Tall Tale Contest! a Fun evening

For those of you who couldn’t make the Tall tales contest evening on Wednesday 26^th June, you missed a treat. Our visitors described the evening as a ‘pleasant’, ‘enjoyable’, ‘interesting ‘, ‘theatre-like’ experience and boy was it exactly that!

Our very own multi-talented Flavia chaired the contest which took us on a journey around the world. We stopped in Paris and heard an empowering story from Julie of a 3 year old child having the power to transform an old lady’s view on life. Enabling this fearful vision of wisdom to grow in confidence and take risks.

The ‘risk taking’ message spread to Manoj, who urged us to take risks and open our spam emails, for we never know how rich it could make us. He is now rich enough to drive a Mercedes and take us all on holiday!

Obviously Chris has already been opening his spam email and reaping the rewards as he can afford to travel to many places including Korea where he managed to create a ‘domino effect of chaos’. Don’t worry, he assured us that no real animals were hurt in the process of him trying to catch his flight. But where was he trying to catch a flight to?

Chris is lucky he didn’t get stopped in customs carrying ‘Sterium’, which Peter passionately informed us was a powerful, expensive substance that everybody wants and that can take the form of anything. It was so potent it killed Peter in the end (well, only for a split second). I wonder if Sterium could Kill Serena's horrid ‘Jamaican Mosquitoes’? In fact, thinking logically, it might have been Sterium that was in her ‘Mus kill’ formula. It’s a pity the formula wasn’t discovered in time to exterminate  the massive mosquito that flew from Jamaica to London, Northolt to be exact  and  ended up in Gordon 'lamsey’s’ aka Richards, Champagne! It was his 25^th wedding anniversary and him and the wife had a chauffeur driven Hummer at their disposal. Stands to reason they probably wolfed down so much Champagne at Mr. Lee’s restaurant that neither of them would have even noticed swallowing the deadly mosquito! Between you and me, I think maybe the mosquito was the real reason the Chinese and champers were free because anyone with sense could never mistake Richard for Gordon Ramsey after all Gordon has way massive feet! Anyway, in my mind Richard should have done something more personal for his wife like bake her a cake because according to our winning speaker Kieran Porter from Corinthians toastmasters club, a good Cake can help repair relationships. Ones that are 25 years old, even ones tainted by world wars and politics! In essence, cakes can save the world! We voted with our stomachs in favour of this notion!

Second and third prize went to our resident, non-swearing Gordon Ramsey look alike  (Richard) and Sterium fanatic Peter respectively but all of our speakers did tremendously well and even our guests stood up in front of the big soft cuddly audience which is Lewisham Toastmasters. Were they corralled? No! Did they need Umbrellas? No! They just felt comfortable and supported. That,  as the youngsters say is ‘how we do’ here at Lewisham Toastmasters. So why don’t you allow us to help you perfect how you do – starting next week! If you are already perfect, just come along to hear for yourself what the hell I’m talking about!

Hope to see you on the 1^st Wednesday of the month.

Speak soon!

Lucinda Gray

Vice President - Public Relations

A new executive committee from 1 July

At  our last "normal" meeting for the year 2012-13. Our outgoing President Katy Woolcott handed over the baton to newly appointed President Manoj Sivaraman. New committee was installed for the year 2013-2014. The Lewisham Executive Committee for year 2013-2014 constituted of:

President – Manoj Sivaraman

Vice President Education Jason Thomson

Vice President Membership Uta Wassmuth

Vice President Public Relation Lucinda Gray

Secretary Asiimee Balinda

Sergeant At Arms - Serena Nelson

Second meeting June 2013

The meeting was terrific with brilliant speeches. All of them where of high standards and it’s first time in Lewisham Cub all the three speakers have achieved the distinction on Competent Communicator awards on a single night

Serena – Great story line, judicious mix of emotion and passion to inspire us with a sublime message as when life knocks you down, try to land on your back. Because if you can look up, you can get up. Very well done Serena.

Lukas – He emerged so fast as a great story teller, that his willingness to stuck to guns, make him a fully evolved speaker. He inspired us all with his message that doesn’t let someone else's opinion become your reality.

Uta – Great delivery, awestruck with her exuberance display of passion and enthusiasm. Her attention to details and was utterly blunt in sharing her views. Great stage presence and made a good use of invisible props.

photo by Julie70 on Flickr.

Well done, wonderful trajectory of Lucas, Serena and Uta, who finished their 10th project yesterday from the Competent Communicator manual and become from now on "Competent Communicators."

Julie – Her evaluation encapsulated her charismatic talent and wealth of experiences that she can toy with her evaluation capabilities at any depth. She gave a valuable and very succinct evaluation to Serena, I’m sure it will be very useful tip.

Manoj – Very structured and precise feedback to Lukas

Flavia – Stocky, punchy and clinical evaluation for Uta with her spreading smile. Her passion and willingness to give so much was clearly rose above her personality.

Sholem – Our warm-up leader got interesting one liner topic to wet our vocal cord. His topic weaved story from South Africa to Japan to Kenya and finally landed in New Zealand.  Good piece of work

John – Our Timer did a splendid job, he took the role at the 11^th hours and performed the role diligently. He has given a good account of time and ensured that meeting end in time.

Grammarian – Philip Landergen, very precise and gave us a concise explanation of role and cheery picked some good language from every speakers. The word of the night JOVIAL was well used throughout the meeting.

Asiime – Calm, composed and well crafted topic. He is another upcoming speaker who is consistently hitting the centre stage with his great vibe and vigour.  

Richard – Great personality and always perform his role with his signature 3E style. Electrifying, Enthusiast and Educational. His evaluation feedback was very quirky and he has given everyone a constructive feedback.

Finally Vivienne gave a very brief and solid evaluation of the night and appreciated all the speakers with fair and informative feedback.

The Winner for 21^st Night

Speaker – Lukas

Table Topic – Jason

Evaluation - Julie

Very well done All. Manoj.

New member's joy

photo by Julie70 on Flickr.

Lewisham Speakers gains it's 27 member!
The joy of joining and beginning the journey.

Lewisham speakers 2013 june

Lewisham speakers 2013 june, a set on Flickr.

There is a set of photos, of our last meeting. It shows so much of joy of the new member, of those finishing the competent communicator manual. Also of those, new members in our new committee from 1st of July, already bubbling with ideas.

It shows how much we learn to speak and also to listen, it shows how much we can also develop in leadership roles in our toastmasters clubs.

LEWISHAM SPEAKERS JUNE 2013 UPDATE AND WHATS IN THE DIARY

Hello all   

So as we come towards the end of the toastmaster year due to expire on the 30^th June this year, it’s perhaps an opportune time to take a look back to see how our year has gone. 

It’s gone so quick! But we had some exhilarating times.  Our membership is a comfortable 26 members.  Vivienne our President of Membership has kept a watchful eye on our membership throughout the year, diligently maintaining our visitor book, and processing membership applications, and not missing any opportunities.   I am pleased to say we have had in excess of a dozen new members throughout the year!  Well done to Vivienne.

Manoj our Vice President of Education has been diligently working behind the scenes making sure our agendas are well prepared, and making sure that our members have every opportunity to progress with their educational awards. Having undertaken this position on a previous year, I know exactly how demanding this role can be!  I’ve been lucky this year in having such a safe pair of hands that I have been able to rely on.  Thank you Manoj, you will make a super President, and I know I am handing the  the club into a  safe pair of hands. 

This year we have seen Zhanna secure her Advanced Communicator Silver, Manoj, and I secure our Competant Leadership.  Outa, Lukas, and Serena are nearly fully fledged Competant Communicators (nearly at the top of their mountains!)  and Phillip has finished his  Competant Communicator Gold.  Well done to all of them, who have kept their nose to the grind stone and come so far!  There’s no two ways about it, it takes hard work, discipline, commitment, and dedication to secure these awards, but the good news is, we can all do it if we want to! And I hope every member will strive to meet their own educational toastmaster goals next year.

Our Treasurer Steve, has been a silent steed in the background making sure that all the club finances have been kept in order, and I must say he runs a tight ship!  Since Steve’s arrival at the helm, at the beginning of our Toastmaster year, the club finances have turned around, and whilst we are a not for profit club, we are certainly safe and secure on the financial front. He has been there making sure all the membership fees come in on time, both renewals and new members. He made sure all the outgoings are paid on time, together with his sound and prudent financial house keeping.

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Lukas our Secretary, who has attended all our Committee Meetings that take place, and made sure we have accurate meeting minutes.  It has all taken, commitment time and energy.

Flavia who has been our Vice President of PR, and assisted on securing some useful advertising via Lewisham Council.

Richard, who arrives early for our meetings, opens and makes sure all the meeting room is set up correctly for the start of each and every meeting, and the pure energy and spark that he brings with him to every meeting.

Together all our members of Lewisham Speakers we are on target to  achieve 9 out of 10 points from the Distinguished Club programme.  This is the KPI system by which Toastmasters International encourage clubs to measure themselves against.  This means we will achieve Presidents Distinguished grade, which is the top performance grade a club can attain, and is a reflection of the performance of all its members, so well done to all our members we’re doing well!

But like the seasons, they come to an end, through good team work by both committee members, and all our members the year has yielded an exceptional harvest. But as the sun goes down on the current toastmaster year, the new toastmaster year is only just beginning. Life begins again, new committee members, and with it, come new learning opportunities for our members and that is what Toastmasters is all about, teamwork, leadership communication, and personal development.  Good , luck to our new Committee members who come into effect on the 1^st July. I hope they get as much personal development growth out of their committee roles as much as I have had.  New committee members for next year then are:-

Manoj: - Our President

Jason: - Vice President of Education

Outa: - Vice President of Membership

Steve: - Treasurer

Lucinda: - Vice President of PR

Asimmwe: - Secretary

Richard and Serena:-Seargeant at Arms

I hope each and every member will come to our handing over ceremony on the 19^th June this month to welcome our new committee members in.

So what’s in the diary ahead?

Freddie Danials Evaluation work shop

On 4^th June 2013, Freddie Daniells will bring his highly interactive workshop, Exceptional Evaluations, to Citi Criers. Citi Criers workshop will take place from 18:30 at their venue 25 Canada Square, E14 5LB.

This workshop has been well received by over 1300  people

Toastmasters throughout Great Britain and Ireland. This will be a unique opportunity to hear it at our club.

Freddie will share his own experience starting out, and his journey of evaluations since. He will share the tips and secrets that he has learned first-hand from some of the best evaluators including past District Champions. Most importantly, he will share with you the process that he has learned to make sure that you will deliver the best evaluation every time.

By the end of this workshop, you will be able to:

1. Pick the best content to include in your evaluations

2. Structure your evaluations more effectively

3. Make your points so that both the speaker and the audience get maximum benefit

No matter your level, this workshop is for you.

In addition the Work Shop will also be held again at Meridian Speakers on Tuesday 11^th June.  Reception 6.45pm for a 7.00pm start, so a choice of 2 venues, no excuses then!

 Wednesday 12^th June 2012 Committee Meeting

This is a meeting for both the current and future incoming committee members, and our past president: - Start time 7.30pm.  Location: - The Talbot Pub, Tyrwhitt Road, Brockley SE4 1QG. T.0208692 2665.  We will be in the upper floor section.

Further information:-

http://www.urbanspoon.com/r/52/1495337/restaurant/London/The-Talbot-Lewisham

Wednesday 19^th June: - Committee Handover

Handover of the current committee to the new incoming committee.

Wednesday 26th June 7.30 pm to 9.30pm Lewisham Methodist Church: - An Evening of Tall Tales

An additional meeting to the scheduled meetings.   Come and tell your tall tales, yes an evening of extreme fun and laughter I ‘m sure.

That’s all folk

Your President

Katy