Richard about our meeting, on 21 March

Eyes down and look in to the high drama at Lewisham speakers night Wednesday

21th March 2012, I pull no punches and shoot from the hip.

It all kicked off with our stand in Seargeant at Arms Katy who opened the meeting sharp at 7.30 even though there were last minute changes and no shows throwing an almighty spanner in the works, the meeting was opened.

WE WERE NOT PHASED.

This was it folks. Katy quickly passed us over to our warm and wonderful President Julie who welcomed our guests and encouraged us all to take part.

Julie wasting no time and introduced our Toastmaster for the evening Mr. Ola  who led us all on a Olympian journey. He had prepared, rehearsed and recited his Toastmaster role and boy oh boy Ola did us proud. Bringing in the Olympics theme and introducing everyone with an Olympian style introduction.

Our timer Dee was not having any nonsense and explained that time was sooooo important in public speaking and the bell would be used. We were warned!!!.

Our Ahhhhh  Counter was Arnold a new member who carefully explained that ahhs and ums are all recorded. Sadly there was no hot tipster tonight. But we were warmed up by. Windy who gave us a posing question which kept our vocals vollying and our laryinx leaping. He also was our Grammarian, multitasking and taking the role in the last minute.

Our first speaker was Chris who delivered his Icebreaker. It was a brave and brilliant start delivered with passion and from the heart. Chris touched us all with his secrets and picked up the Speaker of the night acholade. Well done Chris!!

Second Speaker of the night was Lucas who told us a fascinating story about how important it was to sleep. We certainly wanted to know more and were all hooked. An interesting subject well delivered. Well done that man!!!!

Our third and final speaker was the wonderful storyteller Flavia who took us on a journey back to school days. We were intrigued and intoxicated with her storytelling. Flavia left us with a great parental message. Great speech that we all enjoyed !!

Evaluating Chris was Philip who lifted encouraged and warmly spoke of Chris being the Champion he is for baring his soul to all. 

Great evaluation Philip who was rewarded with best evaluator of the night.

Evaluating Lucas was the multi tasking multi talented Katy. She told us how much she enjoyed Lucas's speech and gave very accurate recommendations which we all learned from.

It was a an uplifting and warm evaluation.  Brilliant Katy!!!

The final evaluator was Jon who broke out with gusto and energy lifting Flavia telling her that she was an easy speaker to evaluate because of her brilliance. Jon seemed to tail off quickly but the job was done and Flavia was feeling good. 

Our table topics Master was Jon multitasking that night too, who gave out some challenging questions to guests and Toastmasters around our theme of the day. They were all greeted with enthusiasm an taken well with very good answers to boot!!!

Best evaluator was voted a guest who was invited by Chris D, come back Ruth!

Our General Evaluator was our very own Richard who spoke about the warm and friendly atmosphere at the club. He had so enjoyed listening to all the speakers and gave good recommendations but sadly got carried away with the evening and heard that dreaded bell.ding!!!ding!! ding!!!  

Finally our President Julie delivered a brief about the last Division counsel and changes to come at the same time, completing another speech from her Advanced Series Manuals. The lady ceases to amaze and an inspiration to us all.

What a night of fun and education.

It was AWESOME!!!! and I am so looking forward to the next.

The Toastmaster Journey continues.

Richard,

VP Membership

How to move on stage?

There are many "theories" about movement, some say: stay still. Others say, use the stage. But whatever you do, move only when needed, with purpose.

Here is from the blog "Speak & Deliver"

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Learning to focus - to center oneself both physically and psychologically. 

That means controlling emotions, breathing, and placement on the stage, when it comes to speaking. It doesn't mean staying in one spot for the entirety of a speech. It just means being where you are long enough to make a point, then purposefully moving to your next 'centered spot' for your next point.

There are some basic rules for stage movement:

1. Moving forward is a strong, potentially intimidating move, which indicates importance or weight in your statements. Moving too close to the audience can make them uncomfortable, and depending on the stage, put you at risk. Stay aware of the line between strength and scariness!

2. Moving backward shows weakness, and hurts the power of whatever you are saying as you go backwards, unless it is specifically tied in - "I found myself blown backwards by the winds the terror". Never retreat when making a comment you want the audience to buy into.

3. Right to Left is their Left to Right. It seems unnatural for you, but if you are creating a timeline of any sort with your movements, make sure you are creating it from their point of view, not yours.

4. Anchoring characters. Finding a place on stage to talk about a character in your speech can make those characters, and their scenes, more vivid for an audience. If you talk to your hated basketball coach and your loving wife while putting them in the same spot on stage, it creates a subconscious contradiction for the audience, and weakens both characters.

Even if you have many characters in your speech, you can create different sides of the stage for positive & negative people, or past and present individuals. In a longer speech, once you transition to a new section, you can put a new character where the old one was, as long as your last section wrapped up your interaction.

5. Angles work well in any direction. It softens the abruptness of your motions while adding variety to your stage locations. It also take a little longer which will add impact to your pause, and give you a chance to think, if you can manage to be disciplined enough not to talk through them movement. If the angled movement is planned for a specific line, it can also be a strong way to use your voice to climb up our down to an appropriately loud or stage whisper crescendo.

Keeping your body at an angle helps you use your physical presence more judiciously, as you lean forward on one foot, but keep the back foot back. It also allows you to pivot from one side of the audience to the other more gracefully than standing flush on the stage. Those angles can be very effective when switched mid point - with the setup statement directed towards one half of the audience and the payoff delivered to the other half. Even angling you backward movements, if you must make them, strengthens them somewhat, disguising them as side to side actions.

Your best movement? Stillness. It's difficult. It feels unnatural. Yet Stillness contrasts every planned movement on stage, helping them pop out as they come along. It adds power to your speech when you match your words with your confidence to stay anchored to your position.

And - it keeps YOU calmer, preventing your from using the stage as your own private workout mat, perhaps causing you to run out of breath, perspire, and even raise your blood pressure unnecessarily. Get out there on stage. Breathe. Keep your body still, while knowing where you'll be going next, and when.

Then Speak....& Deliver.

21 March meeting theme "Olympics"

Ola Toastmaster of the Evening: we were in very good hands! A new exciting meeting. Welcome all guests!

We gained 2 new members: Liz, and Arnold !

Prepared speeches:

Chris D. Lucas, Flavia & Zhanna

Chris, with his Icebreaker (1st speech) won the first prize with his two secrets!
We learnt from Lucas about our sleep, were entertained by Flavia's story of her childhood, and with Zhanna's troubles when she arrived in England told in a funny way. A whole range of interesting speeches!

After the prepared speeches, ranging from beginners to advanced, which we will all enjoyed, and the feedback given to them, we had a break. The best evaluator was voted Philip (again). He did it so vividly, not only telling but demonstrating too!

At the second half, in the Table Topics session, with Jon leading it so well, some members were asked questions about the Olympics games. Even if it is "impromptu" each of you can prepare some material for it! It was a guest, Ruth who gained the "Best Table Topics" badge!

Toastmasters Division H Council

A Toastmasters Speakers Club has 20 or more members. Lead by its committee elected, changed each July. Four - six clubs are helped by an Area Governor and the Areas also held contests, after each club has chosen. A few areas are reunited in a Division (actually we are part of H South East England) London is Division B (and soon will also split in three as they are more and more clubs in it.

The Divisions form a District. England and Ireland form the 71th district now. It took me my first District Conference in York, to understand all this and see its importance.

Saturday morning, I assisted, as the president of Lewisham Speakers Club, to the Division H council held in Reigate. The meeting was opened by Richard Murray, former president of Bromley Speakers, and actual Division H Governor.

We discussed the "reformation scenarios" so clearly explained by Nick Benning. As our district grow to big, (more then 200 clubs!) we will have to split in two. At least 100 clubs has to be in each District. The idea is great, how to divide is less. We have been shown three different scenarios, none of which pleases all. I will give a brief description next Wednesday of each possibility. We had even a Skype conference, Q&A with members far away!

Division changes are called "Realignment" and were explained very clearly by Jacqui Hogan.

For our club, now in Area 35, the most important part is that it seems, (it has to be voted first) that we will be part from July on from the East South London new Division, and our area, grown also too big, will divide in two. Of course, those are propositions and have to be voted yet, too.

Lots of new things to do and perspectives for each of us living, working in London!

The meeting continued as each Area Governor spoke of the clubs, and their health and the upcoming contests. It was also a joy to meet with so many known faces. And speak as much as time permitted. Our Area and Club are in very good way!

***

Our club's International Speech Contest (and Evaluation Contest) will be held the 4th of April. The Area Contest will be also held in our club's local the third Saturday of April. Lots to do to prepare them!

First, we will have a great meeting next Wednesday, please all be there! We have many great prepared speeches, many have taken important and sometimes new roles and Ola will be our very able Toastmaster of the evening.

Wednesday 7 March 2012

Our meeting on Wednesday was a really great evening, we had two excellent speeches given by Richard and Phillip. Richard told us about life in his dad's firm and how he broke away to find pastures greener. We are waiting for the next episode where he is going to tell us as to how we can make millions!! Phillip also gave us a great presentation on pensions, and made it nice and simple for us to understand. I really liked the use of the water and the bottles of wine and champagne, just a pity we couldn't drink it too!!

There was a little topsy turvying about the roles, but Manoj, our Toastmaster for the evening, was on the ball and had it all sorted. It was a good test of his agility as life doesn't always go to plan, and he showed his strengths in this regard. Flavia got us all warmed up, in answering the warm up question "What puts a smile on your face?" She had a big smile on her face and made us all feel welcomed. Our evaluators Chris and John both gave excellent evaluations. Windy kept us on the ball on the time front. Flavia gave a very well balanced General Evaluation for the evening, and gave us some good feed back tips. Dee, one of our newest members, took up the mantle of Grammarian and Ah counter and did a splendid job.

Julie, our President excelled herself she undertook her teamwork shop. It was a really good educational exercise because she killed two birds with one stone. She secured her Competent Communicator Gold. Well done Julie, and also we all got to learn about the Committee roles available in Toastmasters, and each member and guest!! had the opportunity to contribute
1. How they could help out in the club; 2. In their view how could the club improve, so all in all a refreshing and inspiring evening for all members and guests in attendance.

Our table topic contestants and evaluators all conducted themselves admirably, including our guest Lorraine.


Katy Woolcott

Flavia life changed because...

Flavia at Canal Cafe Theatre by julie70

Well, best look at the video of Flavia telling her story of Change live, at the Canal Café Theatre and admire her great gestures enhancing her story. And, eventually, look back, only a few month ago, she was our guest, become member and wrote about that experience! What a journey!

Like ducks to water - Canal Cafe Theatre

On Monday night, five members of Lewisham Speakers, Julie, Steve, Richard,Windy and Flavia took part in a storytelling evening at the Canal Café, Little Venice. The event, was held by Lewisham Speakers club in collaboration with Spark London producer Joanna Yates.

The speakers took part in a 4 month storytelling workshop led by our President, Julie and assisted by Richard and Steve with the possibility of performance at the end of it.

At the rehearsal on Sunday afternoon, Joanna put the speakers through their paces using her coaching skills to bring out the best in each of us enabling us to improve our personal stories.

The evening was very exciting. The Canal Café is an intimate venue and the fee paying audience were warm and welcoming. Julie opened the evening with her "Funny bone" story and had the audience laughing with her anecdotes from her life last year and her gestures. Richard, Steve, Windy and Flavia also gave sterling performances, in particular, Windy considering he only completed his ice breaker a few weeks ago.

Flavia
VP Press

Windy, telling his story of Change in Theatre!

Canal Cafe Theatre, produced by Joanna Yates from Spark London, the 5th March, 2012
Windy, already telling his story live in theatre. We are proud of him.

What did Windy do "special"? He attended every storytelling workshop, every Toastmaster meeting, and even more, he asked advice and modified his speech according to the advice. He did not hesitate to ask more then one of us, and thought about each, then decided on his final story and told it with confidence.

At Spark London rehearsal

photo by Julie70 on Flickr.

Yesterday evening, four from five of us will tell stories tonight live to paying audience, at the Canal Cafe Theatre, near Little Venice in London.

In this picture, with David, another great storyteller and at the other end, Joanna, Spark London producer.

Will write more about it tomorrow, but already, at the rehearsal we all learned a lot!

Windy, Flavia, Richard

Going out, from time to time, from the club, can be a great learning experience!

Julie, President Lewisham Speakers club

Our numbers are growing!

We had a new member joining our club, Wednesday: Liz, who is a student. She already asked to be able to give her Icebreaker soon.

Dee, who also joined recently, has prepared and given hers and with brio!

March is also the month that the yearly dues in Spring has to be paid to Toastmasters International Headquarters, We hope, not to loose any, or not to loose many of you. Please, do not leave it to the last minute. Come with a check or cash next week at our meeting of 7th March. Let us grow our club so we can work together in a great team!

Fall down and learn to get up again.

"What they need is to go back into the clubs and fall down and get up again. They fall down and learn to get up again. They need to learn to grow their talent through the best teacher of all... experience. Stage time is the best teacher and confidence builder;"

from Daren Lacroix blog

Meeting of 29th February

We had a speech marathon, with 9 of us telling stories, and 9 evaluations, for the third Wednesday of month.

From Dee, our latest member, already using it as her Icebreaker, to Steve R one who had been Toastmaster for the most time, we listened to riveting stories, also from Vivienne, Katy, Richard, Flavia, Manoj, Windy and Julie.

Between us, 5 will go out to tell those stories at the Canal Café Theatre, and the others, will follow. Our Personal Storytelling workshop showcase went very well, indeed.

Flavia was voted best speaker, and Damian VPE from Meridan Speakers, best evaluator. Liz, joined our club! Welcome! We had also between us Jenny, President of Bromley, masterfully evaluating Flavia.

Joanna Yates, the producer of Spark London came to our meeting directly from the Airport, from Edinburgh, and gave at the end a wonderful Evaluation of all storytellers. Learning, never stops, for all of us, whether we are new or advanced speakers.

Learning to speak using stories, prepares us also better for the upcoming speech contests.