Resilience

Our theme was resilience on 2 December. Flavia was our Toastmaster so she welcomed our guests, explaining Toastmasters and Lewisham Speakers then moved on to leading the meeting. Our timekeeper was Tricia, taking on her first meeting role with aplomb, supported by Philip. Paul, as Grammarian, gave us the word ‘challenge’ to slip into our speeches.

Our first speaker was David giving his 4^th speech ‘How to say it’, titled ‘Lessons from Niger’. He delivered his speech with gravitas as he told us how he had felt disconnected with the fieldwork of the NGO he works for but was grateful when the opportunity arose for him to go to Niger. The experience lead him to reflect on his life in the UK and feel grateful for his life and opportunities.  Paul, our grammarian for the evening, noted some words which David used to help deliver his message, such as: passionate, disconnected, dilapidated and reflect.

Our second speaker was John ‘Getting comfortable with visual aids’, the 8^th speech in the Competent Communicator’s Manual. John told us about ‘El Niño’,  using a flip chart to show us maps and a few lines of text.  John told us about the weather phenomenon and showed as where it occurs on the maps. By the end of his speech we had learned what El Niño is, the impacts, how the damaging effects of El Niño are increasing and what we can do to alleviate the problems. Paul also noted some great words used by John: strategy, desertification, vulnerabilities and hazardous consequences.

We had a visit from Robert, our Area 59 Director who told us what he likes about our group and highlighted that the up and coming Officer Training is not only open to current officers of the club – but anyone who aspires to being an officer.  The next round of training will be in January or February in Canary Wharf.

Lucinda was our Topics Master and challenged us with a great set of questions around resilience – and being challenged! The questions involved dealing with crisis, emotional problems, dealing with tough situations, ambiguity and turning misfortune to good luck. Also, how to make things work, lessons from a negative experience and to give an example of a self-confident person. During the answers we learned that one of our members finds their son inspirational for his positive attitude, one of our guests ‘sings it out’ if they have a problem to deal with, another speaker learns from negative events to turn them into positive experiences. Philip evaluated the table topics and praised some good strategies, such as: repeating the question, relating a personal experience, using humour, the use of gestures to illustrate a point and pausing or using a quiet voice to draw in the audience’s attention.

Richard was the general evaluator for the evening and made a particular point of thanking Paul, our Sergeant at Arms who does a fine job of preparing the room for our meetings before anyone arrives.

The meeting closed on time with a reminder that on the 16^th our meeting will have a different format as we get festive for our last meeting before Christmas.

All things Paris

With respect for those who had suffered in the tragedies in Paris the previous Friday, our theme for November 18^th was ‘All things Paris’. Lucinda, our Toastmaster for the evening, encouraged us to think about what we love about Paris.

We had a great meeting – relaxed, fun, warm and friendly. Our guests commented on how comfortable they felt and appreciate that everyone gets a chance to speak.

Joanne was presented with her Ice Breaker sash

Our first speaker was Joanne, doing her Ice Breaker speech ‘Neeow’. She told us about her trip to the Belgian Grand Prix and how she had never wanted to go but got persuaded – and ended up having a great time. We were there with her as she heard the cars before she saw them, made her way through the crowds and found her seat on a grassy bank to watch the action. In Chris’s evaluation he noted the wonderful, vivid pictures Joanne painted with her words.

                                                     

Lukas spoke about ‘Simplicity’ and that in our complex world we need to get back to basics. He highlighted that it is the speeches with a simple message that get remembered. He quoted Martin Luther King, Winston Churchill and others whose words we all remember. His three tips were that, when composing a speech, we need to: plan it well; get to the point; and use visual aids to get the message across, after all when you’re cooking a meal, the first thing you need is all of the ingredients. Paul was the evaluator, finding that Lukas did inform us, as was his speech purpose, and left us with some useful tips.

Jenny started with ‘I’m going to be Prime Minister one day!’ quoting herself at 10 years old. She isn’t and she stopped wanting to be as she became an adult. ‘Three decades’ was the title of her speech and she took us through the Prime Ministers and their impacts in the last thirty years and how she feels about them. She ended with ‘I want to be the change that I want to see’. Flavia noted Jenny’s use of pauses and body language to give emphasis and noted her final message - that it’s important to use our votes.

Philip was our final speaker, inspiring us with his speech ‘I Never Dreamt’. We heard how Philip learned so much at Toastmasters in Bromley and came to be one of the founding members and the first President of our Lewisham Speakers Toastmasters. He gave us a few gems, like the acronym TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More; and ‘Ask not what Toastmaster can do for you but what you can do for Toastmasters’. On leadership and being asked to be the President for a second year, he highlighted how, to be a good leader you have to have a team that motivates you, encouraging us to think about supporting any bosses. As evaluator, Lucinda noted how Philip used a quiet voice for emphasis at times and how he tricked us to start with, implying that he was talking about something saucy to get our attention and interest.

Julie lead the Table Topics session using her photos of Paris, asking the speakers what each picture inspired in them? A variety of techniques were used during the answers: Flavia made up a story using vocal variety to create intrigue; Stephanie gave us a great opening line with ‘I see my future’; Chris used humour to give himself thinking time; Mohammed and Andy both told personal stories, relating the pictures to their own experience; Paul and Naufah both turned the subject around to something they wanted to share and were comfortable talking about; Jenny confidently delivered a short speech with a clearly defined beginning, middle and end.

Ade was our general evaluator, appreciating how welcoming Lewisham Speakers is to guests and made some useful recommendations.

Living in the Moment

Our first meeting in November was particularly relaxed and fun. One of our, first time, guests said she was surprised by how much fun we had – she was expecting something more serious. She said it felt like she had been welcomed into a family.

Our Toastmaster was Lukas, who introduced the theme of ‘Living in the Moment’. He told us about his experiences when he took his new camera to the park and first noticed the beautiful colours of the trees and landscape. They’d obviously all been there before but he hadn’t noticed. He recognised the value of slowing down and noticing what was all around him, the value of living in the moment.

Flavia, our President, welcomed us all to the meeting and gave a general explanation of Toastmasters and our group for the visitors. John warmed us up by asking us all to think about a time when we had managed to let go and live in the moment. The answers ranged from yoga and sports to holidays in tranquil places - and very intimate relaxing experiences, ahem. (Julie still has her funny bones for sure!)

Verna and David supported the meeting as Timekeeper and Grammarian. David gave us ‘odious’ to include in our speeches wherever we could.

Our speakers for the evening are both very experienced and competent. Richard chose to practice a speech he’s given before to bring himself up to competition level. His mission was to ‘Persuade with Power’ with his speech ‘Norman’. He drew us in by walking over to the window, and saying ‘There’s a mountain out there – and it’s following me.’ We were intrigued! His finish left an impression too as he kicked the door open and invited us all to climb that mountain with him. In her evaluation, Lucinda noted the power of Richard’s speech and his use of differentiated voices and characters.

Julie gave us her ‘Keynote Address’, taking us through the first seven speeches in the Competent Communications Manual. She told us of her first speech when she fell in love with the audience and her second, when she started by telling how, in her childhood she killed – with her eyes. As Flavia said when she evaluated Julie’s speech – she gave us a masterclass in how to put a speech together and gave us all plenty of tips for composing our own speeches.

Philip lead the table topics giving our guests and members who hadn’t spoken a chance to think quickly to give answers to his questions.

Paul was our general evaluator for the evening and highlighted the skills of those who hadn’t yet been evaluated, adding some recommendations. He praised Flavia’s warm welcome and Lukas’ smooth transitions and John for keeping us all engaged with his warm up.

During the break we enjoyed some yummy cake, thanks to Paul, to celebrate our 7th birthday.

Toastmasters International is 90!

Lots of guests joined us again for our Wednesday meeting on the 21^st October, the second for this month. Paul, our Sargent at Arms opened the meeting on time and Flavia, our President welcomed the guests and told them a bit about Toastmasters, introducing us to our theme – Toastmasters International is 90 years old!

Philip was our Toastmaster for the evening and lead us through with his usual flare and enthusiasm. He was also the warm up leader, asking us how we responded to being challenged. Mostly, we face up to challenges head on!

James was the timekeeper for this meeting. He explained the importance of the role as we always need to be able to keep our speeches within the time allotted to us. He explained how the green, amber and red lights work to communicate to speakers how much of their time they have used up. We had a couple of overruns during the evening but our Toastmaster was able to bring us back on track to finish on time. Sharon was our grammarian and gave us the word ‘Longevity’ to use whenever we could during the meeting and to fit with the longevity theme of our meeting – 90 years of Toastmasters. She explained her role and the meaning of her chosen work well and a few remembered to fit it into their talks.

Robert was our first speaker and did a wonderful job with his 4^th speech in the Competent Communication Manual – How to Say it – telling us of his love for the ‘Sport of Kings’ – tennis. He told us of the sports stars who had influenced his admiration and how he had to persevere to develop his own skills.

Paul stepped in at the last minute due to a postponed speech and told us of ‘My Journey Since Toastmasters’.  It was his 5^th speech – Your Body Speaks. He took us through the three stages of his journey: how he used to be – lacking in confidence when required to speak up; how he changed – evolving and changing; and how he is now - grown in confidence, having acquiring new skills. He used gestures and facial expressions to illustrate his points and moved across the stage to show the different time phases of his speech.

Jason, our outgoing President, then christened our brand new projector, showing us slides to support his speech about the statistics around membership retention at Toastmasters. ‘Thirty is the Magic Number’ he told us as part of his ‘Speaking to Inform – A Fact Finding Report’. He explained that the statistics show, a club of around about thirty members seemed to be just right for keeping going. Membership gains and losses seem to tick over nicely with the magic membership size of thirty – and that’s reassuring for Lewisham Speakers as that’s our norm from year to year.

Jason was also our Table Topics Master and used old issues of the Toastmaster magazine to generate his questions. We learned from our guests and some members that: Rueben is the boss in his kitchen, a new guest Temitayo has aspirations to be our Lewisham Speakers President and that Ade thinks he should be paid much more than £5,000 as his speaker fee!

Our evaluators of speeches and the table topics were Flavia, Anne, Lukas and Richard, who praised the good practices of the speakers and offered a few tips for what could be done better. Our general evaluator, Peter, visiting us from west London, highlighted what he had enjoyed about our Lewisham Speakers style.

All in all, an enjoyable meeting with progress made by all participants. The meeting came together nicely, thanks to the efforts of Philip, as unavoidable postponement of a couple of the planned speeches meant last minute changes. And thanks go to Paul and Jason for stepping in at the last minute.

Freedom! - Lewisham Speakers meeting on 7th October 2015

The meeting started right on time with an introduction from Paul, our Sergeant at Arms.

Flavia, our President, welcomed us all, including a number of new guests, with an overview of what Toastmasters is all about. She told us about Ralph Smedley and how he started Toastmasters 90 years ago, about the Competent Communicator pathway and Competent Leadership and she highlighted the value of feedback.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was our outgoing President and a natural leader and speaker, Jason. He chose the theme of ‘Freedom’ in honour of Black History Month and reminded us of some great orators: Nelson Mandela, Maya Angelou, Martin Luther King.

Sharon lead the warm up, asking us how we escape from the stresses of modern life.  Some of us were pretty predictable with our long baths, lying in bed, walking, running, playing sport. Some less so with eating a Kit-Kat – or not trying to escape at all.

David was our timekeeper and explained why the role is important and how the light system works. Lukas was out grammarian and gave us the word ‘convoluted’ to try to include in our speeches.

And then there were the three speeches ...

John took us to Bermuda for his 7^th speech in the Competent Communicator Manual. He had to go there for work and became interested in the Bermuda Triangle stories of ship and aircraft disappearances, so he did his research.  He discovered that the area is prone to hurricanes and many of the suspicious disappearances weren’t actually in the area. He also found out that a book written in the 70s about 5 aircraft disappearing perpetuated the myth, even though in later years the real reason for the disappearances was discovered and it was navigation equipment failure. He concluded that extraordinary conclusions need extraordinary explanations.

“Twelve Miles” was Sharon’s Icebreaker Speech. Where she grew up was about 12 miles from anything useful, apart from 2 pubs and a library van - although living in a close knit community had its benefits. When she broke her wrists and spent around 3 hour in Accident & Emergency, there were 28 get well cards waiting for her when she got home. She didn’t want a quiet life so she left to go to university and work in the music industry, which isn’t as glamorous as we might think. But, even though London was lonely to start with, she’s found a new close knit community here.

Verna told us about her big Jamaican family and how, so often, she’d meet someone new and be told ‘that’s your cousin’. She took us with her on her first trip to Jamaica, painting a picture in words and gestures of the heat, the sounds and smells, the trees blowing in the breeze and we relaxed with her drinking rum punch by the sea with Bob Marley playing in the background. She went to visit the area where Bob Marley comes from, having been a big fan all of her life. She discovered that the family hosting the visitors were related to her and heard that phrase again when talking about Bob Marley – ‘that’s your cousin!’

The evaluators where Philip, Jenny and Julie. Philip praised John for his good research and the evidence he cited - and that he set the scene for us before launching into talking about the Bermuda Triangle, letting us know how his interest was first provoked. Jenny said what we were all thinking about Sharon’s speech – what a great first speech. She noted the use of threes for impact and clarity and great rhythm of Sharon’s story. Julie started by asking us a question about whether or not we would remember Verna’s trip to Jamaica. Of course we all will because she made is so picturesque for us. Julie praised Verna for not talking too fast, her vocal variety and not using notes.

The award for best speaker of the evening went to Verna for taking us to Jamaica.

Julie, spoke to us as an Ambassador for Toastmaster and highlighted the changes both past and future relating to the manuals and awards system. She showed us the original, small manual used 90 years ago and highlighted how so many of us are moving to reading and recording everything on our smart phones or computers.

Anne lead the Table Topics and our guests, along with a few experienced members, spoke about freedoms they appreciate, freedoms they would miss if they lost them and what they would do if they had the freedom of money being no object.

Flavia was the general evaluator and encouraged us all with her positive feedback. She reminded us that an evaluation should contain more positive comments than criticism, if criticism is felt to be necessary, and that they should always aim to finish with a positive comment.

Our next meeting is on Wednesday, 21st October where we'll be celebrating 90 years of Toastmasters.

On Becoming a Stand-up Comedienne at 77 Years Youngs

From 20 September, our member for 7 years, Julie Kertesz was named Ambassador in our Area 59 six clubs, for the Renewed Education Program that will arrive in the coming years. Here a short video, a prove also that much can be said in a five minutes. Realised in spring, finished recently.

September always feels like a fresh start so Newness was our Theme

This was a meeting that started off slowly and gained momentum as it went on. It was dynamically led by Lucinda.

The first speech was by James on The Passion Problem – his 5th speech from the Competent Communicators Manual. He put forward the idea that being encouraged to "follow your passion" may actually be a bad thing which prevents people from being realistic about their opportunities and constraints.

In the second speech by Julie, she told everyone about how hard she had worked against the odds to learn three languages at the same time. Interestingly, the language of the young man she fell in love with is the language she learnt the fastest! Reminding us once again that love is a motivator and always prevails.

The third and winning speech was by Reuben who used the meeting as an opportunity to practice his best man's speech - which he gave for real the following Friday. He started by showing the book that the groom gave him when he asked him to be his best man  ‘Being the Best Man for Dummies’. He told us funny stories about the groom, how the bride and groom met  - the entire speech was laced with love and warmth.

John lead us through an interesting and challenging set of situations and dilemmas around newness to include everyone who hadn't already spoken in the meeting during the Table Topics part of the evening.

A special mention should go to the audience, which included a lot of very welcome guests. The room was brimming with enthusiasm and encouragement.

Thanks go to Max for taking the notes.
Meeting date, 2nd September 2015.

Our next meeting of Lewisham Speakers is on Wednesday, 16th September and is the Humorous Speaking competition. Come along - it'll be a laugh!

Lewisham displays an air of authority

Wednesday 5^th August was a night full of pizzazz and flare. Our virgin Toastmaster Reuben popped his toastmaster cherry by warming us up with a great question – ‘which authority figure do you respect?’ This gave everyone licence to speak, relax and learn. Julie competently MC’d the evening and as the night got into full swing, we were entertained by 3 experienced speakers.

Our lovely president Flavia Gordon, talked about the life of Hitch. No, not the Will Smith character in his comedy movie, but none other than Alfred Hitchcock. She gave us a glimpse of his life and told us that the reason he was such a brilliant film producer is because he was so fearful of authority. Flavia asked us if we use our fears and phobias to fuel our passion. Food for thought!

Richard certainly did use his fear to fuel his passion for life! He told us about his fear of getting off his backside and onto his two wheeled steel horse (otherwise known as his bike) in order to live his life to the max. His sandpapered derriere or the one piece lycra outfit did not deter him from joining the cycling club which he now absolutely loves. His message to us – get of the hamster wheel, don’t become a human cabbage – just do it! Sound words of advice.

Habibu had similar advice. ‘Don’t be one of those people who let problems roll away naturally’ Habibu told us in his no 10 speech. If there is a problem, find a solution and get on with it! Powerful and inspiring words from our new Competent Communicator. Habibu gave us the lowdown on his last 18 months as a member at Lewisham Toastmasters and we all congratulated him on how far he’d come and how much he had grown. I would say ‘well done’ but our general evaluator Jason urged us to use a different praise so ‘salute’ Habibu; Heres to you!

Habibu Mugerwa collecting  his cc award
from Flavia Gordon

The second half of the evening was led by Paul. His maiden voyage as Tabletopics Master was smoothly done with a great set of questions all around the authority theme. I think the question about what 3 settings you would put on social media was wickedly difficult. I’m glad I wasn’t taking part! But all our guests answered really well. No one would have known they were guests unless they told us J

Jenny gave a seamless, supportive and professional evaluation of our guests efforts as did all the evaluators who found positive recommendations for our speakers which was extremely difficult given the quality of the speakers.

As usual, Richard won best speaker. He’s clearly got some clout! Someone else needs to get that best speaker speech next time. Will it be you? You got to be in it to win it so use your phobia of public speaking to passionately smash the cabbage! Come on, just do it!

Pressure in Lewisham

At 7.30pm Paul, our Sergeant at Arms, asserted himself and smoothly launched the meeting.

Flavia, our President, welcomed our guests putting them at ease and encouraging us all complete our CC manuals

Habibu our Toastmaster then explained our theme of “Pressure” by commenting on how we are all under pressure, but what matters is how we handle it, before introducing his team.  Lucinda, later on in the meeting, as General Evaluator reminded us how Habibu’s more relaxed style possibly reassured us?

Flavia, our Warm up leader got us to recall a Pressurized Incident.   The  main memory is how we all rose to the challenge of the challenges, from “Elevator Speeches” to twelve mile walks, very encouraging.

Verna ensured we kept to time and she encouraged, as the Grammarian, to be “Insightful” and she was.

Paul presented his fourth speech (How to Say It) about drinking in context, and recounted how often we all drink and told us some stories, but also warnings, that we can be too relaxed with colleagues.

Richard entertained us with “What One Man Can Achieve” speaking about his desire to be a Champion inspired by his grandfather, recounting various setbacks and dreams, including being knocked out in boxing and at snooker, before realizing he is a Champion by being himself and valuing his wife.

Richard Green - Best speaker award

Julie, spoke about how she celebrated her birthday with “Is It Worth It” and she is certainly ‘young’ enough to know better but put herself under pressure by attending so many meetings and story telling events. However she informed us that,  ‘yes it is worth it’, if we connect with people and bring them alive, and have many lives in our years.

Philip, Flavia and Chris as evaluators encouraged our speakers, by acknowledging the power of using experiences from life and how they are all maturing like wine, and use of rhetorical questions can add power, in story telling how it helps to have a constant “guru or sounding board” and once again the power of three and how with practice we can be taken into someone else’s world and finally, how even our imperfections can enhance our speeches by making them “ours.”

Our visitor Orlando wins best table topic speech

After the break Anne led the table Topics Session around our theme, with James stressing over ambiguity at work.   Orlando was proud of how he coped when he had to take over a role in the Young Entrepreneurs scheme and learned new skills, Robert finds physical activity helps him cope and encouraged us all to run or walk.  Miriam enjoys social occasions to de-stress along with a drink, Zumba or singing.  Reuben, on how to relax, was very insightful, encouraging us to find what works for us as he finds a good film and a drink to be helpful.  William, felt that if we can embrace pressure it can be good and finally Maureen, felt that we are less likely to make good decisions under pressure because we can lose perspective.  All that can be said is thank you to everyone who took part in Table Topics as the challenge to think on our feet and deliver a short speech does put us under some pressure, but everyone rose to the challenge especially our guests, Orlando, Robert, Miriam, Reuben, William and Maureen.

A great start to our New Toastmasters Year!

The new Toastmasters Year started in real style for Lewisham and below are some of the many highlights.

Paul had set-up the room really well and encouraged us to enjoy the break or “break out session.”

Flavia as President introduced our new theme of “Communicate, Commit and Connect” and almost offered our guests a money back guarantee if by getting involved they don’t improve in a year as speakers and leaders (OK we are all biased but feel the Club Funds are safe!).

Richard as Toastmaster spoke of his journey so far of 6 years by admitting he’s not perfect (yet) but doesn't matter we need to relax and enjoy ourselves in the meeting and just grow.

Anne as Timekeeper explained how knowing that she is being timed reduces the risk of waffling.

Max as Grammarian and Ah Counter encouraged us to pause rather than um and ah and was able to report that we took his advice to heart to some effect.

Flavia leading the Warm up was both relevant and controversial, by asking how we cooled down (as a warm up!) The top answer was ice cream with one member going for beer!

Then we had three well prepared speeches:

Robert with “Limiting Beliefs CC 2” made some powerful points, acknowledging that he doesn't find speaking easy but by changing his perspective to one of growth opportunities it is much easier, all without notes.

Habibu speaking about divorce, used some powerful arguments based on statistics and experience reminding us that sometimes differences are what attracts so need issue to be lived with not run away from, a potentially difficult issue dealt with in style.

Verna “My Journey CC3” was certainly well organised as she took us from being a proud 11 year old going to secondary school to being a proud business coach, though she has had some detours, and a few months ago after being “recognised” as a Speaker decided to join Lewisham Speakers.

The evaluators, Lucinda, Philip and Paul all encouraged and supported the speakers, by using rhetorical questions asking if a speech was relevant and the answer was yes, the power of body language coupled with a powerful ending, and finally how pace and excitement can elevate a speech.

After the break out session, when we were encouraged to request roles for the next few meeting and a complete a survey by Lucinda (https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3F9GSF) we had the Topics session.

James kept us on our toes with 9 topics and quite a few about building/ DIY and some of the responses are below, sorry can’t recount all. Orlando, a new guest and still a teenager, asked if he was a night owl or early bird, admitted to getting up late, but is both a night owl and early bird, because he is busy in the early hours, great stuff, Flavia’s ideal extension would be a walk in clothes cupboard whilst playing to the stereotype still very amusing and engaging and Julie uses a note book to record her thoughts when her mind wanders and uses these in her stand-up, a very good way to recycle and last was Max with his ideal tool, a plane with a brush and smart phone and had time permitted possibly a 3D printer for mark 2?

Julie as General Evaluator thanked the audience for the vigorous applause that is such a powerful motivator for all the speakers

Overall a great meeting was had by everyone and the best Speaker was Robert and Evaluator Philip and if this meeting is anything to go by, then miss our next meeting on July 15 and whatever the weather is like, you will be missing another scorcher.


Meeting date: 1 July 2015

Fooling Around and creating Mischief!

When Philip suggested to have a meeting where our members would just turn up, pick a role out of a hat and perform a role that they pulled out of a hat,  I thought he was playing an April Fools Joke in March,  but little did I know what he had in store for us on April 1st. 

First, Philip kicked off the meeting with a thorough explanation of what was to happen, then there was a period of organized chaos as we picked our roles, and prepared ourselves for the evening.

Anne Barrett, got us off to a great start as our Sergeant at Arms,  welcoming us all to the meeting,  ensuring that we all had our mobiles on silent,  and that we knew where the fire exits were.  Job well done.

Paul Mclean stepped into my shoes as President for the day, grasped the task with real enthusiasm.  He warmly welcomed us all to the meeting,  explained to us why he joined toastmasters,  and invited our guests to introduce themselves to the club.   A future president maybe...

Flavia had picked the role as Toastmaster,  which meant that we could all have a sigh of relief!!   She did a fantastic job and putting us all at ease,  explained the agenda and the purpose of the evaluation sheets to our guests, and steered us through the evening. 

Verna, enthusiastically took up the role of Warm Up leader,  asking for our thought on having a "Positive Mental Attitude". An excellent topic for the audience, and this meeting in particular!

David,  our timekeeper - reminded us about the importance of keeping time, and to keep an eye on the lights,  while he was keeping his eyes on the clock!  

Ali was our grammarian, and presented us the word of the day "Mischievous" with a cheeky glint in his eye.  He encouraged us all to cause a bit of mischief and used the word during the course of the evening.  It was a great choice of word for the evening!

The only people that had a chance the prepare for their roles were Paul and Philip who were making prepared speeches for the evening. 

Paul made a confident icebreaker speech, where he introduced us to his world at Transport For London,  and his day to day challenges around printing, scanning and photocopying.  For those of us who thought that TFL was only about buses and tubes,  it gave us a tiny insight to what is going on behind the scenes.  

It was a great start, and I look forward to seeing Paul grow in confidence and as a speaker as he progresses through the competent communicator manual. 

Philip,  provided us with a speech from the Storytelling Manual - "Choppy Waters" full of action and adventure,  running through time, running through the audience, linking being at the helm of a boat,  to being at the helm of our club.   The message that I took away from his speech was,  Whatever direction the wind blows,  we are all in the same boat together!

Our speech evaluators Max and Richard, provided some valuable feedback to our speakers, in their own unique way - Max calm, measured and incisive contrasted well with Richard's humorous and animated approach - both working to encourage the speakers to continue to improve. 

Our Table Topics Master, David  took a break from his job as timekeeper to run our Table Topic's session.   The topics for the evening stuck to the theme as Ann, Richard, Verna and our guests Lorraine, Kiki, and Ola gave us their thoughts on pranksters and other aspects of April Foolery!    Once again it was one of our guests,  Lorraine who stole the show and the prize for best Table Topic!

To round off the meeting Katy our Divisional Governor, had picked up the role as GE, to give her evaluation of those who had not been evaluated,  and the evening as a whole.  The main takeaway was that, we could have made better use of the time a the start of the meeting to allocate the roles, to allow for more preparation - however overall,  it was a great idea and good to see everyone get involved. 

From my point of view, it was great to see us working together and adopting a positive mental attitude to making the "GrabBag" meeting a success.  We have some outstanding leaders in our club,  and I am sure that meetings like this have a part to play in building our team spirit and keeping the club moving full steam ahead!!

Last week may have been half term, but not at Lewisham Speakers Club.

Richard opened the meeting with his usual energy.

Then I as acting President, told how drawing on the Leadership skills expounded by Toastmasters assisted me to rescue an accountancy meeting when a speaker didn’t arrive before welcoming, Paul and Davidde who are shortly to be enrolled as members and our guests Robin and Berta plus Verna who arrived later.

Then Flavia as Toastmaster took over and  introduced her theme of ”The Ghost of Valentine Past” admitting that she wanted Obama to her Valentine, for a great meal and very large bouquet of flowers, though not sure if Michelle would be happy.

David our warm up leader, asked how we liked to unwind and Red Wine and TV are both popular.

Anne as Grammarian introduced the word of the Romantic, and in her report complimented our speakers on evocative phrases and started he journey as a Leader as did Paul who took on the role of Timekeeper and fortunately did not need to use the bell.

We then had three speeches all based on personal stories which always give a speech power,

Ali, giving his Icebreaker, “Is Your Dream Too Small” shared how he had big dreams so was laughed at, but he had the last laugh as his dreams came true, and as the speech went on he came more relaxed and used good body language and encouraged us to have big dreams and be laughed at!

Max, whose ideal was Cleopatra  presented “Getting Into Trouble” involved us all by asking how many of us had been victims of crime, before recounting three occasions when playing football he was encountered problems but learnt how to overcome by standing his ground and was respected.

Finally, Habibu presented his sixth speech “Film Creation and Effects” explained how his favourite films when younger featured superheroes, though Toastmasters and others now fulfil that place, but he recalled how he was upset by a horror type film and asked us all not to overload childrens senses.

Our evaluators, Didier, Richard and Chris, largely built our speakers up, complimenting them on an easy to follow structure, use of questions to draw us in and the use of pauses for effect.

After the break John led the Topics session involving largely based around Birthdays included Julie on birthdays recounted how she still has gifts from hr son, Robert on being President for the day became a politician and gave us all the day off, Robins ideal birthday was a surprise 30^th party leaving much to the imagination, proving that less can be more.

After evaluating the Topics, Jenny as General Evaluator complimented everyone whilst wanting more encouragement from our evaluators before I presented the awards to Max, Chris and Robert.

All that remains is for me to thank everyone who took part and encourage everyone who can to take part in the Speech and Evaluation Contest on 4 March 2015 as this could be the start of an amazing journey, ending in The Tower Hotel and Las Vegas for the best speaker in South England.

Philip 

The Theme Was Teamwork!

Last week's meeting was as fun as ever.

Richard was our Toastmaster for the evening and did a great job at leading the meeting and keeping us to time.

For our warm up, we were asked to all introduce ourselves and say what we would be having for dinner later, which was an easy question to help break the ice.

Judith explained the role of the grammarian and then gave us the word of the day, 'harmony' for us to try and drop into our speeches and evaluations.

Our first speaker, Suresh, tried to make us all live happier lives by suggesting we should accept people as they are, to accept yourself as you are and that opposite values can actually be complimentary. He used persuasive language and guaranteed us a happier life if we follow these rules.

Our second speaker, Robert, warmed up with a sing along and then told us all about John Brown and how he tried to abolish slavery in America. He used tactics that were certainly not peaceful to try and accomplish this goal, including inciting the slaves to rebellion and killing slave supporters. This led to him being convicted and sentenced to be hanged. Some scholars see John Brown as wicked, evil and a mad man but others see him as an anti-slave icon.

Our third speaker, Jenny, spoke about how we should embrace people from all cultures and how her family has grown to include people from various different countries, including her Indian husband. She told us how her father used to hoist up the English flag at Christmas time and her family were previously not very accepting of other cultures. There were clashes between members of her family from different cultures getting married and hostility that went as far as obscenities being shrieked through letterboxes by the parents. Now, however, her family have become much more accepting and her father now hoists up the United Nations flag up at Christmas time. Jenny also used the word of the day, harmony, as an added bonus.

Then we had our 3 evaluators, David, Chris and Flavia, who were introduced by our Toastmaster, Richard, who casually slipped in the word of the day 'harmony'.

David evaluated Suresh, saying he did very well overall with a very interesting and persuasive speech but could perhaps move around the stage a little less as it can be distracting or use the movement to go alongside the flow of the speech. Chris commented on Roberts 'awesome voice' that got us all singing along and is so clear and well projected. Flavia talked about Jenny's amazing ability to paint pictures in her speeches and engage with the audience.

Max then led us in the table topics centered around working in teams, where we had some guests and new members speak up. One of our guests, Vena, used the word of the day whilst talking about the importance of working harmoniously in teams. Serena, another guest, also slipped in the word of the day when talking about the importance of conservation, looking after our wildlife and being harmonious with the environment. Flavia thought it best to avoid working in teams altogether as the other team members can be hard to work with and we would be better off being self employed! Judith spoke about how she doesn't work in a team as she is the only one in her office that does her job and has little interaction with her boss, but this is how she would like to keep it!

Habibu then gave us all some great advice about how we can all improve on our table topics, including body language and relaxing our arms when we speak instead of clasping them.

Judith then gave the grammarian report, highlighting some of the great creative language some of the speakers had been using and how well the speakers articulated themselves. Also the use of the word of the day 'harmony' several times throughout the meeting, which is quite a rare occurrence.

Richard gave us an 'um' counter report, where he highlighted the amount of times people had used 'um's' in their speeches, some of us had quite a few! He explained how we could try and avoid using this filler word in future.

We were then given a thorough general meeting evaluation, saying what a great meeting it was and how well all of our speakers and evaluators did. Also, how well set up the room was with the Toastmaster flag at the front and all the required equipment, leaflets etc out and ready to use.

:)

Judith