Brighton & Hove Speakers Club

Toastmasters International, where leaders are made

Toastmasters

A New Year, A New You

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Happy New Year from B&H Speaker Club.

You’ve had your turkey and sherry and listened to the Queen’s speech, or if you’re from Brighton, you’re still hungry after a meagre meal of organic nutroast and Algerian cucumbers and your head is buzzing from parsnip and ginger smoothies, you’re desperate for a glass of red or a mince pie but listening to some half baked irreligious bunkum spouted by a bearded anarchist from Luton….

Just consider your new year’s resolutions for 2019 and realise the fantastic material you have for your next speech at B&H Speakers on the subject of “My Christmas”.

Christmas 2018

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Splendid Christmas bash at B&H Speakers last night. Thanks to Barry for performing an interpretive reading (even if he was interpreting his former self from ten years ago). Thanks to Jim and Dee for setting everything up and organising the fab festive food. Also congratulations to Dom for winning best Table Topics.

Look forward to seeing everyone in January 2019 when we’ll be taking advantage of the new year resolution fever to hold a special “Open House” meeting where we encourage potential new members to get a look at what we do at Toastmasters. Date yet to be determined – Tell your friends and colleagues!

Have an cheerful Christmas a happy Hanukkah and an agreeable New Year!

A penny, knowing thyself, King Wenceslas and Mount Everest

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A penny, knowing thyself, Good King Wenceslas and Mount Everest. Thanks to everyone who took part in a Marvellous May Meeting last night. Congratulations to Azy for doing a fantastic Ice Breaker, we can see that she’s already very good at this lark. Congratulations also to Antony for best Speaker, Jack (again!) for best Evaluator and Ed for Best Table Topic.

Next meeting is 24th May when we’ll be holding the elections to the committee. Also remember we have a social at the Sussex Cricketer on Friday 26th may.

The Resurrection Story – How relevant is it in Today’s World?

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Our very own Barry Miles will be chairing a Panel Discussion being held by the Brighton Secular Humanists. Members and guests of B&H Speakers are welcoem to attend.

Title: “The Resurrection Story – How relevant is it in Today’s World?”
When: Wednesday 5th April, 2017 at 7:30pm
Venue: The King & Queen pub (upstairs), 13-17 Marlborough Place, Brighton, BN1 1UB

Speakers:
Pastor Anthony Bickley (Ebenezer Reformed Baptist Church)
Rev. Anthea Ballam, (Interfaith Minister)
Peter D. Williams (Catholic Voices)
Ken Humphreys (Historian, Mythicist and Author of “Jesus Never Existed”)

Each speaker will speak for around ten minutes, then they will question each other, then there will be general Q&A from the floor. This will be a forum open to all and we invite anyone to take part, whether you are a believer, a doubter or a complete sceptic regarding this topic. We want to know what you think.

This event is free to attend, but they ask for a voluntary donation towards the hire of the venue.

Fairies and Giants and Professional Public Speaking

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skyeOur numbers are often fewer on 5th Wednesday meetings but this lends the evening a very convivial atmosphere. The evening is usually a little out of the ordinary and last night’s was extraordinary. First, Jim gave us a marvellous and magical vision of The Isle of Sky in a speech entitled The Land of Fairies and Giants and this was followed by an advanced speech from Mary entitled The Professional Speaker where she covered many aspects of public speaking including the mechanics of the lungs and larynx, examples of poetry reading and explosive consonants.

Thanks to all those who took part and congratulations to Vivienne for Best Evaluator and a guest named Jenna for Best Table Topic.

The next round of speech and evaluation contest is on 22nd April in Oxted and the District 91 Spring Conference is in Southampton on the 5th, 6th and 7th May.

Pat will be giving us a briefing on the conference at the next meeting on the 12th April.

Area Contest Winners

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International Speech Contest
International Speech Contest

On Saturday Brighton & Hove Speakers Hosted the Area 55 Contest. The event went off without a hitch and we can congratulate Kate from Lewes Speakers for winning The International Speech Contest, Clare from Eastbourne Speakers for winning the Evaluation Contest, Al from Battle for second place in the Speech Contest, Pat from Brighton for second place in the the Evaluation Contest.

Thanks also to Gordon and Andy who presented an excellent workshop on the difference between Evaluating and Judging. This comprised viewing videos of district and world level speakers after which Gordon and Andy facilitated discussions.

My very quick précis is that, when evaluating, we need to remember to communicate to the speaker (and the audience) our thoughts about the speech and how the speaker met the criteria for the specific speech whereas with judging there is no need to communicate and we are looking at all aspects of the speech.

Evaluation Contest
Evaluation Contest

Thanks to Jim for presenting his Target Speech for evaluation and special thanks to Dan for filling in after the target speech with a fantastic comedy routine which brought some variety to the day.

Next meeting is THIS WEEK on Wednesday 29th March 2017.

Carbon Footprint, Belly Fat, Confirmation Bias and Simulation

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Our first speech last night was on reducing our carbon footprint by buying local veg and our second was how to reduce belly fat by cutting down on carbs. A very clear message to eat more cauliflower. Knew that already? Don’t be too sure, our third speech was on confirmation bias followed by a fourth speech on the role of simulation in modern life.

Thanks to everyone for a great night. Congratulations to Rebecca for Best Speaker, Alan for Best Table Topic and Dan for Best Evaluator.

Thanks to all our guests and our visitors from Area Command, Dorothy and Gordon.

Next meeting is the Area Contest this Saturday. Workshop starts at 11am and the contests start at 2pm. Feel free to bring guests.

Utopia, Adventure and the Glass Ceiling

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B & H Speakers Club

Last night we had a CC5 on “Automated Utopia” plus two advanced speeches. One from the Storytelling manual entitled “A Daring Adventure” and a Keynote Address from The Professional Speaker manual entitled “The Glass Ceiling”. We also had at least ten guests so the meeting included around seven Table Topics, some of them extraordinary! Congratulations to Jez for Best Speaker, Rebeca for Best Evaluator and a guest named David for Best Table Topic with the subject: My Favourite Sound. I’ll leave you to guess the sound on which he spoke.

Next meeting is the Club Speech and Evaluation Contest on the 8th March. Also remember the Area Contest on Saturday 25th March. Please step up and volunteer for roles for both. Also, Battle are after judges for their contest on the 9th March.

Area 55 Speech and Evaluation Contest

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Area 55 Contests

What should you do when the aliens land and demand “Take me to your leader”?

Take them straight to a meeting of Toastmasters International, “where leaders are made”. And what meeting could be more appropriate (after a little editing) than the Area 55 Speech and Evaluation Contest in Hove on the 25th March 2017.

This is a great chance to see speakers from around the south of England who have won contests in their own clubs and have now moved up a level. Remember that last autumn B&H did pretty well in the Area contest in Eastbourne. This is also a great chance to do roles for your leadership award such as Chief Judge and Contest Chair.  There are rumours of free biscuits too!

Saturday 25th March 2017
11am to 1pm Workshop
2pm to 4pm  Speech Contests

The Courtlands Hotel in Hove

 

New members and lots to look forward to in 2017

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SpeechcraftClub membership stands at a healthy 35 but the past couple of meetings have brought many guests and we hope to welcome some of these as new members. As well as the usual club meetings there are four main items on the club horizon: Contests, Mentoring, Funds and Speechcraft.

Contests
Contests are great opportunities to progress toward your leadership award as the roles of Judge and Contest Chair are only available during contests. Two contests coming up and both include an “International Speech Contest” and an “Evaluation Contest”.

For both contests we need volunteers for Contest Speakers, Target Speakers, Contest Chairs, Warm Ups, Chief Judge, Judges, Table Topic Masters, Timekeepers, Sergeant at Arms and Ballot Counters

To volunteer contact: vpeducation@brightonandhovespeakersclub.com

Mentoring
We’re revamping the mentoring program. We want everyone who wants a mentor to have one. Jez is coordinating this so if you would like a mentor or like to be a mentor then contact Jez at vppr@brightonandhovespeakersclub.com

Alternately you may prefer to approach a member in the club to be your mentor. If you both agree then please keep Jez informed. Remember that mentoring can count to your Leadership award.

Funds
Funds continue to be tight because of the price hike by Toastmasters International last year and the fall of the pound against the dollar. We will review fees at the end of March.

Speechcraft
The Speechcraft program allows experienced Toastmasters to present the fundamentals of public speaking to non-members. It can be offered as a seminar-style program presented outside the club in four, six or eight sessions. We’re looking to offer this to local businesses and organisations so if you know anyone who may be interested then please contact Nigel at president@brightonandhovespeakersclub.com

Worthing Speakers Workshop
Worthing are running an evaluation workshop and would be delighted to welcome members from B&H Speakers. There will be an insightful and energetic presentation on evaluation theory by a long-standing Worthing member followed by a CC speech. The meeting will then split into working groups to discuss what each member observed in the speech.

Venue: The Burlington Hotel, Marine Parade, Worthing BN11 3QL
Date: Thursday 16 February
Time: 7.30pm

Please note that unfortunately the hotel does not have wheelchair access.

You can contact Worthing Speakers via facebook at the link below

https://www.facebook.com/groups/367867926462/?ref=br_rs

Events:
Wednesday 15th February 2017        Eastbourne Contest – Volunteers welcome
Thursday 16th February 2017           Worthing Evaluation Workshop
Wednesday, 8th March 2017             B&H Speakers Club contest – Volunteers welcome
Saturday, 25th March 2017                Area Contest + Workshop – Volunteers welcome
14th March 2017                                   Lewes Contest – Volunteers welcome
Saturday 9th April 2017                      Divisional contest
4th 5th 6th May 2017                          District contest & Conference