PR Officer Deborah Goodman Interviews Bromley Speakers member, John Vickers

Hi John, thanks for giving this interview. It’s great to have you with us at Bromley Speakers Club. I’d like to kick this off by asking you what do you do for your job?

Hi Deborah. I head up the client services team of eight account managers at an online advertising network.

That sounds like a busy role. Were you a Toastmaster before you joined Bromley Speakers or is this the only club you have been a member of?

No, it’s not my first club actually. When I lived in Ealing, I tried Hammersmith Athenians and I attended Trojan Toastmasters in Ealing for a couple of months back in 2012, completing my first Ice Breaker. 

I liked that Ealing Trojans meetings were early in the week (I think they held their meetings every Monday) so by Tuesday I felt very productive. 

When I moved to Bromley I tried Bromley Speakers, but I was not in the right frame of mind at the time. It took me two more goes until it took hold at the end of 2016. Even then, I took a 9-month break from it. I saw how people had progressed when I came back, which really showed me how much I had missed by not attending. So now I make it a point to attend Toastmasters whenever I can, even if I do not feel like it.   

“I don’t think I have ever regretted attending a meeting, but I certainly have regretted avoiding one”

That’s interesting that you say that. Yes, we don’t realise how much we are missing out when we don’t attend the meetings. I’m so glad that you came back and that you are finding it beneficial. How long have you been at Bromley Speakers club now?

It’s been three and a half years, including the 9-month break.

That’s longer than me. I’ve been here about a year less than you. I know why I joined, but I’d like to hear why you wanted to join Toastmasters.

I have been in B2B (Business to Business) sales for most of my working life, which you would think meant I could speak to people. Unfortunately though, I am introverted and I have almost always had a phobia of public speaking, never liking the limelight. I was able to work well on a one-to-one basis, but put me in front of a group and I would crumble. 

As I grew professionally, I didn’t want a fear of public speaking to hold me back in my career. There was one time during my nine-month break when I was afraid to pick up the phone, which is not a good ‘feature’ for a sales person.

“So, rather than change careers, I decided to deal with it”

That’s brave of you. We often only seek help to improve ourselves when we feel that we can’t carry on the way things are. When it gets so bad that we HAVE to do something!

And so now you’ve been with us for over 3 years, can you tell me some of the things that you like or love about being in Toastmasters and in Bromley Speakers specifically?

Yes, of course. When I first started, I was a little suspicious, thinking Toastmasters was a multilevel marketing scheme! Over time, my barriers have broken down and now I feel different. I love the fact that everyone at Bromley Speakers (and Toastmasters) is looking to improve themselves, either with public speaking or leadership. Every single role in Bromley Speakers is taken up by volunteers – it’s a very positive environment to make friends. 

Thanks, I feel the same way about the friendship aspect at Bromley Speakers actually. People are so supportive and I get a real sense of genuine friendship with no competitiveness or unhealthy judgements in the club. I really miss the face-to-face meetings at the moment, although the online meetings are working really well.

There’s a busy schedule at Toastmasters meetings. What do you think about the format of the meetings?

I like the format of the meetings; having the speeches first, then the evaluations and lastly the Table Topics. I have attended other club meetings and the Table Topics session was at the beginning which meant some members left before the prepared speeches!

I’ve never heard of it being that way around before. What do you think about the Table Topics sessions?

When I first started, Table Topics terrified me, I barely made it to 30 seconds first of all.  Sitting in the audience, waiting to be called up to speak about a topic for 1-2 minutes felt like The Hunger Games. The sigh of relief by not being selected, it felt I could live for another day. I even started to take on meeting roles just so there was less chance of being picked for a topic! 

Then, over time, I realised this was holding me back and I worked out how to handle Table Topics, which is to ALWAYS put my name down.

By practicing each meeting, my impromptu speaking has improved considerably and I almost look forward to Table Topics now.

That is an incredible strategy, good for you! I think it’s very brave of you and I commend you for that.

In what other ways has Bromley Speakers helped you with your work and social life?

Bromley Speakers has given me a lot more confidence to speak in front of people, and also with leading my team. I even used some of the warm-ups from the club with my own team meetings. The impromptu storytelling (where everyone says a word to make a story) makes a regular showing.  During lockdown, I have three Zoom video calls a day with my team as well as weekly client calls.  The experience, advice and feedback I have received from Bromley Speakers has meant I’ve been more confident with the calls. Bromley Speakers recently organised two actors who presented a workshop which has helped me with video calls, and Dave Henson’s slide presentation course has helped with looking at presentations differently.

I do like it when we have a workshop, I learn so much more from them.

We’ve talked about the positive impact that Toastmasters has had on you but have you found any negative aspects to being in the club?

The one negative thing I have found from Toastmasters is that I notice when other people haven’t been trained in public speaking, especially with ‘ums and ahs’. I attend trade shows and exhibitions, where talks are given. I want to give out flyers for Toastmasters to help these extremely talented people improve their delivery! Toastmasters and Bromley Speakers has helped me become a more considered and thoughtful speaker.

That could be considered a positive though because it means that you are much more aware of your own ‘ums and ahs’. But it must be a bit grating when you are more aware when others do it! You could be focusing more on the ‘ums and ahs’ than the talks! Maybe we should get T-Shirts made with ‘Join Toastmasters and become a better communicator, ask me for details’ on them!

Being a member of Toastmasters often helps people with their personal relationships. Have you seen any benefits in this area at all?

I’d like to think my relationship with my family has also improved by me attending Bromley Speakers. I hopefully take ‘feedback’ better from my wife, and I try to be more considerate when giving advice to my son. Explaining to him about how I have felt when giving speeches has helped him manage his own stage fright!

That is just priceless, I love that. By taking on the role of evaluator, we really improve our listening skills and people usually listen more to their loved ones, sometimes without even realising they are doing it. It seems that you have a very good awareness of your communication skills.

An important part of the meetings is the feedback. What do you learn from the feedback, do you find it helpful?

When I first started Toastmasters, I found the feedback to be quite tough to take onboard – not really understanding that Toastmasters is a ‘safe space’ to fail – and by failing in Toastmasters, it makes me stronger outside of it. 

The thing everyone needs to remember with Toastmasters, is that everyone is learning, including the evaluators. Just because one person picks up on an aspect of your speech, it doesn’t mean that others see the same thing.  It also helped me to have my mentor, Susan Rayner, giving me another point of view. 

With regards to receiving evaluations, I have asked myself this question: ‘how did I feel when someone said X to me? Could I word it better?’. This has helped me soften my feedback as sometimes I feel that it can be quite direct.

I totally agree John. Feedback is given from people’s own perspective and level of knowledge and we can take on board what we think is valuable to us and helpful. Every bit of feedback is given as helpful advice and its purpose is to help us to grow, to become better speakers and better leaders. It wouldn’t be helpful to us not to receive honest feedback and that’s the whole point of it all. But no-one likes to be told that they could have done better, even if they know it.

At Toastmasters, taking on board feedback is another learning for us. To actually listen to it, think about it and apply what we feel is helpful is very valuable. It’s a skill that a lot of people outside of Toastmasters would benefit from in general life I think.

Bearing this in mind, would you say that you find the club welcoming, friendly, supportive and helpful?

YES! Everyone is so welcoming and friendly; there is a great supportive atmosphere where everyone has come to learn and give their time.  

I can see that Bromley Speakers is extremely beneficial to your life, and it is also fun and friendly. What else do you do for fun?

Pre- or during-lockdown? Pre-lockdown, I enjoyed spending time at the gym, relaxing for hours on end in the sauna or swimming with my 7-year-old son.  Now, it’s lots of sci-fi reading, online learning (such as LinkedIn learning or TED talks), podcasts, walking the dog or trying to do some exercise. I have started to learn the electric guitar but I think that’ll be something for the long haul as I am not naturally musical.

I think we are all missing a lot of what we used to love. It sounds like you are very resourceful and utilising your time well.

A year ago you took on a committee role and the club is grateful to you for that. The club would not exist if it were not for the committee so it’s important that we have people volunteer to help run the club. You have just signed up for a second year on the committee. How have you found the experience and what has been your role this past year?

I have been on the committee for 2019-2020, being the Club Secretary and VP Mentoring. The Club Secretary helps to manage the admin of the club, keeping records up to date in Easyspeak and taking meeting minutes. The VP Mentoring role helps with matching mentees and mentors for the club.  It’s been a ‘year of two halves’. I was initially taken aback with how much happens behind the scenes; the hard work the committee puts in for the running of the club, the competitions and also the club officer training.

Then, the coronavirus pandemic happened in the UK. The committee changed to cope with this – initially from discussions about whether we should continue to shake hands in face-to-face meetings, through to online Zoom meetings, supporting members during this time and working out how to ensure the club continues to meet. My role has been small but I have been incredibly impressed with how the committee pivoted, and we have even seen attendance increase during this time! I am looking forward to taking on the larger role of VP Membership next year.

You’ve done a great job John, with TWO roles! Have you been on any other committees in the past for anything else?

No, this year is the first time I have been on a committee.

That’s great, thank you for helping the club in this way John.  Is there any advice you would give to other members or anyone thinking of joining Toastmasters?

If you are struggling, please get a mentor. A mentor can help with everything from just one speech to the whole of your Toastmasters journey. My mentor, Susan Rayner, has been very supportive and I have found it incredibly helpful to have someone to bounce ideas off, as well as give me feedback. 

Also, take up as many leadership roles as you can. I created a to-do list of all the roles I wanted to complete, ticking them off each time. I knew I had cracked it when I was Contest Chair for the International Speech Contest in 2019 – it might not have been my best performance, but I learnt so much from the experience, including how understanding other members are when things go wrong!

That is great advice and I hope that the people reading this will take it on board. Thank you and well done for taking on the role of Contest Chair. I think that this has been an incredible year for you at Bromley Speakers!  Do you have any final words for us John?

The initial clubs I tried were a little too early on my path to Toastmasters. My heart will always be at Bromley Speakers. Completing an Ice Breaker is one thing, but getting truly involved with Toastmasters with leadership roles is very different.

I always learn much more about my fellow members through conducting these interviews. Thank you so much for your time, honesty and openness John. I wish you the very best for another great year at the club and on the committee.

By Deborah Goodman VPPR

The Coronavirus lockdown is now in its eighth week and as many Toastmasters clubs are becoming more and more adept at holding their meetings online, there has never been a better time to use the word ‘headcount’ to describe the number of people present at our meetings.

Once again, we had a busy room at Bromley Speakers on Thursday with the ‘headcount’ reaching 25. We were delighted to welcome as guests, no less than four past Presidents of Bromley Speakers – Winston Marshall, Edwin Woodger, Joe De Souza and Roman Klimczak. What an honour it was to have them with us.

We also had another five ex-Presidents who are still club members with us in the room, namely David Henson, Susan Rayner, Richard Green, Jenny Taggart and Neil Pettigrew. That means that we had a total of NINE past Presidents in one room!

Edwin Woodger was a particularly special guest as he actually founded the club at his home 28 years ago in 1992. Edwin was joining us from Essex where he is in lockdown with his children and grandchildren and this is a great example of where online meetings or hybrid meetings could be a useful tool in the future, even after this crisis is over. What a great opportunity it was to meet him and we thank all of our special guests for joining us.

As our President Christine Morrell was unfortunately having a bit of difficulty with her sound, our VPE Susan Rayner took the opportunity to tell us about the Pathways rollout. This will be implemented from 1^st July and everyone is required to be registered on it by then. Susan is running training sessions on Basecamp and Pathways, and she kicked this off with a beginner’s guide to Basecamp on Saturday.

Despite Christine’s audio challenges, she did manage to deliver an uplifting message, reminding us all that we have embraced the lockdown challenge and that our leadership team is the best. I have to agree with her on that, we have an extremely supportive committee and our leaders in the Area, Division and District have also been enthusiastic and supportive. She reassured us that, not only will we survive but that we will THRIVE!

It is time now to renew our committee and we are still asking for three roles to be filled.

* Vice President Public Relations
* Vice President Education
* Sergeant at Arms

Although we won’t be able to hold our traditional annual dinner at the beginning of the new Toastmasters’ year in July, the new committee will hand over online and there will be a big celebration as soon as possible when lockdown is over.

Christine introduced Cecilia Mbullah, our Toastmaster.

“She lights up the room and will bring a sparkle to our online world this evening.”

Cecilia certainly did light up the room with her charisma and enthusiasm and did a great job of running her first online meeting as Toastmaster.

Her helpers for the evening were:

Timekeeper – Jenny Taggart
Ah Counter – Deborah Goodman
Warm up – Caroline Jeffrey
Hot Tip – Karen Mefflin

Karen’s Hot Tip for the evening was to talk about something we are passionate about when delivering a speech, and not to bombard the audience with too much information.

Prepared Speeches

We had two prepared speeches, delivered by Vinu Madhavan and Richard Green.

Black Gold by Vinu Madhavan

Presentation Mastery #1-4 – Researching and Presenting

Vinu Madhavan had a strong opening and engaged the audience from the start with her question, ‘who composts?’

Her speech, as you may have guessed, was about her journey from not composting, to creating her own ‘black gold’ compost.

She used a banana skin as a prop and the visual on screen worked well. Vinu always litters her speech (sorry, couldn’t resist that one!) with excellent visual phrases such as ‘the landfill is an endless sea of rubbish’, which I thought was a great description.

Vinu gave us some statistics such as ‘28% of rubbish is food waste’. She told us how she made her own composter (well done Vinu) and she gave us a call to action at the end to get composting our food waste. It was a brilliant, well thought out and well-rehearsed speech.

Just One More Week by Richard Green

Presentation Mastery #1-3 – Evaluation and Feedback – 2 (5:00-7:00 min).

Richard Green, as usual, was engaging and effervescent when delivering his speech about his enjoyment of being in lockdown and the benefits it brings. His speech was not only jam-packed with comedy but also conveyed some important messages.

Richard told us how his pride soars each Thursday at 8pm when he goes outside his house to beat his saucepan in a tribute to the NHS and carers.

He reminded us how the planet is starting to recover and he joked that even Greta Thunberg has raised a smile! It was a joke, but also an important truth and time in history.

Richard was relishing the fact that the world has slowed down. He said that we are all ‘walking at a wonderful pace’ and I loved that description of a slower pace of life. Many of us have wished for things to slow down a bit and Richard reminded us to be careful what we wished for.

He pointed out to us that people have now re-connected with nature as they are enjoying the great outdoors and that he has even become a tree-hugger. People have discovered new hobbies and we have all had to get ‘tech-savvy’ to continue connecting with each other.

Richard asked the question that is on most people’s minds right now.

“How am I going to fit it all in when they let me out?”

I think he was right when he said that we will look back on this period with ‘lockdown nostalgia’ and again, I love his use of language. He left us with this final plea:

Our speech evaluators for the evening were John Cross and Neil Pettigrew.

Table Topics

Out Table Topics Master was Susan Shaw who did a great job of handing out some great topics. The Table Topics winner was one of our distinguished guests, Joe De Souza with his emotional tale of ‘love is blind’.

David Hampton evaluated the topics from his treadmill, as he didn’t get a chance to do his daily exercise. David is one of those who is lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view) to be working as hard as ever at this time.

David Wilson was our General Evaluator for the meeting and he preceded Christine who wrapped up the meeting with the award for best Table Topic. As there were only two speeches on Thursday, there was no vote for the best speaker or evaluator.

Conclusion

This is a time of great uncertainty for many and there is so much being spoken about the current situation. One positive thing that has happened to me is that I have got to know my neighbours after we celebrated the 75^th anniversary of VE day on Friday. I’ve lived in my street for 22 years and only knew my immediate neighbours up to now. We are now benefitting greatly from our newly-found local friendships at this time.

Celebrating history reminds me that these blogs will now become a part of our current history. A record of how Covid-19 affected the people of England and not only the situation that Toastmasters members find themselves in with having to meet online, but a record of events through the topical speeches that have been delivered through this period, at the club.

Vinu’s speech is particularly apt at this time of re-adjustment. People who have time on their hands are clearing out their houses as the refuse centres and boot fairs are closed. People are recycling and upcycling more than ever and are leaving items outside their houses for others to take. Just yesterday I acquired some books, a small table and chairs, a blackboard and a light for my great niece from a lady in my road who I didn’t even know a week ago and I have heard many similar stories.

Richard’s speech was a record of how the lockdown has changed us for the better. He focused on the positive aspects of slowing down and having more time to do the things we love and how our essential services and those who work in them are more valued than ever.  Life for many has become more and more stressful in recent years and people are now beginning to realise that what we are missing is not our material possessions but our family and friends. 

Bromley Speakers meets every 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th Thursday of each month. Guests are welcome to join us in our online meetings.

Date and Time:
Apr 30, 2020 18:45 (GMT)

Instead of our usual meeting on Thursday, we have a different and very exciting event on Zoom – a speaking and slide presentation masterclasses!

Join us to get top insights from three leading experts in this valuable session.

Part One

Actor and Effective Communication Coach, Stu Goodwin helps leaders achieve confidence, integrity and clarity by focusing on vocal technique, body language and bringing content delivery to life.

Stu will be joined by Actor and Writer Simon Thorpe to talk about how to use your voice when speaking online as well as how to appear professional in front of the camera.

Part Two

David Henson, The Slide Presentation Man, will show you how to create slides that will WOW your audience and make your presentations engaging, empowering and effective whether speaking online or in-person.

We are so lucky to have them all with us on Thursday to share their knowledge and skills and this is a not-to-be-missed one-off event – so please make sure that you register for it.

You must register to join us. Register using the link below.

https://zoom.us/…/regi…/tJEkd-ysqzItGNSADIQe_yCZ3EHK-hQfX-5B

Please note that this is a different registration number to our usual online meetings.

We look forward to seeing you there!

Bromley Speakers held another successful online meeting on Thursday (17th April) with 27 members and 2 guests in attendance.

Zoommaster

The Zoommaster is a newly-created role in response to the current situation of holding our meetings online. Our talented Zoommaster was David Henson who works hard behind the scenes to make these online meetings happen, for which we are all thankful.

Success story

David explained the protocol of the meeting before our President Christine Morrell welcomed us with her own success story of how, only six weeks ago, she would have avoided online meetings like the plague (or more aptly like the Coronavirus – I wonder if that saying will now be changed forever!) but, because of having no option but to deliver the Toastmasters meetings online, she has now hosted two successful online events this week in her daytime work environment.

She enthused that she has Toastmasters to thank for this achievement as it’s such a supportive environment to learn and practise in.

Toastmaster

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Vinu Madhavan. Christine commented that she has seen Vinu blossom and grow in the three years that she has been with Bromley Speakers and I have to agree. She takes on the roles with gusto and confidence and made us laugh when she told us how she has learned a new skill in the lockdown – that of a hairstylist, cutting her husband’s hair. I wonder how many people are turning their hand to this new pastime?

Warm-up

Caroline Jeffrey is another member who throws herself into the roles with enthusiasm. She relishes an opportunity to get involved and led the warm-up by asking us if we are a ‘sweet or savoury’ person and, as such, what are our favourite sweet or savoury dishes? We discovered that we are a mixed bunch of sweet, savoury or a combination of both. I thought that was a great idea for a warm-up, leaving some of us a little peckish at the thought of lemon meringue pie, chips and crisps!

Timekeeper

James Kirkby expertly kept the timing in check, using the Toastmasters-created backscreen colours for the first time and they worked extremely well.

Prepared speeches

Our first prepared speaker was Ben Lopez with a speech entitled ‘The Magic of Isolation – Aren’t We The Lucky Ones’. It was just what we needed to focus on the positives of the ‘stay at home’ situation we find ourselves in, so a great choice of speech at this time of uncertainty – oops, I mean opportunity!

Ben shared with us his experience of home schooling his children and how he decided to ensure that the lockdown situation would be a positive experience for his family. We chuckled when he told us that his children had invented a new game of ‘throw the beanbag at Dad’ and how his diet had gone out of the window! He told us that being creative and working with ‘what we have’ has been a positive experience and that they have connected with more friends and family than ever. Ben has been passing on the positivity to friends and family around the world and it was a very uplifting talk. He finished on a high with a message of ‘never, never, never give up!‘

And on that note, we had a break and joined our neighbours outside to clap our appreciation for the NHS workers. Some of us could hear Eddie’s trumpet as he blasted it in the street and when we came back online Richard had a little strum on his guitar and David Henson also gave us a snippet of insight into his talent on his mandolin. It was a bit of light-hearted fun before we resumed the meeting.

Back to the task in hand, the next speech was delivered by Margot Glover and it was entitled ‘Not Smart’. At Toastmasters we work through a manual or a pathway with guidelines on which type of talks to deliver. Margot’s speech was from the Competent Communication Manual #9 – Persuade With Power.

Her remit was to persuade her listeners to adopt a viewpoint or ideas, or to take some action; Appeal to the audience’s interests; Use logic and emotion to support the position; Avoid using notes.

Margot told us that the original speech she prepared wasn’t appropriate to deliver in these challenging times, so she adapted her speech to tell us what she had learned from using online meeting tools. This was:

1. Before you start an online meeting, whatever type it is, you need to:

• Check your equipment and make sure it’s all in working order
• Check your position on the screen
• Check your background is suitable
• Dress appropriately for the meeting
• Comb your hair, put your make-up on – act the same as if you were going to a face-to-face meeting in this regard
• Think about your gestures – don’t point at the camera

2. Use your new skills to help others

For many of us, this is a brand new way of working and the information from Margot’s speech is really helpful and it’s great to be reminded of what works well and what doesn’t. Margot reminded us that online meetings may well continue to be the norm after the lockdown and so these Toastmasters meetings will hold us all in good stead going forward.

Margot definitely practised what she preached. She was well-positioned within her camera vision, she looked smart, we could see and hear her well and…. she’d combed her hair!

The speeches this week were, not surprisingly, about our current situation and our third speaker, John Cross followed in the same vein with his speech entitled ‘Out of Office’. This speech was from Pathways Presentation Mastery #3-5 – Connect with Storytelling.

His guidelines were to present an established story, a story about the speaker’s life, or a fictional tale of the speaker’s own creation.

John shared a personal story with us about how he was encouraged to write to his grandmother and about how he found other ways to communicate with his family. He told us that he enjoys being in the office and that he likes the camaraderie and company of his fellow workers and this is apparent as John is extremely good at getting people together in online games, meetings and gatherings.

It was a touching story and I am always interested to hear about people’s lives – the good and the challenging.

Evaluations

As usual we had three evaluators who gave us their thoughts and recommendations on the speeches.

Neil Pettigrew evaluated Ben Lopez, saying that he liked his style of presenting. He pointed out that Ben had a clever ending – the quote from Winston Churchill – never, never, never give up!

Sue Shaw evaluated Margot Glover and Tom Jewers evaluated John Cross. Tom noted that John’s speech had a good life-cycle and that he built the story. He commented on John’s friendly and open approach.

Evaluations are a difficult skill to master for most of us and all three evaluations were insightful, helpful and well-delivered. Well done!

Top tip

It was great to see Royston Pistone again after a period of absence due to work demands and he gave us a great tip about being prepared for the online meeting. He looked extremely smart in his suit jacket, shirt and tie and then we laughed when he got up from his desk and he had no trousers on! What a great joke that was. I do love it when there’s humour in the meetings.

Table topics

The table topics session was brought to us by Robert Parker who delivered a very clever session based on his deck of playing cards. Interestingly he told us that playing cards were invented in China and it is said that they were based around the four major pillars of the economy of the Middle Ages.

According to www.theplayingcardfactory.com/facts, hearts represented the church, spades represented the military, clubs represented agriculture, and diamonds represented the merchant class.

David Hampton won the best Table Topics award with his clever and quick-thinking speech about the 9 of spades. David told us the story of why he came to have nine spades in his shed.

Rajesh Deshmukh told us a beautiful love story about the 2 of hearts; Adrian Clay was given the ace of spades and, of course we heard about Mortorhead; The Joker was given to Susan Rayner who says that she isn’t funny but we all know that she has a good sense of humour so she can’t fool us with that one; Arun Vijay talked about the shape of the diamond; we were reminded by David Wilson that the queen of hearts would have trouble finding the ingredients for her tarts at the moment (and this is true because I can’t get any flour but, by the way, Polhill has LOADS of eggs – just saying).

The jack of clubs was given to Eddie Barnes who told us how he fixed his car with a playing card and avoided a £300 bill and the king of diamonds was received and delivered by Georgina Singleton who told us about her favourite card game, Sevens. She cleverly rounded off her impromptu speech by telling us that, where most of the other speakers said that they had been given their favourite card, the king of diamonds was actually her least favourite as it worked as an ‘end card’ in the game of Sevens.

Other roles and the awards

Jenny Taggart evaluated the Table Topics; Alain Culos reported on our um’s, ah’s and filler words; Richard Green delivered his Grammarian report and our use of the ‘word of the day’; Stir-Crazy!

Karen Mefflin delivered her evaluation of the meeting in general and our President Christine Morrell wrapped up the meeting with a positive vibe and delivered the awards of :

Best Speech – Ben Lopez

Best Evaluation – Sue Shaw

Best Table Topic – David Hampton

* Congratulations to you all *

Thank you to Susan Rayner VPE, who works hard alongside the Toastmaster Vinu Madhavan to ensure that the roles are all filled and that the agenda is up-to-date and to all of those who took part in the speeches and the roles.

What did we learn?

We learned that we need to check our equipment before a meeting. David Hampton had a problem with his tight area. Don’t be fooled by Royston’s appearance, it’s not what it seems. You can fix a car with a different kind of jack. It’s impossible to find the right ingredients for tarts at the moment. Speakers have musical talent.

We also learned that online meetings can be fun and work well, if done properly, and whatever challenges we face, we can overcome them together.

Other business

The next meeting – on 30^th April – will take a different format as it will be a Presentation Masterclass delivered by The Slide Presentation Man, David Henson. We are extremely lucky to have this opportunity to learn from the master so please do come along and join in if you can.

The after-meeting gathering in the virtual pub was different but fun and we discussed the meeting over a drink as well as larking around a bit with various musical instruments and banter.

Whatever your views on the world, the online meetings, the situation, it’s all OK. Stay positive, have fun, have respect, stay safe and keep smiling. For many this is an opportunity to take stock, to breathe deeply and to craft a speech!

We are a community. If you are struggling in any way, or just want to talk, I encourage you to reach out to your fellow Toastmasters, your mentor and/or your committee. Be there for each other, not only in these challenging times but always.

Stay positive

Deborah Goodman
PR Officer, Bromley Speakers

By General Evaluator, Neil Pettigrew

What a memorable meeting we had on 2^nd April. And how reassuring it is that, in these strange times, we can all stay in touch, still say a few ‘ers and ums’, still get supportive feedback from one another, and still have a few laughs.

I was General Evaluator on the night but, because of technical problems with my sound (still not resolved), my evaluation had to be abandoned. So I present it here in written format instead.

Several of my recommendations will be ‘Zoom-specific’. In other words, recommendations on how we can improve the way we look and sound on-line.

We had two Zoommasters for the on-line meeting.

Zoommaster #1 – David Henson

Once again David made sure that everything in the meeting went smoothly on a technical level. His lighting, background and sound were all good examples of how on-line speaking should be done.

I especially appreciated his suggestion about timing, because sometimes it isn’t easy to work out exactly where the time-keeper is on the Zoom screen. David’s suggestion was that we all need to take control of the timing of our speeches, by having some device in front of us that displays the time.

Zoommaster #2 – David Hampton

David’s sound and lighting were very good. He was especially good at explaining in easy-to-follow instructions how to do things, such as change the way your name is displayed on your Zoom tile.

Recommendation for David Hampton: David left at the end of the formal meeting and some people stayed on to chat. However, his tile was still showing and we weren’t sure if he was still there or not. It might be a good idea to clarify with David Henson what the correct protocol is for a departing the meeting when you are the Zoommaster.

President – Christine Morrell

Our president is so good at presenting on-line that I suspect she is an old hand at it. She spoke confidently and welcomed our guests in a friendly manner. Christine gave a brilliant summary of how we all have to learn new skills, and she coped impressively when told we were losing her audio. She gave a first class introduction to our Toastmaster-of-the-evening Robert Parker, having clearly given it much thought before the meeting.

Recommendation for Christine: On the technical issue – can her sound problems be resolved before the next meeting? 

Toastmaster – Robert Parker

It must be quite a daunting task being Toastmaster of a Zoom meeting but Robert made it look easy. I would like to thank him for getting in touch with me – and perhaps others – before the meeting, offering tips on using Zoom and asking if we had any concerns.

I liked the very positive message he gave about the NHS. He gave enthusiastic introductions for each of the prepared speakers, and he also added numerous humorous comments between each speech.

Recommendations for Robert:

1. As he realised later on, he had overlooked the 1-minute feedback slot after each speech – but he handled the oversight brilliantly, getting us to do all three feebacks after the final speaker. We had a break after the three speeches, whereas we normally have the break after the three evaluations. Was this planned or an oversight? I’m not sure.   
2. I believe the 8pm ‘NHS Clap’ is going to be a regular thing from now on. Many of us want to be on our doorsteps at 8pm and therefore I recommend that the Toastmaster re-jigs the agenda as necessary so that we are free to do so. For example, if it is 7.55 and the next item on the agenda is a 7-minute speech, then I suggest that the Table Topics Master be prepared to do a couple of topics, and the Toastmaster postpones the 7-minute speech until we all return from our doorsteps. What do other people think? I noticed that while Arun was delivering his ice-breaker, a number of people sneaked off to their front doors, which must have been disconcerting for Arun – but I must say he didn’t let it phase him!

Timekeeper – Harry Langley

Lateral thinking is what is needed in these unprecedented times, and Harry certainly came up with an excellent bit of improvisation to indicate timings – a green apple, an orange and a red apple! He also explained the role very clearly, and gave precise, thorough timings when asked. A job well done. 

Recommendations for Harry:

1. Try adjusting the camera position slightly – the bottom of Harry’s head was missing from the shot.
2. At the start of the meeting his image was a bit dark, but he altered his lighting as the meeting progressed. 

The Speeches

We had three prepared speeches.

We were all impressed with the Icebreaker speech by Arun Vijay, one of our newer members. The title of his speech was ‘How are You Doing?’ and at one point in the speech he asked his audience that question and then invited us all to pause and think quietly for ten seconds about our answer. What a brave technique to use in an icebreaker. 

Our second prepared speaker was Susan Rayner, delivering a speech entitled ‘Summer of ‘73’. This was a very personal, confessional speech about being bullied at school, and she held us all in the palm of her hands as she bravely told her story.

Our third prepared speech, entitled ‘Bridging the Gap’ was delivered by Sue Shaw who told us all about how she had conquered her fear of heights. It was a definite case of ‘Feel the fear and do it anyway’ and Sue walked away with the vote for best speech of the evening. Congratulations Sue!

Speech Evaluations

Evaluator #1 – David Wilson evaluated Arun Vijay

As we all know, David is a very experienced evaluator and he gave Arun some very supportive praise as well as two thoughtful recommendations.

Recommendation for David: David praised Arun’s hand gestures, but when he demonstrated this, his own hands disappeared out of the sides of the camera view. It’s something we all need to think about in this new medium: if we are going to use gestures, then we need to make sure our arms are still within camera range.

Evaluator #2 – Karen Mefflin evaluated Susan Rayner

Karen’s lighting and sound were both of excellent quality, making it easy to listen to her. She is a very experienced evaluator and as usual had listened carefully to the speech and came up with some thoughtful comments.

Recommendations for Karen:

1. The camera was placed a bit low, so that we were looking up at Karen. Try to position the camera so that it is level with your face.
2. I have noticed several times that Karen’s evaluations are short – on this occasion she spoke for only 1 minute and 58 seconds. Speakers deserve to receive evaluations which go the full three minutes. If you struggle to think of things to say, see the document I compiled a couple of years ago listing around thirty aspects of a speech that you can comment on.

Evaluator #3 – Caroline Jeffrey evaluated Sue Shaw

I am very impressed by how Caroline, who has only been a member for a couple of months, has jumped into the deep end and taken on her first evaluation. Not only that, but she evaluated one of our most experienced speakers. For a first time, it was surprisingly perceptive, giving praise and recommendations where appropriate. Her lighting and sound were both sharp and clear.

Recommendation for Caroline: For part of the evaluation, Caroline addressed her comments directly to Sue. It is better to address remarks to the whole audience so that we can all benefit from the recommendations. 

Other Roles

Ah Counter – Jenny Taggart

Jenny listened well to everyone’s speeches and gave a thorough report on all our ‘ers and ums’.

Recommendations for Jenny:

1. At the start, when Jenny explained the role, I would have liked to hear an explanation of WHY we count ‘ers and ums’.  
2. Jenny’s lighting was over-exposed, meaning we couldn’t see her properly and her head was too low in the frame (sofa too comfortable maybe?)

Grammarian – David Henson

I was impressed with the way David volunteered to take on the role with just a few seconds notice when the Toastmaster asked for someone to step forward.

Recommendation for David: He admitted that being Zoommaster and Grammarian was too much and he regretted volunteering to be Grammarian. He apologised that, as a result, his report was too short.

It would have been better to omit these negatives and just given us the report. I doubt if any of us would have noticed that it was a bit short. Why draw attention to your failings?

Warm-up – Vinu Madhavan

Vinu picked a highly relevant topic.

What new activity are we doing as a result of being stuck at home?

She announced each person’s name clearly so that we all knew when it was our turn and she remembered to include surnames when there was more than one person with the same first name. Her lighting was excellent.

Recommendation for Vinu: Sorry Vinu – I can’t think of one – you’re too good!

Hot Tip – Ben Lopez

What a great tip – go for a walk and practise your speech while you are on the move.

Recommendation for Ben: It looked and sounded like Ben was reading from notes, and as a result his presentation lost some freshness and energy. I bet he could have done it without any notes!

Table Topics Master – Tom Jewers

I loved the way Tom explained WHY we do Table Topics, and how we can benefit from doing them. I enjoyed his topics which were all about being quarantined. He kept his topics short, allowing the speakers the maximum time possible.

Recommendation for Tom: Sorry Tom – I couldn’t think of anything!

Table Topics Evaluator – Richard Green

Very good lighting and sound. Lots of thoughtful praise and recommendations.

Recommendations for Richard:

1) Recommendations were needed for Dave Henson and Margot Glover. 

2) There was some distracting pen waving.

3) If the timing was correct, he only spoke for five minutes when he had seven available.

General comments

Well done to John Vickers for winning best table topic by telling us about his favourite meal in isolation which he said would definitely not be bat stew!

I noticed that many of us dispensed with the usual protocol of starting our speeches with ‘Mr. Toastmaster, fellow Toastmasters and Guests’.  What do people think – should we still stick to this protocol on Zoom?

I am not sure why we went so over time. Was it the 8pm hand clapping? As a result, the table topics session was reduced to one minute per person, which is too short for someone to really develop an idea and grapple with it. I wonder, since we are all already at home, and therefore don’t need to worry about getting home after the meeting, perhaps the meeting could run on longer. That way we could make sure that EVERYONE gets a chance to speak, and the table topics could still be a full two minutes. What do people think? Another fifteen minutes perhaps?

Please leave your comments and feedback below. Thank you.

Note from PR Officer, Deborah Goodman

I would like to thank Neil for writing the blog as I was absent from the meeting. It’s easy for members to get disheartened at this difficult time and struggle to adapt to this new way of meeting and speaking; I have struggled with the stresses of the whole situation myself and I totally understand.

Bromley Speakers is an extremely strong and supportive team (or family as I like to call us) and has rapidly adjusted to this new way of working.

The committee is working exceptionally hard behind the scenes to keep the spirit and momentum of the club up.

Any member who is finding things a bit difficult should not hesitate to speak to either their mentor or another club member or reach out to the committee. We are in this together and we are always here for you.

I look forward to seeing you all at our next meeting on Thursday 16th April. In the meantime, stay safe and stay healthy.

Bromley Speakers Club meets on the 1^st, 3^rd and 5^th Thursdays of the month, at 7.15 pm. Our meetings are all on-line until the foreseeable future. For more information please email us
vppublicrelations@bromleyspeakers.co.uk

In view of the current Coronavirus crisis and the government guidelines to stay at home, we obviously cannot meet up at the moment so we have had to quite rapidly adapt to a new way of meeting.

At first it seemed that only the vulnerable would need to stay away and that we would hold a hybrid meeting with some people in attendance and others online, but with the situation rapidly changing and evolving it was soon apparent that we would not be meeting in person and would have to hold the meeting entirely online.

Bromley speakers committee wasted no time in getting together and organising its first online committee meeting using the remote conferencing services of Zoom Video Communications. For some of us it was the very first time we have used video communications in this way and we rose to the challenge wonderfully.

We are extremely lucky and thankful to have David Henson on our committee as, not only does he have great slide presentation skills, he has some extremely useful online conferencing experience and some useful equipment to get us all up and running with Zoom.

David shared his experiences and expertise with the committee at the Zoom meeting and we all tried it out for ourselves, in order to get a feel for it and we know that many other Toastmasters clubs were doing exactly the same at the same time.

That week we held our very first online club meeting and I am pleased to report that it was extremely well run and immensely successful.

Our members rose to the challenge spectacularly and the speaking slots and roles were soon filled by some very brave people.

There were a few hiccups, as expected, as people started to join the meeting but as one person after another joined it was great to see the faces pop up on the screen. We soon had a total of 30 people at our first online meeting, with six guests from other clubs. I guess they were keen to see how the Zoom meetings are working / will work for other clubs and it was a pleasure to have them with us.

Our Zoommaster was David Henson. The Zoommaster is a new role that has rapidly been created to adapt to this unforeseen situation. David explained how the meeting was going to work and invited everyone to change their name tags if they were not displaying correctly. The people taking roles and doing speeches were invited to also add this information to their nametags.

President Christine Morrell delivered a fabulous and inspiring introduction to the meeting, giving special thanks to Susan Rayner and David Henson for their hard work in making the meeting happen.

It was an extremely brave decision to take on the role of Toastmaster at our very first online meeting and Susan Rayner continues to be a shining example of what we can achieve if we just say ‘YES’!

The warm-up session, taken by Deborah Goodman, proved a little tricky as everyone appeared on people’s screens in a different order. It soon became apparent that the person taking the warm-up session would have to say everyone’s names as it went along.

Our timekeeper Tom Jewers, had to quickly think of another way of displaying the ‘red, yellow, green’ and as he was working from home he had no time to go out and buy coloured card so he cleverly used some household items that he had to hand. We also found it extremely useful for him to type in the comments to let us all know when the speaker had reached the different time stages.

We were continually learning as we went along.

New member Caroline Jeffrey has been throwing herself into the club roles without hesitation and holding the meeting online was no barrier to her taking on a new role. She gave us her Top Tip for the evening which was a lesson on how to use pauses.

Speeches

Robert Parker was our first speaker of the evening with his speech entitled ‘What Communication Style Should You Use?’

Robert took up the online challenge with expertise and confidence. He used a slide presentation which was useful to experiment on how this would work in online meetings and we learned a lot from it in many ways.

Our second speaker was Phillip Khan-Panni with his speech, ‘Tell The Right Story’. Philip joined us from Dublin and we were delighted to be able to welcome him to the meeting.

Both speeches focussed on communication in different ways and the Zoommaster was able to ‘pin’ the speakers to the screen.

Evaluators Richard Green and Margot Glover also rose to the challenge and there was no information lost in translation over the internet.

Getting to know you better

At Toastmasters we can get to know people quite well over time, especially because many people give speeches about their own life experiences or interests. Some also form closer bonds and socialise outside of the club. However, another benefit of online meetings is that we get a sneaky preview into people’s homes – which gives us even more information about our fellow club members! It takes us to another level of ‘getting to know you’. We are well aware that there may be a few people who don’t want to take us into their home in this way and the good news is that they can create a background that prevents us from seeing their room, if preferable.

We were entertained in the break with some impromptu guitar playing from David Henson and Philip Khan-Panni, which is yet another benefit of online meetings and we are looking forward to developing this ‘entertainment’ idea further. Let’s see what talent we have in the club!

The second half of the meeting went well as David Hampton asked the Table Topics questions.

David asked some topical questions about first-time experiences, first impressions, dating on the internet and changing jobs.

Ross Taggart amusingly reminded us that, not only is there a first time for everything, but also a last!

Vinu Madhavan evaluated the topics and gave some helpful feedback to the speakers.

The ballot for the best Table Topic was held online with a very impressive voting form created by the Zoommaster which enabled us to see the speakers’ names and click on the one we wanted to vote for.

Congratulations goes to our winner – David Wilson!

Overall, it was an extremely successful meeting. General evaluator Sue Shaw congratulated everyone for stepping up and taking part. She said that it was a great opportunity for us to try something new. Something, she said, that we are going to need more and more from now on.

She gave us some great advice about how to adapt ourselves for online meetings. For example, hand gestures don’t work well when close to the screen, fiddling with our screens when someone is speaking and she asked us if the ‘word of the day’ actually added anything to the meeting.

What did we learn?

Guest Samir Malak has four years of experience of online Toastmasters meetings and he enthused about how impressed he was with the meeting and how smoothly our transition from face-to-face meetings to the online meeting was. He congratulated us on our first successful meeting.

Speak to camera

Many of us are learning a whole new skill. We have spent years being told to speak to the room. ‘Look at the people at the back’. ‘Don’t forget those at either side of you, as well as at the front’. Now we are speaking to one point only – the camera. It’s more like we are speaking to one person and it’s easy to get distracted by looking at ourselves or the other members on the Zoom meeting. Looking at our listeners on Zoom doesn’t translate the same as being in a room full of people.

Be fully present

We are not getting the energetic feedback from our audience. The audience has to learn to still be engaged with the speakers, to not get up and wander out of the room during the meeting. To not turn off their camera to do a chore or do things that they would not do in a face-to-face group meeting.

The additional nerves will decrease as we get more used to being online and for some it may even be easier.

Share the meetings

It’s so much easier now for people to join each other’s meetings as distance is no longer a limiting factor.  

Meet you at the bar!

After each meeting there is always an invitation to join us in the pub. Obviously we can’t do this at the moment so those who wanted to, stayed behind on the Zoom meeting, got themselves a drink and chatted online. It had a very different feel to it as usually people break off into smaller groups. However there is a feature on Zoom that enables people to break off into different meeting rooms so that might be something to think about in future.

Cheers everyone – stay safe and positive and please reach out to the committee, your mentor or anyone else who can help if you are in need of a bit of support at this difficult time.

Karen Mefflin has been a member of Bromley Speakers for over six years after joining in order to conquer her fear of public speaking.

Toastmasters always encourages its members to visit other clubs and as well as attending regular meetings in Bromley, Karen has taken advantage of this benefit and has also visited other clubs in the south east in order to see how they are run, to join in the meeting and to meet other Toastmasters.

Years ago Karen suffered from a viral infection which resulted in her having a hearing impairment in her left ear it, which means that she occasionally mumbles when speaking. It also means that she can’t always define how loud she needs to speak and it can be hard for her to hear in a noisy place, with just one hearing ear. 

“I can’t define where the sound is coming from, for example if my mobile phone rings. I find it difficult to hear conversation in a noisy place like a pub or somewhere with music.”

Karen says, “The club has been good for me as it has encouraged me to speak regularly which I need to do with my hearing impairment. It has also helped me to improve my speaking skills and be more articulate.”

Karen, who works for a well-known insurance company, uses what she learns at Toastmasters to help her in her career.

“I have spoken occasionally on training days at work. I work in the marketing department, which is responsible for all the advertising on TV, radio and social media.

“My team manages the letters and policy documents to ensure it meets FCA (Financial Conduct Authority) regulations along with any other requirements like re-branding.

“I haven’t done any prepared speeches for a while at the club and I would like to do more. However, I have been working on my evaluating skills which means that I have to listen very carefully to the prepared speeches and I have learned a lot from doing this.”

Outside of work and Toastmasters Karen’s passion is travelling and she has travelled all around Europe including Scandinavia and Eastern Europe.

We are very pleased that she finds the time to travel to Bromley Speakers Club and we are looking forward to hearing some more prepared speeches in the near future.

Meeting Thursday 20th February 2020

We had a packed room at Bromley Speakers on Thursday with plenty of members and guests.

We were delighted to welcome Area Director Michael Crane to the meeting. It’s always a pleasure to see Michael and we appreciate his visits to the club. Michael noted that we had all committee members present at the meeting which is not unusual for our club as our committee members are extremely supportive to the club, its members and each other.

President Christine Morrell also warmly welcomed two other distinguished guests, Phillip and Evelyn Khan-Panni. Phillip was a founder member of Bromley Speakers back in 1992 and was a runner-up in the International Speech Contest, which is quite an achievement for anyone to get that far in the competition.

We had four other guests, two of whom were first-time visitors to a Toastmasters club and all of them gave good feedback after the meeting.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Karen Mefflin. Although Karen has been a member of the club for six years, it’s been quite a while since she has taken on the role of Toastmaster. Members can sometimes become very comfortable with certain roles and it can take a bit of courage to step up to another challenge, so well done to Karen for stepping into the Toastmasters shoes for the evening.

If you won the Euro Millions what would be the first thing you would buy?

The warm-up for the evening was guided by Harry Langley. Some of the answers were as predictable as a red sports car, a bigger house and a round-the-world holiday and others were more boozy like a pub and even several pubs! My personal favourites were from Caroline who said that she would give her friends envelopes with something that they all wanted in, and Richard who said that what he would want, money couldn’t buy.

Prepared Speeches

Our first prepared speech was delivered by Jamie Simpson. Freshly off the plane from Sri Lanka, Jamie regaled us of tales from his exciting and adventurous holiday, making us all green with envy of his exotic trip.

Jamie’s ‘second honeymoon’ speech was an Evaluation and Feedback speech from the Visionary Communication pathway. Jamie’s remit was to incorporate feedback from his last speech, which he did extremely well by not using any notes at all.

He made us laugh when he said that his missus ‘borrowed’ some food from the breakfast buffet, put some bananas in his rucksack pocket without his knowing and he had the monkeys chasing after him and he had no idea why!

He took us on his train journey through the tea plantations and he said that it was like Tuscany without the tourists. He visited the botanical gardens full of palm trees and saw flying foxes amongst other animals. He even saw his first leopard!

Jamie also told us about his visit to the turtle sanctuary, which seemed unnatural but then he struck it lucky when he was walking on the beach and a turtle came out of the sea and laid its eggs right in front of him! How amazing.

I love hearing stories of people’s travels at Toastmasters. It was an impressive speech which made me want to pack my bags and fly to Sri Lanka!

Speech number two was delivered by Sue Shaw. Her speech entitled ‘At the Heart’ was from the Storytelling pathway and her remit was to arouse emotions whilst telling a touching story.

Susan certainly did that when she told us about a man named John whom she had met through the hospice at which she was volunteering. When Sue started giving speeches to the hospice, she told us that the experience wasn’t connecting with her emotions and her heart. And then she had an epiphany moment when she heard stories like John’s.

“How patients are cared for remains in the minds of those who are left”

John was an ordinary man who loved to walk. He even walked an impressive 163 miles to Hastings. And then he got his diagnosis and became more reclusive. When he went into the hospice they did a wonderful thing for him. He was never going to be able to get to the seaside again and so the hospice brought the seaside to him. They arranged for the sights, the smells and even the taste to be there in his room on a very special day.

Our third prepared speech entitled ‘Who Do you Think You Are?’ was delivered by Phillip Khan-Panni who told us not about the Spice Girls but a story about mistaken identities. His brother happily accepted congratulations for an achievement that was Phillip’s and the judges of the ‘most stylish young skater’ award mistook another lad for himself and presented the award to the other boy! Phillip told the lad that he thought it was a mistake and that they had given the award to him in error and the lad retorted, ‘who do you think you are?’.

Phillip left us with a message.

Why be an extra in someone else’s dream when you can star in your own?

Evaluations

Feedback was given on all three speeches by our evaluators Vinu Madhavan, Susan Rayner and Richard Green.

Vinu said that Jamie had delivered an enjoyable speech and had brought it to life.

Susan commented that as Sue Shaw painted us her picture, we all smiled. Sue Shaw is a great storyteller and she used her expertise to draw us all in.

In Richard’s evaluation of Phillip, he pointed out that Phillip used all advanced techniques and also used his body well as he spoke to us. Again, Phillip is a very experienced speaker. In fact, he is a business speaker and presentation consultant and you can see his showreel here.

Richard finished off his evaluation with a strong message to Phillip…

I want to be a star in your show!

Some of the helpful recommendations given in the feedback this evening, which we can all learn from, were as follows:

• Pause for the audience to absorb the messages
• Gather everyone’s attention before you speak
• Have a strong final message
• Keep the body of the story to three main points

Table Topics

The Table Topics session was brought to us by Caroline Jeffrey who asked some interesting and thought-provoking questions. Caroline is a new member to the club and the role of Table Topics Master is quite a challenging one so it was ambitious of Caroline to take it on.

As well as being a valuable tool for learning to speak off the cuff, Table Topics questions are a good opportunity for members of the club, who haven’t had an opportunity to speak in the meeting, to stand up and talk. It’s always impressive when guests do a table topic but paid-up members are given the chance to speak first, if they haven’t already done so.

Some of the questions that Caroline gave the audience were, ‘what is your favourite way to relax?’, ‘what was the first job you ever had?’, who or what could you not live without?’, what is your opinion of tattoos and would you have one?’ and my personal favourite, ‘would you eat food past its sell-by date?’.

Two of our guests, Adam and Laurence courageously stepped up to the challenge and delivered very good first-time table topics.

Other Business

Our esteemed ‘best-dressed’ guest Evelyn Khan-Panni reviewed the meeting and gave us feedback on all of the roles that hadn’t been evaluated yet.

Area Director Michael Crane presented our President Christine Morrell with a Toastmasters Core Values Award which helps us remember that Integrity, Respect, Service and Excellence are a set of timeless, guiding principles for everyone in the organisation.

Slide Presentation Workshop

Christine wrapped up the meeting and reminded us that there will be a workshop on 30^th April (usual place and time of meeting) run by David Henson, The Slide Presentation Man.

David is an experienced speaker and an expert creator of professional slide presentations. We are fortunate and grateful that he will be giving us his time and sharing his expertise on how to produce engaging, effective and empowering slide presentations

Tom Jewers, Bromley Speakers club member, gives an interview to Public Relations Officer Deborah Goodman

Hi Tom. It’s always a pleasure to see you. Thanks for taking the time to give me this interview. I know that you joined Bromley Speakers in September 2018 but why did you join Toastmasters in the first place?

I joined to improve my communication skills and to face my fear of public speaking! After avoiding any situation which involved public speaking, like customer meetings, team meetings, University seminars etc. I decided it was time to face my fear and grow my confidence in a friendly environment.

I attended a public speaking course originally and following that programme before I was made aware of Toastmasters. Soon after, I did some further research on how Toastmasters works before attending as a very nervous guest!

Most people, if not all people, find it quite nerve-wracking at first. I still get nervous about the Table Topics session. But people soon realise that we are a very friendly and supportive bunch of people. Despite your nerves, how do you feel that Bromley Speakers club helps you?

It’s allows me to practice in a safe environment and to work at my own pace. With a variety of roles which all allow for different speaking requirements, I can pick a different one week by week, depending on how confident I feel.

Moreover, everyone at the club is extremely supportive, whilst also providing relevant advice for all levels of expertise. I have enjoyed learning and watching the more experienced speakers and taking notes on small aspects of their speeches to add into my own style.

The club has allowed me to realise that being nervous is normal and that it’s about embracing the nerves and adapting to the situation.

I could not have put it better myself Tom. And it’s so true, it’s such a safe place to practice and make your mistakes. Not that you make many mistakes, I think that you are a very engaging and humorous speaker. What do you specifically like about the club?

Thanks Deborah. I like Bromley Speakers because it’s a friendly, warm and welcoming group.

The sessions are extremely structured and we stick by this week by week. I feel that this is great for new members or more nervous beginners as you soon become familiar with the sessions and this allows people to step forward to challenge themselves.

Yes, I totally agree. It’s such a friendly group and we always have fun, but the structure and purpose of the meetings are always taken seriously and handled professionally.

People often join Toastmasters because it helps them with their career. What is it that you do for your job?

I’m an Institutional Banker. I work in the Fund Finance Team at RBS International.

It sounds interesting and important. What does your team do?

We provide investor-backed and asset-backed finance to large Corporate Infrastructure and Renewable Funds in the UK and in Europe.

And what is your role in the team?

My role is to act as the Relationship Manager to an existing portfolio of RBSI Fund names. This involves business origination, leading customer meetings, managing our Infra and Renewables portfolio, structuring new transactions and leading loan negotiations with lawyers and other lenders.

Very serious stuff indeed by the sounds of it. I can see how your personality would help you in this role. How have you used the speaking and leadership skills that you have learned in Toastmasters?

For me it’s been a slow process; however I have definitely seen a huge improvement in my communication skills at work. I have volunteered to present on several occasions, where previously I may have not put myself forward.

I also think it’s improved my communication in sports, as a semi-professional footballer, it’s enabled me to communicate better with my team mates in the dressing room and also during the games.

I’m very impressed that you play semi-professional football! That must keep you very fit. What team do you play for?

I play for Homesdale FC in the Kent League and I have represented Wales Universities at football playing against England and Scotland.  I’m also a huge boxing fan.

Wow, what an achievement! What would you say has been your biggest achievement at Bromley Speakers to date?

Completing my first speech at the club was a huge achievement for me. I waited a year to put myself forward and the feedback was extremely positive.

I’m so glad to hear that you felt that the feedback was so positive. The general rule at Toastmasters clubs is always to give positive feedback, followed by a few recommendations on how to improve and then finish with a positive comment. This way it helps the speaker to improve and also to feel more confident in their ability.

What do you want to achieve at the club?

My short term plan is to develop myself further at Bromley Speakers and to complete every role on the agenda – with a focus on the evaluation roles and prepared speeches.

My long-term goal is to compete in a Toastmasters competition at some point and also lead a session as ‘The Toastmaster’ at Bromley Speakers in 2020.

The Toastmasters role at the club is not as daunting as people think once you do it Tom. If I can do it, anyone can, trust me. And remember, it doesn’t have to be perfect, it’s about trying it, learning from it and improving. The point of the Toastmasters clubs is to practice in a safe environment. I look forward to your first stint as Toastmaster and then many more this year!

The competitions are obviously a bit more nerve-wracking as everyone wants to win. But they are fun and people always learn a lot from entering, so I wish you luck with that. Your mentor will help you and I am sure you will be fantastic. You are already winning awards for the best Table Topics session so you are clearly quite good at impromptu speaking.

Thank you for talking to me. We really love having you at the club and I look forward to hearing more from you this year.

On Thursday 30^th January we were delighted to welcome one of Toastmasters’ most experienced and respected speakers, Freddie Daniells to our club.

Freddie gave us an absolute corker of a masterclass on how to write and perform a winning speech for the Toastmasters International speech competition, which is held at the Toastmasters International Convention each year.

Freddie is in great demand so we were extremely privileged to have had this opportunity at Bromley Speakers to welcome him to a packed room, with, not only our own members, but also many guests from other clubs. Every club in our area was represented and we even had two Area Directors in attendance, Michael Crane from Area H35 and Mo Dawodu from Area H37.

Who is Freddie Daniells?

Freddie is a public speaker and a presentation skills coach and trainer.

A Toastmaster since 2004, Freddie sat at the head of the Toastmasters organisation in Great Britain and Ireland as the District Governor and has held many other positions within Toastmasters.

He has spoken at, run workshops or coached for companies and organisations such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants, Google, Ernst and Young, and the Association of Certified Accountants amongst others.

The Presentation

Freddie delivered what can only be described as an ABSOLUTELY BRILLIANT presentation, full of top tips on how to become a winner at the International Speech contest and showed us the skills needed to become a world-class speaker.

Analysing videos of Toastmasters International champions and looking at some of the patterns that are being repeated, Freddie pointed out which type of speech does well in the competition, and that happens to be an inspirational one. The speeches all had some level of humour in them and included great storytelling.

Using a memorable message, taking an idea and making it original and repeating a message throughout the speech are just some of the valuable lessons we learned on Thursday.

Tell a Story

Everyone has a story to tell. Not just one story but many stories. Good speakers can take an ordinary story, such as changing a car tyre, and make it into a great speech. One such speaker who did exactly that was World Champion of Public Speaking 2013, Pres Vasilev. His speech was about the most basic of things but was humorous and had an important message running through it. And it won the International contest!

Stories help us to understand that we are not alone. People can relate to them. They give us direction and maybe even a route to solving our own issues. They can give us hope.

So, when you’re thinking about your next speech, be it at your Toastmasters club or elsewhere, think about your own stories. Think about not only the bigger events that happen in your life but also the little everyday happenings. Freddie suggested that we take notes throughout our day and capture the details of our lives. So guys, write down anything that made you laugh or that happened in your day. These are the little things that give us ideas for our speeches.

Do not think that nothing interesting ever happens in your life because it does! Value your stories and share them with the world. Remember that ordinary stories told really well can be highly amusing and entertaining. And they can win international competitions!

Freddie shared numerous pearls of wisdom with us about the many things we can do to ensure that our speeches are winners and it’s fair to say that every person in that room came away completely inspired and ready to get writing.

Speech Contests

Speech contests are a Toastmasters tradition and they include table topics, humorous speches and evaluator competitions as well as the International Speech contest.

The International Speech contest begins at club level with members vying to win the club contest before going on to compete in the area contest, then on to the division and finally the district competition. If they win that, they are then into the quarter finals, which is a video round, the winners of which then get to attend the Toastmasters International convention where they will compete in the semi-finals and then possibly the finals.

The Toastmasters International 2020 convention is to be held on 5-8^th August 2020 in Paris, France. The semi-finals will be held on Thursday 6^th August and the finals on Saturday 8^th August. 

Bromley Speakers meets at Ripley Arts Centre, Bromley on the 1st, 3rd and 5th Thursdays of the month, at 7.15 pm.

For more information please email us
vppublicrelations@bromleyspeakers.co.uk