What Went on at the Club Meeting on 6th July 2016?

6 July was certainly a new beginning and if you missed the meeting here are some of the highlights!!

Pat our new Sergeant at Arms welcomed us all confidently promising an exciting New Year for the Lewisham Speakers club! Paul, who is beginning his term as President welcomed us all and introduced all his Officers as part his team, Club Mission to follow.

Richard, who is an exceptionally talented Toastmaster made us relax and reminded us that we all make mistakes, but that's OK! John Lead the warm up and asked us for new challenges, including a new romance, pause, with the wife.

Molly took on the role of timekeeper for the very first time and did a great job in reminding us that time really does matter. "We are at a meeting not a support club" (Fantastic advice)

Pat stepped into the role of "Ah Counter" at short notice and reported on how we all need to avoid these crutches if possible to make our speaking powerful. 

Paul, doubling as Grammarian challenged us to initiate the use of the word Initiate (our word of the day) in our presentations. 

Now, to or Speakers and we had a bonus with Sally’s Icebreaker. Titled "What's in A Name". She gave a powerful presentation on how we relate to our history, through our names, and we really enjoyed to know Sally and look forward to seeing her progress through the Competent Communicator manual. 

Mark went next with his speech "Rent a Room". He used great structure to outline the process of getting a room, including being interviewed by house mates

Lucinda- one of our excellent members who returned after a break presented her speech "Once Upon a Time" which was a modern twist on Jack in The Bean Stalk, or Tower Block including iPads! Welcome back Lucinda, you have been missed.

Julian spoke from personal experience about "Food Stuffs" and suggested that on the subject of food fads, the "truth" may not be out there!  

The evaluators all built our 4 speakers up and we were reminded by Serena, Julie, Jenny and Philip that jargon can hinder a speech and that when telling a story, the story teller would ideally focus more on telling a story than performing. We were also reminded of the power of using personal stories and finally that using notes can act as a barrier by keeping a speaker behind a lectern though all four speakers gave great value.

After the break we had an exceptionally exciting "Table Topics" session lead by John, again around firsts. The best way to sum this session up is to say that each speaker, including our guests, all gave great answers to the questions posed to them. 

The winners of the evening were: 

- Best Speaker: Sally

- Best Evaluator: Philip

- Best Table Topic: Henry 

Overall it was a great evening! Thank you to the members who attended. The meetings really are made by our membership and we encourage everyone to attend and participate! 

See you on Wednesday the 20th

Lewisham Speakers Club

May the 4th be with you

What a great theme for our May the 4th Lewisham Speakers Toastmasters club meeting. In honour of International Star Wars Day, Jason, our Toastmaster for the evening, urged us to go boldly where we may not have been before, on an epic mission – past Catford, past Crystal Palace and possibly as far as Croydon. He was supported by a wonderful team. Christophe was our warm up leader who asked us “What would you do if you were given £10,000?”. Every person attending stood and gave their short answers, which ranged from getting some work done at home to amazing holidays and investing in the stock market.  Joyce was our Timekeeper and warned us that she was ‘going German’ after explaining some different perceptions of national attitudes towards timing. She made sure we all understood the time constraints we needed to work within and explained how the light system would let us know when we were getting close to our limit. At the end of the meeting she was effusive in her congratulations to us all for keeping well within our limits. Jason’s other team member for the evening was Pat, our Grammarian. She gave us ‘realise’ as the word of the day and was happy to note many uses of it during the evening.

John & Jenny have completed all 10
Competent Communicator's speeches

We had three speakers at this meeting – and Lewisham Speakers is proud that two of them were giving speech number 10, meaning that we have two more speakers who have completed the Competent Communicator Manual.

Anne was our first speaker, delivering her 6th speech in the Competent Communicator manual. She told us her public speaking story – how she knew she had a mountain to climb, when it came to overcoming her fear of public speaking but then as she learned and practiced at Lewisham Speakers, she realised that that mountain was just a hill – and she was over it – ‘Over the hill’.

With speech number 10 the task is to ‘Inspire your audience’. John spoke to us about ‘Creativity’, and told us about his hobby of writing short stories. He enlarged on that by telling us about the script he wrote for ‘New Tricks’ – just for his own pleasure. He used quotes, such as Picasso saying ‘Every child is born an artist’, and it said that ‘Education strangles creativity’.

Jenny encouraged us not to compromise as ‘You’ve only got one soul’. She told us of her career aspirations, seeking out the right opportunities and her experiences of disappointment and ultimate success. She entertained us with an anecdote about how she managed to negotiate awful traffic in order to get to one interview, which included good use of body language and humour.

Sharon was our Tabletopics Master for the evening. She came up with an imaginative set of questions for impromptu answers, maintaining the Star Wars theme. Mimicking Darth Vader, with ‘Luke- I am your Father’ and asking who he would like to discover he was related to? Paul gave a heart-warming short speech about why he finds Dr Dre so inspiring. If Molly were ‘captured by the Empire’, if all other attempts to persuade her capturers to release her failed, she would resort to crying. If George could use a ‘Force for good’, he would bring peace to the Middle East. And if Naomi had her ‘own android’ she would definitely instruct it to do the ironing.

Our general evaluator was Paul. He evaluated all of the speakers who hadn’t already been evaluated, such as our President, Flavia, who always greets us so warmly – members and guests, with her calm, evenly paced manner, using pauses and vocal variety to keep us engaged. He praised Jason’s choice of theme along with his energy and humour as he guided us through an exceptionally well run meeting.

When Flavia, our President, opened the meeting she welcomed our eight guests and at the end she asked them to report back about what they had enjoyed. We’re happy to hear that guests always find us a friendly and welcoming group; challenging, in that everyone ends up speaking a little, even on their first visit (unless they really don’t want to), but particularly safe and nurturing too. Other comments included being inspired by the speeches, learning tips from the evaluations and enjoying the humour. We’re happy that three guests are planning to take up membership to start on their journey towards confidence with public speaking.

Joyce stood up at the end to highlight how well our Lewisham Speakers had done in the recent International Speaking Competition. At Divisional level we had two speakers in the top three. Flavia coming second at Richard came third. They are both inspirational for all of us!!

Spring Clean

Flavia, our President introduced the first spring session with encouragement for us to believe that we can become good speakers - as if we believe, we will succeed. “Every speaker’s journey begins with a single speech.” She welcomed our visitors and asked them what made them decide to come along. The answers were varied: a second visit, a friend is a member, a friend took her to a club in the US so she looked for a local club, one just browsing and thought it looked interesting and another was walking by, saw the sign outside and decided to pop in and find out more.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Sharon. She lead us through the meeting very smoothly with an encouraging and positive attitude.  She was supported by Paul, our Sergeant at Arms, John as Timekeeper, Anne as Grammarian and Mark for the warm up. Sharon chose the theme of ‘Spring Clean’ for the evening. Anne chose the word of the day as ‘Refresh’ to work with that theme and Mark warmed us all up with a question about how we felt about spring cleaning. Members and guests gave quick answers expressing their views on cleaning, ironing and washing up. A great warm up with lots of laughter!

We had three speakers – including two Icebreaker speeches – two exceptional Icebreaker speeches! Julian and Christophe took to the Lewisham Speakers stage for the first time and Pat gave her 3rd speech.

Speeches and Evaluations means  Prizes!
Pat, Joyce & Jenny

Julian’s speech was ‘Be More Dog’, using a phrase which was familiar to us as an advert tag line which he related to the question ‘What makes us want to change?’  He took us from the bad habits he’d had at university, told us about an old man’s comment, which was his ‘trigger for change’, and his achievements since. His stage presence was admirable, he moved around the stage, made eye contact with the audience, spoke clearly and confidently and engaged us with his smile.

Christophe opened with “Who would like twenty million pounds?” and put his hand in the air, looking around, engaging us with his eyes, encouraging us all to answer the question by raising our hands too. He told us about his childhood, his yearning to better himself, his decision to become a teacher and moving on to new plans. He left us with a Les Brown quote “You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”

Pat’s speech was ‘The Magic of Words’ and she highlighted that words are the most powerful drug used by mankind. She needed to ‘Get to the Point’ for this speech and she did that by explaining the impact of words in therapy and generally in life. The pace of Pat’s speech and her voice make her easy and calming to listen to. She engages the audience with her eyes and makes good use of pauses to allow us to digest what she’s said before moving on to the next point.

Jenny, Mark and Jason evaluated the speeches, highlighting what was done well and offering a few recommendations.

We were visited by Rob, Area Director for our area - Area 59. He took a few minutes to let us know about some area and national events (see below); to thank the current committee for their hard work in the last year and rally support for members to participate as committee members in the next Toastmasters year (starting in July) – and to give us some general encouragement on our Toastmasters ‘self-education’ journey.

Richard lead the Table Topics asking random questions around issues like: What irritates you? What do you think of tattoos? Do you believe there are aliens? Do you believe in love at first sight? All of the answers were exceptionally delivered but Joyce was awarded the prize for the best impromptu speech about whether she would prefer money or friends. Joyce’s delivery was effusive - full of energy. She asked rhetorical questions as she considered the dilemma which had been posed and varied the volume of her voice as she conveyed what is and isn’t important to her.

The General Evaluator was Julie. She noted how everything was prepared before the meeting. Paul had made sure the room was set out properly so we all felt ready to go when we arrived. She praised Mark for getting us laughing during the warm up and Sharon’s warm and confident handling of the role of Toastmaster – her first time. Her recommendation was that when we are Evaluators and introducing the speakers, clarifying their objectives – we should try to use our own words rather than read from the Competent Communications manual.

Dates to note – and book:

• Saturday 23rd April - Division K International Speech & Evaluation Contest and Workshops – BUT IT’S SOLD OUT – Keep your eyes peeled for next year.
• Saturday & Sunday, 7th & 8th May - Spring 2016 Londinium Conference -  Book by 30th April - http://d91toastmasters.org.uk/conference/ 

It's a Leap Year!

‘What would you do if you had one free day?’ That was our warm up question, posed by Sharon. All at the meeting gave a short answer. Just about everyone said they’d do whatever they enjoyed doing when they relax – only one answered that he’d get some jobs done.

Paul is our Sergeant at Arms and opened the meeting on time. Flavia, our President welcomed our guests and explained how Toastmasters works. Anne was the Toastmaster for the first time and led us through the meeting with her wonderful team of members fulfilling the various roles.

Our first speaker was Pat, giving her Icebreaker speech.  John was her evaluator and noted how she gave us a fairly long introduction about how and why she joined Toastmasters, before she raised our attention level by saying ‘Hello’ and  launched into her subject of ‘Living Your Purpose’.  She was confident and spoke with an even pace, maintained good eye contact with her audience and only referred to her notes a few times.  She had a very strong message, explaining how she’d found her purpose of promoting health and how we all need to find our purpose in life. She made good use of humour and left us all eagerly awaiting her next speech.

Philip, a very experienced speaker, entertained us with his speech ‘A Proposal’. He chose to demonstrate vocal variety, as per speech 6 in the Competent Communication Manual. He told us a comic tale of when a female friend tried to take advantage of the 29^th February, leap year tradition of women initiating wedding proposals – and how it all went horribly wrong. He was very animated using a loud, then a quiet voice as he took us through the various reactions as the story unfolded and negotiations progressed. She was hoping to get a free pair of gloves, as is the tradition if a man refuses the woman’s proposal – but he confounded her by saying ‘yes’. Paul evaluated Philip and admitted that he found it hard to make recommendations for such an entertaining and experienced speaker.

James lead the Table Topics with a wonderful set of questions around it being a leap year: having an extra day; leaping; and even a bit of time travel. He explained each question with a metaphor, helping the speakers to compose their short, impromptu speeches.

Julie was our Grammarian and was particularly impressed with Vivian’s use of her word of the day ‘embrace’ – seven times during her Table Topics speech. Sharon was the Timekeeper, as well as Warm-up Leader, so she reported back all of the times for the evening.

Richard evaluated the Table Topics and Jason was our General Evaluator. Some of their comments included: the Toastmaster needs to always lead the applause; and recommendations given should be addressed to all of the audience, not just the person who has spoken. They praised Julie for not only noting that James used metaphors but she also explained what metaphors are for our greater understanding; Paul’s mimicking of some of Philips body movements when evaluating his speech helped us to recollect what we’d seen and how it enhanced his message.

It was John’s birthday, so we ended the evening with a chorus of Happy Birthday!!

Next meeting - the International Competition - 2 March. Get in touch if you want to speak or be a judge.

It was cold outside - and a bit nippy inside until we warmed it up

On 20^th January we experienced what happens when you have to organise a Toastmasters meeting at the last minute with many members absent due to other commitments or illness. Some members took on multiple roles, with little opportunity to prepare – and boy did they shine! We had a vibrant meeting with a number of return visitors who I think we’re going to keep seeing. Last minute preparation can really bring a team together and showed off the nurturing nature of our club.

Paul was the Toastmaster, as well as the Sergeant at Arms and evaluator of one of the speeches. It was his first time as Toastmaster and he lead us through the meeting like an old hand. Richard was our acting President for the evening as well as evaluator of one of the speeches. He enthused and entertained us with his energetic introduction. Mark took the role of Timekeeper and kept us all on track. Sharon stepped in as Grammarian, as well as evaluating one of the speeches, with only a few minutes to think up a word for the day, define the word and her role for us, then write and post it on the walls to remind us of the word we should try to use. John took the role of Topics Master as he arrived at the meeting, and used the Toastmasters Table Topics App to find random questions for us to answer for our short, impromptu speeches.

Our theme for the evening was ‘Winter’ and our word for the day was ‘Lacking’ – due to the lack of heat.

The first speaker was Anne, who talked about David Bowie and the impact he’s had on her life. This was speech number 4 in the Competent Communicator Manuel – ‘How you say it’ and the idea is to use clear, grammatically correct language with rhetorical questions. Sharon evaluated that that had been achieved and praised the use of ‘the power of three’ and the use of alliteration.

Ade spoke second, an Advanced speech ‘Speaking to inform – The abstract concept’. He explained about blood pressure. Without the use of any illustrations, he managed to paint pictures with words and hand movements to explain what high and low blood pressure are, what makes blood pressure high or low and why we need to keep our blood pressure healthy. I certainly came away with a greater understanding of the concept.

John’s task was to ‘Persuade with Power’ his 9^th speech from the Competent Communicator Manual. He informed us all about the proposed closures of Open University Regional Centres and certainly convinced me that I should sign the petition against the closures. His speech was structured clearly so that we all got to understand the current situation, the reasons why the closures were being considered and the potential impacts which meant he disagreed with the closures.

John then led the table topics, using the App on his phone. The performances were exceptional. Many guests took to the stage and gave us a couple of minutes of entertainment - and a guest was voted as the winner (soon to be member I believe!).

Commit, Communicate and Connect

On 6^th January, Flavia was our Toastmaster, as well as being our President, so she introduced the meeting, welcomed our guests and explained how Toastmasters works. Then she moved on to leading us through the meeting. She reminded us of the theme for her presidency - Commit, Communicate and Connect.

Pat was our warm up leader and asked us what we wish for in 2016. Everyone had the opportunity to express their aspirations for the coming year in a few words. David then explained his role as the Timekeeper, along with David and James who were the Ah counter and Grammarian for the evening. James gave us the word ‘loath’ to try to slip into our speaking during the evening. He explained the definition and gave examples of the different ways that it can be used.

Mark completed his Icebreaker Speech

Mark was our first speaker, giving his first ‘Ice Breaker’ speech, titled ‘The Underdog’. He started with an anecdote from his childhood about his football team being the underdogs then took us through some experiences in his life and career with the message of ‘overcoming adversity’. It was a well-structured speech, spoken clearly and with minimal use of notes. He left us with the encouraging words ‘Nothing is impossible’.

Our second speaker was Sharon, who spoke about the Art of Stopping. She suggested we ask ourselves the question ‘When did I last stop?’ She started with an anecdote from her own life, where she realised that she’d had a period of great adventures – but couldn’t remember many of the details because she had not stopped. She gave us a memorable acronym and some memorable phrases: FOMO (Fear of missing out); and ‘Focus on what matters, take time to just stop.’ Verna, her evaluator, praised her for her us of ‘the power of three’ and how she emphasised the word ‘stop’ with the way she used her hands.

Our third speaker was Paul, who stepped up to the lectern, having accepted the challenge to speak only at the beginning of the meeting. He told us about ‘Finding a Property’. Paul’s opening was exceptional. He built intrigue by slowly giving us a list, one word at a time before each pause, of all the online platforms we could possibly use and all of the different methods we could use for searching for a new property. He took us through the process and the emotions and stress of the process. Richard was his evaluator and praised him for putting his speech together at such short notice. A recommendation was that he could have used rhetorical questions to get additional engagement from the audience, to get them connecting with their own experiences.

Richard lead the table topics using a list of random words and asking speakers to choose a number to decide which word they were given. There were around ten speakers who all gave great answers but a couple of highlights were: Philip, who managed to intrigue and confuse us, and finally make everything clear with an entire story which showed us the association between the number 42 and bangers and mash; Eva also told us an entire story too, about her love for a particular umbrella – when she got it, where she got it, why she loved it and finally how she lost it and how she still misses it, decades later. Her delivery of this sentimental story had us loving the umbrella too; finally David was asked about ‘fashion’ and he used self-deprecating humour to entertain us with his speech about his attitude towards fashion.

Philip was our General Evaluator. One thing that he highlighted was that evaluations need to be primarily about how a speaker says what they say and the skills they show, rather than about the story they’ve told, emphasising that evaluations are to encourage us and to help speakers to grow their speaking skills.