Lewisham Toastmaster Presidents – Present & Past

Our 6th Birthday Celebrations!

What a night we had with our 6th birthday celebrations of the Lewisham Toastmasters club!

Richard Green gave a very warm welcome introducing our birthday as the club was born on the 19th November 2008.

Our very own VPE Phillip Langerdon was and deserved to be Toastmaster this evening as he was the founding partner of our club 6 year ago alongside Chris Howell who unfortunately couldn't be there this evening. It was wonderful to have Phillip as toastmaster on such a special occasion and he did us all proud as always with his charasmatic leadership skills and excellent hosting.

Chris Douce led the warm up asking us to all share a memorable birthday - Jason's was a parachute jump, mine was getting drunk and being locked up in a cell for the night and others ranged from eating dinner at Zizzis to a week in the Maldives with rose petals and banana leaves on their bed.

Our three speeches of the evening were all brilliant icebreakers by our new members, Robert, Suresh and Judith.

Robert told us his interesting story about coming from Grenada in the Caribbean to the UK and meeting his beautiful wife. He shared with us some African history from Zambia and Zimbabwe and his main message was how he didn't believe that African landmarks should be names after European travelers or monarchy. It was really interesting to hear that the real name for Victoria Falls is actually Mosi-oa-Tunya.

Suresh's icebreaker was fascinating as he shared with us his up-bringing, and how he had been brought up in a family where his father was a total disciplinarian. Suresh can do almost anything in absolute silence as this was how he was brought up until he started work at 15years old in the Indian Air Force (following his father's footsteps). He soon realised he wanted more of a challenge from life and headed overseas for his big adventures.

Judith shared with us her story of her unconventional job as an environmental scientist. She organises groups of volunteers to help clean up the grasslands of Lewisham - removing thistles and dandelions that otherwise take over entire meadows. One of the volunteers is 87 years old but extremely fit which is very inspiring!

Flavia, Katy and Julie gave wonderful evaluations of these ice breaker speeches with Katy saying how Judith's speech made her feel warm inside as she was inspired by what she does for a living.

Phillip brought in a cake that we all devoured with our tea in the break to celebrate our birthday which was so sweet of him!

Last but not least was our tantalising tabletopics which gave our guests the chance to speak sharing some brilliant ideas and stories.

Well done to everyone for a brilliant night and lots of fun as always!

A SHIMMERING NIGHT

Wednesday night might have been Fireworks Night but our meeting was certainly dazzling or should that be shimmering?

Jason as President welcomed Paul a visitor and reminded us all that we offer a safe environment in which to develop our speaking and leadership skills .

Vivienne was our Toastmaster and she introduced the rest of the team and her smile put us all at ease and she pre-empted, Jenny our Grammarian who encouraged us to include “shimmering” in our speeches, by shimmering herself and Robert our timekeeper kept us all in line.

Suresh, one of newest members, lead the Warm Up by asking us all what we thought about Fireworks Night and we split into two groups mainly, those who were young at heart and those who weren’t that keen, though Richard was more interested in the Fireworks that he feels inside when with us.

David, a fellow accountant gave his Icebreaker and he stood proud as he admitted to having procrastinated about joining us and hoped that his time with us would be profitable.

Then Zhanna was interviewed by Steve and she told us how when first in the country, she had to make sandwiches before becoming a Teacher and how her perseverance has served her so well, before answering questions sharing how beautiful Odesa is and the benefits of networking, all very informative.

I then spun a yarn incorporating Planet, Diplodocus (a dinosaur) and Diplomat, suggesting that the modern day dinosaurs are diplomats and politicians and that international issues could be solved by having mascara face offs.

Our evaluators John, Jason and Richard, all gave helpful feedback, including how we learnt about David and complimented him on eye contact with us all though he left he us wanting more, then Jason complimented Zhanna and Steve the tension and interplay within the “radio studio” and Richard evaluating me commented on how movement can distract and ideally it should enhance a story with dialogue can be more effective when given from the centre of the stage.

After the break Lucinda lead Table Topics, Impromptu Speaking, or should that be serenaded us as each topic was based on a song around the theme of Fireworks and possibly she and Peter could be a double act, as he responding to what his teen age dream is explained it was to enjoy music, being an acid fan and he now has a small music production operation, John on celebrating Independence Day had us all salivating over a massive hamburger listening to Bruce Springstein at the Hard Rock Café. Flavia, demonstrated how a look can say so much leaving us in no doubt that youngsters need clear boundaries and she certainly wouldn’t buy fireworks for anyone under age, Suresh on why no one any longer says thank you explained that in India people are too busy as well and that it really good to be thanked. Jenny, on white T shirts explained she really only has one from a Blondie concert and Richard on the effects fireworks have on him gave an explosive answer since at work he is a very fierce person, though he left us in suspense over meeting a lady at a bar!

Lukas gave everyone a encouraging evaluation.

Then Jason announce our winners, Richard was a double winner as best evaluator and table topics speaker and David was the best speaker.

We look forward to seeing all Lewisham Speakers on 19 November for our Anniversary Meeting.