Let Them Eat Cake!

The other day, a colleague of mine told me it was his birthday recently so, as you do, I said;

“oh Happy belated Birthday.”

He said replied;

“it’s not too late to wish me Happy Birthday. It’s still November! I’m celebrating for the rest of the month!”

It made me chuckle and wonder, how many people actually celebrate their Birthday for an entire month? Fellow Toastmasters, is this a common thing?  

All this month long celebration malarkey did make me feel slightly reprieved for the fact that our Club celebrated its 5^th Birthday this month and I did not tell the world! So, to rectify, here goes...

Our club was 5 on 19^th November (we celebrated on 6^th). We celebrated with 4 fabulous speakers each with a common thread of 'Responsibility' – responsible driving (me), responsibility to not judge a book by its cover (Jacqui Pennington), responsibility to developing the youth of today (Chris Howell), and the responsibility to start where you are with what you have (Stephen Edun of Meridian Club). What did we have on our Birthday night? Well, we had the pleasure of an address from our founder Chris Howell. Also joining us was the last 2 generations of club presidents Julie Kertesz, Katy Woolcott. As you can see, we also had cake!

Our Club founder and Presidents of past and present 

L-R Katy Woolcott, Julie Kertesz, Chris Howell, Manoj Sivaraman 

Happy Birthday for the rest of November, Lewisham Toastmasters!

A Champion In Our Midst,

No, this isn't Stephen!

On Wednesday 6^th November we will be treated to a guest appearance from Meridian Club member Stephen Edun, Divisional Contest Winner for the Toastmasters Humorous Contest! I have not had the pleasure of hearing Stephens' winning speech yet but talking to him outside of Toastmasters, he seems like the kind of guy who is just genuinely easy going but motivational by default. If you come to the club on Wednesday night, you can learn a bit more about him in our newsletter. Until then, I will share with you 3 tips Stephen has generously gifted to all you budding speech competition contestants out there. (The tips are useful for those of us who are not interested in competitions too!) J

1. Go and visit other clubs – Toastmasters members pretty much know the style and standard of their fellow club toastmasters. If you want to compete, you need to get a fresh perspective – hear and see other Toastmasters in action.
2. Seek feedback – This is what we do at Toastmasters, but as you know, the more you ask for the more you get. Ask people for honest, objective feedback. Again, if you can get this from seasoned Toastmasters, who don’t know you all that well – even better.
3. And finally in the words of the musical genius Prince… KISS Keep it simple (stupid!). Stephen points out; “if you look at all the speakers who have won Toastmasters International contests, their speeches always have a simple message with common principles”. If you can also connect with the audience and take them through an interesting story you are on to a winner baby!

You do not want to miss Stephen deliver his winning speech ‘Start where you are’. So get yourself down to Lewisham Speakers Club on 6^th November. Remember to thank him for the tips!

Storytelling Workshop in London, by Julie Kertesz

Post by Julie Kertesz.