Hi Paul

I went to the loacl toastmasters for the first time last night and thoroughly enjoyed it – all in English. 16 there, more men than women, all Czech except for one American and one Aussie. It’s weekly 6.30- 8.30pm, so hard to find time to eat with the bus journey into Prague. Most eat afterwards together, so maybe I’ll try this next time.
When I’ve been to a couple more I’ll send you some ideas – for instance their introductions are 30 seconds using the ‘Word of the Day’ which last night was GLUT/glutton, gluttonous. We sit at a U-shaped table arrangement with our names in large print in front, so one can see most people’s faces all the time, which I like.

We tried a table format a few years ago and might do it again sometime soon.

All the best Ella with your TM career and Grandma duties..

The theme was giving Gilda our Predident elect summed up the evening for us.

A warm thank you to all of you who made last night such a rich and inspiring evening. Shirley did a fantastic job of being Toastmaster for the first time. She lead us with grace and competence. Also a first in evaluations advanced speeches for Graham and Claire who stood up to the challenge amazingly. Mick gave us a very humorous speech on names revealing a bit about his Mick, Mike, Michael past. I had a great time doing a bit of storytelling and learning how to say Tortoise properly. Carin combined a precise and sharp general evaluation with a unique sense of humour which kept me smiling for a long time. Did you know that a lectern can be really handy for hiding body parts you do not feel like revealing…… we also had two visitors from Wales, one being member of the USK Club “Voice of Wales” which I visited for the recent competition. Hearing from another club was refreshing – we are all welcome.

Gilda Westerman

The next meeting is on the 8th of June and the roles are filling well.

Paul Harvey

I really want to see this event grow though out this year and Toastmasters will be at the next market, possibly be running an event in the pavilion.

Gilda and I met some great local people many interested in what Toastmaster has to offer in leadership and confidence building. We are looking forward to welcoming them to our meeting on Tuesday 25th or the next on June 8.

All the best

Paul Harvey

Our Toastmaster Veerle Van Den Eynden took the mood from the political situation and chose co-operation as our theme of the evening.  We had a spirited warm up where members were given the opportunity to speak to the three party leaders and offer advice.

Some of these in the moment comments were priceless, and it is only after that you wish it could have been recorded and really passed on the men in question. 

Our Time keeper Claire Hayes gave us a description of the changing speed of time and went on to explaining the important or working withing time.

Gilda Westerman our Grammarian gave us the words to “intend” or  ”intention” to use and include throughout the evening.

Speeches

Ella Young an experienced Toastmaster coming to the end of the first manual presented a persuasive speech and encouraged us to reduce our rubbish in this throw away society, by using our consumer power.

Paul Harvey presented a powerful speech about FEAR and how it controls us and the world around us. He present some tools that he uses to allay his own fears, with a dramatic finish.

Evaluations were provided by Joanna Legard and Duncan Easter.

Following the break our Table topic master Graham Cameron lead is through some fantastic table topics around cooperation and non cooperation, many with the political feel of the moment.

We rounded the evening with reports on time and language followed by a witty general evaluation from Dorota Owen

Our Next meeting is on the 25th May and the Toastmaster will be Shirley Bannister  please come and bring guests.

If you have found your way here from the above article then come along to our next meeting on the 27th. If you would like to speak to me or have questions then call me Paul Harvey on 07966 309844

Roles for next meeting please book with Duncan Easter

Regards

Paul Harvey

As Gilda is travelling for a few weeks and Duncan is taking on the next  toastmaster roll. He  is looking for speakers and rolls to be filled, its always a good time to book in your speach even if you think you are not ready they always work out in the end.

I was in the bar after speaking about Aimee Mullins on the TED site it is such a great speach I thought to share it here.  If you have any thoughts about it put them below comments are good for discussion.

All the best and see you on the 27th

Paul Harvey

I can not get this video to embed so here is a link to the ted page

http://www.ted.com/talks/aimee_mullins_prosthetic_aesthetics.html

The Competitions are held in every toastmaster club twice a year in the Spring and the Autumn. The winner goes on to compete at an area event then district and eventually on to the world event held in the US.

Back to our local Forres event saw a good turn out with a number of guests looking for entertainment.  They were rewarded with  by three excellent speeches,

Carin Schwartz spoke about life as Master Composter Coordinator

Greta Bergman talked about stepping into adult hood

Joanna Legard  spoke of inspiring people who step up with a cause and make it happen.

The first prize went to Carin Schwarts and she will be going to Aberdeen on Sunday 28th to compete in the area event.

As toastmasters is about the continuous improvement of skills the ability to evaluate a speech is a critical part of the process.  So much so that there is an evaluation competition that  runs parallel with the spring speech competition.

Eran Backler gave a great speech that was thoroughly evaluated by 4 toastmasters

Carin Schwartz  Gilda Westerman Duncan Easter and Michael Start.

They all pulled out fantastic points for celebration and improvement and there has to be a winner.  The judges felt that Carin Schwartz gave the most accurate evaluation and she will be representing the club in Aberdeen on Sunday 28th

The competition in Aberdeen is and open event if you are interested in attending please leave a comments on this blog and I will get you booked

Date    March 28, 2010
Time    12:45 to 17:00
Venue    Kippie Lodge, North Deeside Road, Milltimber, Aberdeen, AB13 OAB
Cost    10 GBP / pp  (includes soup, sandwiches, tea and coffee)

 Thanks to every who took part, supported and made my job as Contest Chair very easy.

All the best

Paul Harvey

The ever willing Carin Schwartz (timer and evaluator) stepped in to make the opening address and before she had finished Paul Harvey was once more with us. It is a joy to see how our club rises effortlessly to such challenges, roles being taken up and/or exchanged with grace and ease, often wordlessly.
Eran Backler, one of our newer but very accomplished members, also demonstrated this. Reliably as the metronome Michael Start used as just one of his visual aids, Eran manned the lights and stop watch whenever Carin was called to the front in one of her multiple roles. Michael drew us into the world of automata for his no. 8 speech, something he loves to do. As he pulled props from behind the lid of an open case, we could not fail to be engaged. Greta Bergman presented her research into the Moray Inshore Rescue Organisation as a no. 7 speech. Her informative speech struck a chord with its strong local interest aspect. If you are not aware of MIRO, I encourage you to ask Greta about their work – or one of the other now well informed members. Dorota rose to the challenge of presenting an editorial to camera, her first project from an advanced manual. She prepared well for this, completing within the quite brief allotted time of 3’30″.
Speech evaluators were Carin, Duncan and Gilda. We experimented with the evaluators preceding each speech with a brief overview of the speech objectives.

This was something some of us experienced a week earlier at the inaugural meeting of ‘Toastmonsters’, the new Inverness Toastmasters club. Toastmonsters will meet at 7pm on the first and third Wednesday of the month. You can be sure of a warm welcome at the Glen Mohr hotel, immediately across the river from the cathedral.

Eran, our table topics master, took up the ‘challenges’ theme with a vengeance. Not only did the topics encompass a variety of challenges in realms such as physical, emotional and technological, Eran also presented each speaker with a challenge in terms of the presentation of their speech. This was when Joanna made a sharp plea having been instructed to speak to us from the back of the room. The topics included a speech whilst standing on one leg, one on a serious subject whilst wearing a red nose and jesters hat, and another in which the audience were invited to demonstrate little attention. Truly unforgettable!
Clare Hayes, another new member, thought she had picked an easy role as grammarian. She met the challenge head on, and if all was not clear from the start, she proved ‘adaptable’ (word of the day) and got a fine result. Carin’s timekeeper’s report and Paul Harvey’s general evaluation were models of efficient brevity bringing the meeting to a timely close.
As you are already aware, March 16th sees our club speech and evaluation contests. There are still places if you want to compete. Contact Gilda: Your presence and guests, are also very welcome. With contestants ineligible for a number of roles your willingness to step forward will be much appreciated. Again, contact Gilda.
All the very best,
Duncan.

Our meeting was different than the norm, Gilda or VP Education was holding a training evening on evaluation.

Although Toastmasters is about developing public speaking it is through good evaluation that we improvement. Its about bringing those unconscious words or gestures into consciousness so that we can choose to change them.

It was an evening of technical challenge and high drama when half way through the event our past president received that call you never want to hear..  ” Mum the house is on fire”  ( there was some damages and it was brought under control by the fire brigade in good time thanks to the swift actions of her son)

She left immediately leaving the rest of us trying to stay focuses on the agenda.  Despite the drama and challenge of a new venue it was a great evening and a new focus will be place on evaluation looking for those all important recommendations.

Our next meeting is back the standard format of Speeches and Table topics I hope you can join us.

All the best

Paul Harvey

President

Our Meeting on the 5th of Jan was for those souls that dared brave the weather. Thanks to everyone that stepped out on icy pavements or drove on slippery roads.

It was a great evening working on the theme of creativity with 2 speeches and lots of table topics.  

We had a speech postponed due  to the weather and took the time to discuss our use of venue. The broad consensus was to look for a public venue at a cost of about £2/ person.

While this is being resolved we are at the Community Centre in Forres on the 19th ask at the reception for directions to the room, there is lots of parking behind the building. Look forward to seeing you on the 19th January.

In the mean time keep warm.

Blessings  

Paul Harvey