Category: Past meetings

Past meetings Toastmasters International

An inspirational meeting! – 29th September

Post author By London Victorians
Post date October 4, 2015

Our last meeting was very special, being our last meeting in the upstairs room of the Windsor Castle Pub. September 2014 and the humble beginnings of our now almost forty members strong club now seems like a different era. But London Victorians will forever remain grateful to the owners of the Windsor Castle Pub for providing us with an amazing home for the last year and a perfect place where to start our club!

Toastmaster of the evening Joyce! — Toastmaster of the meeting Joyce!

Taking charge as Toastmaster of the evening was the legendary Joyce, who wasted no time in inspiring us all and in introducing her team for this meeting. Eleanor carefully explained her role in timing the meeting’s different segments. Grammarian Sandra introduced ‘inspirational’ as word of the day. Harkmaster Florian highlighted the importance of active listening. Finally Vote Counter Nuala reminded us all of the importance of providing and collecting feedback during a Toastmasters meeting.

Timekeeper Eleanor showing our timing lights

Our first speaker at this meeting was Toby ‘Market Research’. For his very first speech, Toby explained his first job as a market researcher both the great aspects of it and the less positive aspects of customers putting the phone down on him. Following on was Yvonne ‘Starting Drinks’. Yvonne remarked that one can learn the most about a colleague during their leaving drinks and consequently suggested organizing starting drinks to get to know new colleagues better! The third speaker at this meeting was Eleanor ‘Wolf Belly’. Eleanor regaled the audience with the tale of her childhood night-time dreams of being transformed into a werewolf and eating copious amounts of pasta to return to her human form. All the while explaining the origin and meaning of the werewolf myth. Our final speaker was John ‘I hate’ on his complex attitude towards social media and the importance of not substituting it to meaningful interactions with others.

'Starting Drinks' by Yvonne — ‘Starting Drinks’ by Yvonne

Alex evaluated the first speaker, suggesting a slower speaking pace while commending his stage presence. Prateek’s evaluation of Yvonne’s speech highlighted the importance of voice modulation and he benefits one can gain by using the stage more. Edwin in his evaluation of our third speaker Eleanor recommended using more drama and animations to make the story more vivid still. Finally Fahad evaluated John’s speech and praised his clear message while warning against hand clasping.

Prateek's evaluation of Yvonne's speech — Prateek’s evaluation of Yvonne’s speech

The theme of the table topics session run by Stephen was world records. Both members and guest had a go at explaining world records such as the most T shirts worn at the same time, the largest collection of clocks or making the largest rubber band ball. This impromptu speaking part of the meeting was evaluated by Eddie. With Sandra and Florian following shortly after for their Grammarian and Harkmaster reports. Finally Ellie Raycheva of Canary Wharf Communicators did her general evaluation of the club, praising it as “one of the best clubs in London!”

General evaluator of the meeting Ellie from Canary Wharf Communicators

Our next meeting will take place in our new venue of the Monk Room in St James the Less Church. The address is:
St James the Less Church
Vauxhall Bridge Road, Victoria, London, SW1V 2PS

Tags Past meetings, Toastmasters

Contest season at London Victorians – 15th September

Post author By London Victorians
Post date September 21, 2015

Typically, Toastmasters clubs all over the world hold for club contests each year. The International Speech contest in spring alongside the Evaluation contest. With the Humorous Speech contest and the Table Topic contest following in the autumn. This contest season is a very special one for London Victorians as it marks the first official contest in which the club is taking part.

Our club President Florian Bay chaired the humorous speech contest, assisted by timers Eddie and Yvonne, ballot counters Stephen, Magda and Fahad and contest chief judge Jide from Woodford Speakers.

The first humorous speech contest speaker was Thomas ‘The Russian Experience’ describing his adventure in a Russian spa and being welcomed by “you want some oak leaves!” The second speaker was Terry ‘You really are missing out by not having children!’ on how children make a relationship blossom anew with new chores and activities for everyone. Natalie followed on as third contest speaker with a speech ‘Digital and Dazed’ on the perils of the digital age, ranging from Tinder dating through to recording gigs on phone video cameras but never watching the recording again. Following on from her was Prateek ‘Adventures of Harry O’Neill’ telling about the Scottish pilot of the same name he met once from whom the best landings where those where “the plane can be reused afterwards!” The contest carried on with Edwin taking the stage ‘This is an Appeal’ urging us to fight a disease called ROTU (Rudeness On The Underground) whose symptoms include everything from falling asleep to wild hallucinations! John then took to the stage with ‘I hate’ on useless Facebook status updates from friends and one compulsively checks them. Our last contestant was Joyce speaking on ‘Can dreams be true?’

Prateek's contest speech 'The Adventures of Harry O'Neill' — Prateek’s contest speech ‘The Adventures of Harry O’Neill’

After a slightly longer than usual break. We moved to the club’s table topics contest chaired by Eleanor. The question that our contestants had to answer was “If you were another thing in this world, what would it be and why?”

Our first contestant Marina answered shoes, followed by Terry the wannabee savanna animal, Joyce as nothing less than Prime Minister. Fourth Table Topics speaker John answered a Chihuahua, followed by Prateek’s Genie, Edwin’s pub (specifically the Winsdor Castle pub) full of merry drunks and finally Natalie with a set of drums.

Marina's winning shoes! — Marina’s winning shoes!

A short round of table topics followed before the results were announced. London Victorians first ever contest winners are as follows:

Humorous Speech Contest
First Place – Edwin At
Second Place – Terry P
Third Place – Thomas R

Table Topics Contest
First Place – Marina L
Second Place – Terry P
Third Place – John K

We wish the best of luck to all of our contestants representing the club at the Area 8 contest on Thursday 24^th September in Ofgem’s offices.

Tags Contest, Past meetings, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Elevating Members into Speakers! – 1st September

Post author By London Victorians
Post date September 5, 2015

In spite of rain downpours and the slow end of summer as we enter September. Another amazing evening of public speaking was lined-up in our usual venue of the Windsor Castle Pub. With no less than four speakers, including a number 10 speech ‘Inspire Your Audience’ from the Competent Communicator manual and two advanced speeches.

Taking the stage this evening as Toastmaster, was club treasurer Ayokunle ‘AK’ with holidays as the theme of the meeting. Tonight’s functionaries were Abigail as timekeeper, looking after our speakers’ use of time. Olivia looking after our speakers’ use of the English language and introducing ‘Elevate’ as word of the day. For the very first time tonight, we introduced a Harkmaster, a new role performed by Fahad to challenge all audience members to listen carefully to tonight’s speakers. Finally Toby took on the mantle of vote counter.

The first of four speakers tonight was Alex ‘Why go to India’. Alex recounted us his travels to India through the use of very descriptive language and numerous anecdotes. From the presence of tigers, monkeys and elephants; the latter of which are the most dangerous of the bunch. Through cooking classes in South India. Joyce followed on for her number 10 speech titled ‘Potential’. Joyce urged all of us to give a chance to others, since after all “where does experience begins” and peppered the speech with anecdotes from her days as a “super social worker”. Our following two speakers both did speeches from advanced manuals, respectively Interpretive Reading and The Effective Salesperson. Club president Florian began with ‘Collision at Cajamarca’ a reading from the story of the Battle of Cajamarca that marked the end of the Inca Empire, as written by one of Francisco Pizzaro’s companions. Sergey followed with ‘What can coaching do for you’ highlighting the benefit of coaching to better develop oneself.

Joyce inspiring us all to live up to our potential

The evaluation of our speakers followed. Marina evaluated Alex and commented on his great use of descriptive language and for jumping straight into the subject. She also recommended that Alex incorporate more energy and vocal variety in future speeches. Terry evaluated Joyce’s speech and highlighted the benefits a clearer and more organized speech structure would have brought to complement the strong body language and vocal variety of Joyce’s speech. Hiram in his evaluation of Florian suggested adding yet more vocal variety and perhaps commenting on the story as he went along. Finally, Thomas evaluated Sergey’s speech and suggested that Sergey spends more time in leading the buyer through the process.

Marina evaluating the first of tonight's speakers — Marina evaluating the first of tonight’s speakers

For the table topics session of this meeting, table topics master Magda decided to adopt a sci-fi theme. Speakers were asked in turn to image what would happen if they saw a UFO landing in front of them while driving at night. What would they of id they had access to a time machine! What would they do if they could purchase an android robot? Or what kind of superpowers would our speakers like to possess. Evaluating this improvised speaking session was Marina, who gave sharp feedback to all of our table topics speakers.

Club member Prateek tackling a table topic!

As part the meeting’s wrap-up Olivia came back for her grammarian report, praising our speakers for their effective use of the English language. Harkmaster Fahad then asked questions such as “What school Joyce had in mind for her children?” to test everyone’s listening skills. General evaluator Nazia followed with her evaluation of all the functionaries and evaluator of the evening. For after all in Toastmasters everyone is evaluated and receives feedback, not just the speakers!

General Evaluator Nazia from Canary Wharf WIBF club

Come along in two weeks on September 15^th for our very first table topics and humorous speech contest.

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!

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!