Say "Hi!" to a guest

One of the blogs I would recommend, to read, but even best, inscribe to it, of course, other than this one is Speak and Deliver.Today, in the post "Toasty Resolutions for New Year, it begins with one of the most important ones perhaps: "1sr. resolution: Say 'Hi' to a guest, and actually chat with them. Some of us are great at this, others just sit back and don't interact at all. If you're the latter, step up! "


I would add : say 'Hi' with a great smile and an open, welcoming body gesture. How you look at him is even more important then what you say.

If you do not have time after you did welcome him or her, have another duty before the meeting, go with the guest and present it to another toastmaster "available" to chat, explain, and even more important, make feel welcome.

This can make a difference, not only in aquiring a new member for the club, but offering a new life to the guest in the future, and also could make a new good pal for you! So, even in your own life!

"If you are not feeling it, leave it"

Interview on 24 November 2011 with Ola Aralepo winner of District 71/Glasgow Humorous Speech Contest 2011

Question: How long have you been a member of Toastmasters?

Ola: I have been a member of Tube Talk for 5 years. It was originally a company club for the Transport of London, but it is now an open club which means anyone can join.

Question: What made you decide to join Toastmasters?

Ola:I was considering starting my own business and wanted to learn how to present my business ideas and how to network. As I was not confident in social settings a friend suggested that Toastmasters would improve my public speaking skills and confidence. I googled Toastmasters and found Tube Talk Holborn.

Question: How did you get the idea for your speech 'What part of I don't have a licence don't you understand?'

Ola: The idea came to me after I updated my Facebook status about the fact that I kept receiving reminders from TV Licensing to renew my licence for a television which I no longer owned. The replies that I received from other Facebook users made me realise that this situation was not just peculiar to me – other 'TV-less' people were being hassled too. Based on the feedback I decided that I had the seed for a speech!

The original speech I had written for the club Humorous contest covered the subject of customer service. However, two weeks before the club contest I decided to develop the TV licence speech because I just wasn't ‘feeling’ the customer service speech I had planned . You have to feel a speech in your gut to make it come alive in performance. My motto is, if you are not feeling it, leave it – and if you’re stuck for speech ideas, update your facebook status!
Question: How did you memorize your speech?

Ola: I did not deliberately memorize my speech. I followed the technique explained in the Ice Breaker in the Competent Communications manual. If you memorize the beginning and the end of the speech, the middle will take care of itself.

Question: How long did it take you to write and rehearse your 6 minute speech?

Ola: I started by writing a stream of consciousness onto my laptop. Just whatever came into my head on the subject I had chosen and then I left it for 24 hours. The old adage, 'to sleep on it' works in speech writing. After 24 hours I did a re-write and edit. Once I was happy with the format then I started on the process of memorizing the beginning and the end.

I rehearsed three times a day for two weeks before the contest. I was given this tip by one of my many mentors, Bob Ferguson who won the Humorous Speech contest in York in 2009 He told me that I had to be disciplined when rehearsing. My aim was to turn my speech into a conversation, as if I am just recalling an event which had happened the other day. That way you are more likely to sound less ‘scripted’ and more ‘conversational’ in your delivery.

I developed my gestures and tonal variation once I started performing in Club contests. It really is a good idea to perform to different audiences. I Initially performed the speech in my own club. I made my voice as natural as possible, but when I started to get feedback from other Toastmasters my gestures started to develop. To improve my performance skills I decided to perform in different clubs within Toastmasters and also on the comedy circuit. If I got a laugh for a joke or a gesture in both a Toastmasters and a comedy club, I would keep it in the speech and perhaps expand on it. The speech goes through a refining process especially in terms of delivery, gestures and tonal variety.

The Toastmaster Clubs are a diverse culture and feedback is vital as the speech has to appeal to a wide range of cultures. I experienced a classic case of a constructive feedback from a visiting American Toastmaster of Brazilian heritage when I performed the speech at Northern Lights; his feedback highlighted a certain gesture I had used on stage which was, in fact, derogatory in Brazilian culture. If I hadn't performed in different settings to different audiences, who knows? A careless, albeit innocent (to me) gesture may well have cost me the title!

Question: When will you be visiting Lewisham Speakers?

Ola: Sooner than you think!

On behalf of Lewisham Speakers I would like to thank you for this interview and look forward to your future performances.

Flavia Gordon

Here a link to a Webinar with OLA for forther information about him and his preparation. http://MyOptInPage2.com/?pid=6571802

21 Decembre meeting with "Hot Chocolat and mince pies!"

Toastmaster Manoj has conducted smooth our festive, end of year meeting, and many of us has put Santa hats as he asked us.

We had the visit our Assistant Area Governor Dave L., and Division Governor Richard M.. who were the first time in our venue, and liked it a lot, compared to other places we have been before. They also had the occasion to see how well our clubs develops, and indeed Richard did tell us so.

• First speech Katy, very well evaluated by Jon, Katy was voted the "best speaker" at the end!

• .Philip gave a funny speech using the prising of Santa, and was well evaluated by Zhanna

• Julie, spoke about her year in the search of her "comic bones" and was evaluated by Richard

Richard was voted the best Evaluator. What a great body language and confident speaker he had become!

Table Topic master Steve J proved that he is indeed a funny and good speaker too, and choose also very appropriate subjects for the season to which all asked could answer, mostly with fun.

We are looking forward to his next speech and roles.

Many other new and old Toastmasters had important roles very well performed!

Windy gave us a great warm-up, appropriate for the season.
Rosie kept us in time, even with three envelopes instead of lights.
Beverley was not only our Ah counter but also stepped in as Sergeant of arms in last minute.
Michael gave us a great "word of day" and listened, and evaluated our use of language.
Chris gave us a masterclass in how to evaluate while he evaluated all Table topic speakers.

While evaluating, he showed how each had did and taught all of us something new too.

At the end, Steve R evaluated all the meeting and everyone who was not yet evaluated.
Dee, we hope soon a member, won (for the second time) the Best Table Topic speaker award!

Three guests come to our club yesterday and celebrated our end of year with us 
with finished with hot chocolate and mince pies and even a bit of music!

It was indeed a great end of year for our Lewisham Speakers club

7 December meeting at Lewisham Methodist Church

It may have been cold outside but inside at Lewisham Speakers, our President, Julie Kertesz, gave a warm welcome to the guests at the meeting and in particular, Ewan Wong our visiting General Evaluator. Our Toastmaster for the evening Zhanna Jarmyn introduced the theme for the session "The beginning of Winter - what do we like about winter?" As each speaker was introduced she read their response as to how they felt about Winter. Beverley Stephenson provided the tip of the day "Hope and faith can bring about change".

Michael Jenga, gave a poignant speech with the opening line "All men are created equal" taken from the American Declaration of Independence. He expanded pointing out that human rights and responsibility go hand-in-hand and the importance of community building.

Manoj Sivaraman's speech entitled "Who got the Monkey" enlightened us in the ways a manager can empower a his team and also the importance of parents empowering their children in decision-making.

Richard Green gave an advanced humorous speech in which he spoke about' Words that change your World'. Through his speech he made us realise that "Dreams become reality if you take action" and reinforced this thought with a quote from Michael Jordon "I can accept failure, I can never accept not trying".

All three speeches were were very interesting and thought provoking. However, Richard was awarded "Best speech".

After a recess we returned for the Table Topics session, led by Lucas Krejci. This was Lucas' first time as Table Topics leader and he did a commendable job and Flavia won best table topic. Windy Johan acted as timekeeper for the first time and made us all laugh as he playfully rang the bell in an attempt to keep us to time.

Reminder: Storytelling workshop : 14 December, led by Julie Kertesz and Steve Roberts

Flavia Gordon

Next Storytelling meeting 14th December

We had a great first workshop, about Personal storytelling, yesterday, the 30th November.
All present participated and told stories. Steve told us about "why" and the importance to tell personal stories to establish communication,

Then we all told a 2 minute story on the theme "First time"

At the end, Julie spoke about how we find by digging deep down and far too, memory that want us to be crafted into a story we want most to tell, now.


And we all discussed briefly about the ingredients of a story. Place, character, conflict or roadblock, realisation, lesson learned and resolution.

Does this picture evoke in you something?

Next time, we will meet in two weeks, the 14th of December evening.

Homework: find your Crossroads of life, put them on a paper, Road taken and Road not taken, Life changed or diverted. From time to time, you will be able to come back and see which story grabs you and asks to be told.