LILT polyglot languages club meeting Sunday 11 th Feb 2024

Rehearsal of Italian on Friday Feb 9th 

Those attending  were Angela, Carolyn of Advancity, Mike Ma previously of BHA, Medhavi of Harrovians in London, and Surya, a student who works in customer service. The name Medhavi is Sanskrit for intelligent.

Pronunciation

Carolyn told us her mother's side of the family are from India. She said that if Medhavi pronounced her name the Indian way it would be Madhavi.

I opened with Bongiorno, good day in Italian. Carolyn gave the German. 

When Mike joined I said the Chinese greeting, Ni hao. 

Mike told us the Korean greeting, and said the only Korean words he knows are hello, goodby and thankyou. His English is much imporoved with a good command of vocabulary as well as general fluency.

Mike likes man-made noodles (we say hand-made noodles) not made by machine but by man power. Machine noodles taste different. 

Hot pot restaurant. Hai da Lo. 

I asked, 'How to you eat noodles with chopsticks?'

Medhavi answered, 'You roll the chopsticks and blow on them to cool the food, or ask for a fork ,' (if a Westerner). 

Mike said, 'stick chop', meaning chopsticks.

Chinese noodles are made white with white flour.  or yellow. Add fishballs.

TABLE TOPICS

I was table topics master, with Carolyn to evaluate.

I asked, 'What is your favourite Italian food or drink?'

Carolyn asked me to speak about Italian wine.

I mentioned Prosecco. 

She asked about Chianti. I mentioned in a straw flask.

I said Asti was sparkling, Asti Spumante from the Sixties, when sparkling wine was drunk. For example, Babycham in the UK. It was drink from wide sundae glasses, before we moved to Champagne flutes. Your nose can't get in the flute.

Table Topics

What is your favourite pasta?

Medhavi said, lasagne. Vegetarian. (She is vegan.)

You put the pasta in boiling water. Use a paper towl to dry it out. Add shredded cheese and red sauce. (Tomato sauce.)

I added a language tip. In English we don't say a bit of salt but a pinch of salt.

Carolyn said, 'My favourite pasta is canneloni with cream and cheese'.

Mike enjoys Chinese noodle dishes from a Chinese shop. Steamboat you have hot water or soup, and add your own meat or vegetables.

Surya said his favourite Italian food is pizza. Cheesy and sticky. With cheese or chicken on top.

Carolyn suggested, 'Try pineapple, Hawaian pizza, and deep crust pizza from Pizza Hut has cheese isnide the thick tubular crust.

Later, Surya said, 'How can I eat dog meat! . 

Mike said, 'Dog meat was now banned in Korea.'

MY SPEECH ON ITALIAN

Title

Where To Speak Italian and How to learn it

................................... 

Carolyn taught us that arigato, Japanese for thank you sounds like Italian.

I was asked, 'How do you learn the Italian pronunciation, if you are using Duolingo?'

Membership

Surya is 23, from Calcutta, not a toastmaster member. He thought the price for a year, plus the newcomer joining fee, was high. 

I suggested, 'You could ask for a 6 month fee as a gift for a birthday or Xmas.' 

He said, 'Students should get a discount.' 

(This is the second potential member who was deterred by the price. LILT is currently a branch of Advancity. However, if we do not get the needed 20 members by June, I shall have to transfer to Agora, who rquire only 8 members. Easier to achieve. And no fee.

Moments of Truth at Harrovians 2018 - what we learned

Introduction
We are going to assess our club.
Firstly, what we do well?
Secondly, what are the challenges?
Thirdly, let's see how we can cope with problems and introduce new ideas.

(Transcript from Video)
Committee Members

President
Jesus Parada
The Role
What he does well
the challenges

Immediate Past President Sushil Shah

VPE Sarda
Amparo

Secretary
Angela

Treasurer

Membership

PR

SAA


ACTION
Sushil says we should hold a Moments of Truth the month before the handover, so the previous committee can brief the new committee, and the members in the audience can learn what they can get from each committee member.

Club Officer Training (COT)
UK Toastmasters International members can go onto Easyspeak and

Angela to write to Yasmin.
Amparo ... to write to Siobhan.

HOD Jun 2018 - Five Speeches

Problem
How do you fit five speeches into the two-hour Toastmasters Club meeting? Especially when you also want five minutes to congratulate the outgoing President Martin Doe?

Answer
You cut out what you can do without:
You limit table topics to five.
Evaluations of topics is eliminated.
The break can be cut from fifteen minutes to ten.
No language evaluator - except later as part of the newsletter. Let Evaluators comment on the language used by speakers.
The General Evaluator is kept short and concentrates on the evaluators.

If necessary, go five minutes over time at the end.

Martin Doe, outgoing President, prepares for his last meeting as HOD Toastmasters speakers' club President.

Tony Winyard, our technical expert, helps another member set up their slide show.

Dennis Newman, efficient SAA who set up the room, as well as timer and video masters, with his keen assistant for the evening, a new member.

David Phelops, Toastmaster of the Day, interviews a record number of ten visitors on why they visited, and what they thought of the meeting so far and hope to gain.

David Phelops, left, Toastmaster of the Day, congratulating table topics winner and presenting her with a ribbon.

Gill Ornstein, incoming President, presented with ribbon for best speaker by David Phelops, Toastmaster of the Day.

Satya, presented with ribbon for best evaluator.

Your photographer, Angela Lansbury, ALB ACG, doing a selfie Singapore style.

More photos can and will be added.

To attend a club in any of the countries worldwide, go to Toastmasters International find a club. Email the club.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, member of HOD and Harrovians speakers clubs, in London, England, UK, and member of and VPR for Braddell Heights Advanced in Singapore.

Harrovians Meeting Learning about Workers' Welfare, Writing Your Family History and Improving Meetings

Speech by Indra

Speech by Angela Lansbury On Writing Your Family History
I spoke about being a writer of several books including one on Weddings and Toasts which was why when I met Indra at a Harrow Writers Circle meeting, Indra invited me to join Toastmasters.and recommended writing your family history. I said that I was previously a travel writer and had to check all phone numbers before going to press because one reader because of a typo had her number given out as for a restaurant, part of a hotel, and had dozens of photos from people wanting to book meals.

I thought that writing about the past would be easier. I wrote about my late father's grandfather who came from Ukraine to London, starting with 1880 and I soon became an expert on the period 1880-1890.

I had him working in the post office. I finished my first chapter all about him working in the post office. Then I discovered that hew as the wrong nationality and religion and would not have been allowed to work in the post office. I had to rewrite the chapter, making others suspect him, and him being chased.

Next I had my hero getting on an old-fashioned train, a steam train. Then I looked for a picture of a train in Ukraine and discovered they had horse drawn trains on rails.

Following that, I had my book's hero landing in New York and seeing the Statue of Liberty. I thought, let's check how long after it was built he arrived. I found it had not yet been built, although he was would have known the poem written as a fund-raiser.

Writers' Holiday
Researching a novel does wonders for your history and is a constant entertainment. I am going on a writing holiday shortly, there's another in February. I suggest you come with me, and learn to write novels, poetry or your family history.

You would think that moving my novel's hero back to London, would make life easy for an English writer. My mother told me her grandfather was the first person in the street to have electric lights. That sounded like an idle boast. Until I realised that he had a store selling building supplies and fittings. So he sold electric lights. Also having electric lights would advertise his shop. What about electric lights in streets? The internet was no use. All the searches told me about the first electric lights in Chicago or New York. Most English speaking readers and writers on the internet are in America. My source would be the library of London's East End.

Best evaluator ribbon won by Grammarian by Steve Ferguson, a visitor. He had been a member of a Toastmasters group a long time ago when he did a best man's speech for a wedding in Wales.

Table Topics and Christmas In Communist Countries
His friend, Denise, revealed in table topics that she is from Albania and that in a Communist country they did not celebrate Christmas but New Year.

Table topics ribbon was won by Lorna.

Indra won best speaker, telling us he worked for the home office and when the system was that people were risking their jobs at the annual review, they worked less well than later. The system changed to one of rewards instead of punishments. Nowadays they also tried to make positive moves to keep workers happy and have team spirit. He was part of a committee finding new ideas and had suggested a monthly lunch together, and a breakfast together.

Jayanthini conducted a very useful workshop brain storming on how we could improve club meetings. (We were down to about nine members but that is usual in August when many members are on holiday.)

I gave a talk on why you should write your life story and go to a writing course.

Author
Angela Lansbury, author of Quick Quotation for Writers and Speakers. You can buy it through Lulu.com and Amazon.com

Mentors for members of Harrovians

Here is a list of mentors and mentees

a photo list!

Ruth, right, is mentor of Seema

Angela is mentor of Fabrizio

Sarda is mentee

Indra is mentor of Yasmin

Indra is m e n t o r of Kristof

Kavita is mentor of Amparo and Amparo and Kavita are mutual mentors and m e n t e e s

How to be an impromptu GE at Harrovians

I went to a Toastmasters club, Harrovians in London,  and towards the end the evening's toastmaster said that they didn't have a General Evaluator. I immediately offered to be the GE. 

Other people said they were impressed that I was able to do it at short notice. I should have offered earlier, seeing no GE listed on the programme. 

It wasn't difficult. I mentioned the work done on What's ap before the meeting to get it organised, the speech by the president, and I praised several people. 

I forgot to mention the evaluators. I was too busy doing an evaluation of one of the speeches to listen to other evaluators so I asked the audience for comments. 

I mentioned the missing board markers. That started a discussion. 

I saw I was still on the yellow light and had time for more, so I asked for comments from the floor. That led to a discussion on the heat. 

Job done. Next time I shall add two columns on the back of my agenda, with headings for LE and GE, just in case I am invited or volunteer. Better still, write in a large lined notebook, as done by Indra. Write LE and GE in the margin.

***
What I Could Have Added
When I got home I re-read my notes and watched my videos of the meeting. A one minute snippet was enough to remind me what a speaker or role player said and did.

Timer
Suchil was timer. He introduced his role with an illustration of the point that time is money. He had a boss who was paid by the hour (a large sum) and even if you only spoke to him for five minutes he timed the meeting so he could bill you for it.

***

Harrovians meets in Edgware on Mondays, see website for which Mondays. Usually first and third Monday but not on Bank Holidays, and sometimes extra meetings as well as the summer and Christmas parties on other days and contests sometimes at weekends.

Author and Speaker

Angela Lansbury, speaker, mentor, competition judge, timer, past president, forthcoming mentoring manager. I am also a member of HOD Speakers (Thursdays - see websites for which weeks.)

In Singapore I am a member of Braddell Heights Advanced speakers' club.

Clubs Attended 2016 UK and Singapore and lessons learned

2015
UK
Harrovians
HOD

Singapore

January 2016
Monday Jan 18 to Sheraton Hotel SCS Spoke in topics
Tue 19

Wed 20 Bukit Panjang (around an oval table, I was given a welcome ribbon signed on back by president with name of club, and best speaker for my topic.

My topic subject was: one swallow does not make a summer.

I said:
Swallows in the old days used to predict Seasons
In the old days you could tell the seasons by the birds which flew into (seasonal) countries (like the UK) for the summer. But with Global warming the seasons are less predictable. We have longer, warmer summers. Yet in England which has cold winter, we get shorter but less predictable shifting snow intervals, no longer white Christmas but often White weeks with whiteouts in January, February or even March.

How does global warming affect birds? In England we have a bird count in January organised by the RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. That day volunteers all over the country count birds in their gardens. If you don't have a garden you can count in the nearest park. Even a windowsill if you put out bird food.

You don't count birds flying across, which are hard to identify accurately, only those which land.
You could have birds flying away and coming back. The same bird might be counted twice or ten times. So you only count the numbers you see together. I saw four magpies and two crows o ravens.

I wondered why we counted in January. The leaves fall so it's easier to see birds in the trees or on the end of the lawn, not hidden from view by overhanging branches. The idea is to compare each year with the next year, to find out whether birds are increasing or decreasing. And which birds? More robins? Or fewer?

Swallows and birds flying in for the summer are not native birds and are outside our control. One swallow does not make a summer was originally a saying about birds, although we now use it metaphorically, when I do the bird count I take it literally. You could probably do the same bird count in Singapore, but the saying would not be a swallow but another bird. Yes, I agree, one swallow does not make a summer.

What I learned:
Bilingual Cards With Proverbs
(I would like to know which bilingual cards have the sayings in both Chinese and English - are they from Toastmasters or another organisation?)

Thu 21 Bukit Batok speakers club meeting at Bukit Batok CC (Community Centre) beyond the West Mall beside Bukit Batok MRT (and bus station). (Bukit Batok, alliterative, could mean hill of Javanese coconuts ; or Batu-stone in Bahasa Malay for coughs/explosives at nearby Little Guilin lake).
In an upstairs room we sat around a large o v a l table.
At break time we had k w a y  t e o w, flat rice noodles in mystery sauce, cockles and prawns, been sprouts; char away teouw with sausage. Chinese carrot cake (neither carrots, nor cake, some kind of vegetable stew) bananas and grapes.

What I learned:

Fri 22 ..

Sat
Sun

Mon Jan 25 Tanglin Club's Tanglin Restaurant
Lunch saw Shan who told me about her business selling gluten free products.
Dinner 6 pm. See Catherine Lim. (Take book for signing.)

Bukit Gombak - hill + bunch or collection

My Topics (table topics - impromptu speeches)


My Ribbons:
B i s h a n  (I had to insert spaces because autocorrect changed the name to Bison.)
I used the word Exquisite as Language Evaluator.
I won the table topics ribbon. My topic was?

Saturday Jan 30th 2016
Club Officer Training.
(I saw Alvin, Gibson, Ivy, Samantha)

Highlights of Speeches at Harrovians Speakers Club Monday November 30th 2015

 The President of Harrovians' Speakers' Club, Seema Menon, CC, ALB, opened the meeting with the best welcoming speech I have ever heard.

Standing Firmly or Moving?

She gave us a quick guide to how to stand looking firm and authoritative when speaking. Then how to use the stage when speaking, moving to show progress through life or time, but not marching up and down distractingly.

Our Toastmaster of the evening was Karen, a tall figure with an enviable statuesque, commanding height but a warm manner, friendly smile and soothing voice.

  The enthusiasm and confidence of members and guests received a momentary setback when Warren stood up to deliberately challenge us with table topics of the kind that interviewers use to throw us off guard and reveal our weaknesses.
   Guest and returning member Francis West was delighted at the warm reception he received from  several of us. I see him regularly on Facebook, so I was delighted to meet him again in person. Warren Sheng, ACS, ALB, an old-timer, and long-term membership secretary regards every departing member as a personal loss, and every member returning as a guest as a personal triumph.

Challenging Topics

I was aghast at Warren's opening question, to Francis, in the form of a table topic of impromptu speech. What was your worst business mistake?
 West's reply was that it was giving an investor a 51% stake in the company, which enabled somebody else to later tell West to leave the company which he had founded. He recalled leaving, not even taking his computer.
   I'd always heard about keeping a 51% share of the company so that you had the majority vote on any decisions. I had also heard of people being asked to leave the company they had founded. But I had not seen the two events juxtaposed so vividly - in the two minutes allowed for an impromptu speech. Francis won the ribbon for the best table topic answer.
 
The other guest, Indra's aunt, was given another challenging topic, about explaining sex. How do you tell a seven-year-old boy child where babies come from? She produced a brilliant answer to avoid the facts of life. She said: 'A man and woman get together and love each other they make a baby. But making a baby is like a recipe for making a cake. It's quite complicated and you wouldn't understand it or be able to do it until you are older. When you are ready, we will explain the whole thing to you. The simple version, and all you need to know now, is, that the important ingredients are a man and woman being together and the fact that they love each other.'

Warren's other challenging topics included: 'When have you regretted being married?' Warren knows the secret to humour is to follow the start of the sentence with its opposite. He said,  'I have only regretted being married once, or twice - a day.'

Prepared Speeches

Every Cloud Has a Silver Living
We then moved on to the prepared speech. I spoke first on the subject: 'Every cloud has a silver lining.' I held up an umbrella against the rain that falls into every life. My three stories are described in another post in my blog on Toastmasters. I began with the story about my uncle whose disadvantage in life was that he was colour blind. So when he joined the RAF in WWII he could not be a pilot; he was very disappointed. But because of this seeming disadvantage, he survived WWII, and outlived everybody he knew.

 Francis evaluated my speech, giving valuable feedback. I had followed Seema's advice and moved forward across the stage from the first story about my uncle, set in 2002, to the next story, the London bombing, set in 2005. Francis explained on how I could improve my use of the stage, stepping forward across the stage, yet again, for the last story (the Paris bombing in 2015), but although the stage movements could be steps and pauses, verbally I need to make stronger verbal transitions or connections from one story to the next.

The Most Important Day

 Sanjay won the best evaluator ribbon for his analysis of a speech by Jesus on 'the most important day in the 1960s', the day Neil Armstrong stepped on the moon. Jesus began with a count-down:, 'Ten, nine, eight ...' He ended dramatically 'with a giant leap for mankind,' taking an emphatic step, stamping on the stage.

Sanjay's useful tip on how this excellent speech could be made even better, was to turn the title into a question or something generating excitement.

India and England

 We also enjoyed an entertaining ice breaker speech introducing us to new member Vipul. Lorna, his evaluator, was warm and encouraging. She complimented him on his 'conversational style', said 'his enthusiasm shone through' and 'he has made a great start to his Toastmasters journey.'

I loved his phrases contrasting England and India. He said that India was known by the English, nowadays, as 'a land of snake charmers and - call centres'. That got a laugh. His school in India taught him :'more about cricket than mathematics'.

Amparo, our Grammarian, gave us the word of the day Gravitate. Several of us were able to incorporate into our speeches. One useful trick is to write the word of the day at the top of your speech notes and use the word straight away in your opening sentence.

Presentation to Indra Sikdar

Former President Indra Sikdar was presented with an antique ship's compass (an appropriate and personal gift thoughtfully chosen in honour of the fact that his late father worked in shipping). Indra was a founder member of Harrovians and has been a constant supporter through the years, bringing guests and organising and helping in innumerable ways.

Angela Lansbury, ACG, CL.

Glossary Of awards from Toastmasters International, HQ in the USA
ACS Advanced Communicator Silver
ALB Advanced Leader Bronze
ACG Advanced Communicator Gold
CC Competent Communicator
CL Competent Leader

Amparo, grammarian, chose gravitate as word of the day.She added a word to our working vocabulary, as well as reminding us not to keep repeating word fillers such as 'so ...'.

President Seema instructed us on standing sill and moving.

Seema presented ribbons.

Angela won best speaker ribbon.

V i p u l achieved first step with his first icebreaker speech.

The audience.

More happy faces.

Photos by Angela Lansbury. In this one you see me in the second row behind Seema and next to Warren. Francis has kindly offered to take a photo so I can be in the picture.

Newsletter report by Angela Lansbury.

Next club meetings, last chance, two chances, in 2015, Monday December 6th and Monday December 13th for the pot luck party. Bring your best seasonal stories and some seasonal food.

For more details on Toastmasters International club meetings worldwide, check Toastmasters International Find a club. Check with clubs about their December and January meeting dates and venues. Some clubs have their Christmas meetings at local restaurants. 

Body Language with Steve at Harrovians Meeting Monday 16 November 2015

The scheduled highlight of the meeting was the workshop on body language by Steve C a t c h i c k.  (I had to separate the letters with spaces. A spell check crept up on me after I closed the post and changed his name to hat check.)

He is also an expert on NLP - spoken language. He said you can use both NLP and body language to create a good first impression of confidence on anybody, any time, eg just walking down the street or in a shop.

Steve C a t c h i c k at Harrovian Speakers Club. Photo by Angela Lansbury

On arriving I said to Steve, "I think I've met you before," to which he wittily replied, "I didn't do it. It wasn't me - it was my brother!"

He demonstrated how stance affected your confidence. He asked for a volunteer and threw them off balance by simply poking them with just the tip of a finger.However, when Steve demonstrated standing firmly, the other person was unable to make an impact on the equilibrium of Steve.

He named the centre of the stage as the power point. Going too far forward invades the space of the front row of the audience. But retreating to the back 'as you step back you have less control'.

I'd heard many of these suggestions before, presented in different ways. For example, posture is described as walk tall, or pretend you have a book on your head. However, he reinforced forgotten messages for the old-timers, and introduced these ideas to newcomers with new words which made the ideas memorable.

For example, he had several suggestions beginning with the word p, posture, point of power or power point, purpose of walk and walk with purpose, pause, pleasing smile.

He said we could use posture to demonstrate confidence, like the President of the USA, Obama, and previous presidents with presence such as Clinton.

A useful tip when appearing on TV is to keep your hand gestures above waist height so your movement is caught on camera. (My thought - so you don't unnerve the audience by creating that suggestion of hand fumbling in pocket doing who knows what.)

The packed audience on the right of the Harrovians venue. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

In addition to the workshop we were treated to two interesting speeches and evaluations. Jesus spoke from the Storytelling manual telling the story of Joseph from the bible.

We heard about Joseph and his coat of colours and his dreams which made others jealous. He was sold into slavery and taken to Egypt.

He was a moral man because he resisted the advances of the wife of his boss Potiphar. His foresight in saving grain for times of famine brought about a happy end when his brothers came to buy grain and they were reconciled and his father was able to live and die happy at recovering the son he thought he had lost.

Amparo Villamil spoke about Anne Frank. She quoted Anne: Nobody becomes poor by giving.

She ended by calling on the audience to remember Anne and be inspired by her to fulfil her dream of a tolerant world. Siddhi evaluated.

Steve (front left) beside President of the club, Seema. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Parking - Creating Space
The room was packed with 27 people and the car park was full. We managed to park by backing up, filling the drive in. This saved the inconvenience and delay of driving around looking for a space elsewhere.

Being backed up meant the latecomers blocked in the early birds and had to leave first to let out the others. Several of us had given or accepted lifts from others, which has the double advantage of freeing up a space in the car park and allowing you on the drive home to socialise and discuss the meeting you have just attended and future meetings.

Normally if I were driving to a venue which is short of space, I would leave a note with my phone number on both the windscreen and back window. I would write either my phone number or my name and venue I was visiting so that anybody else using the car park could contact me.If you plan to do this it is handy to have some paper and a felt tip pen in your car's door pocket or glove box.

Harrovian Speakers' meetings
If you wish to attend Harrovians meetings, they are usually on the first and third Mondays of the month and occasionally the fifth Monday (notable exceptions being bank holidays). You can arrive from 7 pm, preferable by 7.15 to allow time to network and socialise, find a seat, maybe volunteer for a role, before the speeches start prompts at 7.30.

In the interval you can drink tea or coffee and have a biscuit or two and sometimes a piece of cake, especially if a member or guest has generously bought something or brought home made food. Jesus had brought a home baked apple crumble. We also enjoyed Kit-kats and assorted biscuits.

The GE was our jovial visiting area governor, who looks after the group of up to half a dozen clubs. We had visitors from three local clubs, President Peter of HOD which meets in Harrow, and members of Watford Speakers and an in-house club, plus several guests.

We went home entertained and enlightened, benefitting from a handout from Steve.
More details about Steve from
www.PerformanceCounts.co.uk
Contact him if you wish to buy training materials or would like a training session at a Toastmasters International club.

For more details about meetings, see the Harrovians Speakers Club website, Meetup, or Facebook, or Toastmasters International find a club.

Angela Lansbury, CC, ACG, member of Harrovians, HOD and visitor to numerous clubs in Singapore. I am the author of two books of quotations, Quick Quotations, mainly one liners or short quotations on themes such as time, the other on days of the year, people born or died on that day, or events. I can also give workshops on impromptu speaking and making props at the last minute.

Obtaining Photos of Club Meetings

How To Get Photos Of Yourself / Others / Groups

I would not have time to email photos later when away from my desk, nor if at my desk but busy with other tasks (such as writing this).

You can grab the photos off the internet. Please ensure you credit me with photos by Angela Lansbury and the copyright notice. This rewards me for my time, and ensures that any commercial organisation knows they must pay me for copyright photos. It also tells everybody that I probably have more photos of the event.

If you want photos you can email me, but my pictures are not all in one place - both my computer and phone are currently jammed with too many photos, so I have photos spread across a mix of various old computers and phones and backups on the internet. Therefore so it's much quicker to find a photo I have just taken which is still on my phone.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons

President of Harrovians, Indra Sikdar, presenting best speaker ribbon to Lorna.

Most clubs present ribbons or other trophies to speakers.

Angela Lansbury BA Hons, author, speaker, photographer. 

What reading or creating a newsletter can do for your club and you

I am compiling a newsletter. Warren Sheng started a humorous account of Harrovian Speakers' meetings called What an Evening which was emailed to members. 

Pinky Tanna started emailing Harrovians members a monthly Newsletter, in two columns, with a banner headline. She inlcuded articles by herself, the President and the VPE and/or past president -  one or two other members who had time to send her snippets.

The History And Future Of Newsletters  - What Editing Newsletters Can Do For You

Sending out a newsletter takes time. It is a service to members, so that those who attended can relive the enjoyment, and see photos of themselves. Those who missed the meeting still get value from their membership by finding out what they missed. They are able to send compliments or congratulate friends and friends-to-be. Creating or continuing a newsletter for your club is a way of publicising yourself.

The newsletter draft newsletter is usually sent to Presiden who then forwards it to the committee to check names, facts, dates, eliminate or anything considered necessary.  Then it is forwarded to the members, or they are given a website link.

You can take over a newsletter from an ongoing editor just once whilst they are on holiday to get practice and see how it is done. If you have the time and inclination to write and edit it several times you can get a credit for it as a project in your Toastmasters' Leadership manual.

Angela Lansbury CL ATMG

Author of Wedding Speeches and Toasts (Ward Lock / Cassell); Quick Quotations (Lulu); Who Said What When (Lulu). 

Harrovian Speakers Monday 16 March 2015 - What An Evening!

President Indra, ATMS, AL* opened the meeting and he and Ruth Vishnick had co-ordinated well during Ruth's absence, as Indra had brought the fresh milk, teabags and old biscuits and fresh ones. I was observing what he did, noting it for when I am Toastmaster at sister club HOD. (I belong to two clubs in the UK and was a member of a club in Singapore.) The President is allowed only five minutes, which gave him time to introduce the guest, Nadine. He joked about the 'political' badge I was wearing, 'Birthday Girl', and the birthday cake I had brought for everybody to enjoy at the interval.

Toastmaster of the evening, Veeren Taylor, introduced Timekeeper Karen Carter succinctly by saying the Timekeeper was an important role. In the past I've heard the timekeeper or teamaker introduced as a 'thankless task'. ' A positive phrase such as 'A vital role' applies to both the timekeeper and the teamaker and anybody else. How much more encouraging for the evening's timekeeper, makes people listen to her, or want to volunteer to take the role.


Grammarian Jay Makwana had chosen the word of the day, LIMINAL. She had remembered to write it up on a card and bring Blutac to fix it. She went to stick it centrally, then sensibly moved it to the right of the stage so it would not be hidden by the speaker, helpfully telling everybody the reason.

Table Topics Master Minh Tran told us how she'd been longing to be the Table Topics Master ever since she joined. Great to see such enthusiasm. She had brought photos cut from newspapers for the impromptu speakers.

Table topics speakers were:
Indra, Warren, Chi, Angela, Nadine, Nigel, Dupe, Chi.

We had four longer planned speeches. Harri Seth, a mortgage adviser, gave a speech on mortgages. He advised, 'The best way to make money is to use somebody else's money, banks', and pay back using rent. Britain is landlocked with a rising population so there's dwindling supply and increasing demand. Population in London alone is 8.5 million now with an estimated 10 million in 10-15 years. The mayor of London plans building 42,000 homes a year. Where there is a demand for social housing, sometimes you are offered guaranteed rent, and maintenance paid for.

I was filling in my feedback slip, on a scrap of paper the size of my thumb, wondering how to condense my 'recommend' that he should answer the audience's prospective mortgage taker's fears about the rent being paid not to the landlords but to tenants who run off with the money, but we were on to the next speaker.

Thulasi Arunthavanatha gave a speech on drugs and clinical trials.

Jayanthiny Kangatharan gave an Icebreaker speech. She revealed that she is doing a PhD in psychology and impressed us with her use of several languages to translate research documents to report for the news section of her radio programme for graduates.

Lorna Burns CC gave an advanced project on How to Negotiating to Win-Win (both sides feel they have won or gained). After introducing the subject, she demonstrated a negotiation with her boss acted by Seema. Lorna's tips included picking your time to negotiate, whether with your spouse or your boss, preferably not first thing in the morning nor first thing in the evening. Talk about how I feel, listen to the answer, I appreciate your point, (and you benefit, not you don't understand).

Tea Break and Birthday Cake. I counted we had present 20 members (19 members and one guest). So I cut the cake into twenty pieces, hoping nobody would take two. I hung back for the first five minutes in case there was not enough for everybody. In the event a few people were not cake eaters so at least two people had seconds.

As a general rule, the thin people refuse cake. The people who are or were plump and jolly types smile broadly, discuss dieting, indulge themselves by taking the first piece, and want to be persuaded to take another. (Me, definitely, Indra, highly likely, Thulassi - possibly.)

Evaluators Nigel Tranah, Chinemelu Ezah, Sarda Hirani, Sanjay Ratnam, Jesus Parada.

General Evaluator Warren Sheng, ACS, AL, said 'the job of the General Evaluator is to evaluate everything', (including the Evaluators of speeches). He commented 'brevity is the key'. He said that the timekeeper should time everything, including the break, to be sure the evening ran to time. You should could call people back two minutes early, because nobody would notice or complain, and it takes two minutes to get everybody back to their seats. A Timekeeper should not simply stand up at the back, but come to the front stage (and enjoy) - the Timekeeper's five minutes in the limelight.
Warren's comment on the Table Topics Master, Minh Tran, was that she did well to invite the guest to speak.

Future Meetings
March 28 Contest on a Saturday, starts at 9.30 am, at London Business School a walk from Baker Street station. (Cost?) Warren Sheng is doing a workshop/training session (so he won't be paying).

You will have a chance to hear Harrovian Speakers' Gosbert Chagula, a former president, giving his prize-winning speech on Africa. He is Harrovians' winner of the club contest, then won the Area contest, now reaching the third level, division contest. If he wins that he represent us in the International Contest.

Another personality at the event is Hilary Briggs who has already visited clubs in the area giving training sessions on Evaluations - the other contest on the day being the Evaluation contest.

Our toastmaster for the evening, Veeren Taylor, is planning a workshop/training about success, including various motivational topics, at the club meeting place, Glebe Hall, Glebe Road, dates and details to be confirmed, fee covering the cost of hall hire and/or other expenses, to be announced later.

WINNERS
President Indra Sikdar presented prizes.
Jayanthini Kangatharai was presented with a ribbon for having the courage and dedication to present her first toastmasters speech, project one, the Icebreaker.

The winner of the table topics ribbon was the President, Indra Sikdar.

The winner of the speech ribbon was Lorna Burns.

The winner of the evaluator ribbon was Jay Makwana.

Nigel was presented with his CC award, a wooden plaque which has a tab at the back to enable you to stand it on a shelf.  This was Indra's good idea. I had received only a certificate from head office for my CC and Indra said the club would not pay for the plaques for previous years. So now I shall go through the manual again to win a point for the club and the plaque. Meanwhile I photographed myself with Nigel's plaque.

(Note the letters listed on agendas: PP which is short for a Past President. IPP is immediate Past President).
More on newsletters see later post.
For more on cakes see later post.
Angela Lansbury CL ACG* (For more on Toastmasters awards letters see later post.)

I was asked by a committee member (who I hope will be our next President) about membership numbers in both clubs I belong to in the UK and what causes membership to go up and down. She will be incorporating and adapting some of these ideas in her presentation at the next Club Officer Training.

1Email HQ in USA. They should have exact membership figures. Indra may be able to help. He was a founder member of Harrovians and introduced me and was my mentor. He recruited me from another local club, Harrow Writers' Circle.

2 We used to have a list of members and their addresses, phone numbers and emails which was given to all new members so everybody knew the exact membership number every other month. This was discontinued for security reasons. 

3 It would be helpful to have the president announcing the membership numbers at every meeting. Then every committee members and and ordinary members and guest would know where they stand. (Some guests would like to join a busy club which is obviously successful and in demand. Others prefer a small club where they can quickly get a committee role, become a VIP, improve their CV, and get speaking slots to achieve their CC or CL certificate within a year, whilst living in London, ready for next job interview/post, wedding speech in Spring or summer, or to get results like O level in one year for the price of one year’s membership fee.

4 Membership increased when we were the only club in the area meeting twice a month and nearest rival was HOD meeting only once a month and Watford did not exist and we met at a pub in central Harrow near the tube station. The president was a charismatic single man who held committee meetings at his house and had a series of girlfriends. Membership was challenged by some disappearing presidents (one lasted less than a month - achieving his aim of getting promoted to a good job). We also had loss of and change of venue, our pub meeting place closed down. We were originally double the size of HOD 30-40 compared to their 15-20. HOD was retired people in no hurry to complete manuals,a social group rising money for charity.

5 The biggest challenge is actually having a membership secretary who signs people up at meetings. I was signed up at the first meeting I attended by Ann Connolly. She had the manuals and said if I wrote a cheque, for less than £100, I would have a year’s membership, a mentor, be on the next meeting programme with my first speech, and she would give me the two manuals she showed me at break time. I joined instantly to get the manuals and join the group.

6 membership sank when we had membership secretary who was away several meetings in a row on business and it was decided that ‘everyone’ would stand in which meant nobody did - everybody was engaged chatting to friends or arranging other matters.

7 We’ve had a lot of members between jobs reluctant to spend money and part with it. We’ve even had a president who was not a paid up members, naturally not pro-active in in persuading others to pay. 

8 At both Harrovians and HOD we’ve gone through periods of negative sales. Instead of selling the club and joining - and if you think the club is the best thing ever, you should be selling it, we’ve had negative statements:

a) Phrases containing negatives such as I can’t read your writing, I don’t want you to join and not come to meetings, 

9 One person should be delegated to talk people into joining, show manuals, take emails, fill in membership form (for those not computer literate or too busy). Mamership form and money in the hand is worth two in the hands of I’ll do it later. Take the money.

10 Young family members were on another committee and were vanishing to take children to London when we were meeting for training up in St Albans.

11 New computer-savvy presidents made great changes. Easy Speak enables you to keep track.

12 Members who leave often come back months or even years later. If we keep emailing our passive list, we can sometimes reclaim members later.

13 It is helpful to maintain goodwill, send at least a Xmas party invite to former members, phone them up, how’s your new baby?

14 Cross fertilisation of clubs is great. People often joint, even because a relative overseas belonged.

15 Membership secretary should know that the best club, toastmasters, tennis, whatever sort, loses members through illness, death, brith, marriage, new jobs, lack of jobs, lost interest, personality clash. You need to be adding at the same rate you are losing.

16 Membership secretary needs a goal of 2 new members per meeting. If you miss out for whatever reason on this goal over two or three meetings, you need to admit it and get help.

17 Once members realise the club will close if you don’t have money to pay the rent, pay USA HQ, have paid up members eligible for competitions, they will help.

18 I once said we needed members and needed to leaflet or knock on doors or nearby homes. Warren Sheng announced he would race out in the break. I thought he was joking. He knocked on four doors and his last call found somebody in who came and joined and was our Sergeant at Arms for a year, very convenient for him and us - even when he could not attend he crossed the road and opened up, put out chairs. 

Fear, Happiness and Improv Songwriting - What an Evening of speeches at Harrovians Monday 5 Jan 2014

What An Evening
Fear, Happiness and Improv Songwriting - What an Evening of speeches at Harrovians Monday 5 Jan 2014 at Glebe Hall, Stanmore, cosy with the electric fire.

What do you do when the President is away and not enough people reply to emails? While President Indra was away in India, or maybe an Indian restaurant, past past president Ruth Vishnick CC followed the precedents Indra and another past President Gosbert had established by reading out the Toastmasters mission statement. She then quickly, enthusiastically handed over steering the evening's proceedings to Minh, beaming, debut Toastmaster of the Evening.

Minh's New Year Theme
Minh Tran had received emails from several members on New Year Resolutions and tips for running your year and life. She had supplemented them with her own favourite ideas, selected from the internet, printed them out and placed them in an envelope for each person taking the stage to read. This system gave the evening a coherent running theme, as well as  holding the audience's attention with an element of surprise

Happy Time
Karen Carter, seemed very happy in her Happy Hour as time keeper of the evening. By happy chance, when Minh called Karen to tell us how the timing works, Karen selected a tip on time keeping, a quotation from Abraham Lincoln, that those of us poor in other ways are rich in time. Karen continued on a positive note, saying that as time keeper, her job was to help us keep to time.

So often I've heard time keepers emphasize negative aspects of running over time. I must remember to advise future timekeepers to emphasize the benefits of keeping to time.

How helpful it is to have a timekeeper warning us how well we are doing.  Speakers see they have successfully reached the green light for the minimum time allotted. Then they see orange, suggesting that it's a good time to move towards the conclusion. Finally, on the red light it's over - time's up - we have successfully spoken right to the last second, as Rudyard Kipling said in his poem If: 'filling every minute ...'

Grammarian
Grammarian Chinamelu Ezeh (Chi for short) gave us the word of the day, obstreperous.

Veeren Taylor presented a variety of table topics for brief impromptu speeches, all thought-provoking  subjects without being over-challenging.

Table Topics

Happiness -The First Prepared Speech Subject
Sachin Madhav

Introduction to happy Harri Sethi
Harri gave us a classic rags to riches story. In his childhood his father had fallen ill and while the parent was ill the business lost all its money. Harri grew up fast, with more responsibility than is usual for a child. The good news was he ended up, with his father's encouragement, seeking to be qualified to work in business and finance, coming to the UK to further his studies. He is now furthering his skills by attending our Toastmasters International speakers' training club.

Fear by Nigel Tranah

Evaluations of Speeches
Seema
Ruth
Warren evaluating Angela

Prize Winners
Prize winners were Nigel for best prepared speech.

Warren won a ribbon for best evaluation of a speech.

 For best impromptu table topic, Ampara.

For my speech on
What the Brighton Speakers conference taught us about performing on stage, using props and improvising songs, see next post.

Evaluations

CC = Competent Communicator (One who has completed the ten speeches in the first manual).
CL=Competent Leader
ACB= Advanced Communicator Bronze (20 speeches)
ACS=Advanced Communicator Silver (30 speeches)
ACG Advanced Communicator Gold (40 speeches)

Meetings are held twice, occasionally three times a month.
The next meeting is on Monday January 19th.
Speech Contest is Feb 2nd 2015.
Club Officer Training is at the venue of sister club HOD. (I am a member of both).
Guests are very welcome at both Toastmaster Clubs. if you wish to attend a meeting please contact the clubs through their website(s). Toastmasters International Find a club. The clubs are also on Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.

Angela Lansbury CC ACG