce evaluating Terry's speech. — Joyce evaluating Terry’s speech.

Following the break, our Toastmaster Eddie reconvened the meeting and handed over to table topics master Edwin. Participants were asked to explain why their job was essential to mankind’s survival after a meteor strike. The jobs in question all exists and included manure inspector, paint dryer watcher and professional apologizer. The table topics session was evaluated by Thomas (well done for your first time as table topics evaluator!) who gave feedback on all the speakers.

Alex came back for his grammarian report as part of the meeting wrap-up. Followed by Indra of Harrovians Speakers as general evaluator of the evening.

Indra's general evaluation of the club. — Indra’s general evaluation of the club.

See you all at our next meeting on September 1st!

Linda White top tips for speech evaluations!

Post author By London Victorians
Post date August 12, 2015

During our recent speech evaluation workshop, our Trainer Linda White shared a number of tips and tricks to improve our speech evaluations. While speech evaluation is more of an art than a science according to her. Some general guidelines should nevertheless be followed for delivering effective evaluations:

Evaluate to encourage and motivate.
Evaluate the speech and how it was delivered. You should not evaluate the content!
Give specific feedback and back it up with examples.
Evaluate the speech. Don’t retell it!
Evaluate the speech. Don’t tell your own story!
Watch how you say it. Use positive and encouraging language.
Use the commend, recommend, commend structure. Aka the “evaluation sandwich”.
Speak for the benefit of the whole audience. Use third person when doing evaluations!
Refer to the speech objectives in the manual. Plus any personal objectives the speaker may have!
Balance the evaluation depending on the level and experience of the speaker.
Prepare your evaluations in advance. Read the speech objectives!
End with a summary.
Writing notes is often a challenge for speech evaluator.

The general advice is to write as much as you can and to select anything relevant later for when you’ll deliver the evaluation. Speech evaluators might find it beneficial to use a “saw, heard, felt” grid or a simpler grid divided into commendations and recommendations.Onwards with your evaluations!

Past meetings Toastmasters International Workshop

Evaluate to Motivate – 4th August

Post author By London Victorians
Post date August 8, 2015

We were thrilled to hold our first ever workshop during our last meeting. Speech evaluations are an essential part of the Toastmasters educational programme. Indeed, it is the feedback from these evaluations that enable speakers to develop an awareness of what they are doing well and what they need to improve.

Our Toastmaster of the meeting was Vice-President Education Fahad and he quickly introduced our trainer this evening, Linda White. We started off with an interactive session on what constitutes the key ingredients of an effective evaluation. In no particular order. An effective evaluation, should be encouraging, complimentary on what the speaker did well, give specific recommendations and not digress. It is also important not to forget that evaluations are for the benefit of the entire audience and not just the speaker!

We only had two speakers this evening, both of which received several evaluations and an interactive evaluation from the audience. Our first speaker, was Stephen ‘The Emergency Plumber’. Stephen shared with us his work as an emergency plumber, including how his very first intervention, tightening a tap pipe, went and the fact that he so far “never flooded the same room twice!” The audience enjoyed the sharp conclusion to the speech, the confidence projected by Stephen and his vocal variety. His three evaluators, Natalie, Eleanor and Edem. Provided further feedback on eye contact and how to introduce the speech’s topic.

Stephen 'The Emergency Plumber' — Stephen ‘The Emergency Plumber’

Speaking second was Vice-President Mentorshop Edwin ‘An Inspiring Speech’. Edwin began his speech by recounting JFK’s 1963 civil rights address and how this was the perfect speech at the perfect time. This speech also ties in with the three core principles by which Edwin’s wants to live his life, namely treat others as you would want to be treated, be responsible and give equal opportunities to all. A better structured was recommended as feedback by the audience. The three evaluators, Yvonne, Eddie and Ayokunle then suggested more eye contact, a slower pace to let the words sink in and enable more empathy.

Edwin with 'An Inspiring Speech' — Edwin with ‘An Inspiring Speech’

The workshop was then wrapped up was more feedback from the audience on speech evaluations and on the workshop itself. The workshop was thoroughly enjoyed by all including our numerous guests from other Toastmaster clubs!

Announcements Toastmasters International Workshop

Evaluation Workshop – 4th August

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 28, 2015

Special guest coach: Linda White

A crucial part of the Toastmaster educational program are speech evaluations. Every speech and every role is followed with an evaluation of how the speaker or role taker did. This offers them and everyone in the room the ability to know what they are doing well and what they could do even better next time.

Providing a thorough evaluation of each speech helps the speaker develop their skills, the audience to learn communication tips and the evaluator to develop prowess in providing feedback for others.

The technique behind giving a great evaluation isn’t limited to Toastmasters! Indeed, listening carefully to a colleague, customer or friend and offering constructive commendations and feedback is a great skill to have in all areas of life.

London Victorians is pleased to be hosting a workshop for members and guests to specifically learn how to give fantastic evaluations.

The workshop will be led by advanced Toastmaster and professional coach, Linda White.

This is a free workshop for anyone who would like to develop their evaluation skills. It will be on Tuesday August 4th starting at 6:30pm sharp.

All guests are free to come along without prior arrangement. More detail on our venue can be found here.

This evaluation workshop will enable you to develop these key skills:

Listening
Note taking
Effective speech structure
Giving specific praise and commendations
Delivering constructive feedback
Providing advice and offering suggest actions
And much much more

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Toastmasters in summer – 21st July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 25, 2015

Once again the sun enlightened the upstairs room of the Windsor Castle Pub during our last meeting. Toastmaster of the evening Sergey outlined the structure of the meeting, with the customary prepared speeches, followed by evaluations and then table topics. Covering the whole spectrum of a typical Toastmasters meeting.

Once day an unknown Toastmasters member said “Toastmasters is all about a set idea within a set period of time” and Rosie made sure that we all lived up to the saying. For her first role as a new club member, Abi (congrats Abi) was grammarian with “magnified” as word of the day. To tally up the votes and collect those all-important feedback slips, was Eddie as vote counter.

Our first speaker was Alex whose speech ‘A brief history of tattoos’ recounted the history of tattoos. Did you know that caveman Otzi already had tattoos? I did not! Until I learnt it at Toastmasters! Thomas followed on with a project #7 from the Competent Communicator manual. Answering the question of ‘What caused the 2008 Financial Crisis?’ was anything but simple. Nevertheless Thomas tackled the subject with aplomb. It all started with the subprime market in the United States, whose risks where spread out in collateral debt obligations, which were then purchased by international investors. The variety of speeches and speakers is one of the great beauty of Toastmasters, which each speech project tackled in unique ways!

Alex 'Brief history of tattoos' — Alex ‘Brief history of tattoos’

Since two speakers dropped out at the last minute, our Toastmaster of the evening asked for two volunteers to do improvised speeches. Club president Florian stepped in first by doing a speech on the ‘British Summer’. Extoling the virtues of Pimms and Lemonade on grass and of a milder weather compared to other countries. VP Mentorship Edwin followed on with ‘Nuclear Power – Yes Please’ although he turned the subject on its head and outlined his opposition for the energy due to its potential dangers. Some true Toastmasters spirit on show here by just doing it! Well done both!

Club president Florian tackling an improv on 'The British Summer' — Club president Florian tackling an improv on ‘The British Summer’

Eleanor evaluated the first speech, commending Alex for his effective use of visual aids but recommending that he reviews his speech structure. Fahad evaluated Thomas next, congratulating Thomas for using the full length of the stage, but highlighting that all hand gestures should be open and not closed. Natalie evaluated Florian’s improvised speech, by recommending more profound eye contact but nevertheless commending audience involvement. Finally, Terry evaluated Edwin’s speech and reminded everyone one the rule that only 7% of the meaning of a message is conveyed through the word we use. Thence, vocal variety and body language are key to emphasize a message.

The table topics session was chaired by Lindsay and featured questions such as “imagine you are an alien invading earth” or “you are taken back 200 million years ago”.

The session was evaluated by Magda, which congratulated everyone for taking part and for the use of humor in the speeches. Abi followed on with her grammarian report, including a very precise count of ‘hums’ ‘err’ and other verbal crutches.

At Toastmasters we love nice language and our grammarian Abi had plenty of examples to give!

At Toastmasters, everything is evaluated and we were very privileged to have a general evaluation Christian coming all the way from Johannesburg!

General evaluator Christian coming all the way from South Africa!

See you all at our evaluation workshop on August 4^th!