This week’s meeting saw the use of a projector for the first time I can remember in a Toastmasters. Minor technical glitches were smoothly resolved by David, who delivered a very interesting speech entitled ‘Ford’s Product Planning Secrets’, which did indeed reveal some trade secrets, albeit 30 years old ones!

Gus also delivered an inspiring speech about ‘opportunities’, and it was great to see his daughter Anisah in the audience.

Table Topics this week were won by Mohit (pictured). Veronica presented topics based around ‘the workplace’, with Mohit narrowly winning the audience vote.

With just one meeting left this year, our next meeting on the 19th will be a Christmas special. Remember your festive jumpers, and I can guarantee a mince pie or two!

Thursday 5th September – tonight was our Humorous Speech and Table Topics competition night. It’s a yearly event that allows members to test themselves. First of all before I delve into the detail, a big thank you to everyone who supported the evening either as part of the audience, as a competitor and of course, as one of the unsung heroes who performed a role that enabled the event to run – such as the judges, the counters and timekeepers. An extra special mention goes to Carol Mae who’s been with the club for a year now and who celebrated as the evening’s Chair. Smooth and calm – that’s Carol.

Four members prepared humorous speeches and eight chanced their arms in the Table Topics competition. The humorous speech contest is not about stand-up comedy, it’s about adding, well, humour, to your style. Were we entertained? Yes!

The four humorous speeches covered a wide range of topics: from mere mortals meeting celebrities including Mick Jagger in Venice and Margaret Thatcher in the House of Lords, secondary school gaffs when not paying attention in class and childhood rebellion involving the adaptation of 1970s flares into the style of the Bay City Rollers (excessive use of tartan for anyone wondering …). The winning speech by Neil was about things he’d wished he’d said and done, The speech gave us insight into the inner workings of his mind and how he wished he’d dealt with certain life events … you know the ones, the ones where it’s only after the event that you think of something cutting you should have said but never did! Things like taking an axe to a noisey neighbour’s hifi system … Remind me to keep the noise down when near to him …

Eight members took on the table topic. One at a time they were led to the slaughter, dispatched with the challenge of answering: what’s the most unusual thing you’ve ever seen in someone else’s home? That was a tough one! Answers were varied to say the least and the idea of never letting the truth get in the way of a good story was tested by several speakers.

We had encounters with a chimpanzee when measuring up a client’s home for a new kitchen, UFOs, hoarders, the removal of a roundabout (??!), a curry night and cockroaches. Not happy with one win, Neil deservedly took first place in this competition too. Neil regaled us with a story about how he never knew how bright the interior of his home was (or that he had a damp patch on his ceiling) until after his recent eye surgery. Quick witted and funny, Neil will be representing us in the area competition – we’re in safe hands and we all wish him the best. Bring home the bacon Neil!

Meeting of 1 August 2024:

As Toastmasters enters a new year (OK, a few weeks ago now but who’s counting?), the key the website is passed to me and rubbing my hands with joy I wonder what mischief I will be able to get up to … My role is to report on the meetings in order to give you, our guests, an idea of what goes on in a Toastmaster meeting. Well, that’s what I was asked to do – let’s see how that goes!

Rather than outline ‘so and so said this’ at the past few meetings, here’s a flavour of what I have seen, heard and experienced. Perhaps the one comment made by John Cross (one of our most experienced speakers) that has resonated with me most was when he said “I wish I had started sooner”. That’s often what I think when I look back on my public speaking journey – I wonder how things might have been if I’d done this at school or in my earlier career.

BUT! Let’s not look back, let’s look forward right? The past is just a story, it’s what lies ahead that’s important, especially when it comes to public speaking. Public speaking might sometimes feel like an event, something that’s coming up on the horizon but actually, for me, it’s a state of being. It’s learning to try to be yourself whilst ‘on show’ … it’s a journey to leave your baggage on your chair and to take to the stage. For me, learning to allow the ‘me’ to leak through into my speaking has been the important part of Toastmasters. Sure, it can take time, but with practice, you can get there! I wish I had started sooner – if you’re thinking about coming to the club, just do it. You just cannot buy the kind of experience and exposure to public speaking that you’ll get here.

Some comments on the last meeting. We have some superb speakers here. Carol gave us the Hot Tip, short, succinct and topical given that the meeting was during the 2024 Olympics: don’t leave anything on the track (or here, on the Toastmaster stage!). Quite simply, give it your all – go for it, try something different, challenge yourself. Toastmasters is all about incremental development and instantaneous feedback.

Our former past president David was Toastmaster for the evening. One would think he’s done this before (!) the way he controls the meeting and brings unbounded energy to the role of managing the evening. We can all learn something from David and it’s great to see David still involved after a busy previous year’s leading the club. In the meeting prior to the last, David was awarded his Humorous Speech Pathway.

Now, onto two speakers I have seen join the club within the last year and whose growth is faster than my Wisteria. Experiencing rapid development is one of the reasons I keep coming back here: to see people get better, literally in front of my eyes (and ears). Ikuko and Viyom. What I am really enjoying is seeing their real selves emerging as they engage in their speeches and roles. It’s hard to explain in words – you have to experience it. Last week, Ikuko took on the Sergeant at Arms role for the first time – this is the first speaking role of the night, you have to get the audience seated and listening and ready. That’s quite a tough job and it takes courage to get everyone’s attention – well done.

Now Viyom – Viyom is one of those people with a understated but very certain confidence. Wow – if anyone is a role model for new joiners then it’s Viyom. She takes on roles, she listens to feedback, acts on it and it’s been great to see her sense of humour come through in her speaking. That’s why she was awarded the “Rob Parker” award for Bravery. It’s a well deserved award from the club.

I could go on, and often do, but I wanted to also flag a skill demonstrated by Neil, also one of our most experienced speakers in Table Topics evaluations. Table Topics evaluations is one of my favourite roles because you’re challenged to listen, take notes and deliver succinct and useful feedback to around 10 speakers. Blimey – then you have to deliver it in around 7 minutes, no pressure! Neil is knows what he’s doing and what I noticed in the last meeting was that he delivers measured feedback according to experience. What I mean by this is that for more recent joiners, he gives simple and relatable feedback that will help them on their next speech – nothing that’ll scare them off! But for the more experienced, he can give deeper more punchy comments. Love it.

Well, hopefully the above gives an idea of why you should really take the step to join us for a meeting.

This stuff should be taught in schools – but you can get it here at Bromley Speakers!

October 5th gave us a meeting that few of us will forget for a while.

We had just one speech, from Kieran Mangan. Kieran is not a man for doing something predictable (Kieran’s previoius speeches were his icebreaker based on what he learned from doing a paper-round and a 6 minute explanation of the Time Dilation Effect, part of Einstein’s Theory of Relativity). So we were prepared for something different, and we got it – Kieran shared his knowledge of Sumo wrestling with us, complete with a broad selection of Japanese terms and insight into the lives of some of the champion wrestlers.

The other highlight was Table Topics, where Saadia Alege took an unusual approach – she had pictures of classic (and not-so-classic) cars and asked members in turn to variously describe, sell or critique the car they had been given. What followed was a series of remarkably good responses, with highlights including John Cross describing his misbehaviour in the back seat as a child, cracking debut speeches from new members Tom Daniels and David Murray, and Guy Dennis describing a Nissan sports car with all the credibility of a motoring journalist. Come to Bromley Speakers, we’ll show you how to wing it convincingly!

But then our guest, Alpha, stunned the whole room with his description of the humble 2CV and the role it plays in the life of farmers in his native Ghana. It was informative, poignant and funny all at the same time.

Our thanks go to the evaluators of the evening – Neil Pettgrew who evaluated <Mieran, David Hampton eveluating Table Topics and Guy Dennis who evaluated the evening as a whole – all ably supported by Mohammed Bashiru (aka Bash) on the lights and Susan Rayner counting the ums and ers, Our thanks especially to Na Jiang, who was Toastmaster for the evening and ensured a warm and jovial atmosphere.

Do come and join us for our next meeting on Thursday, October 19th,

Wednesday, 4th October 2023

We’re delighted to report that Bromley Speakers maintained its tradition of success at the Area Final of the Humorous Speech and Table Topics competition, hosted by Lewisham Speakers on October 4th.

Alex Clark (Humorous Speech) and Nisha Munavar (Tab;le Topics) represented our club, and while Nisha was unfortunately not able to maintain her 100% success rate at Topics since joining the club (OK, her winning streak was only two competitions long, but still impressive), Alex Clark left no room for doubt with his reprise of “Date Night Disasters”.

Alex’s tale of falling into a workman’s trench while on his way to a Hot Date really hit the spot with the audience. The fact that the trench had been freshly filled with liquid concrete probably helped with this. The fact that the incident might, years later, be turned into an award-winning humorous speech was probably far from Alex’s mind at the time, but Alex as worked out how to milk every possible laugh from the episode, not least the trail of concrete-crumbs he left as he walked down the street, or the fact that his trousers were able to stand up on their own the next morning.

Alex told his story with energy and charm and, from the perspective of an audience member, there was little doubt who the winner was going to be after he had spoken.

We’re looking forward to the next stage – the Division Final awaits on Sunday, 5th November from 10am to 3pm. It’s free to attend, all you need is this link: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/84563068470?pwd=VVY5ZHk1T2lQZ3FzZHJtUDdvZElhdz09

Good luck, Alex! And Nisha, keep plugging away, your ability to tackle an impromptu speech from an unexpected angle has blown us all the way and you will surely have even more success in the future.

Thursday June 15, 2023

Post by David Hampton

James hands over the President’s chain of office to David

The Toastmasters year wraps up at the end of June, and so this was a special meeting as the new committee were inaugurated, together with our new President. But this is a speaking club, and there was a lot of speaking to be done before that! So we had a prepared speech from Kieran Mangan, in which he gave us an insight into the strange world of relativity and its potential for time travel (forwards, but not backwards, as it happens), and a skillful evaluation from Alex Clark who spotted some opportunities to add even more punch to a speech that deftly combined physics and humour.

After an extended break to get to know the 8 (or was it nine??) guests, we had a Table Topics session (impromptu speaking in everyday language) led by Neil Pettigrew, who stepped up for the role at the last minute and pulled a dozen thought-provoking ideas out of thin air. Most commented-on were Susan Rayner, who gave what looked like a pre-prepared keynote on the issues of animal cruelty in zoos, and Chichi Onah who was asked how it felt to be a nervous speaker, and gave us a warm and thoughtful description of how it feels to experience nerves in front of an audience. You could have heard a pin drop; no wonder she was voted the best impromptu speaker of the night.

Guy Dennis had the job of evaluating these mini-speeches. He praised their strong points but still managed to come up with insightful recommendations for everyone, which will help them develop and gain confidence.

Saadia Alege wrapped up the regular meeting with her General Evaluation (Saadia’s first time evaluating the evaluators – not that you would know from her confident and lively presentation) – her job being to look for ways in which we can continue to improve the way that we guide and encourage our members.

At the conclusion, James handed over the reins to me. James has led the club capably and confidently, and has always set a lively and positive tone to the meetings. He will be highly valued on the new committee as the Immediate Past President. The rest of the team is: Na Jiang (Vice President of Education), Saadia Alege (Vice President of Membership), John Cross (Treasurer), Susan Rayner (Secretary), Guy Dennis, (Vice President, Mentoring) and Margot Glover and Christine Morrell (jointly, Sargeant at Arms).

I tried my best to sum up what this wonderful club is like, for the benefit of our many welcome guests: Chichi spoke for many of us when she described the all-too-human fear of getting up in front of a group to speak, and Susan Rayner showed what can be achieved, with practice and encouragement. Guy demonstrated how that transformation happens – friendly, helpful advice on how to improve. Saadia showed that roles which seem daunting can be tackled well, even when it’s your first time, if you’re willing to give it a go. And Neil demonstrated the confidence that comes from the Toastmasters experience, giving him the ability to say “yes” when handed a task with very little notice, and carry it off as if he had been given a week to prepare.

That, for me, sums up what Toastmasters, and Bromley Speakers in particular, is all about