LEWISHAM TOASTMASTERS 15TH AUGUST

WHAT AN EVENING OF ENTERTAINMENT WE HAD!

Richard, our Sergeant at Arms prompt as usual set to work like a beaver diligently make sure things were in their place ready for our evening of entertainment and made sure the evening started on time, in a manner that was cool calm and collected, so we were out of the starting blocks and on time!!

Katy our President reminded us of all the joys that we could hope to achieve from Toastmasters and how it can really lead to  a truly more enriching fun filled life, by have good communication and leadership skills. Don't let it pass you by! 

However, like everything in life no pain no gain!!  We get out what we put in.  This led her on to the Toastmaster Promise, a reminder about what we need to be committing to, to get the most out of our Toastmaster meetings, such as:

• a) Making sure we attend our TM meetings regularly 
• b) Discharging all the assignments that we sign up to, and actively discharging our assignments and recording them in our manuals (CL and CC, or other advanced manuals. 
• c) Making sure that we take every effort to give good evaluations.   
• d) Being prepared to take on a Committee role if required by the club.

Flavia was our toastmaster of the evening, and we felt comfortable, and relaxed in her capable hands.  She had prepared well for the evening, and came prepared.  Even the naughty people who had not responded to her email she was prepared for and had an action ready to address the matter.  She was methodical and organised, and came prepared to record their comments on a prepared word document.  That’s what I call organised, planning, and thinking head (good leadership skills). She led us through the evening showing her flexibility in those areas where life doesn’t always go according to plan, and she managed effectively a substitution for the warm up role.

Rosie, gave a very full account of the role of the “AH” counter, and through good eye contact, and competant communication skills had full engagement with the audience.

Katy  was our grammarian and the word for the evening was “Gigantic” and my word there were a lot of people who used this word throughout the evening 8 in all!

Beverley inspired us all with her Tip of the day.  Perseverance, achievement against adversity!  Her good eye contact and her warm smiling stage presence ensured that she engaged with us all on the same level. Beverley also was our timekeeper of the evening, and a good job she did too!!

Natasha was welcomed warmly to the stage by Flavia to undertake her Ice Breaker, and weren’t we all impressed by her family and the life experiences that she shared with us.  She had a cool, and collected stage presence about her, as she took us on her life journey.  I loved her use of metaphors, which I think really helped to picture some of her childhood memories, for example referring to her school choir “singing their hearts out.”  I’m looking forward to Natasha’s second speech!  Well done to Natasha who won best speaker of the evening.

Chris was our second speaker of the evening with a speech entitled “Murder, Infidelity in Lewisham” wow, this had me thinking.  Maybe I was not going to have to watch East Enders catch up version tonight because Chris had done his own Lewisham version!!  

No this was about past writers of Lewisham, and there were certainly a number of them each contributing a legacy to their moment in time, which future generations can refer back to.  Just think one day people will be looking back at our current writers of today, as a way of understanding the past. Chris engaged us with good eye contact and body movement and delivered a competent speech.

Phillip bought a whole new meaning to the word Sceptic.  The speech really challenged my thought process.  He spoke clearly and articulately, with pauses at appropriate intervals.  That was great because these were views and thoughts that I really needed to digest, and could easily have gone over me, if he hadn’t allowed enough thinking time.  I guess it is good for us all to challenge view points, but I wonder if there are some things in life we shouldn’t challenge?

An excellent speech, which had me from start to finish, and expertly told.

Richard, Manoj, and  Vivienne our speech evaluators gave good feedback, reminding us all the need for good eye contact, and to make sure we make contact with all the audience and not just one part.  To make sure that we make the best use of the stage and to move with purpose.

Dee took us through the Table Topics confidently, and well. She had a strong stage presence so it was easy to engage with her. 

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Manoj was confident and composed as he gave he delivered his answer to some of the questions he would like to ask David Cameron. He was clear with his points and used good sign posting techniques. Lets hope there are not so may spare seats available at the next Olympics.

Liz was calm and collected on the stage, and exuded a serene confidence about her.  There was no messing with the answer either, she knew exactly what her biggest fear was, and she was going to say it very clearly. PUBLIC SPEAKING.  Well done to Liz because she could have fooled us.

Richard  has us in fits of laughter with his would be 007 antics!!  He brought humour to the stage with his impersonations of the characters that he is depicting.  Let’s hope he gets what he seeks in his aspirations of a 007 life style!!  Will it live up to his expectation I wonder??

Clare with her smiling face, and use of purposeful body language that supported what she was saying, about her most important toy, a doll.  She had good eye contact and she was in real conversational mode with us. She could almost have been speaking to each and every one of us as an individual I thought.  She was really reliving her memories with us on stage I could really see her in the moment, and reliving the love that she had for her doll. Her facial expressions said what 1000 words could not.

I admired Vivienne’s table topic response immensely.  It was clear that silent movies were not top of her agenda.  But she was very composed, and articulate, and gave a very comprehensive response to what was a challenging table topic question.

Steve took us down memory lane with his Carry on Film memories. We could see he was living the moment, particularly when he was relaying his memories to us of some of the film captions.  Consequently we picked up on his enthusiasm, and enjoyed the humour of his speech.

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Steve our table topic evaluator brought some wise tips to the evening. Sometimes on the right occasions high volume is not always best and reducing our volume can have more impact on what we are saying.  Use voice volume with purpose. He gave focused and fair feedback, and in a style that did not lack humour, so it was fun too listen to and as a consequence made it all the more engaging.

Serena, had clearly been very attentive throughout the evening, and was organised in the delivery of her report.

Well I think that rounded off the evening.  So well done Flavia for ensuring the evening ran so well, and to time.

BUSINESS SECTION

1.  Fees are now due so please make sure these are paid now to Steve 65 pounds for 6 months or 110 pounds for 12 months

2.   Don’t forget to enter the Humorous Speech and Table Topics Competition on the 19^th September.

3.  Storey telling evening currently scheduled for Monday 1^st October Location at Canal Café www.canalcafetheatre.com come and join your fellow toastmasters, for what will be a truly fun evening.  More to come on this. Tickets are 8.00 pounds.  Let Katy know if you want  come so she can reserve the right number of tickets, as soon as you know you want to come, but no later than 5^th September,

4.  Committee Meeting this Wednesday 22^nd August. Commencing time 7.30pm to 9.00 pm.

Can’t wait for our next Toastmaster Session this coming 5^th September. Looking forward to seeing you then.