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Past meetings

London Victorian’s AGM

This week was London Victorian’s AGM, so we had an extra special meeting! In the first half of the meeting there were 2 fantastic speeches from our members, as well as a speech from Sonia about the upcoming Pathways programme. The second half was dedicated to the AGM.

Terry, our President and focused his introduction on the guests in the meeting and talked about the various reasons why people join Toastmasters.

Terry handed over to Isabelle, our Toastmaster for the evening. Isabelle is now an expert in this role and performed it seamlessly. She set the theme for the evening by stating that while our comfort zone is a very nice place to be, there is no growth there. We need to push ourselves to develop and improve and asked each speaker when they pushed themselves outside their comfort zone (apart from public speaking). Our courageous members have done marathons, stand up comedy, dance lessons and insanity workout programmes, to name a few.

Toastmaster Isabelle describing the meeting theme

Isabelle was supported by Paul M as Timekeeper and Ed as Harkmaster.  Annabel was our Sergeant at Arms. She introduced the hidden benefits of joining toastmasters (leadership skills) and warmly greeted the 5 guests.

Paul, displaying the traffic light system
Welcome back to London Victorians Ed after your break!
A big welcome to our newest member, Danielle!

Speeches and Evaluations

In the initial section of the meeting, there were 2 prepared speeches, followed by their evaluations.

First up was Negin, performing a number 3 speech, on her unlucky traveller hypothesis. Negin used great structure, visual aids and humour to describe how no matter where she travels, she will always have bad luck!

Negin talking about her unlucky travels

Pascale was up next, with a speech number 5 on “How to make your best better”. She used storytelling to emphasise the importance of asking for feedback and how to give it effectively.

Pascale incorporating movement into her speech

After the speeches Florian and Alex performed evaluations for Negin and Pascale respectively. Audience members also completed feedback slips.

Speech feedback tip for using PowerPoint presentations (from Florian): A good PowerPoint presentation includes lots of pictures and little text.

Pathways

After the speeches from our members, we were fortunate to have Sonia from London Cardinals speak to us about the upcoming pathways programme. Sonia answered all our questions about how the programme works in practice, after experiencing the programme during her recent trip to America. ‘Pathways’ is due to come to district 91 from March 2018 and will eventually replace the current educational programme. Please click here for more information.

Sonia, taking us through the pathways programme

AGM

The second half of the meeting was for the club’s AGM. Terry, our 16/17 president, took us through the fantastic achievements London Victorians had made over the past year. Not only have we attained the President’s Distinguished Club award (the highest level of recognition available) for the 2nd year running, we hosted the Area finals for Humorous Speeches and Table Topics and celebrated our 100th meeting! Terry also highlighted that the great quality of our speakers is what makes London Victorians a truly superb club to be part of.

Florian took the reins from Terry to discuss the Club Finances and did his best to make it interesting and interactive! Finally Terry returned to the stage, with the help of Sonia to vote in the new committee for the 17/18 Toastmaster year.

London Victorians is pleased to welcome our new committee…

President                           –             Nuala McHugh

VP Education                   –             Eleanor Handslip

Club success manager  –             Alex Liberatore

VP Membership               –             Pascale Monteil

Membership manager  –             Cleo Bispo

VP Public Relations       –             Terry Pullin

VP Mentoring                   –             Fahad Alturkait

Treasurer                           –             Florian Bay

Events manager              –             Paul McCoy & Paulina Dabrowska

Terry handing over the Presidency to Nuala!

We wish the committee all the best in their new roles and look forward to an exciting Toastmasters year ahead! Well done to all who made this a fantastic meeting and AGM and we look forward to seeing everyone next Tuesday!

Categories
Past meetings

Holiday themed meeting

This week’s meeting had a holiday theme, with the hopes of extending the bank holiday even further. Not only did all speakers state what they got up to over the bank holiday, but there were also two speeches about holidays!

Fahad was acting President and gave an articulate introduction to the Toastmasters history and manuals. Fahad also encouraged members to consider becoming a member of the committee, with the Toastmasters New Year starting in July. He highlighted how serving as a club officer can really accelerate your development. Voting for committee members takes place at the AGM on 6th June. Click here for more information on the committee roles.

Fahad as acting President

Fahad handed over to Christophe, our Toastmaster for the evening. Christophe loves this role and has chiselled it down to perfection. He clearly described the role and welcomed each speaker to the stage with their bank holiday activities. Some activities were energetic, such as swimming, fitness classes and playing squash. Some were inspiring like walking on fire or presenting a workshop at a Toastmasters convention in Palma.

Christophe, introducing the holiday theme
Toastmaster Christophe describing the bank holiday theme

Christophe was supported by Thomas as Timekeeper, Alex as Grammarian and Vahagn as Harkmaster. Narayan took up his first role as Sergeant at Arms and greeted the 12 guests.

Alex, ecstatic that the word of the day, pragmatic, was used 9 times!
Vahagn getting ready to reward those who were listening!

Speeches

The initial section of the meeting was for prepared speeches. First up was Pascale, performing a number 4 speech, on Paradise. Pascale took the audience on an immersive trip to the Caribbean. She had the audience dancing at carnival in Trinidad to relaxing on an idyllic beach in Tobago.

Pascale, very happy to win the best speaker ribbon!

Next was Alexandro, who performed speech number 5 about why we travel. He used storytelling to great effect, describing his travels to Tehran, Dubrovnik and Kathmandu. Alexandro used body language to mirror his speech and to convey his message that traveling helps you learn and make the most out of life.

The third speaker Stephen, also performed speech 5. He performed an extremely well structured and clear speech, with three tips on persuasive techniques. Each tip was humorously highlighted with an active example about the audience should vote for him as best speaker!

Annabel gave the final speech of the night from the advanced Entertaining speaker manual on Obsessions. She used light hearted humour and rich content to describe the “cocktail for success”: morning routines, positive mantras and evening classes.

Evaluations

After the speeches, Diane, Paul H, Florian and Fahad performed evaluations for Pascale, Alexandro, Stephen and Annabel respectively. Audience members also completed feedback slips.

Speech feedback tip for persuading people (from Florian): Use open hand gestures, with palms facing the audience to convey sincerity. Focussed eye contact (rather than scanning around the room) is also essential for persuading people.

Fahad - best evaluator
Well done Fahad for winning the best Evaluator ribbon!

Table topics

The second section of the meeting was for Table Topics. Negin took to the stage as Table Topics Master. She gave each participant 3 words: a person, a place and a thing, which members and guests had to link together into a 2 minute table topic.

Great job David for your entertaining table topic about the Pope, a temple and a tiger!

For his second role of the day, Thomas gave some fantastic tips as Table Topics Evaluator. These included:

  • Run with the first thing that comes into your head
  • Make the topic into a story that you can relate to
  • Smile to increase the energy of your words

Well done to Florian, Narayan and guests Andrea, Dee, David, Bola, Abi and Manik for taking part!

Congratulations to Pascale, Fahad and David, who were tonight’s respective speech, evaluator and table topics winners and to all who helped make this a brilliant meeting as usual. We look forward to everyone at next Tuesday!