Prateek was toastmaster last tuesday, he started the meeting with a breathing exercise encouraging audience members to ignore distractions and focus on the meeting. He ran an energetic meeting with a team to assist him; Lawrence was timekeeper and Eleanor G was harkmaster.
The first half of the meeting had three speakers, and three evaluators, the second half of the meeting was London Victorian’s Annual General Meeting (AGM).
First speaker on stage was Cleo, delivering her icebreaker. She informed the audience of the challenges she has faced in her life, and how this has shaped her positive attitude and approach to life. Her evaluator Sophia praised Cleo’s infectious smile and her ability to connect with the audience.
Cleo delivering her Icebreaker
Second on stage was Toby, delivering his speech five “Your Body Speaks” from the Competent Communication manual. In the speech, Toby discussed the disadvantages of investment strategies and how to reduce risk. Toby’s evaluator Tattiana commended his reassuring and appropriate tone of voice that built trust with the audience, she also pointed out areas where Toby could enhance his body movements even more to deliver a more impactful speech.
Third speaker was Joyce who began her speech by tapping a glass coffee container to get into character, her speech from the interpretive reading manual involved a monodrama where Joyce read aloud from a book. Her evaluator Terry praised Joyce’s reenactment of the characters and recommended Joyce could enhance the drama at certain stages of the speech to engage the audience further. Congratulations to Joyce who received Advanced Communicator Bronze Award after completing this speech.
Joyce completing her final speech before being awarded Advanced Communicator Bronze
The second half of the meeting was our AGM, where founding president Florian Bay highlighted successes of the year, provided members with information on the club’s budget and explained the committee structure.
London Victorians’ AGM with Florian Bay
London Victorian’s elected committee for next year:
On Tuesday we had a packed meeting, Sophia was Toastmaster and had a team to assist her; Thomas was Timekeeper and Cleo was Sergeant At Arms. Nuala was Grammarian and Tatiana was Harkmaster.
At toastmasters, initially all members deliver speeches from the Competent Communication Manual. This is a series of 10 self-paced speaking assignments. After completing this, members can choose from 15 advanced manuals to learn more specific and specialist skills. On Tuesday, two of our advanced speakers were delivering speeches from the advanced manuals.
First speaker was Fil, who did his icebreaker, which is first speech in the Competent Communication manual. He delivered a very humorous speech about how his life has transformed since the birth of his children. He even included the use of a baby doll prop, which added humour and enhanced the visual aspect of his speech.
Fil delivering his Icebreaker with his baby prop
Second speaker was Joyce who delivered a speech from the interpretive speaking manual. She selected work from the author David Meade to read aloud. This was a vivid and dramatic prose, allowing Joyce to demonstrate her skills in voice modulation and dramatization.
Joyce reading aloud
Third on the stage was Fahad and his speech was from the special occasions manual. He accepted the LOVPEY award and took the audience on the journey of how he achieved this award, including anecdotes of his time as Vice President of Education at London Victorians. In his acceptance speech, Fahad demonstrated sincerity and graciousness.
This Tuesday London Victorians have the pleasure of hosting World champion speaker Mohammed Qahtani to the club. It promises to be a dynamic and interactive workshop. Everyone is welcome to join us, tickets are limited and can be purchased here.
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.
Have you always wondered what it takes to become a leader? What traits, habits and characteristics effective and inspirational leaders have that makes them stand out from the rest? Leadership is fundamentally a skill that can be learned like many others.
On Wednesday 20th May, London Victorians will be holding a FREE “Success Leadership” workshop on the characteristics of effective leaders. This interactive one hour workshop will explore the qualities, values and styles effective leaders display. Participants will be able to identify their own leadership styles and to develop self-awareness of any gaps that might require attention to become a more effective leaders.
You too can be a leader!
Exercices will include:
Determining your leadership style
Identifying team leadership need
Discussing leadership gaps and leadership matches
The session will be facilitated by Sergey Karassov, ACS, CL. Sergey is a successful trainer, coach and facilitator. He has a special interest in leadership and enjoys developing others to become better leaders and public speakers.
The event will take place between 12h and 13h in the Concert Artistes Association in 20 Bedford Street. Places are limited and prior booking is required here.
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