Category: Past meetings

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Develop Speaking Skills

Post author By London Victorians
Post date August 21, 2016

Prateek as Toastmaster, developing his leadership skills

At 6:30 every Tuesday we meet in St. James the Less Church conveniently located between Victoria and Pimlico to develop leadership and develop speaking skills. On Tuesday 16th August Prateek was Toastmaster of the evening running an energetic night. He had a team to assist him, Bruna was timekeeper and Nuala was sergeant at arms. Isabelle was grammarian and Christophe was harkmaster.

There were four prepared speeches on the night, first on stage was Pranav delivering his Icebreaker. He informed the audience of his challenging journey which resulted in outstanding achievements while working in the robotics industry.

Second on stage was John, delivering speech 4 from the Competent Communication manual ‘How to Say it’. He compared facing adversity to teabags; it’s only when you put teabags in hot water you find out how strong they are. Similarly, when people face adversity it can bring out their best.

Third on stage was Sophia delivering speech 5 from the Competent Communication manual ‘Your Body Speaks’. Inspired by a book ‘Hinds Feet on High Places’, Sophia delivered a message about developing courage to overcome fear and humiliation.

Members and guests conversing at the meeting break

Fourth on stage was Robert who spoke about advances in tech, how the speed of technological change has made life easier for the end consumer. Providing examples such as apps such XE currency which offers convenience and the best foreign exchange rates possible.

The four speeches were evaluated by Stephen, Fahad, Romain and Florian respectively. Evaluations happen throughout a Toastmaster meeting so speakers learn where their strengths lie, and are also made aware of areas they can improve.

Majdouline then hosted the table topics session to develop speaking skills, with the theme of idioms, speakers were challenged to speak for 1-2 minutes on idioms such as ‘out of the blue’ and ‘as keen as mustard’. An inventive session with interesting answers that were then evaluated by Tatiana.

Guests are always welcome to join us so come along to our next meeting on the 23rd August!

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Public Speaking and Leadership Skills – 9th August

Post author By London Victorians
Post date August 14, 2016

Tuesday 9th August and Eleanor G was Toastmaster, introducing the theme of festivals for the meeting. She had a team to assist her, Pranav was Timekeeper, John was Sergeant At Arms and Christophe was Grammarian introducing Jovial as word of the day. Every week we have meetings to support our members in building their public speaking and leadership skills.

Eleanor as Toastmaster — Eleanor’s leadership task of being Toastmaster

Eleanor B was harkmaster, informing the audience of the importance of listening by stating “Hearing is uncontrollable whereas listening is a skill”, citing 5 types of listening; pseudo, appreciative, empathetic, comprehensive and critical listening.

We had three speeches on the night, first on stage was Miller delivering her icebreaker which is the first speech in the competent communication manual. Miller informed the audience about challenges she has overcome, how in life sometimes things work out differently than planned. Her speech ended with the message, that only by repeatedly asking ‘Who am I?’ do we truly start to know ourselves.

Second on stage was Cleo, delivering the second speech from the competent communication manual “Organise Your Speech”. Cleo informed the audience of the traditional Brazillian and Portuguese food, Feijoada. Likening the dish to a magic potion, Cleo informed the audience of the history, ingredients and how the Feijoada dish came to life in other parts of the World.

Lastly was Yyvonne delivering speech 3 from the Competent Communication manual “Get to the point”. Her speech was about the Olympics including some interesting statistics such as how there are 13,000 athletes competing in Rio, in 33 sports and 400 different events. Yyvonne also informed the audience of when her dog competed in doglympics in Taiwan!

Fahad then hosted the table topics inviting impromptu speaking volunteers to the stage to deliver a 1-2 minute speech. Speeches were then evaluated by Isabelle, who provided each speaker commendations on what they did well and also included tips on how to make their impromptu speech better. Join us next week to see how we help our members improve their public speaking and leadership skills.

Tags leadership, public speaking

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Impromptu Speaking Challenges 26th July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 31, 2016

Tuesday 26th July George was Toastmaster with the theme of dreams. He told the audience his dream of making a million pounds a year on his Ugandan Farm. George had a team to assist him, Stephen was timekeeper. Cleo was Sergeant At Arms. Tatiana was Harkmaster and Romain was Grammarian introducing Euphoria as word of the day.

There were three speeches on the night. First was Bruna with her first speech as a member. Bruna told us of a difficult period in her life when she was 15. Rather than be labelled a victim, a strong and resilient Bruna told the audience how she has overcome these events to “turn her poison into medicine”.

Lawrence was next on stage delivering speech two ‘organise your speech’. With a powerful swing and a golf club as a prop, Lawrence informed the audience how he likens Golf to life; how failure is part of success, and passion is one of the most important elements to maintain.

Third on stage was Eleanor delivering her 6th speech focusing on ‘vocal variety’. Her speech began with the inspiring story of Gladys Cooper who at 113 was one of the oldest people in the UK. Outlining the events in Gladys life, and the changes in society that she experienced, Eleanor stated that age should not be thought of as a number, but more a value. An inspirational speech about reframing age in society.

The second half of the meeting was hosted by Christophe providing volunteers with topics for impromptu speaking which were based around the topics of morality and spirituality. Questions ranged from what kind of personality God might have to whether it’s ok to not tell the truth. Challenging questions with very creative and funny impromptu answers. Annabel then evaluated all impromptu speeches providing each speaker with commendations and recommendations.

Annabel evaluating impromptu speaking volunteers

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Impromptu Speaking Galore – 19th July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 23, 2016

We last meeting basked in summer heat and guess what. With four speeches, including an impromptu one by our past President Florian, we raised the temperature yet further! Robert took charge of the meeting as Toastmaster for the very first time (well done Robert!) and quickly introduced his team of functionaries for the evening. Christophe as timekeeper, Andrew as grammarian and last but not least, Cleo as harkmaster.

Toastmaster of the meeting Robert showing the Competent Communicator manual — Toastmaster of the meeting Robert showing the *Competent Communicator* manual

Andy did the first speech of the evening ‘A Caribbean Pirate’ telling us the story of Wolfie, a dog his family adopted while he was working in the Caribbean. Thomas followed on by beginning his speech ‘Practice Pratice’ with a reference to Carnegie Hall and how only the best musicians perform here. The secret to performing here is indeed practice and Thomas told us a personal story of how as a cello player, he and a friend could have avoided making a routine mistake by practicing more. The third speech was an impromptu one delivered by Florian who was asked what he would do if he became UK Foreign Secretary. Visits to Germany, Russia, France and the United States featured in the speech and an insistence that the UK should always be open to others. Finally, Fahad in the last speech of the meeting ‘The Most Powerful Force in the Universe’ told us the power of exponential growth. A power illustrated by mankind’s population growth since antiquity, house price inflation and many more examples. The value of the pound if our pocket is diminishing as we speak, scary…

Practice makes perfect according to our second speaker!

John, Sophia, Romain and Tatiana evaluated the speakers in turn, giving them feedback on their strong points and areas for improvement.

More impromptu speaking followed after a short break with AK taking control as table topics master. AK came up with questions based on how people would behave in an alternate universe were they were infamous politicians. These could be Nigel Farage pursued by a mob or Donald Trump with his wig falling off. Guests and members took turns answering these questions and were provided feedback on their performance by table topic evaluator Terry.

John and Cleo then came back for their respective reports followed by our general evaluator Karthik.

Tags Impromptu, Past meetings, Toastmasters

Past meetings Toastmasters International

Best Scientific Advances and Improvised Speeches – 12th July

Post author By London Victorians
Post date July 17, 2016

Florian was the Toastmaster of the evening and chose a very “Florianesque” theme of the evening: What are the best scientific advances? Personally, I would have picked toilet paper, but thankfully the speakers and functionary had more meaningful answers such as antibiotics, the wheel, and the Internet. Fahad as the Grammarian picked the word phenomenal and asked the audience to yell “EUREKA” whenever it was used in the meeting. This ensured plentiful usage. Cleo was timekeeper and Judy was Harkmaster.

We had four speeches from various levels of the CC. The first speaker, Christophe, started us off by explaining why veganism is trending. It was quite a deep speech with questions such as why do we call it beef rather than cow or pork rather than pig. Was it to distance ourselves from the animal? I had to think about it that night when I chowed down on my beef tartar.

The second speaker was Eleanor who successfully convinced us that Beethoven’s music is so good that NASA decided to put his music on the Voyager spacecraft that is now 15 billion kilometers away from Earth. And the craziest fact about Beethoven is that he continued to compose against all odds even as he became completely deaf.

George is an EBay guru. In his speech, he told the story of how a 3-hour PowerPoint presentation in the British Library turned into him publishing a book that is available on Amazon. And he did not stop there! He wrote three more books after that.

George delivering his speech

The last speaker of the evening was Tatiana, with a speech about her Pie Challenge. She made a bet with a friend to bake a pie in as many countries as possible. It turns out this is quite an undertaking. Think about it. You need a kitchen, ingredients, and time in order to make this happen. And she has done it 8 times now! I have never even baked a pie in my life!

Tatiana delivering her speech

Lastly on agenda were table topics with our excellent Table Topics Master Nuala. She provided pictures for the speakers to improvise on. We had several great stories including Pranav, who would build a nuclear reactor using a paper clip and bandaid and John who told the story of an old lady that kidnapped his cat Curtis.

Overall, the meeting was phenomenal! EUREKA!

Tags Past meetings, speaking, speeches, Toastmasters