WHATS BEEN HAPPENING!!

Hope this email finds you in good form, and looking forward to seeing you at our next TM meeting on the 21^st November!!! At our last meeting, Steve was our Toastmaster for the evening, and took charge of the evening from the outset.

After some minor jiggling of the agenda Richard had us under starters orders, and yes we were then off out of the starting blocks.

Phillip cantered us through the warm up “what was our first thought, when we found out Barrack Obama had renewed his presidency”.  Explaining the role well, and holding no prisoners (if we went over time we knew about it!)

Katy reminded us of the need to make sure that we all respond promptly by email to assist Manoj in managing the almighty task managing the agenda for each meeting, and we should all make sure that we assist Manoj, by making sure we respond promptly to Manoj’s emails regarding roles.

Lucinda showed her true versatility of stepping in at short notice to be our timer for the evening, we were all impressed by her standard of clear and consise delivery. 

We were all pleased to welcome Milen to our club as a new member.  Welcome to Milen!!

Ali was unable to make the meeting, but he is a new member too, so two new members to our club!!  

Chris had clearly been listening very well throughout the evening, as he delivered his very thorough and extensive report as grammarian.  

Katy gave her Tip of the Day “What gets measured gets done!” 

Outa, gave us a very interesting speech on the European Union, and her views on it winning the Global peace prize.  A clear, well paced speech which we could follow from start to finish.  Her speech was well timed, thought prevoking, and particularly poignant with armistice day coming up.  We learnt that the European Union had been granted the Nobel Peace prize.  It made me think, yes if the creation of the European Union  established just after the second world war, and its aim amongst other things was to bring peace to member states, and bring  member states close together, then after nearly 70 years of peace in Europe, then on the face of it, it has certainly achieved its aim.

Natasha took us on a journey, of office life.  A well chosen and appropriate subject which we could all identify with, and judging by the giggles coming from the audience we could all identify with some of the characters she was describing!

Richard gave us a very personal speech about how he had been inspired by Julie on his journey of developing his public speaking. 

After the break we were all entertained by a different style of table topics introduced to us by Julie.  She motivated and inspired us all to be more daring and inspiring in our off the cuff stories, so that the second time we did it, it was even  more fun.  The meeting finished on time.  Can’t wait for our next meeting on the 21^st November! Hope to see you there.

That just leaves me with the business section.  The main points of which were:-

1.Next Story Telling Workshop on the 27th November to take place at Meridan Speakers. Commencing time 8.00pm, or come early and join in with Meridian Speakers Toastmaster evening.  They will be starting at 7.00pm.  They are located in the Spanish Galleon pub which is located next to the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. Address:- 48  Greenwich Church St, London, SE10 9BL.

2.For those interested in the Youth Leadership programme, there is a Youth Leadership Programme Coaching session on the 28^th November.  The session will take place on Wednesday 28 November 2012 at Ernst & Young,1 More London Place, SE1 2AF. Registration from 7pm. The event will run from 7.30pm to 8.30pm.

You will hear from Toastmasters who have already coordinated a programme, receive advice on how to set up and a briefing on how to use the contents of the programme to maximum effect. There will also be a Question and Answer session too for more interest contact Katy on:- katywoolcott@hotmail.com

3. Hope your looking forward to Christmas, our last meeting of the year will be  on the 19^th December.  We will have an extended break to celebrate the end of 2012, so members are asked to bring some goodies (food) to celebrate!!!

A serious humorous speech: Richard Murray

The first time, as we have now 12 divisions in the District 71 (England & Ireland) Toastmasters, we had Semifinals. Richard Murray, our past Division H Governor, passed easy to the finals with his serious and at the same time funny speech.

To study and ponder: why and how his message sticks with us and at the same time we are entertained and drawn to him? It is worth looking at it a few times.

ITS BEEN A BUSY TIME IN THE LEWISHAM SPEAKERS DIARY. SO WHATS BEEN GOING ON?

 

                 7^TH NOVEMBER: RECEPTION 7.00PM ONWARDS FOR A 7.30PM START

It’s looking like an exciting, well organised agenda prepared by Manoj I’m looking forward to being there, and to see you all there too!

25^TH OCTOBER : THE DIVISION SPEECH AND TABEL TOPICS CONTEST

This was an incredibly successful evening,  well organized by Peter Gerlach and his supporting team.  It was a privilege to attend.  The standard of all the speeches and table topics entrants was very high. It was good to see  fellow Lewisham members there taking on roles or simply just to come and watch.

 Manoj was the contest chair for the second half of the evening, and ran the second half of the evening competently and confidently. Julie was assisting in roles behind the scenes.  We were very proud of Steve R. who came second in the Table Topics. 

 

 David H. of Bromley Speakers took the evening by storm by taking 1^st place for both the table topic competition and speech contest.  Well done David and best of luck in Cork in the finals. Well done also to William H. (From Speaker’s Corner) who came 2^nd in the Speech Contest. 

 

The club that Lewisham was sponsoring at the beginning of the year “London Trustmasters” has now fully chartered, and after the competition we all stayed and celebrated their success.  A new club is born, and Lewisham helped in part evolve it.   Well done to all those members who helped.

 LEWISHAM TOASTMASTER EVENING 17^th OCTOBER  

An unusually testing evening, as a number of mishaps to certain members seemed to culminate in one meeting!  I real test for a good leader then.  Roles were swiftly reallocated where necessary, and due to good leadership the evening progressed seamlessly!  

Chris arrived late, but seamlessly took over from Julie to continue the role of toastmaster for the evening.  His great sense of humour made for a fun evening.

 Marcella took the award for best speaker of the evening with her speech entitled “Happiness is what you make it”. 

 Manoj gave a very clear and interesting speech about hand writing skills.  He interacted with the audience well by getting us to practice our own signature, and it was relevant, as we were learning something about our own personalities.  He used good body language and vocal variety particularly when he was describing the different hand writing styles.

 Zhanna, gave us an educational speech.   We were reminded about the importance and need to connect with our audience, and how we could achieve this.  She reminded us of the need for the speech to be relevant to them (the audience).  In order to do this we have to know our audience.  We need to investigate, get to know, and understand their culture.  The speech was well structured and easy to follow.  A good pace and good eye contact made for an engaging speech which was highly relevant for us.  She used humour to keep the speech engaging and make her points clearly understood.  We now know that Steve might not be overly engaged in a speech on Romance, although Zhanna might!!   She inspired us with her reference to Winston Churchill who found public speaking difficult, but went on to become one of history’s greatest leaders of all time.  Yes, we all have a Winston Churchill in us!!  Well done to Zhanna as completing this speech means she has secured her Competent Communicator Silver!!

 Our speech evaluators, Phil Julie and Steve J gave us some good feedback for the evening.  Make sure we use effective visual aids.   Make sure we don’t compromise our speech by running out of time!!!

 Steve J. took us through the timings for the evening competently, and was sharp enough to hop out and put the kettle on before the break.  He also doubled up as a speech evaluator at short notice too for Marcela

 In the table topics Gabriel showed us how repeating the question can buy us time.  Great charisma and stage presence.

Lucinda had a tough question “What advice would I give to my younger self” she handled it admirably though.  Nice pace, and even though it was a tough question it didn’t phase her.  Nice stage presence.

 Are little Liars are okay?   Maureen really engaged with the audience great eye contact and facial expressions, as she explained that sometimes its okay, if it is in the person’s interest.  Her facial expressions really expressed a feeling of humanity as she described that telling the odd porky could be justified on the odd occasion if it was in the person’s interest.

 Serena responded to her question well.  Good eye contact and a feeling of warmth expressed by her smiling.  Well done to Serena who also undertook the role of AH counter and Grammarian for the evening.

 Flavia had us in fits of laughter, with her preference for 2 weeks in Jail as opposed to a stint of Community Service.  What can I say? Great stage presence, good use of vocal variety, and volume.   Full of humour with a good summary.  Flavia won the Best Table Topics for the evening.

Manoj had a tough one  Aliens have just arrived and he is the Prime Minister having to break the news to the public.  A tough question, but his posture, confidence,  vocal variety and volume meant as an audience we felt he was in charge despite the fact that Aliens have landed!!