German from the President, a former policeman on traffic lights, and chocolates

From left: Jesus, President Jayanthiny, Michael, Krzysztof.

Photo taken and edited by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

"As mentoring co-ordinator I sent around a piece of paper for people to give their name and the name of their mentor. I am mentoring co-ordinator with a committee of Lorna and Ruth.

"The evening opened with Jayanthiny addressing us in German. I know there are German speaking clubs but I don’t think this has ever been done before in an English speaking club. 

"Some people did not recognize which language she was speaking. It was an original idea and I am very keen to see us speaking languages and learning languages. 

Jayanthiny, President of Harrovian Speakers' Club, with the club banner, Michael beside her, on the right tall Krzysztof and Jesus. Photo taken and edited by Angela Lansbury. Copyright 2017. 

"It would have been useful to distribute a handout with the German. I hope she does this again. Next time I would like to hear alternating sentences translated - a sentence in German then Jayanthiny or another could have read the translation in English. 

"That is what you might do at a wedding. I have written books on wedding speeches and wedding etiquette and this is what I would recommend to an audience of mixed languages. 

"Toastmasters has a German manual. Next time I would also like to be emailed the introduction in advance as I am learning German through Duolingo. I could also have acted as interpreter and translated it on paper and at the meeting for my own benefit or for everybody else’s. (I have done simultaneous translation from French at conferences.)

"One of my dreams is to start a multi-lingual online Toastmasters Club. Or an advanced club which is multi-lingual.

"Democracy was the theme of Harrovians' Speakers' Club meeting on Monday June 5th 2017. Toastmaster of the Evening and VPE Sushil had chosen this subject.

"Our first speaker, Adam, was missing because his wife was about to give birth. Everybody had sent him good wishes on Whats Ap during the day. 

"Jesus entertained us with a series of jokes about the funny things children say. 

“Jayanthiny’s speech gave us strategies for selling, five steps, starting with knowing your customers or audience, ending with making sure they see themselves enjoying the successful solution to a problem

"Seema encouraged us to do High Performance Leadership. I learned that you can do this at any stage of your Toastmasters path, although it comes in as an option for the CL manual project on mentoring. 

"Michael Francis gave an entertaining ice breaker speech about his career as a policeman in Wembley. He tested us on our knowledge of real traffic lights, not the ones we use to time speeches. 

"Amparo’s speech topics were bang up to date on the subject of democracy.  Sushil encouraged us all to vote in the elections in the UK held nationally next Thursday.

"When I wrote  the above paragraph, I first wrote that Sushil encouraged us to vote. That was ambiguous. In this context you might have though I meant to encourage us to vote for best speaker. I don't know if he noticed it. He didn't mention it, but he could have linked voting for the best speaker in a Toastmasters meeting to voting in the elections.

"In the interval we were treated to chocolates by a visitor who is planning a chocolate business They taste as good as they look. I do hope she becomes a member!"

Photo taken and edited by Angela Lansbury. Copyright 2017.

I am a professional author and photographer, so If you copy this text elsewhere please quote me and give me the photo credits. Please give me a photo credit for "Photographs by Angela Lansbury.” Or if you are using them to promote Toastmasters on a Toastmaster website "Photos courtesy of Angela Lansbury." If you wish you may add, in the style of Wikipedia : “Photos edited and uploaded to this newsletter / website by user ...(your name)."

Angela Lansbury, author of:

Wedding Speeches and Toasts. (Word Lock and Cassell.)

Quick quotations. (See Lulu and Amazon.)

Who said what when? (Quotations by day of the year. See Lulu.com and Amazon.)

Please bookmark your favourite pasts and share links to them.

Testimonials from feedback for books, websites, confidence

Producing a new book, you find you are told to put testimonials. Years ago I was very anti testimonials. Big companies did not need testimonials. Only suspicious mail order companies wrote themselves suspect testimonials from anonymous or first name people. But now marketing people everywhere are saying that you need testimonials.

Ideally you should have testimonials from famous people. If you can't, you just need testimonials from others. If you are shy and modest, it's hard to get the courage to ask for testimonials. The people asked are worried about committing themselves, are too busy, or don't know what sort of testimonial to give.

However, if you are a member of toastmasters international and go to speakers meeting, every time you do a speech or a role, you get written testimonials in the form of feedback, either in your manuals, or on feedback slips or both; and if you are not a member of a club, but give any kind of service or product, you can enclose a form asking for feedback.

It's important to keep a record of who wrote the testimonial, and what it was about. I ended up with a lot of slips in pockets or bags, with vague statements such as, 'Brilliant', well done.

The solutions are:
1 Ask people at the time to write their names on the feedback forms.
2Write the subject of your speech on the top, even a word, or the date as a reminder.
3 As soon as you get home, either staple to feedback slips to your manual of speeches. Or make up a folder with the speeches in transparent pages and the feedback slips either in a pocket, or help together by a staple or paperclip.

When you start a new book or website on the subject of your speech, go back and find comments.
You can, if you wish, ring up the person who gave their comment and ask for permission to quote their whole name, first and last names. If they don't like that idea, they might agree to be described as, member of ... workshop / college / event.

Whether or not this give potential buyers confidence to buy your book or service, it is a real confidence booster to you.

Angela Lansbury, writer, photographer, tutor, author.