Meeting Report 28th September 2016

We were entertained, we had fun and we learnt.  

A great meeting on Wednesday.  David Lennon led an hilarious Table Topics (TT) session with the theme of cycling.  He made it fun and challenging with lots of twists and turns including getting Freddie D to evaluate his own TT ….and yes he did give himself a recommendation!  Everyone really stepped up and out of their comfort zones.  The winner was Freddie with ‘buying cycling lycra from a shop assistant who doesn’t speak english’.

The speaker of the night was Paul Andreas doing a Monodrama from the Interpretive Reading Manual titled Tintern Abbey and it was accompanied by a slideshow of beautiful pictures of the area.

A really useful mini workshop followed by Lynne Cantor on ‘Effective Introductions’ showing us how to link the speakers background, expertise, and / or credibility to the topic being spoken about. Going forward the aim is to have the Toastmaster introduce Speakers of all prepared speeches in this way.  See ‘Useful Resources’ on the Excalibur webpage for a link to the article and a template for both Speaker and Toastmaster to use.  

We were delighted to welcome International Regional Director, Teresa Dukes, who shared with us a recording of her two minute winning pitch to get the role.  She then led us through the range of leadership options from being a Committee Member all the way through to an International Officer. 

Overall the night was a great opportunity to learn and grow and enjoy ourselves whilst doing so. 

Do join us on Wed Oct 12^th for our next meeting.   

Invite your friends to come to our Open Night on Wed 26^th October, an opportunity to showcase what Excalibur has to offer. 

Monthly Newsletter – September 2016

International convention - congratulations

·      Dates for your diary

·      Previous Newsletters:

o   Excalibur mission and vision

o   Excalibur aims

 

INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION - CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to District 91 winner Thien Trang Nguyen Phan, who won her Semi-final heat and therefore made the final of the International Speech contest. She unfortunately did not place but did our District proud.   

 

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

Excalibur Meeting Wednesday 28^th September 7pm prompt.  

There will be a mini workshop on introducing speakers.   Speaker introductions have great value and help to build the credibility of the speaker before they say a word.  As advanced speakers who present both in and outside of Toastmasters knowing how to put an introduction together, both for ourselves and for others, is a great skill to have.   We also have the pleasure of hosting our International Director, Teresa Dukes as our GE. 

 

Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests:-

·      Area Contest – Thursday 29^th September.  Do be there to support our winners. 

·      Division Contest – Saturday 15^th October

·      District 91 Contest – Saturday 5^th

o   Sneak preview: ‘Bob Ferguson will be facilitating what will be a fabulous workshop: ‘So, you want to be the World Champion of Public Speaking, eh?’

 

November

An exciting opportunity has arisen to see 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking Craig Valentine, speaking in Central London on Monday 14th November 2016. Craig is one of teh top public speaking coaches in the world so I am sure many of our members will be interested to attend. Over 110 tickets have already been sold so get yours soon! A number of Toastmasters in the UK have successfully completed his World Class Speaker Coaching certification. Details are here www.smarturl.it/Craig.

Note that Crag will be holding a non Toastmasters full day session on Tuesday 15th. If you would like further details of this please get in touch with Andy O'Sullivan or Freddie Daniells. 

 

PREVIOUS NEWSLETTERS

It has come to our attention that several members had not received the July and August newsletters.  We have therefore added the key points to the end of this newsletter to ensure everyone has the same information. 

 

EXCALIBUR MISSION & VISION

A new Toastmaster year, 2016/17, and a new goal.  The aim for this year is to move Excalibur from a club full of talent and skill into a ‘Club of Excellence’ in everything we do, from stretched TT (table topics) to quality evaluations for every speech and effective introductions for every speaker.  A great opportunity to take all our speaking skills to the next level.

To support our goal, below are the Mission and Vision Ststements for the year ahead:

Mission

To be a club of excellence where Toastmasters experience speeches, introductions, and evaluation of the highest standard, improving the speaking ability of all our members.

Vision

To Challenge the skills and abilities of our members and guests, stepping out of our comfort zones, in a safe environment, where we learn, develop and discoiver new ideas to the mutual benefit of both ourselves and others.

We aim to challenge ourselves, step out of our comfort zones and support each other. We are ambitious, join us in our quest for excellence!

 

EXCALIBUR AIMS

We have shared our Mission and Vision for the year to move Excalibur into a ‘Club of Excellence’.   We will do this through CHALLENGE, QUALITY and VARIETY.  We will :

·      stretch ourselves whenever we speak and the goals we set ourselves

·      aim for quality in everything we do

·      vary the roles we take on so we speak, we evaluate and we do a functionary role, ideally Toast Master (TM) and /or Table Topics Master (TTM)

 

At every meeting we will have stretched TT’s, for example, where we have to provide a monologue, humour and a twist at the end. 

Every evaluation, be it for TT or for prepared speeches, will have Commendations (what was done well and why) and Recommendations (what could be even better, why and most importantly how to).

Speakers will have effective introductions by the TM, building their credibility on their chosen topic.

We will continue to vary the agenda to add in mini workshops whenever we can to help develop every members speaking ability, so far we have had open feedback to evaluate the evaluators, a mini session on evaluations and a grammarian. 

Join us as we tap into the wealth of knowledge, skill and experience of advanced members and national and international champions.  The support, advice and guidance will help us all to develop and grow.

See you all at our meetings on the 2^nd and 4^th Wednesday of the month. 

2016 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest Report

Excalibur Speakers held their Autumn Humorous Speech and Table Topics Club Contest on Wednesday 14th September at the Fitzrovia Community Centre. 

Janet Tarasofsky was the ever bubbly Contest Chair. Our Chief Judge, Marc Lottig,  told us he had travelled 12,000 miles to be with us! He was apparently just back from some jaunts around Africa and was looking suitably rugged! 

The Humorous Speech Contest kicked off with Tony Winyard and "Till Death Us Do Part" about whether iweddings or funerals were better.  Odile Facih then shared her experience of "Me, Myself and Israel" and how she got just a Boarding Pass to enter the country, making her wonder what she would need to do in order to get a Boarding Merit or Distinction. The final speaker was Mike Thompson with "Peace and Tranquility" a story that showed anything but!

Our Table Topic was 'Tell us what is the most courageous conversation? Our Table Topic contestants were Tony Winyard who shared a conversation with his mother, Paul Andreas who talked about courageous conversations with lions, Freddie Daniells talked about how conversations had changed his life and encouraged us to do the same, and Simon Cooper who shared his experience being a lawyer locked up in a prison cell! 

Congratulations to Humorous Speech winner Mike Thompson, Table Topics winner Freddie Daniells, and Simon Cooper who came second. 

Thank you to all the members and guests who had a role, competed in the competition or applauded in the audience! It was great fun.

Our next cracker of a meeting is Wednesday 28th September 6.45 for a 7pm prompt start.  

Our Area contest is on Thursday 29th September...details to follow.  Mike and Freddie would appreciate Excalibur's support so do join them. 

1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig Valentine will be speaking in Central London on Monday 14th November. Over 100 tickets have been sold already, so book yours now while they are still available!  www.smarturl.it/Craig

Craig will also be holding a non-Toastmasters full day session on Tuesday 15th November.  If you would like details of this please get in touch with Andy O'Sullivan or Freddie Daniells.

Meeting Report 24th August 2016

Improvising with a temporary venue for one meeting only was our improvisation night.  The workshop was ably run by Paul Andreas who warmed us up with a ‘whizz’ and a ‘bang’!!!, followed by ‘yes but’ and ‘yes and’ conversations with the latter leading to more free flowing communications.  We then paired up to do improvisation plays.  Simon C and Katja in action below. We finished with on the spot limericks.  A good, interactive fun session.   Improvisation is definitely a skill worth investing in.

Simon C presented a very educational storytelling speech on bringing history to life.  Retelling the WW2 conflict between Stalin, Russia and Hitler, Germany.

Tony practised his keynote address on memory ‘Remember, Remember’., kicking off with a pictorial way to remember the Excalibur Mission to be ‘A Club of Excellence’.  He finished off by remembering a whole pack of cards in order.  Impressive indeed. 

We had four guests, Hannah from Belgium, Nuala, Patrick and Samir who was our GE, giving feedback below.

The meeting was finished off with George being recognised for completing his second High Performance Leadership (HPL).  Which means George has now completed two Distinguished Toastmaster Awards (DTM’s).  CONGRATULATIONS.

September Meetings

Wednesday 14^th – CONTEST NIGHT. 

Please do sign up to compete.  Two have already, so go on give them some competition. Functionary roles are also needed, please contact Freddie Daniells. 

Wednesday 28^th

A standard meeting with the addition of a mini workshop on Introducing Speakers, essential for advanced members who speak in and outside of toastmasters.

November

An exciting opportunity has arisen to see 1999 World Champion of Public Speaking, Craig Valentine, speaking in Central London on Monday 14th November 2016. Craig is one of the top speaking coaches in the world so I am sure many of our members will be interested to attend. A number of Toastmasters in the UK have successfully completed his World Class Speaker Coach certification. Details are here: www.smarturl.it/Craig

Note that Craig will be holding a non-Toastmasters full day session on Tuesday 15th. If you would like details of this please get in touch with Freddie Daniells.