Harrovian Speakers Club At St Lawrence's Church Hall

Pictures of Plaque and St Lawrence's Church from Wikipedia. On Monday December 5th 2016 Harrovian Speakers moved to the new address at St Lawrence's Church Hall. The meeting was opened by President Jayanthiny who told us how she and Amparo had met to discuss a speech in the church hall and Jayanthiny thought it would be a great venue for Harrovians meetings. No other noisy groups use the halls on Monday evenings, so nobody will be making a noise or wandering in by mistake nor on purpose. The hall is free on Monday, our traditional evening. The hall has a kitchen. Regarding hall size, we have a choice of both a cosy smaller room and a larger room for contests and important occasions - such as this opening meeting.

Amparo was timer. The theme of the meeting was Hope. Grammarian Meena gave us the word of the day Glory. Theme And Topics Toastmaster of the evening was Jesus and the theme for the meeting was hope. I was asked on arrival to be topics master. I wrote out four sayings connected with hope: It is better to travel in hope than to arrive. Thulasi spoke about the joys of yoga. In retrospect I feel these topics were too general and abstract. Speakers would have found it easier if I had focused on stages in life, for example, tell us about a time in your childhood when you were hopeful about trying a new activity such as riding a bicycle, swimming or cooking. I forgot what I had done the previous time I was table topics master. I had told the volunteers that if they could not answer a question, they should ask the audience questions. We had several guests. Prepared Speeches We had four speakers. Seema gave a roast speech on Warren Sheng. Jayanthiny gave an Entertaining speech, impressing me by saying that English is her third language. She started a debating society at university and made herself President. She told us how she had dealt with arriving at another club to give a general evaluator summary evaluation, where two people had been given that position. She had persuaded the other speaker to share the role with her. She wanted us to eat healthy fruit in the interval but was making an exception for this meeting allowing cakes as it was a celebration of meeting in the new venue. Sushil spoke on You Can Do It. Paul gave an icebreaker speech about how he grew up in Northern Ireland, and showed us a picture of the beautiful area, the Mountains of Morne, which inspired stories of Narnia, and were later filmed in the TV series Game of Thrones. He later travelled to New Zealand, where the landscape resembled Ireland, green with many sheep.

Our last speaker was the Rector of St Lawrence's Church. He told us the history of the church, which is a grade one listed building. He disputes the claim that the church at Harrow-on-the-Hill is the most famous church locally. he described how the Duke who built the church was a wealthy man. He had made money from being paymaster of the army, built the church and brought in composer Handel. The rector invited us to come along to the church which offers free guided tours every Sunday from 2 until 4 in winter, until 5 in summer. He asked if we had any questions. Jesus asked him what he could say about hope. He told us that if you give money or food, you are only offering a temporary solution to people's problems. However, if you teach them to fish or grow crops or earn a living you give them hope for the future. He said that a group called the White Helmets were active in far off countries carrying out this mission. He was a very good speaker. He spoke fluently, without notes. During the interval we enjoyed cakes, lovely chocolate and other cakes brought from Tesco, Amaparo's custard confection, and Jesus's wife had made a delicious apple crumble with a mystery flavouring which I thought might be cinnamon. After the break we had evaluations. Meena gave us all the parts of speech used. She remarked on the fact that I had encouraged the guests to speak by making positive jokes about their names. I had said to Earnest, "I earnestly entreat you to come up and speak". I told Victor, "Do a table topic - you might be a Victor!" (That's also a way to help me and the audience remember the names of the newcomers.) Ribbons President Jayanthiny presented ribbons. A ribbons was won by guest Victor for best table topic. Best speaker was Sushil. Best evaluator was Meena. Paul was given a ribbon to mark the occasion of presenting his first, icebreaker, speech. Warren took a group photo. Rather than taking us seated, revealing stacks of chairs piled up at the back, he placed us against the front wall in a line. Was Victor pleased with his victory? I think he was. Photo of guest Victor by Angela Lansbury Photo of those attending the meeting, by Warren Sheng.

Photos by Angela Lansbury, copyright Angela Lansbury. Angela Lansbury, B A Hons, CL, ACG, member of Harrovians and HOD speakers clubs in London.Author and speaker. Winner of 50+ ribbons. Winner of competitions at club and area level. Author of: Wedding Speeches & Toasts How To Be The Best Man Quick Quotations Who Said What When. See my profiles and books on Amazon and Lulu.com More pictures and posts of Angela and Harrovians and other speakers clubs on Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. To contact a club go to www.toastmastersinternational/findaclub