July has been a really sweltering month – just right for ice-cream and cold drinks down by the beach.

It has been a hot month at Toastmasters also with plenty going on.

Annual Dinner

We started the month off with our Annual Dinner at the Bickley Manor Hotel, which is a delightful location.

Drinks and chat were followed by a delicious three-course dinner during which we were entertained by some interesting impromptu speeches led with Gallic charm by our Table Topics Master, Alain Culos.

Our After-Dinner speech was given by Daniel Broadhead, a member of Excalibur Advanced Speakers Club and Immediate Past President of Area L9. He is also a Broker, keen chess player and keen swimmer, so we were very fortunate that he was able to take time off from his busy schedule to be with us for the evening.

He entertained us with tales of a wedding that he had recently attended, where he had been the speaker. He also told us how Toastmasters had opened up doors for him to speak at other venues and encouraged us to continue in our Toastmaster journey.

The dinner was then finished with an official handover from the current President, Ian Brett, to the Incoming President, Paul Andreas who then gave a short speech.

A big thank you goes to all those who helped to organise a wonderful evening, including Julie Ward, Dave Henson, Ian Brett and Richard Murray, who was our Facilitator for the evening.

First Meeting of the Year at Ripley on 21 July

New Procedures following MOT

On May 5th we held a “Moments of Truth” (MOT) Meeting when members were given an opportunity to tell the Committee of improvements they would like the club to adopt.

As a result we have set up a “Welcome Table” near the front door, where we can welcome guests and give them a “Welcome Pack”.

It had been suggested that we should wear Name Badges so a vote was taken on it and it was agreed.

We welcomed two new members into the club – Margot and Jenny.

Alex Clark was the TMOD for the first time and did an excellent job.

Susan Rayner gave an inspirational speech, called “Love Your Neighbour”, speech # 10 from the Competent Communicator Manual.

John Cross gave an entertaining speech about foxes, #7 from Competent Communicator and Richard Murray gave an informative speech, titled, “The Right Decision” about how to make good decisions.

Tony Smith was our Table Topics Master and came up with some very entertaining questions. Matthew Allen won Table Topics with an entertaining talk about how to chat up girls at the bus stop.

Paul Lynch won Best Evaluator and Richard Murray won Best Speaker.

Date of Club Contest was announced as the 1 September

Well my fellow Toastmasters what a night our last meeting was. The room was packed to the rafters. Our Sergeant at Arms for the evening Vijay Patel opened the meeting bang on time and went through the three f’s with ease and showed us all how he is growing as a speaker.

I stepped up to the stage and discussed how to be a good leader using Jeremy Corbyn as an example of how to develop as a leader and come nowhere to become a household name. Regardless of your political ties it would be hard to deny the meteoric rise of Mr Corbyn and I feel this is due to three things. He is honest and open, doing things differently (Prime Minister’s Questions being one of them) and he is relatively free from scandal.

Our Toastmaster of the evening was Tony Babatunde who introduced the theme of the evening, things that are wonderful and weird. Tony used the example of a potato that looked like Jay Leno and offered us a magic pill with which to increase our confidence. Tony also had a gadget for us to use. An easy button which when pressed said “that was easy”. This was used to demonstrate that most of the time when we think that a task will be difficult it can actually be really easy when we look back on it.

‘A tree does not make a forest’ Tony decreed using this saying as an interesting way to introduce our timekeeper of the evening Julie Ward. It was Julie’s second time as the timekeeper and she built the role up and added her own unique touches. Julie also wished all the speakers luck with their speeches.

Guy Dessoy was our Grammarian and Ah-Counter for the evening. The word of the evening was ‘Seize’ as in to reach out and seize an object. Guy’s introduction was very clear and concise even if he did need to be prompted to give us a definition.

The Hot Tip of the evening was delivered by our Vice President of Education Dave Henson, who stepped in at the last minute. The tip was to make sure we ask the right questions. Rather than ask “who wants to increase their confidence?” and maybe get one or two very timid hands raised, ask “who doesn’t want to increase their confidence?” and you will not only have no hands in the air but also an audience on the edge of their seats.

Alex Clark helped the room to warm up our vocal chords by asking us what our ‘Jeremy Corbyn moment’ was. Alex really got the room excited with this question and by starting at the back of the room he woke everyone up and really helped to set the mood for the evening.

We then moved to the first of our prepared speeches. Georgina Singleton brought to life the story of a Skype call with a friend of hers in New Zealand taught her a new way to look at the laws of attraction. In ‘The Secret’ by Rhonda Byrne the author mentions that if you believe something will happen and ask for it, receive and give gratitude then you can get that dream job, pay rise or the new opportunities you are looking for. Georgina delivered her speech brilliantly and asked us all to check out the book.

Susan Rayner’s speech ‘When nothing goes your way’ took us all back to February 1986 and the birth of her first child (coincidentally I was born only a few months later). Susan used a personal story to make her speech more engaging for the audience and by using subtle body gestures we were all kept interested and waiting for the outcome which after a dramatic build up turned out okay in the end.

Our final speaker was John Cross who like Georgina was delivering his third speech from the competent communicator manual. John chose Down House the home of Charles Darwin to be his topic and he definitely did his research. John’s speech was full of insightful facts about Charles Darwin and his family. John mentioned that Darwin was a true family man and doted on his ten children even building them a slide to use when going down stairs. John also told us about the impressive coffee shop we should visit even if we don’t want to see the whole of Down house.

Our Evaluators were up next and first up was Paul Lynch. A previous president Paul took to the stage and had one of the best openings to an evaluation I have seen and had brilliant commendations and recommendations even giving us and Georgina some examples. Completing our duo of Pauls Paul Goodhill was evaluating next in his own inimitable style. Even though it was mostly delivered directly to Susan it was still one of the best evaluations I have seen in a long time. Our third evaluation was completed by Alistair Feely who showed how much he has also grown as a public speaker, just watch the ers and ums. I think the Ah-Counter’s pen nearly ran out of ink.

Eddie Barnes was our table topics master and he kept the topics very short and sweet. Tell us about… was the basis of all of the topics and they ranged from tell us about breakfast to tell us about shopping on eBay. Evelyn Khan Panni told us about going to the gym and how much of a money spinner it was as most people paid their membership but didn’t go. One of our newer members Derek (who is a very experienced Toastmaster) was asked to tell us about going to the dogs and he surprised the audience by telling us about how Zimbabwe had gone from the bread basket of Africa to the dogs. A very nice example of how to take a different angle on the topic.

The Table Topics were evaluated by our Immediate Past President Richard Green who told us all to “seduce the audience with your eyes’ proving he is a true master of seduction. The main point he mentioned, other than seducing the audience, was that some of the speakers were clasping their hands up high and this means that you hold your nerves up high, so remember to try and relax your arms to let your nerves go.

Following Guy’s brilliant report as the Grammarian and Ah-Counter, Karen Mefflin showed us how to do a General Evaluation and Karen really has developed her speaking style and now has a really mellifluous style. Karen was specific and even mentioned that the Word of the Day was not on paper and this may be why it was hardly used.

The award for the best speaker was a tie (and incase you were wondering there were several recounts to be sure as we have had issues in the past) with Georgina Singleton and John Cross winning. Our best Evaluator was Alistair Feely and Alex Clark won the best Table Topic with his tale of failing his driving test.

All in all a brilliant meeting and I hope to see you all next time when I will be telling you how being able to cheat at cards can make you have a more positive outlook as I deliver my number 10 speech.

Thursday’s meeting was kicked off bang on 7.30 pm by our new Sergeant at Arms Paul Andreas who has recently joins Bromley Speakers from Croydon Communicators. He mentioned the three Fs, Facilities, Fires and Food and set us up for an interesting meeting.

Next up was me and I took my Presidential Address as a chance to talk about being prepared and that by having a speech, a word of the day, a table topics session or even a timers report in your back pocket you can step up and fill in a gap in the agenda should we have any last minute gaps. Okay maybe not a timers report…

Chris Howell was our Toastmaster of the Day and my, what a truly fantastic job he did. Not only did he lead the applause but he had the audience truly pumped up and kept the meeting’s tempo up all evening. He loudly and proudly introduced everyone and kept the audience bussing for the whole meeting.

Our timer was Vijay Patel doing the role for the first time and he told us a joke to get our attention. Why did the boy stand on his watch? Because he wanted to be on time. Not necessarily a great joke but a great way to get everyone listening. Vijay’s reports were concise and accurate so well done Vijay.

Bromley Speakers Immediate Past President was our Grammarian and Ah-Counter of the evening and he delivered one of Winton Churchill’s famous addresses in a slightly different style. ‘We shall erm fight them on the err beaches….’ With an albeit edited quote Richard really managed to demonstrate his point. Well done Richard.

Our Warm up was provided by Jenny Taggart and the question was ‘what happened the last time you were late?’ There were many people who said they were never late and I’m sure at least one of them was lying but the best answer was by Eddie Barnes who turned up a week early and the person he was meet never said a thing about it.

Susan Rayner delivered a Hot Tip about how she prepares her speeches and I’m sure we all learned from it.

The first of the evening’s speakers was Ruth Gordon who told us a story from her past telling us that moments of boldness can change our lives and we can either let opportunities pass us by or grab them with both hands. Ruth certainly grabbed the opportunity in her story and told us about how it changed her life. Ruth also mentioned that two people can see an event differently and take different outcomes because of this and that there are moments when time and chance are on our side. Against very tough competition Ruth won the Best Speaker Award.

I was the second speaker of the evening and I used this as an opportunity to test an idea out for a presentation I will be putting together for work and I was trying to persuade my audience of driving instructors to increase their prices and increase their profitability. The feedback was great and I believe I achieved my aim. Two more speeches and I can achieve the coveted CC status.

Alex Clark had the third speaking slot and asked us ‘how eccentric are you?’ We learnt all about the Fifth Duke of Portland who was also known as the burrowing duke due to his tendency to build extensions to his Manor House underground. He was also a model employer and helped to improve the lives of his 2-3000 employees. Alex also said that it is thought that the level of eccentricity in a society is equal to the level of genius, so may be being eccentric is a good thing.

The first evaluator of the evening was the inimitable Martin Langdon. Martin delivered a brilliant evaluation he mentioned all the key points and pointed out specific parts that he liked and areas for improvement.

Our second evaluator was Tony Babatunde who asked the audience if I had persuaded them which is a brilliant way to start an evaluation. Tony gave specific areas for improvement and gave the whole audience advice by saying that perhaps we should consider being more persuasive by telling stories so we can connect with our audience better. He summarised by saying that the speech ‘flowed like a good wine, but left a bit of an aftertaste’. I’m still not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Finally Neil Pettigrew was our last evaluator and he had the delight of evaluating Alex Clark. Neil completed his evaluation in the third person meaning that the feedback could be used by the whole audience as well as making his evaluation personal by saying what he liked about Alex’s speech. Neil was voted as our best evaluator of the evening. Well done Neil.

Dave Henson was our Table Topics Master and armed with a very large dictionary he gave the participants a word and asked them to provide the definition. My personal favourite was David Wilson’s attempt to define the word Rawgabbit. David suggested that it was a word used to describe conkers that were not quite ready to fall down, even when you threw your bag at them to dislodge them. It’s actually a word to describe someone who is talking about a subject they know nothing about which was very apt for this Table Topics session.

The Table Topics session was won by Joyce Reid a toastmaster from another club who had the word Cockalorum and one of our guests Chelsea Sampson who had the word Jerepigo. Congratulations to Peter Willians a member who we haven’t seen in a while who correctly told us the meaning of the word Dogwatch.

Vinod Venkatanarayana was our Table Topics Evaluator who had lots of feedback for all of the participants and the main thing everyone was told was to keep going for at least the green light.

Our General Evaluator was Samir Malak, our area director, who commended Chris Howell for his theme of mindfulness and Samir did a great job of being mindful during his evaluation. Samir mentioned everyone by name which is fantastic when evaluating and commented on how strong he thought the fellowship of our club was really good as all of the evaluators commented on how good it was to see the members they were evaluating grow and develop. My piece of feedback to Samir is KEEP TO TIME!!!! Otherwise a brilliant evaluation.

So once again we all had a great night and thanks to all of the members who made it happen. If you would like to get involved at a future meeting get in touch with Dave Henson our VPE if you are a member or if you are a guest get in touch with me and I look forward to seeing you soon

Ian
President of Bromley Speakers.

Wow Bromley Speakers what a night last night was. We had a slightly lower attendance than usual but we had a great laugh as usual none the less. Neil is our temporary Sergeant At Arms and he kicked things off at bang on 7.30 before running to the shops to buy milk and biscuits which were top notch, Thanks Neil.

I then stepped up to deliver my first speech as your new President. As our humorous and Table Topic contest is coming up shortly I was talking about how to be humorous and shared my 5 year old daughter’s favourite jokes. Don’t worry I won’t be entering any contests any time soon as I learnt two things last night, firstly I am NOT funny and secondly the first person to speak should warm up the audience on the night of a contest as it is unfair for the first speaker to do it.

Our toastmaster of the evening was David Wilson and he had two themes for us, What were your new years resolutions (we are now a little over 6 months in to the year) and who are your heroes. David did a fantastic job of guiding us through the programme and we all had a great laugh.

Umesh was our timekeeper for the evening and his hero is his dad. Umesh delivered a great introduction and all his reports were excellently delivered. Georgina was our Ah-Counter and Grammarian (Georgina’s new years resolution is to come to more Toastmaster meetings). Our word of the evening was ‘Apprehensive’ , it was well used through out the evening but entirely unnecessary to describe Georgina as she didn’t show and apprehension at any time during the evening.

Dave Henson, our new Vice President for Education, stepped in at the last minute to deliver our Warm Up (his hero is Cadbury’s Heroes especially the Dairy Milk one) the topic was what can you do that no one in the room knows you can do. Apparently someone can use the hoover but I have been told not to name any names in case everyone else finds out.

Richard Green, our Immediate Past President, gave us a fantastic hot tip again at short notice. At the opening of your presentation don’t faff about with your notes or signpost your speech (tell us exactly what you are going to tell us before you tell us) feel confident, and consider opening in the following ways:

1. Ask a question
2. Tell a quote
3. Start with a mini story

The speakers were fantastic, Paul told us about his hero Elephant Bill and how he helped over 50 elephants and their mahouts escape the Japanese when they invaded Borneo. Paul’s use of the stage to illustrate the passage of time was excellent. Jenny Taggart was our second speaker and she spoke about ‘happy people don’t you just hate them’ and she gave us some great hints and tips about how to be happier.

Dave Henson and Evelyn Khan-Panni gave two brilliant evaluations and Dave managed to be humorous and use the phrase elephant in the room when referring to my poor jokes. Well Done Dave. Evelyn was insightful as ever and was full of tips we all could use and benefit from.

The Table Topics Master was Alex Clark who did tremendously well and, though you really couldn’t tell, it was his first time in the role. All the topics were based around the theme of proverbs, are they pithy words of wisdom or absolute piffle. The highlights of the Table Topics session were Vijay who has comes on leaps and bounds discussing whether the absence makes the heart grow fonder. I don’t know about that but I do know that it doesn’t apply when it comes to attending Toastmasters. Our Winner was Simon who is a returning Toastmaster from another club

Neil Pettigrew stepped up as our Table Topics Evaluator and had 7 minutes to evaluate 13 table topics. Neil evaluated everyone, gave all but one of the speakers a recommendation and his recommendation for everyone was to pause, take a breath and gather your thoughts before continuing so that you can go all the way to the red light.

Georgina Singleton came back to report on her findings during the evening. Georgina gave a very detailed report and gave accurate feedback on the numbers of erms and ahs as well as the use of language through out the meeting.

Finally Martin gave his report to fill out his role as General Evaluator and his resolution is to stop womanising and to only dress in women’s clothing once a week, Martin please don’t make that day a Toastmasters day! Martin opened with ‘the last time I was General Evaluator Ian Brett was a small boy’, well Martin you know what they say, flattery will get you nowhere. The main recommendations to the group were to keep the meeter and greeter role going and to remember to not say ‘Thank You’ as we the audience should thank you!

Overall a great meeting and all of us had a great time. Remember that if you’d like to do a role you can either register on Easy Speak or you can email Dave Henson at dave@thehensons.com. Also our humorous speech contest is on the 3rd of September and we will need contestants, judges and a whole array of helpers to help the meeting run smoothly.

On top of this we have been given the honour of hosting the area contest on the 19th of September and again we will need a team to help make the contest go with a bang and to show the whole of our area the Bromley Speakers really is the best club in Toastmasters!

Have a great weekend and I look forward to seeing you all in two weeks

Ian Brett
President Bromley Speakers

President Green’s musings on the meeting of 15th January 2015

Happy New Year Everyone!

What a herculean evening we had last night folks with nine guests and at least twenty members packed into the music room at Ripley. Boy did we make music!

It really was a struggle to fit everyone in but we managed despite the protracted ramblings of our club president.  Say no more – tut tut Mr Green.

Guy Dessoy our Sergeant At Arms arrived at 7.20 – tut tut Mr Dessoy! Kick off 7.30 sharp.

Quickly to the Toastmaster as the President’s had a funny turn. The Toastmaster of the day was Vinod Venkatanarayana. I can spell it but have great difficulty in saying it. Vinod was proficient, efficient and calm especially after the eight minute intro according to our GE – tut tut Mr Venkatanarayana.

Our timer was Subir Kumar, eagerly poised with his finger on the bell. Then to our ‘fresh’ member Martin Langdon who stepped into the Grammarian role and delivered with aplomb. You can guess the word of the day.

Our hot tip was delivered by an enchanting Ling Ling (no that was her name) a guest who told us all about the power of pausing and taking breath giving us time to collect our thoughts – oh yes our thoughts.

Our first speaker was Ian Brett. Big, bold, assertive! The power of the pose. Great, I thought,  I am good at that.  Ian talked the talk and definitely walked the walk. Well done that man.

Next to our dear Karen Mefflin. A heartfelt story of her deafness and tinnitus which people seem to think she is not paying attention or she does not care or she is dumb but they could not be further from the truth. Well done Karen.

Over to you Jenny Taggart our third speaker. We are waiting………and waiting……..and waiting. Another poignant speech with a heartfelt message. Don’t wait for something to happen,  go out and grab it with both hands (unless it’s called Ross of course). I mean life and whatever life represents to you. Make it happen people! Yes you can!

Three excellent, enjoyable speeches, well done indeed!

Over to the evaluators, the legendary Neil Pettigrew, the professional James Hassler and finally the iconic Richard Murray DTM no less, all providing very useful tips on how to move forward in this noble art. Great stuff guys.

Then its’ over to the Table Topics Master – Yours Truly. Proverbs were the order of the day and when in Ripley do as the Ripleans do – carefully navigate their way around the question which I am glad to say is what most people did. Now then, our TT evaluator David Wilson carried out a gargantuan task by evaluating twelve table topic speakers and within time. Brilliant David just brilliant. We needed a fire extinguisher for the man’s biro it was so hot.

Martin Langdon, our Grammarian and Ah Counter with very keen ear, delivered a comprehensive report. Thorough and with his usual satire which is very funny I might add.

Our timer Subir wrapped up the evening well, disappointed that the poised finger was not deployed enough but never mind.

Then up steps Tony Babatunde our larger than life General Evaluator. Tony did what all good GEs do and that was to highlight some areas of improvement, namely, “shut up rambling Mr Green and Mr Venkatanarayana and get on with it”. Lol!
All in all, a thoroughly enjoyable evening once again and it was an absolute pleasure to see the return of Martin Langdon, Nisha Yates, James Hasler and Steve Roberts who have obviously been busy with their lives.

Our next meeting is on Thursday 29th January, same time same place. Be there or be square!

Such a good contest yesterday, we were laughing all the way.

And brilliant representation from Area 35.

Chris Howell (Bromley Speakers) was the contest chair, and did an excellent job keeping us to time, acknowledging all involved and making sure all the rules were followed.

Evelyn Khan-Panni (Bromley Speakers) gave us a polished personal story about the Digital Technology Evolution and Richard Green (Bromley, T&O, Lewisham, Trustmasters – have I missed any?) kept us amused with his story about Gordon Lamsey. I swear his wife puts on another 10 1bs with each humorous speech, no wonder he is scared to invite her as a guest to one of our meetings.

Stars of the evening were both from Area 35.

Malachi Talabi (Speakers of Croydon) brought his wife to witness a funny story with a message. Come and see them both again in Brighton in just over a week.

Samir Malak (Croydon Communicators and T&O, Bank of America) gave us a table topic with structure, a message, engaging body language, and great entertainment.

Malachi and Samir are both proudly holding their Division K trophies in the picture.

Thank you also to Becky Tuff – President of Women in Banking and Finance at Barclays who hosted the event, also pictured.