The London Speaker

Fellow Polish speaking Toastmasters! Special event!!

From Magda Czarsnecka, President of Polish Your Polish (London)

Club Polish Your Polish is organising a Speech and Evaluation contest in Polish on 28 July 2015.

The winner of our Club contest will represent us at the 1^st Polish Toastmaster Conference in Lublin, Poland in August. The Conference takes place from 13-16 August, and apart from the Contest is packed with interesting workshops and networking opportunities.

The only formal requirement to take part in the Club content is to be fluent in Polish and be an active Toastmaster member on the day of the contest. (There is no restriction to have achieved 6 CC speeches).

Here are the links to the main event in Poland:

http://efekt.tm.pl/

https://www.facebook.com/events/740505696035674/

Please do get in touch if you are interested: Magda president@polishyourpolish.org.uk

Are you going to the Toasmasters International Convention in Las Vegas?

On 11 July many of you saw our District International Speech Champion Jeremy Robinson practicing his speech for Las Vegas, along aside the 3 champions from the other districts in Europe.  The contests are part of the big event that is the annual Toastmasters International Convention. 

 

You'll find the details of the workshops and much more on the international website:

http://www.toastmasters.org/Events/2015-International-Convention/Session-Information

From Area Governor to Area Director - Handover Ceremony at Riverside Communicators

On a barmy summer evening in Twickenham, Riverside Communicators warmly welcomed Area Governor Chucks Onwere to conduct the official handover from Area Governor to Area Director with Jenny Betts as the proud recipient. As the club ushered in a new President and committee, the club also ushered in Jenny to represent them as the new Area 29 Director and a worthy successor to Chucks.

On one of the hottest days of the year it was fitting that the handover was conducted on the terrace with a backdrop of a sea of green, beautiful scenery of blossomed trees, penetrated by the piercing sunlight that shed light on a new beginning in the clubs history.

Chucks gave a glowing appraisal of Riverside Communicators, its outgoing President Heidi Ashley-Hacker and congratulated Andrew Klimaytys DTM on his election as President for 2015/16.

Chucks went on to say how the club had contributed richly to helping him achieve President's Distinguished Area and was grateful for the members input. He intimated that Jenny had all the qualities and inter-personal skills to excel in her role and urged the club to support her in all her endeavours. 

Area 29 comprises: London Athenians, Riverside Communicators, Trojans Speakers, West London Speakers and The Toastrack.

Greater London Toastmasters Educational Awards June 2015

From Dorothea Stuart DTM

Congratulations to everyone who achieved a communication or leadership award in June 2015. More awards achieved by members across London for the year ended 30th June than ever before!

Competent Communicator

Stephen Ackroyd. 1st London Toastmasters. Area 58. Division K

Peter Aleksin. London Corinthians. Area 6. Division B

Nkem Anagor. Grosvenor Square Speakers. Area 52. Division B

Cheryl Boshi. Connected Speakers London. Area 33. Division L

David Collins. Watford Speakers. Area 61. Division L

Isabel de La Cour. Phoenix Speakers. Area 6. Division B

Lucas Di Carlo. Broadgate Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Dudley Flynn. Broadgate Speakers. Area 58. Division K

Jim Fone. Angel Speakers. Area 47. Division L

Rachel Ie. West London Speakers. Area 29. Division B

Ellen Kao. London Corinthians. Area 6. Division B

Area 33 Summer Club Officer Training & Workshops

From Florian Bay, Area 33 Director

Calling all Toastmasters, whether club officers or not to join Area 33 two Club Officer Training sessions on Wednesday 15 July 15 and Wednesday 19 August 2015. The first half of the sessions will consists of interactive presentations on topics ranging from the Distinguished Club Program to Officers roles to how to use easySpeak more effectively.

During the second half attendees can choose to attend a choice of workshops on ‘Building a Healthy Team’ led by David Marks or ‘The Characteristics of Effective Leaders’ facilitated by Sergey Karassov.

Non-officers are welcome to attend the sessions to gain a wider appreciation of the Toastmasters experience beyond the club level and participate in the two workshops!

The 15 July 15 session will take place in St Bodolph without Aldgate Church from 18h30 to 21h00. CASS Business School (TBC) will host the 19 August session also from 18h30 to 21h00.

Russian English Toastmasters Picnic in the Park

From David Marks

Russian English Toastmasters Picnic in the Park 14:00 – 18:00 on Saturday 18 July

Are you a Russian speaker or do you know anyone who is learning Russian at any level?

A good way to shake off the cobwebs and get to meet some nice people is to join in the Picnic in the Park organised by Russian English Toastmasters.

Get to Kensington Gardens in good time for a 2pm start.

Bring rugs, drinks and snacks to share. Brings toys and ball games for the kids.

For anyone who hasn’t been to a Toastmasters meeting – you’re in for a treat. Everybody who attends will have the opportunity to make a short speech, and will get feedback from an Evaluator.

There will be plenty of time to chat to old friends and make new ones.

For those with staying power (and in the unlikely case of bad weather) we have a nearby pub in mind.

For more information, email RussEnglSpeak@gmail.com, check out Facebook (http://on.fb.me/1HHcLWT ) or Meetup (http://bit.ly/1LS2YQD).

 

Area 58 End of Year Report

From Annushia Goede Asst Area Governor 2014-15

Area 58 End of Year Report

Area 58 held our end of year picnic at Speakers Corner on the 26 June 2015.

It was a glorious evening with the classic sounds of The Who playing live in the background and a gathering of Toastmasters from Area 58 and beyond.

Clubs in attendance hailed from:

1^st London Toastmasters, City of London Speakers, MLP London Bridge Speakers, PMI UK Toastmasters, Woodford Green Speakers, Broadgate Speakers, Earybird Speakers, Purley Speakers

I would like to take this moment to also highlight some of the achievement the clubs in Area 58 accomplished this year:

Woodford Green

• Signing up 5 membersin the month of August aloneand continue to sign up at least one member a month.
• Significantly expanding the Club Committee’s membership to 9 strong-willed officers
• Setting up a support system for its members in a form of Buddy Scheme that mentors and develops the rising public speakers.

Sadly, Woodford Green are leaving Area 58 to join a new area that are better fitting of their location.

Thank you all for your attendance at all Area 58 events!

PMI UK Toastmasters

• The biggest club success was having Andrew Blake and William Korsinah speaking in front of 600 people as part of Synergy, the biggest project management conference in the UK.

MLP London Bridge Speakers

• We have a strong mentoring scheme to help new and seasoned members become the best Toastmasters they can be.

• Although we are an open club, we have built strong ties with Ernst & Young in the past few years: our members who are EY employees can use speeches towards their professional development programme; also, we hold regular demo meetings for new joiners, and recently we held a demo for one of the employee networks (EY South Asian Network). This is one of the ways in which we get new members.

Broadgate Speakers

• Collaboration workshop with Broadgate and Ram Maree of 1st London
• Double overall wins at Area 58 Contest
• Double winners at the Division K Contest

1^st London Toastmasters

• We had two speakers at the district competition: one speech contestant (David Sterling) and one evaluation contestant (Avninder Grewal)
• Around 60% of the existing membership renewed with those leaving replaced.
• We wrote out a welcome pack to give extra advice to new members plus educational material for the roles (sergeant at arms, toastmaster, evaluation and grammarian) to supplement the manual. 
• We initiated speech marathons (evening of 6 speakers dedicated to one speech in the CC manual). This served many purposes: to get a cohort of speakers through to CC by providing a time framework for them to follow, to put in place more AC aspirants for the next educational year, to explore a speech theme, to allow the toastmaster to practice panel facilitation skills
• Successfully transitioned to a new venue. We are developing relations with our new hosts, University of Law, to help them with public speaking skills training.

Other Area highlights of the Year:

• Our mission to bring the Area together to create a more collaborative atmosphere was successful.
• We had an Area Christmas Party!!

11July: Speaking Champion Erick Rainey joins the line up with a Master Class

From Alex de Jong

The road to the final is long and arduous. Many aspire to reach the final but only a handful will actually get there. Even fewer will place in the top three and only one will win the coveted title of World Champion of Public Speaking.

On Saturday 11 July 2015 The Toastmasters International Speech Contest comes to London, in a must attend event!  4 Toastmasters European District Champions will practice their semi-finals and finals speeches in London, plus we’ll have a speakers Masterclass on Winning Speech Competitions by Erick Rainey

Erick Rainey is a highly successful speech competitor, having won 23 competitions and lost 7. He has twice made it to The World Championship of Public Speaking once in 2005 (Toronto) and once in 2009 (Mashantucket). He placed 3^rd on both occasions.

You’ll learn:

• How to Cultivate a winning mindset, keep cool under pressure and stay present and focused on stage,
• The do’s and don’ts of practicing your speech
• Where to extract quality feedback
• What the best structure is for your 7½ minute timeline for writing your speeches

Whether you are planning on competing or not you will learn huge amount from this session. The workshop is loaded with invaluable tools and techniques for writing and practicing and delivering your speeches

What will our 4 champions being doing at this event?

For this special event they will:

• deliver their district contest-winning speeches in preparation for the Toastmasters International Speech Contest Semi-Finals at the Toastmasters International Convention in Las Vegas
• deliver the speeches they’ve been practicing, polishing, and perfecting for the World Championship of Public Speaking (which includes the winners of all nine Semi-finals)
• you'll be treated to a 25 minute evaluation masterclass by UK & Ireland Evaluation Champion, Lynne Cantor, and we’ll use these tools and techniques to analyse their championship speeches.

How can you book to attend?

Less than 25 seats are left on sale. Act fast to reserve a ticket at http://roadtovegas.eventzilla.net/ for £13.99.

Where will the event be held?

The venue opens at 1:45pm for networking and starts promptly at 2pm. finishing at 6pm. Venue: St Anne's Church, 55 Dean Street, Soho, London, W1D 6AF. Please also register your interest and contribute to the discussion on our Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/705685536244593/

 

Experience French - Backwards Evening Report

From Giovanna Vasaturo, VP Experience French

The final meeting of the Toatmasters year at Experience French started with a most welcoming and heartfelt “Goodbye” or “Au revoir”.

The added twists of French hip hop slang really stretched everybody's skills, imagination and creativity. The fun did not stop there. Hip hop in office attire... it doesn't really work! That's why Graeme invited us to come in costume. We were obviously happy to oblige.

We saw two of our newest and one existing member in the role of Speech Evaluators, to come out of their shells and amaze us with their incredible performances: body language, vocal variety, use of stage, speech structure, use of props and visuals just to name but a few of their speaking skills. Bravo!

All the speeches and all functionary reports had to incorporate an element of improvisation as an answer to the previous speaker's clue as well as give a clue to the following speaker. We were out of our comfort zones on so many different levels, but still managed to have fun, have a great meeting and learn a lot about ourselves, our fellow members and public speaking. The realisation that Toastmasters offers its members a safe environment to grow and experiment eventually came home last Monday.

If you want to know more about the backwards evening, our star speakers and upcoming meetings, please follow our Facebook group (https://www.facebook.com/experiencefrench)