May the 4th be with you

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Spring Clean

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

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

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

Speeches and Evaluations means  Prizes!
Pat, Joyce & Jenny

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Dates to note – and book:

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

It's a Leap Year!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Resilience

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Toastmasters International is 90!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Our new Toastmaster Year, begins 1st July

The 1st of July our club will have a new president, Julie, we change it every July, so all of us can learn Leadership skills.

Our 'new year' will begin with a special two hour Workshop, at 6th July, a joint event with the Meridian Speakers club from Greenwich.

It will be held at the Spanish Gallien Pub, 48 Greenwich Curch St, vis-a-vis Cuty Shark.

Freddie Daniells hold already this popular Workshop on Evaluation (how to give a Great Feedback) 15 times and the prove of its usefulness is on this photo.

Julie was present as "Target speaker" of one of his last's workhops at Citicriers Toastmasters and promplty won, back in our Club the Best Evaluation Award of the evening.

As all the members of the Area Clubs were invited to our 6th July workshop, the places fill in fast. Add a comment here, with your name and email, or write to Julie to reserve a place. Be with us!

Learn how to give a great feedback that helps the speaker grow while making him or her feel good, and also teaches all the group attending new skills. Then, come and practice.

Our second Manual all members get is Competent Leadership. As we take on different roles in the meetings, all of us get evaluated, and plus, with each task, we can have a written evaluation in this manual and with time get more and more competent in different leadership roles and tasks.