Category: Past meetings

It was under a magnificent July sun that our latest meeting was open and that another evening of public speaking began. Leading tonight’s session was very experienced speaker and member, our VPPR Marina Lussich whose theme of the evening was ‘conquering your sumit’. Indeed, learning public speaking is all about conquering one’s fears and learning a new skill just like any other, one step at a time.

In charge of time was Stephen followed by grammarian Rosie putting forward ‘challenge’ as her word of the day and finally Thomas as vote counter.

Three different speakers were on the agenda tonight, all in various stages of their Toastmasters journey and speaking on different subjects. To start off was Lindsay ‘In the blink of an eye’ speaking on how we take everything for granted if life and how we don’t take the time to pay attention to the world around us. Giving the example of world renowned violinist Joshua Bell playing in Washington metro only to be listened by seven people. Our second speaker of the evening was Magda with ‘Oxi’ speaking on the economic situation of her native Greece and the present situation unfolded. Speaking next as third speaker was Terry ‘Sales training changes over 50 years’. In his speech, Terry spoke about the development of sales techniques from Zig Ziglar focus on closing the deal to the more consultative and research based approach to selling that pervades nowadays.

The great benefit of the Toastmasters’s approach to learning public speaking, is the focus on peer to peer feedback and evaluations. Opening the evaluations was VP Mentorship Edwin, recommending that Lindsay improves by including the audience more and using more eye contact in his speaking. Club president Florian followed on by advising Magda to finish her speech with a stronger conclusion and to prepare more beforehand. Sergey’s evaluation of Terry focused on including more facts and figures, especially references as the speech objectives of project #7 of the Competent Communicator manual are to research a topic.

The table topics session was led by Prateek using quotes as the theme, participants had to explain the meaning of quotes such as “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing” or “Where the magic happens” and “if you want to become a lion, train with lions”. Numerous members and guests had a go at improving their improvisation skills. Everyone was provided feedback on their speeches by Yvonne in her first time as table topics evaluator (congratulations Yvonne!).

Another great evening of public speaking was closed off by Rosie’s grammarian report commending on the use of phrases such as “delicate details”. Followed by local area 8 director Laurent evaluating the whole evening as general evaluator.

Edwin our acting President opened a very warm meeting – literally! The room had never been hotter in the story of London Victorians. Nonetheless a great crowd of 20+ members, new guests, repeating guests and Toastmasters from other clubs joined us at the Pub for a super tropical meeting.

Hiram as Toastmaster of the Day introduced his team for the evening: Yvonne as Timer for the first time, Alex ditto as Grammarian urging us to use the word RESPECT, and Steve as Vote Counter. With so many new members it is wonderful to see them grow and take new roles for the first time. Well done guys!

Eddie was up first in the speaking row with Speech #2 on how technology and mobile and change our world. He highlighted the power we gained with having the world in our hands, but also warned us of the distraction it can prove to be – and how we need to stay human. Eleanor, also doing Speech #2, was quite contrasting as she depicted private moments in medieval times, very unlike our superconnected, very public and shared-on-Facebook world today! Her speech described vividly what personal space meant in an age where people shared living and sleeping rooms. Desire for privacy was solved, ironically, outdoors. And Prateek in his Speech #4 took us up in the sky by sharing a vivid memory of his first time skydiving and how that taught him a lesson for life.

We had then our Evaluation section, essential for improving as a Toastmaster. Edwin in his double role evaluated Eddie, Rosie did the same for Eleanor and Marina provided feedback and tips for Prateek. As well as the speech objectives themselves, evaluations challenged speakers on the use of voice power, how to build suspense, pace the speech, use the stage and leverage body motions to give the speech more purpose and power.

Just before the break our Sargent at Arms Prateek narrated his story in the Club after just four months being a Toastmaster, and invited the guests to introduce themselves. James, Harry, Jessica, Barbara, and Winston were some of our new guests and Sandra and Abby as repeating guests are considering joining us. Chris and Edem from sister clubs were thrilled to see the vibrant atmosphere in London Victorians.

Alex led a fun Table Topics session on “first times” such as your first day driving, your first meeting or the first job (which included washing the boss’s car, apparently – at least in Hiram’s case). A mix of guests and members including Winston, Chris, Steve, Hiram, Sandra, Marina, Prateek braved it out on the stage and made us laugh.

Eddie also double role as TT Evaluator ran through our topic speeches providing useful tips to everyone. A challenging role beautifully delivered in his very first time doing it!

After our GE Edem had delivered his view and recommendations for improving our meetings, and Timer Yvonne and Grammarian Alex had provided their reports, it was time for awards. Vote counter Steve tallied vote slips to present Edwin with the best Table Topic, Marina with the best Evaluator ribbon and Prateek with the best Speaker ribbon.

A hot and brilliant meeting to inaugurate London Victorians first summer!

See you next week, July 7th!

June is now upon us and with bright coloured glasses of fresh drinks aplenty. It was easy to think that summer was there or at the very least on its way! Toastmastering the meeting, was the masterful George Chiesa. Aptly helped by Monica as timekeeper, Thomas as grammarian and Yvonne as vote counter. Well done on all three of you for doing these roles for the first time. These functionary roles are a nice way to gain the stage confidence needed to become a great public speaker!

Our first speaker of the evening was Lindsay with his icebreaker speech, first step in the journey to become a competent communicator. With ‘All around the world’ Lindsay took us on a journey across his three favourite countries, India and its sacred cows. Cambodia and its numerous temples. Last but not least Australia and its spiders. Our second speaker was also breaking the ice. Alex’s speech ‘My Family and Me’ covered how his family influenced him, learning creativity from his dad and the importance of empathy from his mother. The speech concluded with “How has your family best shaped you!” Our third speaker of the evening was Fahad, with a speech from the Public Relations manual ‘The I.O.D’. In this speech Fahad helped by Edwin simulated a radio talk show, how to best approach it and how to make the best impact on listeners.

The first speaker Lindsay was evaluated by Rosie. Rosie emphasised the importance of speech organisation and of fitting in a speech within the allocated timeframe. A general guideline for a new speaker is to aim for 120 words per minute max. Our second speaker was evaluated by Lo Luong, who praised Alex for his positive body language and smiling on stage. Final speaker Fahad, was evaluated by Hiram who highlighted how repeating key words and points makes a message clearer and easier to understand.

The table topics session was headed by Terry who came up with various random images picked up from newspapers and asked our speakers to tell the story (real or made-up) behind the pictures. The session was evaluated by Prateek who gave feedback on all the table topic speakers. Our grammarian Thomas then came back up with his through report including the number of use of the word of the day ‘Penultimate’ by our speakers. The whole meeting was then evaluated by Andrés Roldan of London Olympians.

Our second meeting of May was an occasion to ponder the last few months of the club but also to prepare its future. Our newest club member was welcome at the start of the meeting. It is our official club banner that came all the way from California by post. She will now stand proud and tall at every single one our meetings and no doubt be coated with numerous ribbons in a short space of time!

Toastmastering the meeting was current Area 52 governor, Marc Lottig whose towering presence meant that we were in very safe hands indeed. Our timekeeper of the evening was Alex, (well done Alex for your first club role!). The word of the day of tonight’s grammarian Edem was ‘ponder’. Closing the trio of assistant functionaries was Monica as vote counter.

Prateek started the evening of speeches with the third speech from the Competent Communicator manual. In “Rules of Engagement’ we were treated with a very factual speech on modern day dating app Tinder and its 22 billion daily swipes! Following was Marina with a speech from the Speeches by Management manual. Her speech ‘LinkedOut’ explored how to give feedback in an unsuccessful job application. Closing off the evening of speeches was Alan Thomas, with ‘Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind’ from the Entertaining Speaker manual. A dramatic talk on the story of an author meeting sprites and spirits in a house.

The first evaluator of the evening was Terry, who emphasised the importance of not having too loud a voice tone and of moving on stage while making points for added impact. Fahad then evaluated Marina, highlighting the importance of choosing the right speech topic for the manual’s objectives. Daniela finished off by evaluating Alan, emphasising the importance of effective vocal variety and of setting up props correctly.

 

London Victorians annual general meeting then followed. Starting off with the election of the new committee. The club committee for the 2015/16 Toastmasters year will consist of:

President: Florian Bay

Vice-President Education: Fahad Alturkait

Vice-President Membership: Terry Pullin

Vice-President Public Relations: Marina Lussich

Vice-President Mentorship: Edwin Atiegoba

Treasurer: Ayokunle Sangoyomi

Sergeant at Arms: Prateek Trehun

A short overview of the past year was made by club president Florian Bay, highlighting the impressive achievement of having started the club from scratch and now having 24 members with more in the pipeline. The club’s ambition remains to become the leading Toastmaster club in London and to meet every Tuesday. The next Toastmasters year already looks promising but it is the sum of the individual achievements of all the members that will make the club great!

The table topics session led by Eleanor was themed around the titles of strange books. Participants had to tell the story behind interesting titles such as ‘Afterthoughts of a Worm Hunter’ or ‘How to play with a Lion’s testicules’. Rosie evaluated the session for her first crack at an evaluation role (bravo Rosie!). The entire meeting was finally evaluated by Gagan Singh coming from London Athenians.