Basic Training for Toastmasters

The 25 October, 1928, Ralph Smedley copyrighted his Basic Training Manual. 

It had 12 projects that today become ten in the manual called CC.

Looking at his manual Edited in 1943, that I got, the Projects and even most of the words changed little. It did work then and it works still now. So many of us learned and got confidence from going through them.

Ralph Smedley opened the first Toastmasters meeting for young in YMCA in 1905, just as he came out of College, even if clubs for Adults were created later, then clubs in other countries (today 120), were formed later,. Till his death worked relentlessly to help build other clubs in different cities. In his books and manuals he uses the same "one to one" friendly manner he tells us to use in our speeches, a conversational style.

Sally, Toastmaster Promoted

Sally speaking at St Margaret's Crypt

At our meeting of 19 October, we were in good hands: Sally was our Toastmaster of the evening.

Zandria was a great Warm-up leader, she asked us : "Why we came to the Toastmasters and how our goals changed on the way." That made up for a longer beginning, but it was worth each minute: we learned great news from each other, and understood how our motives could change and develop through experience and time. Sally told us marvellous news! With her new confidence and what she learned from Toastmasters Clubs, she made last week an Awesome Presentation at her workplace. And the next day, she was promoted!

Chris Best Evaluator

Yes, Toastmasters club's method works.

We also heard great news from Chris, who dreamed then founded, with a group gathered around him, our club, three years ago: he got the qualification certified Organisation and Relationship Systems Coach, for which he was working form 2007. 

Chris was also voted best Evaluator for the night.

Katy and Ola told us that beyond the development of Speaking Skills they now intend to develop through Toastmasters also their Leadership skills.

Yes, Toastmasters is a good place for developing Leadership skills, too.

Flavia with 1st Price for her Icebreaker speech

The same evening, Flavia, one of our newest members gave a stunning speech about her new dream to find her passion and become a "Toastie"

She was voted best speaker of the evening. Flavia was so descriptive in her speech that I see still the scenes she depicted to us.

With Manaj joining our club tonight.

Most guests spoke for more then 1 minute at the Table Topics, and a longer pause to speak to each other, and one of the guest, Jo won the best Table topic of the evening award.

Many other Toastmasters contributed to its success, speaking or taking roles to keep the evening interesting and useful for all of us.

This was the last meeting of Lewisham Speakers Toastmasters at the St Margaret Church's Crypt.

Humour is big (exaggerate), drama is small (be subtle)

Hamming it up. As you get more experienced and start to get in the swing of telling stories and acting them out, it gets tempting to ham it up. For example, act out the drama about people being able to see that I’m nervous as I’m giving a presentation. The more I ham it up, the more people laugh.

But there are other situations where hamming it up has no effect at all on the audience. The distinction between these two situations had eluded me. Doug Stevenson had the answer:
Humor is big, drama is small
When you want people to laugh exaggerate.
But when you want to portray emotion, think Colin Firth – be subtle.

Speaking outside Toastmasters

 We will make here a place for all of you who speak outside our club to let us know.

•  The 30th October 8 30, Sunday evening  12 Toastmasters with Julie and Steve from our club will do a Stand Up Comedy Showcase at Laughing Horse, PhD Daniel Jones, TT.Contests winner was our Workshop leader / Next fall another class!  
Stand Up Comedy at Laughing horse 2010-30-10 by julie70
•  
• 1st November Cavendish Standup Virgins with Chris Rose from Bromley & Julie From Lewisham and others.Come to see us.

 Let us know about your speeches outside our Club!

Today special visitor from Saudi Arabia: Husam Al-Eid

Husam Al-Eid, ACB, ALB,  was our Table Topic Master, tonight, he has been already for 7 year Toastmaster in Saudi Arabia's Desert Diamonds Toastmasters Club,  in Riyadh. 

Husam gave interesting and easy to answer questions and at the same time made us travel far away in our minds and many of our guests answered with great speeches. In the picture Husam is with our flag and Julie, President of Lewisham Speakers Club.

We are always happy to welcome visitors from Toastmaster clubs from other countries!

Richard's Humorous Speech

Richard came first in the Area Contest and third in the Division H contest. Here he is , telling his story at the Area Contest, video cutesy of our Area Governor, Peter. We did not publish it till now as we wanted his speech to be a surprise to those who viewed it yesterday.

Energy, humour, use of pauses, much can be learned from watching this speech a few times.

Yesterday, at a Workshop about the use of body language, about which I will talk later, Flavia gave a fabulous Table Topic speech, and Julie a funny one. Bits and pieces of all our speeches can also be reused in later speeches or stories.

Newcomer to the Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest

I attended my first Division's conference and Contest, at the Imperial College London on Saturday 15 October. Julie, our President, encouraged me to attend. I am so glad she did. There were Toastmasters mainly from London, but there were also Toasmasters from around England, Ireland and Europe. The atmosphere was warm and the event was very well organised (as you would expect for a Toastmaster event)!

I attended two workshops; Body language & speaking and Modelling success.

In the Body language workshop, after a very interesting discussion, attendees were invited to take part in a table topics session, with a twist, each speaker had a different topic. After each speaker, the group would give verbal feedback otherwise known as 'commendation, recommendation, commendation. Julie was one of the early speakers. Her topic was to talk about her 'first kiss'. The group found her speech humorous and her body language most appropriate for the topic.

I listened to many other speakers and on the final request for a speaker, I felt that I couldn't let Lewisham Speakers down, if Julie could represent; so should I. My heart thumping, my little hand punctured the air. No turning back now, I was on my feet heading to the front of the room. My topic was "If I could change my name, what would it be?" To my surprise, after a moments thought, my mouth opened and words came tumbling out! I actually enjoyed the experience and the feedback from the group was very encouraging. So at least I have now taken my first courageous step in Table topics and I hope many more will follow.

I learnt two lessons from the Body Language workshop. Firstly our body language has to match our verbal language and secondly, if you walk on to a stage timidly, you will lose your audience's attention before you even start to speak.

The Humorous Speeches and Table Topics contest in the afternoon were of a high standard and very entertaining. I discovered that props used in speeches can enhance the dramatisation for the speaker as well as the audience. The speakers who took the top three prizes all used props very effectively.

Flavia Gordon

Chris Boden TT Contest winner 2011 Division H anwers about Honesty

A question about Honesty, and Chris answers it in a Honest way... proving no one is really completely honest... on a job interview or a relationship. Listen how 'rounded' his answer was and how equilibrated too, and how sure he speaks from beginning to end.

Building connection with the audience

If you want to build a connection with your audience, follow Steve Jobs techniques.

1. Share your vulnerabilities. A leader / speaker does not have to be perfect. The audience react better to a hero they can relate to.
2. Tell stories. We all love stories and will bond through them. Telling stories is the key to engaging an audience
3. Have a point to the stories. Every time you tell a story you need to have a point to it. The audience will remember your story and the point that goes along with it.

Our newest members at our 5th October meeting

They all contributed wonderfully to our meeting 5th October, each taking a role.

Three great speeches, Sally won the best speech with her Just do it; a very memorable story. Richard won the best Evaluation and a guest, Dee won the best Table Topics. 

Vivienne was a great Toastmaster of the evening and Philip jumped in as a great TT Evaluator, and Ola was our good general evaluator. We had lots of guest and two of them decided to join at the next meeting. What an interesting and fun meeting!

Step in our club! Then the next, speak up,then join us and grow.

Michael Notaro  our new International President tells us through his first speech in the web about his beginnings and plans for the future. Mike finishes with a message to all of us,  Toastmasters and would be Toastmasters.  

Take the next step.

Give your next speech, take the next role, and stretch each time your potential. It will lead to get know new people,  bring yet unseen opportunities. (This is the essence, not a quote.)

October meetings at St Margaret's Lee

5 October

Vivienne was our very able Toastmaster and Ola our General Evaluator;

Sally, "Your body speaks" CC5 won the best speech with "Just do it!" a powerful true tale: we clung to every word of it and it left us with vivid images. Steve gave us an "Emotional tale" from Storytelling and Philip a magnificent "Farewell" from Special Occasions.

Dee, a guest, won the best Table Topic award!

19th October at St Margaret's (for the last time)

Click on a date to see the complete Agenda.

Speakers: Flavia giving her Icebreaker; Julie from CC n°4 "On personal Storytelling"; Richard 3er Persuasive Advanced Manual

Those are only the so called "Prepared Speeches". we will have so much more and many roles too! And Table Topics where all who did not speak yet will have the possibility to express themselves answering shortly to... an unexpected question.

November programmed speeches :
Marcella's & Lucas's Icebreaker & Michael's CC n°2

London Toastmasters Div B Mini-conference 15th October 2011

Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests, Saturday 15^th October 2011

at Imperial College London SW7 2AZ Exhibition Road, with 4 workshops in the morning starting at 10 am 
 attendees can participate in two of the following educational workshops:

Dealing With Tough Crowds (Diana Del Toro)	Learn how to engage and manage tough audiences and how to deal with disruptive groups or individuals or people refusing to participate in activities
Confidence At Work (R. S.)	Learn about the skills you can use to build your confidence at work for those challenging situations and on an ongoing basis
Body Language & Speaking (Ken Asafo Adjei)	Improve your awareness and use of body language, so that you can communicate even more effectively, not just in delivering speeches but also in work and social situations
Modeling Success (Ewan Wong)	What are some of the characteristics of success? This workshop will show how we can model success by identify the relevant qualities of successful people.

At 1.00pm, the contestants representing each of the seven Areas within London compete in the Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contests.During the morning session, attendees can participate in two of the following workshops: To book, all you need do is to go to Eventbrite at http://divisionb.eventbrite.com  A full day ticket including a choice of 2 workshops and both contests, and morning and afternoon tea/coffee is only £15 (plus booking fee).

 The learning benefit of attending is enormous, so do book early!

Paul Walsh, Division  B Governor, District 71 Toastmasters International

Don't tell, SHOW

"Don't tell me how you feel or what you did, SHOW me.  

Instead of describing your smile, SMILE. Instead of telling me how angry you are, let your voice, volume, facial expression, and posture leave no doubt. Instead of just using flowery language to tell me about your trudging - start trudging!"

From Speak & Deliver - A Public Speaking Blog

From November our club meetings will be held in this environment, near Lewisham Commercial centre.

Division H & Area 35 Humorous Speech & Table Topics Contest

This year our Lewisham speakers club has in the Area contest four of our members!  
Zhanna and Zandria Richard and Julie. 

Our Area contest was held in East Croydon

Bravo to Richard who won the 1st October in Croydon

 Richard's speech 
is on the Division H blog "SouthEast Speakers"

The Division H Final contest continues in Canterbury the 15 October
 Darwin Building; University of Kent Canterbury CT2 7NZ
10 am  to 12 am two Workshops 
1st Charisma by Jane Bennet
2nd Voice Projection by Peter Street
from 14 pm to 16 Contest

then District 71 at 11th November in Glasgow 

Storytelling (1)

Storytelling is the sinewy strength of your ability to Speak & Deliver.

Our lives are full of stories, from the ones we read, watch, and listen to to the stories we live everyday.

Stories provide the muscle, skin, hair, and even the makeup on the skeleton of our speech structure. It's one thing to have a great point to share with your audience, but stories turn your points into messages, and messages drive your point into the heart of your audience.

Storytelling comes easier to some than others, just like most other talents, from math to music. But just like I eventually pumped up my mental muscles enough to balance an equation and play Mary had a Lamb on my recorder, people with Storytelling Challenges can learn the basics of creating a compelling yarn.

If you're just telling your audience your thoughts, you are lecturing. When you anchor your thoughts in actual events you move to teaching. When those events become emotional and visceral, you graduate to persuasion - transforming you into an effective speaker who moves audiences.

Improving your stories will improve your speaking without you even knowing it.

When you tell emotion-filled tales, your voice naturally changes, and gestures begin to flow from you subconsciously. Allow yourself to get caught up in the moment enough to keep your audience in the moment. They will stick together very long with the emotional muscles anchoring them in the minds of your audience.

From the blog Speak and Deliver, worth reading day by day!

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Soon, we will begin a Personal Storytelling Workshop in our club, End October to February. Details to be announced in our 19th October meeting