Category: Past meetings

At Toastmasters we love giving out awards and the theme of our last Toastmasters meeting was “Victorians’ award show”. Taking charge as Toastmaster of the meeting was Fahad. Assisting him as timekeeper was Eleanor G who took this role for the first time. We love to have unusual words of the day in Toastmasters meetings and tonight’s one by our grammarian Stephen was “pizazz”. Maria and Andrew S completed the crew as respectively harkmaster and vote counter.

We had five speakers on the agenda. The first one Alex was beginning his Toastmasters journey by doing his icebreaker speech “A little bit about me”. Here we learnt just that, including his job as actuarial consultant and his travels in India, South America and Nepal. The second speaker for the evening was Nadia “King Solomon – Debating what are we here for and what’s life all about?” in her speech Nadia covered part of Ecclesiastes and the importance of not taking a text out of context. The third speech “Life with Jim” was by Olivia. In a crafty twist the subject was her relationship with gym and how by exercising more she became happier and stronger. Our fourth speaker was Annabel “Shop Now” who covered the history of shopping from ancient Greeks, to modern supermarkets to a future of drones and virtual reality. The final speaker was Nuala “Design is about people” who explained more about her job as aircraft interior designer and the three main end-users to take into account; economy class passengers; business class passengers and flight attendants.

The beauty of Toastmasters is that everyone who speaks receive a through verbal and written evaluation of his/her speech. Evaluating Alex was Thomas who recommended a slower speaking pace. Isabelle as evaluator of Nadia’s speech praised her clear structure but suggested she uses no notes in the future. Andy evaluated Olivia’s speech, praised her intriguing introduction but highlighted that the speech should have been outlined at the start. Terry took on the evaluation of Annabel’s speech and commended her for her clear structure. Finally, John evaluated Nuala, praising her use of the stage but recommended adding more pauses at key points in the speech.

After a short break, the meeting reconvened for a table topics impromptu speaking session. Keeping up with the movie theme, our table topics master AK asked questions such as “what’s your favorite movie line” “what’s your guilty cheesy movie?” or “Are there too many bad movies”. The session was evaluated by Eleanor H who provided thorough feedback to all speakers.

Maria and Stephen then came back for their reports. Following on from them was our general evaluator Chris from London Corinthians who evaluated the club, ambiance and everyone else not evaluated so far.

Congratulations to our best speaker Olivia, best evaluator John and best table topics speaker Florian.

A new year of public speaking is now upon us and if “I would like to improve my public speaking and presentation skills” is one of your new year’s resolutions for 2016. Why no come and visit us here at London Victorians?

Taking charge of our first meeting of 2016 and a busy night of public speaking was Toastmaster Prateek. Assisted by Alex as timekeeper, Hannah as grammarian who picked “aspiration” as word of the day, Karen as harkmaster and finally Maria as vote counter.

Beginning her journey into public speaking tonight was Annabel whose icebreaker speech “3 Jobs” talked about her working life so far. She is a self-confessed workaholic, who did jobs from the paper round to being a shop assistant to working now in marketing following her university degree. Following on with our second speech of the evening was Eleanor “How are you today?” Eleanor’s speech tackled the difficult subject of mental health and how overlooked it is with most sufferer being discriminated against or fearing discrimination. Consequently one of the best thing one can do is simply asking someone “How are you today?” Nuala was our third speaker of the evening “Make Sense”. This intriguing speech informed us on the wonderful possibilities offered by our sense of smell. A sense so powerful in fact that it can boost memory and act as a warning system to us by smelling rotten food or gas. Our fourth speech this evening “Pretty Fly for a Wifi” was done was Thomas. Thomas told us everything there was to know about Wifi and in particular the security systems of WEP and WPA and how Wifi words. Internet through thin air is amazing isn’t it? Public speaking can be used to persuade others and this is what our final speaker of the evening Terry did. In “It’s not you it’s me” Terry recounted us his personal journey from failure to success and how he was the one that triggered changes in himself.

Public speaking can only be learnt by receiving feedback on one’s performance and each of our speakers tonight was evaluated. These “speeches on a speech” were made by Tarjei evaluating Annabel. Olivia as Eleanor’s evaluator. Toby who evaluated Nuala. Edwin who gave feedback on Thomas’s speech and finally Florian who evaluated Terry’s speech.

During the second half of the meeting, members and guests alike practiced their impromptu public speaking skills in our table topics session. Facilitated by Yvonne, it featured questions such as “what would do as CEO of Facebook” “What would you say in a message to HM The Queen from space?” or even “What about a wet Christmas instead of a white Christmas?” The session was evaluated by Edwin who provided feedback to members and guests alike.

Hannah and Karen then came back for their respective reports as grammarian and harkmaster. Followed by Christopher of sister club St Paul’s Speakers who evaluated the entire meeting.

Our final meeting of 2015 was special on Tuesday evening. Fahad opened the meeting as acting President, introducing the Toastmasters educational programme and manual at length.

In charge of leading the meeting this evening as Toastmaster was club President Florian who quickly introduced his team of helpers. Timekeeper Andy tasked with looking after time this evening. Grammarian Edwin looked after the uses of the English language. Sophia as harkmaster ready to test listening skills this evening and finally vote counter Eleanor H.

The first speaker of the evening was Karen with a speech titled “E is for …” In her speech Karen explained why she has joined Toastmasters and how this links to the importance placed by her family on education and self-improvement. Following on was second speaker of the evening, Toby “On the bright side”. Toby opened his speech by highlighting that extreme poverty worldwide had halved between 1990 and today. The reasons for this improvement have to go with better access to healthcare, the eradication of diseases such as smallpox and reduction in crime rates. Our third speaker of the evening Isabelle had a festive theme to her speech “A Christmas controversy”. Isabelle explained the importance of Saint Nicholas to Dutch Christmas traditions and how he is helped by the Zwarte Piets whose minstrel faces have recently been controversial. The final speaker of the evening was Kate with a speech from the Storytelling manual “The adventures of Jeremy Fisher”. We learnt everything about the aforementioned chestnut haired pony and his various shenanigans including bringing traffic to a halt on a busy road.

The first to evaluate this evening was Stephen for Karen’s speech. Stephen praised her for not using notes for her very first speech. Terry then evaluated Toby and highlighted his powerful and intriguing introduction. Eleanor G followed on with an evaluation of Isabelle’s speech praising her increased confidence compared to previous speeches and clear message. Finally, Joyce evaluated Kate and congratulated her on her storytelling skill that transported us in the environment she was describing.

Annabel was leading the table topics session this evening. Coming up with topics themed on the “best Christmas present you’ve ever given or received” “what’s your family Christmas tradition” or “What’s your New Year resolution?” The table topics session was then evaluated by Charles who gave feedback to all six table topics speakers. Edwin and Sophia then came back for their reports followed by Prateek as general evaluator of the entire meeting.

A very successful 2015 is coming to an end in London Victorians. Onwards to more successes in 2016!