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!!