HALLOWEEN AT HARROVIANS

It was a brilliant themed meeting.

LESSONS LEARNED

Maybe add to the next committee meeting to discuss

1 Mentoring - My sessión did not allow every group to give feedback. Maybe we could send around a request for feedback.

2 I could have brought a prop or piece of clothing if I’d thought about it. Next year we could suggest everybody wears something related to Halloween or filing that black or white or orange, anywhere, or around the neck and give everybody an orange paper napkin to hold or wear, or a piece of orange ribbon. 

Regarding newcomers doing roles. I think it would help them if we did one of these things.

3 GRAMMARIAN

 Include on the programme sheet for TME to read out and instruction such as:

a)The Grammarian does three things: gives us the word of the written on the clipboard by the SAA; gives one hint on grammar; 

b) Provide a dictionary and/grammar book for the grammarian to use.

4 TIMER

 A hint to the timer: The Timer demonstrates the lights, tells us the time for speeches and evaluations and roles, and says why time is important. 

( In the club box: Three quotations about time printed for the timer to choose one read and hold it up for pin it on the clipboard.

5 TOPICS MASTER

The topics master chooses one experienced member and then offers opportunities to two guests or members not on the programme a chance to speak. 

(A box of items or quotations for the topics master. Or a series of cards, say 5

The books which helped you in your job: add best, worst, memorable,

your best advice on choosing a career; add best, worst, memorable

the best company you have worked for; add second best, worst, memorable, 

 the best service you’ve had from a shop, restaurant or business; add equally good, a disaster, I wish I’d said ...

Your best tip on cooking, cleaning or gardening. add best, worst, I wish I’d said.

It was a great meeting. Keep up the good work. Well done and thanks to President Sushil, and Indra and Amparo for the food and decorations and decor.

To see the date of the next meeting go to

www.harrovians.org
to find a speakers club worldwide go to
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Author
Angela Lansbury, speaker and author, travel writer and photographer.
www.travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk
www.luxurytravelforless.co.uk

What I learned from the contest Saturday October 14th 2017 London Business School

Arriving Early
I was lucky to be in the contest. I had been placed third and the first place winner was unable to attend so I was one of the two contestants from Harrovians Speakers' club. As Woody Allen is often quoted as saying, turning up is half the battle. I could have gone from London to Singapore, but chose to stay. If I had not been a contestant I could have been a helper such as a ballot counter, timer or judge.

I had arrived in good time for the afternoon contest last year and found our division's event overlapped with another region's morning contest. So this year I ordered free tickets for both events through online Eventbrite.

I seemed to spend hours of preparation the night before as well as on the mornings. Selecting the right underwear, clothes, shoes, emptying my bag, collecting my props, printing the tickets, revising the speech and re-printing it, collecting food for a snack lunch (boiled eggs), bread, tomatoes.

Boiled eggs, shelled, and small tomatoes.

Plums cut in half to fit in the box.

The route

Coming up the Baker Street escalator I was entranced by the moving advertisements. (When I came home later down a different staircase the ads were static.)

At Baker Street station I asked the way at the station.  (Not the front entrance passing the Sherlock Holmes statue.) 

The exit was via the passage out passing Boots Chemist onto Baker Street.

So, Landmark one is Boots Chemist.

I recalled the landmarks from last time.

Landmark 2 is the London Transport Lost Property Office.

Landmark 3 seen from a distance on the left is the tower of the former Abbey Building. Art Deco, pre-War, before the war, as my parents used to say, meaning pre-WWII.

I regretted not having time or permission to go insides. However, later I read about it in Wikipedia and found nothing had been preserved from the old days except the facade.

Landmark 4 on the right a shop selling London souvenirs.

Landmark 5 on the right as you walk north, a shop selling Sherlock Holmes clothing. 

Landmark 6 a small, simple Sherlock Homes café with pictures of Sherlock Holmes on the walls.

Opposite is landmark 7 across the road, the Sherlock Holmes shop and museum with a queue of people, outside on the pavement (Americans say sidewalk). 

Then the Victory pub on the corner.

A sign points to Lord's Cricket Ground. The London Business school is to the left.

I arrived early, with food in my bag.

Before the speech, we received advice on speeches from a previous winner. She told us:

1 Practise
1 She rehearsed her speech many times, four times a day.

I had done that too, but often ended up adding irrelevant off the point daydreaming side stories. I suppose you have to be prepared for the fact that 9 out of 10 revisions are not an improvement, in order to gain 1 time in ten an improved line, or more succinct or alliterative way of saying the same thing.

2 Colours
She said she wore a bright colour. She was in green. (Yes, I was already in red.) She pointed out that men in black disappeared into the black curtain backdrop at finals. A white suit would disappear into a white background.

She was right that you need to see the venue in advance of the day, either on video or in person.

Stage Size Area and Visibility
My speech, Wear the right shoes, depended on my putting on a man's size eleven shoes. I found a man in the front row of the audience who agreed to let me wear his shoes. However, the seats were desktop seats, so nobody could see my shoes.

The area was small, so no room for pacing up and down, only two or three paces in each direction.

The moral - if  your speech depends on shoes and your lower half can't be seen, lift up the shoe and limp along.

Accents and Characters
Another of the winners had very distinctive accents. You need to work on two or three sets of contrasting couples you can bring out in an impromptu speech. If you don't have anybody else, an exaggeration of yourself contrasting your husband and mother and father or childen.

Props
Who had the best props? Warren, the winner, used the board at the back for a diagram he had drawn in advance.

London Business School Club
Warren is a member of the Business School club. He says it's the cheapest club. It also meets twice a week on Tuesday and Wednesday. That makes it easier to get a speaking slot.

Engaging With Audience
I engaged with the audience. Be positive.

The Humorous Speech Contest

The Impromptu Speech Contest (Table Topics)
The winner went through childhood, teenager and adult. She had once been advised that by a previous speaker. It gave shape to her mini-speech.

I and several others started well but ran out of steam. You need to plan your conclusion and summarise your speech and end decisively, ideally with something amusing.

Angela Lansbury, humorous speaker, CL, ACG.

Ultimate Halloween cake

Ultimate Halloween cake

13 PHONE CHARGING HACKS THAT WILL MAKE YOUR LIFE EASIER

How To Run A Meeting, GREETING, And Announce Timing And Disqualification

GREETING

The formal greeting would be used in large clubs and any large meetings and any special occasion. (Used in most large clubs and international contests.)

 If you have a small group who all know each other you might wish to be less formal. To avoid constant repetition of the greeting, you can then shorten the greetings except for the first speaker or two at the start of the evening. 

FAREWELL

Many people say as a speaker you do not thank the audience because you in speaking have done them a favour and the Toastmaster of the evening should be thanking each speaker. 

To say Mr Toastmaster at the end tells everybody in the audience you have finished and warns the Toastmaster to jump to their feet.

Length of Greetings
If your meeting is short of time, abbreviate the greetings. Don't say, 'let's move on'. Just move on.

Humorous Contests
To improve the atmosphere at a contest where contestants may be nervous, you can use the warm up character. In addition, or instead, the contest chair, instead of merely reading the rules, should joke all the way through, or at least end with a joke.

 TIMING

The timer should take the opportunity to make his potentially dull introduction to timing both informative and fun. If he does not do so, the Toastmasters of the meeting can thank the timer for whatever he did (such as demonstrating traffic lights or coloured cards; then add an explanation as to why timing is necessary:

1 In real life outside meetings when people have to leave to catch trains, allow time for the next speaker before the venue is closed (especially if you are paying for the hire of the room by the hour!)

In one Toastmasters meeting, in Harrow, a London suburb, we were running over time, so a ballet class of excited, chatty little girls kept trying to come to change into their togs.

On another occasion a first time speaker ran over time. The other two speakers who had hoped to win ribbons with their debut speech found no ribbons were allotted. I was one of the other speakers, as well as the mentor of the speaker who ran over time. I'd spent ages helping him with his speech, but neglected to impress on him the importance of time.

At a club party the pre-dinner drinks and introductions were allowed to run over time. Therefore the toastmaster, being told to cut out a section, cut out my grammarian role, so my once a year chance to practise performing in front of an audience, shine in front of the Area, and my husband, was cut from the programme. I was not pleased.

CONTEST TIMING

In a contest the timing should not be announced to the judges before they have judged. Reasons: 

1 You may have a dispute about the timing so you don’t want judges influenced because the person they thought was over time might not be over time. The timing might be changed to allow for an interruption, a fully timing device, or many other reasons such as another speaker making a movement which counts as part of the speech time.

2 It’s a distraction. While they are worrying about the time, they don’t have time in their short judging time to decide the order of winners.

3 The timers’ job is to time; the judges’ job is to judge. The judge should not be asking the timers whether somebody was over time. This would cause embarrassment and disappointment to the speaker who went over time and could result in an argument in an important high level contest. You don’t want to have the judges later arguing with the timers. The timers’ and chief judges and contest chair and so on have the final say.

CLUB TIMING

4 However, at a club, usually the timing is given to warn the contestants that they have gone over time and are likely to be disqualified if they ever enter a contest. This is done before voting because if you have three contestants and one is over time there is not vote.

To be nice, the president may allow voting every if a speaker is over time, firstly to be kind to the speaker, second so that the other two speakers still have a chance of getting a ribbon. As a timer, I ask the president to decide.

The bell is rung after 30 seconds over time at a club contest, not at an area contest. (See rule book.)

I hope this helps.

Angela Lansbury, author and speaker.
Author of
Quick Quotations for speakers
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