tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91435698185924776482024-03-05T15:34:20.588+00:00Lewisham Speakers ClubA distinguished Toastmasters Club in central Lewisham. We improve our public speaking together.Julie Kertesz - me - moi - jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09196066571782981915noreply@blogger.comBlogger209125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-8035845654131699052016-07-18T16:35:00.000+01:002016-07-18T16:35:42.379+01:00What Went on at the Club Meeting on 6th July 2016?<div class="MsoNormal" style="-webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; margin: 0px; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 1; word-spacing: 0px;">
<span>6 July was certainly a new beginning and if you missed the meeting here are some of the highlights!!</span></div>
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<span>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.</span></div>
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<span>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. </span></div>
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<span>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)</span></div>
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<span>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. </span></div>
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<span>Paul, doubling as Grammarian challenged us to initiate the use of the word Initiate (our word of the day) in our presentations. </span></div>
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<span>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. </span></div>
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<span>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</span></div>
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<span>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. </span></div>
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<span>Julian spoke from personal experience about "Food Stuffs" and suggested that on the subject of food fads, the "truth" may not be out there! </span></div>
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<span>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.</span></div>
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<span>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. </span></div>
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<span>The winners of the evening were: </span></div>
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<span>- Best Speaker: Sally</span></div>
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<span>- Best Evaluator: Philip</span></div>
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<span>- Best Table Topic: Henry </span></div>
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<span>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! </span></div>
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<span>See you on Wednesday the 20th</span></div>
<a href="http://lewishamspeakers.org.uk/" target="_blank">Lewisham Speakers Club </a>Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-4763041675026553232016-05-17T13:04:00.000+01:002016-05-17T13:06:23.166+01:00May the 4th be with youWhat 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.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8iQ0vIU-xJGlAW8ugw5uwTlbJJT6w4MRtPt_xfdZI4qSsuDkd5cPia7vewuSI5UAkVI_4dVWjcHmny22pFdZDUgL0Bd_CA9L55raiU5_ga7bFHvAKptZYkEJ_zeESR5C9wHdOTHBnPKi/s1600/160504-Jenny-John-with-Flavia-10th-Speech-3-resized.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="John Jenny Flavia" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjV8iQ0vIU-xJGlAW8ugw5uwTlbJJT6w4MRtPt_xfdZI4qSsuDkd5cPia7vewuSI5UAkVI_4dVWjcHmny22pFdZDUgL0Bd_CA9L55raiU5_ga7bFHvAKptZYkEJ_zeESR5C9wHdOTHBnPKi/s200/160504-Jenny-John-with-Flavia-10th-Speech-3-resized.jpg" title="" width="170" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John & Jenny have completed all 10 <br />
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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.<br />
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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’.<br />
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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’.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!!Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-27526383018694368732016-04-20T15:11:00.001+01:002016-04-20T15:12:55.505+01:00Spring CleanFlavia, 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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0cHggXvRiUK27t25JWW_suM2t1B9LmopKEf5BnNl10O-_eQfK5qQsUNT7ghJinvCAfpWyBI7O-LBCYNZqPXagGUCK9OUUu4ZcM4jzmevqeAHDgvdrfHhjKC0xxkRj-wecfiYn-Q8C_Qw/s1600/160404-Pat-Joyce-Jenny.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Prize winners" border="0" height="383" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL0cHggXvRiUK27t25JWW_suM2t1B9LmopKEf5BnNl10O-_eQfK5qQsUNT7ghJinvCAfpWyBI7O-LBCYNZqPXagGUCK9OUUu4ZcM4jzmevqeAHDgvdrfHhjKC0xxkRj-wecfiYn-Q8C_Qw/s400/160404-Pat-Joyce-Jenny.jpg" title="Prize winners" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Speeches and Evaluations means Prizes!<br />
Pat, Joyce & Jenny</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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.<br />
<br />
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.”<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
Jenny, Mark and Jason evaluated the speeches, highlighting what was done well and offering a few recommendations.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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. <br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
<b>Dates to note – and book:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Saturday 23rd April - Division K International Speech & Evaluation Contest and Workshops – BUT IT’S SOLD OUT – Keep your eyes peeled for next year.</li>
<li><b>Saturday & Sunday, 7th & 8th May</b> - Spring 2016 <b>Londinium Conference</b> - <u>Book by 30th April</u> - <a href="http://d91toastmasters.org.uk/conference/">http://d91toastmasters.org.uk/conference/</a> </li>
</ul>
<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-65084134690327550982016-02-24T07:57:00.001+00:002016-02-24T07:57:50.342+00:00It's a Leap Year!<div class="MsoNormal">
‘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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXREUmKxhY1ihBVqBxGj4Mu4YYxZyejqAlDc4KapBygOin9zD_imkxkI_6Ynhws-fWHhR2oGXV8lQlnpI5lg3eXFl6gXi6hujxXlMTovcti86lTiVv7Lv3Td66ktTAlZEuJu60nXOC5ve3/s1600/Pat+Icebreaker+2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Pat Icebreaker" border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXREUmKxhY1ihBVqBxGj4Mu4YYxZyejqAlDc4KapBygOin9zD_imkxkI_6Ynhws-fWHhR2oGXV8lQlnpI5lg3eXFl6gXi6hujxXlMTovcti86lTiVv7Lv3Td66ktTAlZEuJu60nXOC5ve3/s200/Pat+Icebreaker+2.jpg" title="Pat Icebreaker" width="148" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
It was John’s birthday, so we ended the evening with a
chorus of Happy Birthday!!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Next meeting - the International Competition - 2 March. Get in touch if you want to speak or be a judge.</div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-6791846732531985552016-01-29T17:32:00.000+00:002016-01-29T17:32:48.465+00:00It was cold outside - and a bit nippy inside until we warmed it up<div class="MsoNormal">
On 20<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our theme for the evening was ‘Winter’ and our word for the
day was ‘Lacking’ – due to the lack of heat.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John’s task was to ‘Persuade with Power’ his 9<sup>th</sup>
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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!).<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-72374979610402292082016-01-18T23:15:00.000+00:002016-01-18T23:15:43.706+00:00Commit, Communicate and Connect<div class="MsoNormal">
On 6<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLCenSo37GCzDALE_lxt_HLu6oebjMvfNafLITKyev4vt7cXJwEb7Xg3L0Bbnkd-Xn4-erPgvN1ebEef5dYqFjeE7JB2Mk-XjJjKAOHz3TbWJXvDviKBlMxw94ItCKP0LZMjbZ4kc5n43j/s1600/160106-Mark-icebreaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="183" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLCenSo37GCzDALE_lxt_HLu6oebjMvfNafLITKyev4vt7cXJwEb7Xg3L0Bbnkd-Xn4-erPgvN1ebEef5dYqFjeE7JB2Mk-XjJjKAOHz3TbWJXvDviKBlMxw94ItCKP0LZMjbZ4kc5n43j/s200/160106-Mark-icebreaker.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mark completed his Icebreaker Speech</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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’.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-71071481521043758162015-12-15T21:47:00.000+00:002015-12-15T21:47:45.302+00:00Resilience <div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our first speaker was David giving his 4<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Our second speaker was John ‘Getting comfortable with visual
aids’, the 8<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The meeting closed on time with a reminder that on the 16<sup>th</sup>
our meeting will have a different format as we get festive for our last meeting
before Christmas.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-76571704294737843152015-11-30T16:54:00.000+00:002015-11-30T16:54:37.861+00:00All things Paris<div class="MsoNormal">
With respect for those who had suffered in the tragedies in
Paris the previous Friday, our theme for November 18<sup>th</sup> was ‘All
things Paris’. Lucinda, our Toastmaster for the evening, encouraged us to think
about what we love about Paris.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX_FjyfePVRgm0xTt8pZZwUoST91ClnBCxFZxqFla6BwKvQplogntQwXhCJ0fOOOMDV5FEWhdFtO3jjveuw_bifpVFR6-vf_DKOHlplyJnIIXXybjk1OrMhEKxgbsuQat8Qz1jGnMlMDrq/s1600/151118-Joanne-icebreaker.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX_FjyfePVRgm0xTt8pZZwUoST91ClnBCxFZxqFla6BwKvQplogntQwXhCJ0fOOOMDV5FEWhdFtO3jjveuw_bifpVFR6-vf_DKOHlplyJnIIXXybjk1OrMhEKxgbsuQat8Qz1jGnMlMDrq/s200/151118-Joanne-icebreaker.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Joanne was presented with her Ice Breaker sash</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ade was our general evaluator, appreciating how welcoming
Lewisham Speakers is to guests and made some useful recommendations.<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-90517523991770166712015-11-17T01:18:00.000+00:002015-11-17T01:18:14.257+00:00Living in the MomentOur 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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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!)<br />
<br />
Verna and David supported the meeting as Timekeeper and Grammarian. David gave us ‘odious’ to include in our speeches wherever we could.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
During the break we enjoyed some yummy cake, thanks to Paul, to celebrate our 7th birthday.<br />
<div>
<br /></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-2218962895925960322015-10-30T20:53:00.001+00:002015-10-30T20:53:43.379+00:00Toastmasters International is 90!<div class="MsoNormal">
Lots of guests joined us again for our Wednesday meeting on
the 21<sup>st</sup> 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!</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Robert was our first speaker and did a wonderful job with
his 4<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Paul stepped in at the last minute due to a postponed speech
and told us of ‘My Journey Since Toastmasters’.
It was his 5<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-3025263509093433502015-10-20T14:06:00.000+01:002015-10-20T14:06:32.902+01:00Freedom! - Lewisham Speakers meeting on 7th October 2015<div class="MsoNormal">
The meeting started right on time with an introduction from
Paul, our Sergeant at Arms.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
And then there were the three speeches ...<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
John took us to Bermuda for his 7<sup>th</sup> 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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
“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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!’<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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. <o:p></o:p></div>
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<br /></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a align="right" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZBixHmmNLROmbh87ylae2EULKXb5Jyw2UjdYAtx_zUO3hCbNQzbxBbnrrzqdBZGIRTVG7oRi85G3scrnFK9NjcUiQBA_aJ-Bk4X8M2cA-hFdYclmmMKdcqGNpwbMlV9CK6Q7ys23OL-X/s1600/2015-10-07+21.26.43.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCZBixHmmNLROmbh87ylae2EULKXb5Jyw2UjdYAtx_zUO3hCbNQzbxBbnrrzqdBZGIRTVG7oRi85G3scrnFK9NjcUiQBA_aJ-Bk4X8M2cA-hFdYclmmMKdcqGNpwbMlV9CK6Q7ys23OL-X/s320/2015-10-07+21.26.43.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The award for best speaker of the evening went to Verna for
taking us to Jamaica.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
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.<br />
<br />
Our next meeting is on Wednesday, 21st October where we'll be celebrating 90 years of Toastmasters.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-51370165007477117402015-09-24T05:40:00.001+01:002015-09-24T05:40:48.762+01:00On Becoming a Stand-up Comedienne at 77 Years Youngs<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Gmzh_qqV5ro" width="480"></iframe><br />
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.Julie Kertesz - me - moi - jkhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09196066571782981915noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-76274695499074449752015-09-12T13:54:00.000+01:002015-09-12T14:08:55.798+01:00September always feels like a fresh start so Newness was our ThemeThis was a meeting that started off slowly and gained momentum as it went on. It was dynamically led by Lucinda.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
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.<br />
<br />
A special mention should go to the audience, which included a lot of very welcome guests. The room was brimming with enthusiasm and encouragement.<br />
<br />
Thanks go to Max for taking the notes.<br />
Meeting date, 2nd September 2015.<br />
<br />
Our next meeting of Lewisham Speakers is on Wednesday, 16th September and is the Humorous Speaking competition. Come along - it'll be a laugh!Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-33253455293329574822015-08-06T00:21:00.004+01:002015-08-06T00:40:39.682+01:00Lewisham displays an air of authority<div class="MsoNormal">
Wednesday 5<sup>th</sup> 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. <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!<o:p></o:p></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7weI9FFD4GB3bD_pO5z0HrE7abJJT6GpMig5itIMxZiCUW8McV5XMSWNvl6DQ2_SmKTDgf2Z3IGXl5QaXPbjBEtS0GtSaiShUVZznJfS5lJaA4ck2pVgll3HXfrTz7xLGjkBbQNrv2ulR/s1600/20150805_215527_resized+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7weI9FFD4GB3bD_pO5z0HrE7abJJT6GpMig5itIMxZiCUW8McV5XMSWNvl6DQ2_SmKTDgf2Z3IGXl5QaXPbjBEtS0GtSaiShUVZznJfS5lJaA4ck2pVgll3HXfrTz7xLGjkBbQNrv2ulR/s320/20150805_215527_resized+%25281%2529.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Habibu Mugerwa collecting his cc award <br />
from Flavia Gordon</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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 <span style="font-family: Wingdings;">J</span><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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!<o:p></o:p></div>
Lucinda Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02462196001497988096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-28551283796329170922015-07-28T20:28:00.000+01:002015-07-31T19:39:11.388+01:00Pressure in Lewisham<div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 12.8000001907349px;">At 7.30pm Paul, our Sergeant at Arms, asserted himself and
smoothly launched the meeting.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Flavia, our President, welcomed our guests putting them at
ease and encouraging us all complete our CC manuals <o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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?<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Verna ensured we kept to time and she encouraged, as the
Grammarian, to be “Insightful” and she was.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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.<br />
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Richard Green - Best speaker award</td></tr>
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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.<o:p></o:p><br />
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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.”<br />
<o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our visitor Orlando wins best table topic speech</td></tr>
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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.<o:p></o:p><br />
<br /></div>
</div>
Lucinda Grayhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02462196001497988096noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-9650046130996880132015-07-08T10:24:00.000+01:002015-07-08T10:24:58.552+01:00A 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.<br />
<br />
Paul had set-up the room really well and encouraged us to enjoy the break or “break out session.”<br />
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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!).<br />
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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.<br />
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Anne as Timekeeper explained how knowing that she is being timed reduces the risk of waffling.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Then we had three well prepared speeches:<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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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.<br />
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After the break out session, when we were encouraged to request roles for the next few meeting and a <a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3F9GSF">complete a survey</a> by Lucinda (<a href="https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3F9GSF">https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/V3F9GSF</a>) we had the Topics session.<br />
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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?<br />
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Julie
as General Evaluator thanked the audience for the vigorous applause that is
such a powerful motivator for all the speakers<o:p></o:p></div>
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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.<br />
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Meeting date: 1 July 2015Sharon Matheson - VPPR Lewisham Speakershttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12192445280235074008noreply@blogger.com1Lewisham Methodist Church, Albion Way, Lewisham, London SE13 6BT, UK51.460519 -0.008706599999982245251.4592825 -0.011228099999982245 51.461755499999995 -0.0061850999999822458tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-65874318696127633842015-04-07T22:23:00.003+01:002015-04-07T22:23:34.021+01:00Fooling Around and creating Mischief!<div class="p1">
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. </div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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...</div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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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! </div>
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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!</div>
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The only people that had a chance the prepare for their roles were Paul and Philip who were making prepared speeches for the evening. </div>
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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. </div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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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!</div>
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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. </div>
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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!!</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-60148063906843912182015-02-22T20:23:00.000+00:002015-02-22T20:23:17.719+00:00<div class="p1">
Last week may have been half term, but not at Lewisham Speakers Club.</div>
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Richard opened the meeting with his usual energy.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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David our warm up leader, asked how we liked to unwind and Red Wine and TV are both popular.</div>
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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.</div>
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We then had three speeches all based on personal stories which always give a speech power,</div>
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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!</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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<sup>th</sup> party leaving much to the imagination, proving that less can be more.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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Philip </div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-62733716197876170062015-02-09T21:38:00.003+00:002015-02-09T21:58:26.579+00:00The Theme Was Teamwork!<div class="p1">
Last week's meeting was as fun as ever.</div>
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Richard was our Toastmaster for the evening and did a great job at leading the meeting and keeping us to time.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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'.</div>
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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.</div>
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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!</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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:)</div>
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Judith</div>
Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-83802897274174077412014-11-30T21:26:00.001+00:002014-11-30T21:29:32.972+00:00Lewisham Toastmaster Presidents – Present & Past<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-26735159013429706592014-11-24T20:52:00.000+00:002014-11-24T20:52:02.067+00:00Our 6th Birthday Celebrations!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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What a night we had with our 6th birthday celebrations of the Lewisham Toastmasters club!</div>
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Richard Green gave a very warm welcome introducing our birthday as the club was born on the 19th November 2008.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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Our three speeches of the evening were all brilliant icebreakers by our new members, Robert, Suresh and Judith.</div>
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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 <span class="s1"><b>Mosi-oa-Tunya.<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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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.<br />
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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!<br />
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Last but not least was our tantalising tabletopics which gave our guests the chance to speak sharing some brilliant ideas and stories.<br />
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Well done to everyone for a brilliant night and lots of fun as always!</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-46019073257611629082014-11-14T14:58:00.003+00:002014-11-14T14:58:27.691+00:00A SHIMMERING NIGHT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Wednesday night might have been Fireworks Night but our meeting was certainly dazzling or should that be shimmering?</div>
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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 .</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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.</div>
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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!</div>
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Lukas gave everyone a encouraging evaluation.</div>
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Then Jason announce our winners, Richard was a double winner as best evaluator and table topics speaker and David was the best speaker.</div>
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We look forward to seeing all Lewisham Speakers on 19 November for our Anniversary Meeting.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-89595527030147878752014-10-14T21:31:00.004+01:002014-10-14T21:31:53.251+01:00From the Write Angle<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span class="s1"><a href="http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/FromTheWriteAngle/~3/qAi3Ny3yVY0/5-tips-for-fleshing-it-out.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email">5 Tips for Fleshing it Out</a></span></div>
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Posted: 12 Oct 2014 10:00 PM PDT</div>
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<i>by Jemi Fraser</i></div>
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Last month, my post talked about <a href="http://www.fromthewriteangle.com/2014/09/5-tips-to-trim-your-writing.html"><span class="s2">5 Tips to Trim Your Writing</span></a>. This month, I'm tackling the opposite. With my current rewrite, I <a href="http://www.fromthewriteangle.com/2014/07/plotting-without-explosions.html"><span class="s2">attempted to plot</span></a> (kaboom!) and ended up with a shorter story than I expected (15k shorter).</div>
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So, now I'm focusing on how to flesh out a story without padding it. Some of the things I've discovered:</div>
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<b><i>Fleshing it Out Tip #1 -- Emotions</i></b></div>
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This one I'm having a blast with. I write contemporary romance, so it's all about the emotion, but I think that's true for most stories. It's the emotions that pull me in and make me gobble up those pages, no matter what the genre is.</div>
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Delving into the character's emotions helps the reader connect and makes the writing much more interesting. For me, plot is obviously important, but it's how the characters respond to the plot that intrigues me. So, show that!</div>
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<b><i>Fleshing it Out Tip #2 -- Show, Don't Tell</i></b></div>
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Another fun one, and very connected to #1. Telling removes the emotion. Wasn't it Mark Twain who said, "Don't tell me the old lady screamed, bring her on stage and let her scream"? Looking for those telling words/sentences in the draft helps me find places I can strengthen my story and make it longer/more compelling at the same time.</div>
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<b><i>Fleshing it Out Tip #3 -- Dialogue</i></b></div>
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Connected to #2! I love dialogue and tend to include a lot of it in my writing naturally, but there are still places I find where I can have my characters really showing...by telling. Dialogue infuses the story with life and lets the readers hear your characters talking. It also gives the reader a visual--and mental--break from narration, thus increasing the pace of your story.</div>
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<b><i>Fleshing it Out Tip #4 -- Description</i></b></div>
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Blech. I'm not an especially visual person or writer. My descriptions tend to be focused around the emotions of the characters. And I'm not a fan of reading paragraphs of description either, so I tread very, very carefully when I do this.</div>
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For people, I sprinkle in the description. A mention of hair colour by another character here, a comment about height there. Nothing obvious, certainly no looking in the mirror and offering up a self-evaluation. For example, rather than saying my character is short, I'll have her drag a chair over to reach something off a high shelf.</div>
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For places, I don't mind stringing a sentence or two together to anchor the reader in the setting, especially when it's a new place. I try to focus on what the character would notice, and only on what is relevant to the story.</div>
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I'd rather leave most description up to my readers, but I'm learning I need to include those anchors and let the readers fill in the rest.</div>
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<b><i>Fleshing it Out Tip #5 -- Character Arcs</i></b></div>
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This one is more complex than the first four. Here, I'm looking for the pace of how my characters are growing. I want them to slowly learn to change, have strategically placed AHA! moments, and obstacles tossed in their paths to have them second guessing their realizations. This is another instance where I find Scrivener invaluable. I can colour code, or use the side bar, or make another file to put side by side in order to track the arcs. Then I can spot where the arc needs some help, tweak a scene here, add a scene there, throw in another obstacle, or three.</div>
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<b>There are many more ways to flesh out a story (adding in a subplot and looking for plot holes to fill in come to mind), but these are the 5 I'm working with. Any tips to add? Do you like fleshing it out or do you prefer to trim?</b></div>
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<i>Jemi Fraser is an aspiring author of contemporary romance. She </i><a href="http://jemifraser.blogspot.com/"><span class="s3"><i>blogs</i></span></a><i> and </i><a href="https://twitter.com/#!/jemifraser"><span class="s3"><i>tweets</i></span></a><i> while searching for those HEAs.</i></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-43069727727983059482014-10-14T20:59:00.001+01:002014-10-14T20:59:21.636+01:00Humour, Quality Speeches & Fierce Competition! <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Humour, Quality Speeches & Fierce Competition! <br />
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If you'd like see a toxic mix of these three - please come along to the Toastmasters Division K Humorous and Table Topics Contest at a terrific venue, details as below- <br />
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Contest Venue: <br />
Barclays<br />
1 Churchill Place<br />
Canary Wharf<br />
London E14 58P <br />
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Date: Tues 21st Oct <br />
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Functionaries and contestants to arrive by 6.30pm for the briefings, with a view to start the contest by 7:15pm.<br />
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Place guaranteed if you register by 15th Oct.<br />
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Tabletopics Contest (District 91)</div>
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<a href="https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/toastmasters-div-k-contest-district-91-tickets-13564129677?ref=enivtefor001&invite=NjkwNDU2MS9qZW5ueUBqZW5ueXdoaXRlLmNvbS8w&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&utm_term=attend&ref=enivtefor001">https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/toastmasters-div-k-contest-district-91-tickets-13564129677?ref=enivtefor001&invite=NjkwNDU2MS9qZW5ueUBqZW5ueXdoaXRlLmNvbS8w&utm_source=eb_email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=inviteformalv2&utm_term=attend&ref=enivtefor001</a></div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9143569818592477648.post-57042915644613426902014-10-07T21:37:00.004+01:002014-10-07T21:37:49.658+01:00 Happy 90th Birthday Toastmasters International!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The first official Toastmasters meeting was held in October 1924 in Santa Ana, California. Why not celebrate the organization's milestone with a themed club meeting devoted to Toastmasters' history? Check out the <span class="s1">90th Anniversary </span><a href="http://www.toastmasters.org/90thanniversary">http://www.toastmasters.org/90thanniversary</a> webpage for fun resources to use throughout the anniversary year.</div>
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<b>Planning a Speech Contest?</b></div>
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Ensure your contest is a success and contestants are eligible to compete by using the most up-to-date documents. Download the latest <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001KMC3nyS8r0bkUbw3CSdRlWENpfZe5NDAsL8RXFPdyAs0_Y-JOAYH5bAdpqjBS1ymgkppnxBTniBqsD0gor4sWsQv7u79A7JFpu3-nJaQMIvmAIeq6jN19CdcYsOEvsnhymo2cTnv3VYVZo3aCfSJt7pPbq6cqm3zIr5YbAznU7ZvmGgM0lHrEM3J-S3RmAKlz8_Ndo8oRkwmqlOGsRLpuTEllfrE8fWBnuyYfazt1frraVFsyvKNX-y4Tv2qD3Dm5Xf7-Q2Ti2c=&c=8IsivlQeywYP2eVvaZm3MxxWyM_ww513DmqEMdMB7dcYVBMb7cgmfg==&ch=_PywaF9LTa5zCHNLMprt506b3a2PukBWQIZLEhxZW7Jh7bb6d7m4_g=="><span class="s1">speech contest materials</span></a> for free, and consider purchasing and presenting <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001KMC3nyS8r0bkUbw3CSdRlWENpfZe5NDAsL8RXFPdyAs0_Y-JOAYH5QM5zsxgOCC7doxqD4aeRn6hLB7uaLUGy76JW6PVb4CRhYL8E5GRW3AYma-dmn-vDjZOz0KUtPO6MudBmEEB4mc1hfOOLU-2cmvyfQ36xBjyv_aDMZzFcjZohVNaLUXq29v1PkLewfcY&c=8IsivlQeywYP2eVvaZm3MxxWyM_ww513DmqEMdMB7dcYVBMb7cgmfg==&ch=_PywaF9LTa5zCHNLMprt506b3a2PukBWQIZLEhxZW7Jh7bb6d7m4_g=="><span class="s1">awards</span></a> to celebrate contest winners' accomplishments.</div>
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<b><i>Speech Contest Rulebook</i> Update</b></div>
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New versions of the <i>Speech Contest Rulebook</i> will now coincide with the Toastmasters program year. The next version goes into effect July 1, 2015, and the 2014 version is valid until then. The rulebook will be included in the May club officer mailing; clubs will not receive one in October, as was done previously.</div>
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<b>Coming Soon: The New Toastmasters.org</b></div>
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Stay tuned for announcements on the debut of our new, sleek website. The redesign will provide easier navigation, interactive multimedia, a resource library and a new online store.</div>
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<a href="http://www.toastmasters.org/90thanniversary">http://www.toastmasters.org/90thanniversary</a></div>
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<b>New Accredited Speaker</b></div>
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Congratulations <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001KMC3nyS8r0bkUbw3CSdRlWENpfZe5NDAsL8RXFPdyAs0_Y-JOAYH5WG7_6gpkpDbMqhMIkOZX9iV4GKokFwdh_76Yx5uTspoB1lbj1oh2ySTOybfM2d9Q1StO6ED9RcqTA_2D0HFKpeULbp8RmWplABCzNzw7RPGZwKiDnBH6IgkiGRXMfIxIEjTZ6K2P9wtuzpZD_g0cE8pH_73Df53jgP_mKugSsTO1e84LyE1eMg=&c=8IsivlQeywYP2eVvaZm3MxxWyM_ww513DmqEMdMB7dcYVBMb7cgmfg==&ch=_PywaF9LTa5zCHNLMprt506b3a2PukBWQIZLEhxZW7Jh7bb6d7m4_g=="><span class="s1">Barbara Khozam</span></a> of Escondido, California, for achieving the <a href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?f=001KMC3nyS8r0bkUbw3CSdRlWENpfZe5NDAsL8RXFPdyAs0_Y-JOAYH5WG7_6gpkpDbeBe-QniKZIveOuuuGWImmWZ1q6bN8wQV7owxLCn5NVciw_1tG57QYVyLOdjViw0N1a9WLE4K3-QRxV8a-V5-2gbYnKpY5Smdr8Hj2Mwc0I0cqZn1NOtutJ1kXpCeWqhIX0-jeOB-1znuapU6240-wA==&c=8IsivlQeywYP2eVvaZm3MxxWyM_ww513DmqEMdMB7dcYVBMb7cgmfg==&ch=_PywaF9LTa5zCHNLMprt506b3a2PukBWQIZLEhxZW7Jh7bb6d7m4_g=="><span class="s1">Accredited Speaker</span></a> designation at the International Convention in August. Accredited Speaker is an elite designation signifying mastery of professional speaking techniques. Applications for the 2015 program will be accepted between January 1 and February 1.</div>
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<b>Read the <i>Toastmaster</i> Magazine on Your Tablet</b></div>
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Get instant access to the magazine on your iPad, Android or Kindle Fire tablet today to enjoy interactive extras such as videos and photos. Download the free app from the Apple, Google Play or Amazon app stores.</div>
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Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0