The London Speaker

Excalibur returns to Speakers' Corner

From Ken Essien, VP Education

Excalibur Speakers, London's advanced Toastmasters club, is once again taking the trip to one of the world's most famous public speaking locations - Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park.

On Saturday, 16 August 2014, we'll be hosting a morning of prepared speeches, table topics and evaluations. We'll meet from 11am for an 11:15am start at the north-east corner (Marble Arch end) of Hyde Park, and all are welcome to attend - so bring along your friends, family and of course your fellow Toastmasters!

Speech slots and functionary roles are available on request from VP Education Ken Essien Click here to email Ken, so get in touch if you'd like to take part. Slots will be prioritised for Excalibur Speakers members, but with six speech slots available along with copious table topics, there should be plenty of opportunity for everyone who wants to participate.

We'll be very easy to find on the day - just keep an eye out for our Toastmasters banner - and we'll be sticking around afterwards too, so bring some picnic supplies. In the meantime, feel free to indicate your attendance on our Meetup page and you'll get a handy reminder nearer the time!

Club Officer Training and networking 13 August

From Jill Segal, Division B Governor

Division B is hosting a Club Officer Training (and networking event) on 13 August 2014.  The training will begin promptly at 6:45 PM and finish equally promptly by 8:45 PM - note that the start time has changed from previous notices.  Please arrive early (from 6:30 PM).  Venue: Freemason’s Hall, 60 Great Queen Street, London WC2B 5AZ, (2 min from Holborn tube station)

Division B Clubs

Club officers of Division B clubs who haven’t registered yet, should send an email to Marc Lottig Click here to email.  If you have attended Club Officer Training already or are planning to attend a session hosted by another Division in District 91, please email inform your Area Governor by email.

Non-Division B Clubs

If you are an officer of a Toastmasters Club and have not been able to attend the training for clubs in your Area or Division, feel free to join us.  You can register by email with Marc Click here to email and please state your club association.

Reminder

For a club to obtain recognition under the Distinguished Club Programme, at least four club officers from each club must attend a club officer training before the end of August.  The four participants must be taken from the seven positions registered with Toastmaster International: President, VPE, VPM, VPPR, Secretary, Sergeant-at-Arms and Treasurer.  Other committee members, e.g. Immediate Past Presidents or VP Mentoring, are also most welcome.

Northern Lights Speakers are having a picnic and we'd like you all to join us.

From Simon Child, Northern Lights Speakers

Fellow Toastmasters, guests, families and friends, on Sunday 10 August 2014 we'll be donning picnic baskets and heading down to Golders Hill Park for an afternoon in the sun (we hope) and an opportunity for us all to enjoy ourselves and get to know each other a bit better.  There may even be a table topic or two, although we hope to keep things as informal and fun as possible for everyone.

Where is it?

Golders Hill Park.  The easiest way to find us will be to enter the park from West Heath Avenue near the tennis courts (nearest tube Golders Green) then walk south across the stream until you reach a large concrete cube-shaped sculpture.  See attached photos for more info.

  

When is it?

We'll be there from 1pm until around 6pm - turn up any time. 

Do I need to be a Toastmasters member to come along?

Not at all - all are welcome, whether first-time guests or friends and family of members.  Pets are also welcome, although park rules require dogs to be kept on leads. 

Do I need to bring anything?

Please bring your own picnic food and drink.

Ofgem Speakers Club gets off to a great start

From Jill Segal, Division B Governor

Fired by the vision, drive and enthusiasm of Grosvenor Square Speakers’ member Szilvia Doczi, a very successful demonstration meeting for a pre-charter corporate club – Ofgem Speakers Club - took place at its offices on Tuesday 29 July 2014.

The room was packed with employees of the regulator along with some interactive participants on video from the Glasgow. Szilvia has already formed a committee under her guidance as President with Laurynas Jurkonis as VPE, Laura Thompson as VPM and Julia Collings as VPPR. They immediately signed up a good number of members from the enthusiastic audience of around 50 people.  

Julia Kettlewell, President of Grosvenor Square Speakers and the sponsoring club, gave a tantalising speech which involved a personal wine tasting and she managed to convince us with her descriptive and alluring use of English that we were savouring the wine as well.  Among the table topic speakers were two of our most brilliant exponents of the craft: Paul Carroll and Freddie Daniells. Their demonstration of the ‘perfect’ table topic was trumped by a novice from the floor who answered one of Anne Fatusin’s original topics with emotion and passion.

Dorothea Stuart and Freddie Daniells gave model evaluations while Jill Segal and Lyn Roseaman were Toastmaster and Grammarian respectively. Watch out for Ofgem Speakers’ Club! From time to time they will be looking for speakers from other clubs who have completed 5 or more speeches from the CC manual so please let Szilvia know if you are looking for a slot. On Tuesday’s form they will be chartered in record time and we wish them lots of fun and progress in their speaking journey.

From left to right: Szilvia Doczi, Laurynas Jurkonis, Paul Carroll, Freddie Daniells, Julia Kettlewell, Dorothea Stuart, Laura Thompson, Anne Fatusin, Jill Segal, Lyn Roseaman and Julia Collings.

Greater London Toastmasters Educational Awards July 2014

From Dorothea Stuart, DTM

Congratulations to everyone who achieved an educational awards in the first month of the new Toastmasters year 2014-15.

Paul Andreas. Croydon Communicators. Area 35. Division K

Mathew Clark. London Trustmasters. Area 59. Division K

Shola Salako. WiBF Speakers - City. Area 56. Division L

Niyanta Shah. MLP London Bridge Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Matthew Shaw. MLP London Bridge Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Robert Wyatt. Purley Speakers. Area 35. Division K

 Advanced Communicator Bronze

Matthew Shaw. MLP London Bridge Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Competent Leader

Florian Bay. St Paul's Speakers. Area 33. Division L

Angie Ma. Berkeley Square Speakers. Area 52. Division B

Niyanta Shah. MLP London Bridge Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Advanced Leader Bronze

Francesca Coronin. MLP London Bridge Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Sean Glasgow. Berkeley Square Speakers. Area 52. Division B

Peter Goodwin. Excalibur Speakers. Area 45. Division B

Richard Ryan. Riverside Communicators. Area 29. Division B

Educational Awards	Last Year 2013/14	July 2014	Year to date
Competent Communicator	131	6	6
Adv Comm Bronze	31	1	1
Adv Comm Silver	11
Adv Comm Gold	4
Competent Leader	69	3	3
Adv Leader Bronze	17	4	4
Adv Leader Silver	4
Leadership Excellence	2
Distinguished Toastmaster(DTM)	4
Total	273	14	14