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.

Feedback I gave to Dennis of HOD, plus general notes on How To Be A Toastmaster

I was very impressed that you (Dennis) took a day off work to prepare. 

Another option is to do your phoning around and emailing the previous weekend.  Maybe tell all members by email that speakers must contact their mentor to rehearse a week in advance and have their speech title and project numbers on the programme a week in advance. Have a backup speaker who would otherwise be on the agenda the following week, so no speaker has to prepare a speech at the last moment to fill in for a dropout. Ensure that people who need to do speeches for completing manuals, work presentations, weddings, are given priority, yet nobody is constantly pushed out to make way for VIPs.

You were very smooth and confident, calm and excellent as a toastmaster. I particularly liked the informative and positive sentences (which I noted at the time on the back of the programme):

'Sign the register so that in the case of an emergency (such as fire) we can know who came to the meeting so we can do a count.’ Very useful explaining that, because otherwise, people think only newcomers need to sign.

'I don’t expect you to run as fast as Usain Bolt.’ Amusing,attention-gettingg.

'We want to see your warmth.’ Warm.

'Toastmasters is a family.’ Positive.

'I'd like to introduce …’ Positive.

What else could you add to enhance your role if you do it again? (Watch others on video and at later meetings, noticing what you like and don’t like.)

I was Toastmaster twice in Singapore on the two nights before I flew home this week. From my two experiences plus yours I have compiled these notes 

You explained the location of toilets. Good. You asked phones switched to silent. 

Appoint Sergeant at Arms to sit near projector to help and move tables. 

Meeter and greeter should stay by door to give agenda to latecomers, smile and show them an empty chair.

VIP visitors such as area director can be put on the agenda and welcomed. 

GIFTS

(Rich in house clubs such as financial companies print a pen and notebook company colours with company name and wrap them in seasonal paper and present them to visiting Toastmasters or other VIPs doing roles such General Evaluator. Smaller clubs on small budgets (or clubs with no budget but a generous member or area governor or Toastmaster from another club) go to Poundshop and buy a dozen cheap pencils or notebooks and present one gift to each person who does a topic, answers a quiz question, travels miles across the city to be an evaluator, listing Area Governor doing the twice yearly inspection or GE etc.) Leftover chocolates from Xmas, or the wrapped in foil chocolate biscuit from the break time food would work just as well.

SAA should ensure milk and food is being organized - avoid last minute panic which stresses the President and everybody in the room. Fruit such as washed grapes or bananas should be provided because many people are on diets or should be on diets and it’s daft to have a speech at every meeting telling Toastmasters to eat more fruit and less sugar and then serve them only sugared cereal biscuits. Provide water for anybody speaking over ten minutes such as a half hour or full hour presentation. Keep the water away from paperwork and electrics.

Check speakers with slides have the needed adapter, and/or printouts of slides, and/or slides on a thumb drive, and/or another member with a laptop which does work with the club adapters and/or the slides in Word and not Apple’s Keynote if the other person has a non-apple /Android phone.

SPEAKING AND VOTING LIST

Sergeant at Arms to LIST On Board (or project on screen from a laptop)

1 Introductions: Say (eg your name, your club, your job, your hobby (For the benefit of those who don’t understand, forget, or latecomers).

2 Topic Speaker's name, one word subject, time (to help voting) and so you don’t forget voting

3 Prepared Speaker, speech title, time

4 Evaluator, speech title, time

VOICE CHECKS

Ask timer and speakers and evaluators to do a sound check to be sure people in the back row can hear the speaker.

Clear floor of bags and papers before taking photo. 

Ensure the photographer is included in one of the photos. 

MANUALS

1 Write in advance to speakers reminding them to bring their manuals. (Add this to the agenda emailed in advance.)

MATCH SPEAKERS AND EVALUATORS

Match advanced speakers with advanced evaluators. Check the speaker is happy with the evaluator. Some speakers would like a change of evaluator for a new viewpoint or more detailed feedback. Other speakers might prefer continuity so the evaluator can comment on how the speaker has improved.

MENTORS

Mention the speaker’s mentor to give the mentor credit and encourage newcomers to ask for a mentor.

Brief evaluators to start evaluations and and end evaluations with a compliment and sandwich by giving one useful suggestion on how to improve their subject matter or presentation. (They should avoid giving only praise and no helpful suggestions - if they can’t think of one they can ask around during the interval). Also try to prevent evaluators giving an entirely damning evolution about not fulfilling the objectives which depresses the speaker and the audience. They should say how much the speaker would benefit by building on their existing speech to enhance it. Pathways requires you to repeat your first speech using the the suggested enhancements - so the evaluator has to give suggestions, and the speaker has to repeat the speech.

PHOTO NEW MEMBER AT MEETING START WITH THEIR MENTOR

Check evaluators know where to find objectives in the manual. Ask evaluators to sign and return speakers’ manuals to speakers. Remind evaluators to bring manuals so that they can get credit in the leadership manual for evaluating.  Mike Freedman suggested that an advanced speaker should try to do an Advanced project rather than constantly reporting the basic manual, to develop both speaker and evaluator and impress guests and provide variety in the meeting.  Photo copy the bass manual and one or two of the advanced manuals so that if an evaluator and speaker don’t have manuals you can email or whats ap the objectives and the evaluation sheet. 

Evaluators can make notes on their phones and read back from their phones - using less paper and making less litter to clear up at the end of the evening.

Explain the manuals to guests.

TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAL HISTORY & BENEFITS

Give a brief history of Toastmasters ‘for the benefit of visitors’. Numbers of clubs in the UK and worldwide, members, etc (Keep these facts on a card or better still memorise them. Express surprise and amazement at the opportunities for friendship when travelling or on holiday. 

Explain to visitors the hand shaking, applause, and terms of address. 

HOD President Martin Doe says - these are handy to practice because you will find it easier to remember these Rules of Procedure (at a rotary club) or at a wedding or other event.

SEATING & BRIEFING TOASTMASTER & PRESIDENT

SEATING AND BRIEFING

List topics evaluator on the programme. Ensure topics master knows the topics evaluator so they don’t ask the topic evaluator to speak and then get rejected.

SEATING & BRIEFING LATECOMER EVALUATORS

If an evaluator for speaker 2 is late, you risk a situation when speaker 2 runs across the room to hand a manual to evaluator 2 and whisper or chat loudly to valuator 2 about which project, whilst speaker one is trying to speak and hold audience attention.

Ensure each speaker who has no evaluator sits near the door by an empty chair and has instructions written on a note to hand to the late evaluator. If necessary, tell the whole audience that you want them to hand each other notes written in capital letters, and not talk during project speeches nor any other stage presentation.

GROUP PHOTO

Add group photo to the agenda. Ideally organise the photo at end of first half because some people leave early, and/or during the interval. You as Toastmaster or / VPE ? President can use the photo as an excuse to write to the guests and say hope they enjoyed the meeting and here’s a photo of the group with you in such and such a row. Get the photographer to email the photo while at the meeting so it can go straight up onto Facebook next day.

Ask people to come forward and sit in the front row.

CHAIRS

Ensure a spare chair is near the door so latecomers don’t feel embarrassed and don’t lurk visibly at the door distracting speakers and disrupting the speakers by walking across the room to a distant empty chair.

Call people back five minutes before you need them after the interval to allow them time to rush to the toilets (of which there are only two or three toilets between 25 guests)

In the interval ensure that guests are introduced to somebody and not left standing alone.

Before the break and/or at the end of the meeting ask guests what they thought of the meeting and if they are likely to want to join a Toastmasters club.

Give the names of the people who did topics (write the names on the flipchart or project onto the screen and give their subject in one word eg, holidays, toastmasters, cats, Calcutta.

ENTHUSIASTIC INTRODUCTIONS

Find one word to introduce each person - write it on the programme (agenda). If you don’t have time or don’t know anything, make up an alliterative compliment to make the speaker and audience laugh and smile - you can invent these in advance eg Marvellous Martin, ‘I am the delightful, dedicated Dennis, Toastmaster of the Day’, Here is jolly Justin, please welcome  Super Sina, Marvellous Manish, Amazing Michael/ Marvellous Michael, Angelic Angela Lansbury, Delightful Denise, Special Sonia, Spanish Sonia, Able Angela Hook, (with two members called Angela, please add the surname, Generous Gill, - you could even email people in advance and ask if there’s one word which sums them up,   

VIDEOS & SLIDES

Check people using videos or slides have set them up in advance to prevent delays.  

REMOVING PAPERS FROM LECTERN 

Remove papers left behind by speakers from the lectern because that muddles you and others, sends bits of paper flying when you grab one and others tumble, and people go home without vital information such as their speech notes.

REMOVING VOTING SLIPS AND TALLIES

Remove any note showing numbers of votes. Good practice at club level so you remember at Toastmasters and other public contests. In contests I have experienced major disruption three times: an irate ‘loser’ attacking the judges, blaming a fellow contestant, heckling the winner at the closing ceremony, later writing to demand that the chief judge be prevented from judging again and asking judge to resign from Toastmasters. ( That’s not counting events where I was not present: 

a wrong announcements at a Toastmasters Contest which we all heard about it at an Area Club Officer Training - 

plus ongoing repercussions for a Toastmaster making the wrong announcement at a Miss World contest.) 

Put the voting count in your pocket and throw it away elsewhere. Don’t leave it on the lectern, nor in the bin.

At club meetings a speaker finding they had only one vote or none could be demoralised and depressed. You don’t have to have names on the ballot sheet or voting count to know that if nobody voted for you, your best friend or wife or President voted for somebody else or didn’t bother to vote at all so you missed out on a ribbon or lost a contest, or to feel that nobody in the club likes you.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

Ask around at break time if anybody wants to make announcements.

End with clear announcement of the date of the next meeting for visitors to put in their diaries. 

Allow time for announcements. Check in advance if the President or visiting area director or member of another club has an announcement so instead of last minutes discussion across the room and exchanges with you like an afterthought, they can be welcomed on stage.

CLOSING ADDRESS

Don’t just mutter, ‘That’s it. 'bye'. End with a cheer or round of applause!

Angela Lansbury CL ACG

annalondon8@gmail.com

Author, travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, blogger.com and YouTube.

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk

Fulfilling Objectives of Project Manuals - Workshops, Mentors

Many people treat Toastmasters as a place where they can practise speeches for their business, for fun, for an objective, prepare a speech without looking at the manual, then look for a project it will fit. They are too busy to read the manual. Several ways to address this: Firstly ensure that the speaker has the manual at every meeting. Add bring your manual to the agenda sent out. Keep doing show of hands, who remembered the manual, who forgot. Ask those who remembered their manual to explain why they bring it and how they remember and find it.

 WORKSHOPS Run a regular workshop at a meeting every three months on using manuals for all new members.

MENTORS Ask mentors to explain the manual before new members give the first speech. Assign mentors for all ten speeches, not just the first three. Remind everyone that to obtain a credit in the leadership manual they have to mentor. Try reverse mentoring. Some clubs insist that members alternate a speech and a role to ensure that roles are filled and that pressure on speech slots is reduced and each member completes both manuals. Assign the person who got the CC without doing projects to be a mentor. Ask their mentee, a member who has completed their CC and is doing it again, to ask the mentor for help in choosing subjects fitting the role. Pick the most diplomatic member to discuss this privately. Hold a meeting workshop devoted to the subject of using manuals, with demos of speeches or how to tweak them to fit the manual.

READING ALOUD OBJECTIVES AT MEETINGS Ensure that objectives are read out by the evaluator before each speech.

OPENING SPEECH AT MEETING COVERS MANUALS Ask whoever opens the meeting, The President or the Toastmaster of the evening, to remind audience before voting that the project should have fulfilled the objectives so the speakers are more likely to win a ribbon if following objectives. Run regular workshops on using manuals or ask TME to describe the use of manuals in the opening speech at every meeting. Assign mentors for all ten speeches, not just the first three.

PRE-VOTING REMINDER Mention manual objectives before voting for best speech.Assign mentor whose job is to speak to each speaker after their speech, in the break, to discuss how project objectives can be filled in next project to ensure speech follows manual. Ask the evaluator to mention whether speech fulfils the objectives. Point out that all aspects of speaking covered by projects are used in judging at contests. Do a 'roast' on the person who does not follow the manual, the real person, or a fictional character. (Anybody doing a roast should check that the person they are mentioning is happy with every part of the speech. Even if the subject says he does not want that subject mentioned, you have had the chance to raise it.
Angela Lansbury

Last meeting at Glebe Hall for Harrovian Speakers' Club

Our last meeting at Glebe Hall was presided over by President Seema. Behind her, wearing the blue ribbon and medallion is the incoming president Jayanthiny.

Lorna's subject for Table Topics theme was the monarchy. Her first topic was: Do we need a monarchy? 

She chose me to answer. I jumped up and said, "Yes, we do need a queen. I always think, why is it not me?" The other speakers were: Suchil; Badal; Jay; Viori (of Northern Lights); Indra; Warren; Sanjay.

Jay won the ribbon for best evaluation. A guest won the ribbon for best table topic. Ribbons were awarded to all three speakers.

Indra evaluated Table Topics.

Jesus gave a speech evaluated by Angela.

Amparo (her tenth speech, the motivational speech) was evaluated by Jay.

Sushil gave an educational speech on how to use the Easy-Speak website. Your username is your first initial and your surname because that is the way the system is set up worldwide. 

You should log in to say whether you are attending the next meeting, because that is required before you can request a speech slot. The VPE or TME then allocates the slots according to requests and availability.

Warren was language evaluator.

In addition to the good and bad things he heard, I heard:

My opic - what's an epic? - which I later realised was one word, myopic.

Jayanthiny was General Evaluator.

The next meeting will be at a new venue nearer to Canons Park. Contact the club to find out. 

Angela Lansbury, ACG, CL.

Speech Guide For Toastmaster Or President

Your meeting will go more efficiently and be less stressful if you check in advance by phoning the participants the weekend or night before or both. Check everybody is in the country, in good health, has remembered the meeting, has prepared, and has everything they need.

Check the main speaker/s and evaluator/s and mentors have contacted each other. Have the speakers brought or asked for any needed props such as a flipchart or projector or projector extension lead. Does the Grammarian have a printed word of the day.

Will everybody bring any manuals? If a first time speaker has no manual, the TME or mentor should send them or talk them through the requirements of the speech and timing it.

Can the speakers or committee members give you any introductions to speakers, whatever would increase the speaker's confidence or make the audience clap. (Qualifications, and what they mean - such as a PhD - which is a doctor - not a doctor of law but a ... who spent five years researching English grammar).

Appoint a backup speaker with a backup speech in case of absent or delayed speakers (who might fall ill, get lost, or be stuck in traffic. That way you will have the minimum of three speakers required for voting.

Who opens the meeting? At many weddings and functions the Toastmaster who knows the venue, and the order of proceedings, opens and then invites the VIP of the evening to speak. But in a Toastmasters Intention speech training club the order of VIPs is usually to start with the experienced VIP President, who is the well known figure, who knows proceedings better than the Toastmaster of the Evening who is a novice practising the role.

The President and Toastmaster of the evening need to liaise and be clear which one will do which role of these:

1 Organisation History
For the benefit of newcomers and a reminder to old-timers:
Explain the origin and purpose of Toastmasters International to train speakers (remember the number of clubs and members, first in the USA, then worldwide, and perhaps the original of the new or longstanding club or the number of clubs in a city, or country or region, (such as London, UK, Singapore, Las Vegas, Asia, Australia).

2 Personal Past or Recent Inspiration
Tell a personal story starting with the benefit to the audience and a question to be answered when they hear your speech.
Present: For example, 'why the the car accident I saw / survived has also benefitted you'.

Past: Alternatively a historical story why I joined Toastmasters to speak at a wedding, give a presentation. Or a recent event: on my way here tonight; a dramatic incident such as seeing a car accident and realising life was short, being on a plane and praising fate or yourself you would write a speech.

End with a happy or funny note.

3 Arrange Seating / Latecomers' Seats
Assign an empty seat or two near the door for latecomers with an agenda.
Appoint a mentor to smile at latecomers. Or welcome latecomers.

If anybody has signified they will be late, warn the audience to reduce embarrassment. Start promptly, if necessary filling time with a game or going round the room asking everybody to say their name and whether they are a member or a guest. Welcome the latecomer. If the main speaker or any role filler is absent, assign the VPE, SAA or other committee member to phone and find out whether the speaker or evaluator will be arriving late but in time or if another must fulfil the role.

Contests
In contests the judges should not sit beside speakers.

Workshops and Training
Agendas.
Seating - warn people that they need to be seated next to those in the same role for group work later, or in pairs or groups of four, or with strangers for an introduce yourself exercise. Saves delay later.

4 Housekeeping Rules: Safety and comfort
Point out fire exits, toilets, and tell people about intervals and meeting end time to encourage them to wait.
Safety: Point out the fire exits.
Noise: Ask people to turn off phones or sit near exit door / aisle if they must have phones on to help latecomers or deal with emergencies. You will have more success if:

a) Turn off phones
You ask people to get out their phones, demonstrate by getting out yours, then ask them to turn off phones. Ask if anybody has a new phone and doesn't know how to turn it off. Getting out your own phone saves you the embarrassment of the Toastmasters or speaker's own phone going off.

b) Turn phones back on
Promise to remind them to put phones back on at interval and end of meeting. If I have forgotten to turn off my phone I am also likely to forget to turn it on. I decline to turn off the phone unless I am reminded to turn it back on, because if my taxi driver can't reach me at the end of the evening I will be stranded in a strange city at night.

Distribute Agendas, Papers and Pens
Hand out agenda / voting slips / Paper and pencils / copies of evaluator / judging forms

Introduce / welcome guests and VIPs

Run through agenda of the evening.
Encourage enthusiasm and clapping.
Use phrases such as:
Please clear the aisle, move chairs together or apart to make space for members of the audience to come forward. Look at the speaker and sit up. Don't slouch, fold your arms, frown, look at your phone, hunt in your bag. Don't whisper. If you must pass on a message, hand a three word note.
We encourage speakers by clapping like this!
We also smile!

Angela Lansbury, CL, ACG, travel writer and photographer, workshop leader, speaker.

Toastmasters Experience
I have been a committee member of two London Clubs, Harrovians and HOD. During my years at Toastmasters International which I joined in 2005 (ten years ago at the time of writing this post), I have given 40 speeches, reaching Advanced Communicator Gold.

 I am the author of five books about Wedding speeches and wedding etiquette written for Ward Lock Cassell including Wedding Speeches and Toasts. My book How To Be A Bridesmaid featured in the Singapore Library presentation on how to use the library given to a group of Expat visitors. I have presented workshops on how to speak impromptu with props grabbed from your pocket or venue; I have written two books on Quotations: Quick Quotations; Who Said What When.  

I visit clubs in Singapore and London, England every year and am happy to be Grammarian, Evaluator, General Evaluator or Speaker or Judge or any other role. 

I am also available outside London and Singapore, worldwide, if I can be tempted by a fee, an honorarium and/or offer of accommodation and transport. I will also interested in writing blog posts, brochures, websites, articles and books, either for my own amusement or profit, or for a fee and/or royalties.

CL - Competent Leader
ACG - Advanced Communicator Gold

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. 

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.)

Evaluate Speeches With Confidence - Workshop by Hilary Briggs at Harrovian Speakers

Hilary Briggs, District Governor, UK South presented an Evaluation Workshop. President Indra Sikdar told us that Hilary had 25 years of business and management experience. She added later that she was an engineer. 

Indra read from the top of the evening's Agenda the Mission Statement:

Our mission is to provide a mutually supportive and positive learning environment in which every member has the opportunity to develop communication and leadership skills, which in turn foster self-confidence and person growth.

Indra Sikdar, President of Harrovian Speakers' Club; Hilary Briggs, District Governor UK South

Front: Angela Lansbury, a former President of Harrovian Speakers, Indra Sikdar, current President of Harrovian Speakers

Middle row l-r: Reliable Lorna who teaches EFL; cheerful Seema Menon, a committee member who could be a future president; erudite Chi who gave a speech which challenged us but a collaborative group of six managed to decipher most of it and evaluate it; Jay Makwana a generous and on time car-sharer; Ruth Vishnick, former president and ex tea shop owner who organises catering and in the past gave us a demonstration of scone making with scones to eat in the interval; Peter Jones who conducts humanist funerals in you are planning a funeral of anybody else or leaving instructions in your will for your own; Hilary Briggs - VIP of the evening

Back row l-r: Jesus Parada - pronounced Hey - Zuss, because he's Spanish speaking from Venezuela; Sanjay Ratnam who makes you feel that being time keeper and finishing on time is not a penalty but an achievement; Warren Sheng who delivers humorous speeches mostly about how as club treasurer he has saved us all money; Amparo Villamil,  Guest who we hope will be a member my next meeting - we are as keen for new friends t join us as we hope they are to join us and learn new skills - most of us - in our club and members worldwide, are sorry we didn't discover the club sooner - why wait?; 'Jay' Jayanthiny Kangatharan - another Jay; peeping from the back, Nigel Tranah, Hilary Briggs, our VIP, happy after successfully training us all to give better evaluations of speeches. 

Front: Angela Lansbury, ACG, CL, a former President of Harrovian Speakers, Indra Sikdar, ATMS AL, current President of Harrovian Speakers

Middle row l-r : Seema Menon, 'Chi' Chinemelu Ezeh, Jay Makwana, Ruth Vishnick, Peter Jones, Hilary Briggs

Back row l-r : Sanjay Ratnam, Warren Sheng, Amparo Villamil,  Guest, Jayanthiny Kangatharan, Nigel Tranah

Hilary Briggs explained how to evaluate.

Four speeches were presented and evaluated:

First Prepared Speech: Should Have Gone to Specsavers by Ruth Vishnick CC.

Second Prepared Speech: Icebreaker - Why Toastmasters and about myself by Amparo Villamil. 

Third Prepared Speech by Warren Sheng.

Fourth Prepared Speech The Systems of The Mind by 'Chi'.

Future meetings:
Area Contest at Watford Speakers from noon on Saturday March 7th 2015.

Committee Meeting / Party President's Birthday., at a committee member's home.

Time: 19:00

Date: 9 April 2015.

Expect cake made by Ruth Vishnick who used to own a tea shop in Pinner. Our committee meetings are potluck food, bring what you like, which simplified catering, but please RSVP so we can give you the address give the host the guest list and have sufficient chairs.

Glossary:
ACS Advanced Communicator Silver
ACG Advanced Communicator Gold
AL Advanced Leader
ALB Advanced Leader Bronze
ATMS Advanced Toastmaster Silver
CC Competent Communicator

Hilary Briggs provided a handout to those who attended the meeting. Members who were unable to attend the meeting can contact President Indra SIkdar and ask to be put in touch with Hilary or be emailed her handout.
 For more about clubs see earlier and later posts.

Angela Lansbury is a member of Harrovian Speakers meeting two Mondays a month in Stanmore, HOD meeting two Thursdays a month in Harrow. She is also a former member of clubs in Singapore which she visits regularly. She has written several books, including four on speaking: The History of Harrovian Speakers; Wedding Speeches & Toasts; Quick Quotations; Who Said What When? She is a mentor for speakers, in person or online.