A Year To Remember

                          Outgoing President Jillian Haslam and President-elect Philip Carey

At the AGM on Monday 24th June, outgoing club President Jillian Haslam, expressed her gratitude and honour at being able to serve the members of Hertfordshire Speakers. She said there was much to celebrate and highlighted a few achievements: Achieving President’s Distinguished status with 10 awards, having members 100% enrolled on Pathways, having members involved in local community activities including Youth Leadership and Rotary Youth Speaks and participation in contests at club, area and division level. Jillian thanked the Committee for keeping the Vision and Mission of Toastmasters alive, and making the club a warm and friendly place for members to thrive.

Jillian presented three awards to club members: The 'Spirit of Toastmasters' Award to Philip Carey, the 'President's Appreciation' Award to Bob Ferguson, DTM, and the President's 'Toastmaster of The Year' Award to Elizabeth Jordan.

Her final act of the evening was to pass  the baton to the new club President, Philip Carey, and wish him and his new committee all the very best in the coming year.

Executive Club Officer Role	2019-2020
President	Philip Carey
VPE	Akhil Nair
VPM	Bryan Chipchase
VPPR	Elizabeth Jordan
Secretary	Andy Watts
Treasurer	Jacob Kallergis
Sergeant-at- Arms	Randika Dissanayake
Immediate Past President	Jillian Haslam
Non-Executive Club Officer Role
Pathways Champion and Trainer	Elizabeth Jordan
Entertainment Officer	Jazz Pitt

                                                           Area 20 Celebration Cake

The end of year celebrations continued on Wednesday 26th June at The Sun Hotel, Hitchin (home of North Herts Speakers) with the Area20 Gala Dinner and Awards ceremony hosted by Area Director, Wojtek Zulja. The Toastmaster of the evening was Bradley Peters, who did a fine job.

                                           Members and guests from Area 20 and Beyond

There were members and in attendance from the three chartered clubs (Herts, East Herts, North Herts) and one Pre-charter club (Stevenage Speakers) in Area 20 and from Area 32 (Luton Speakers and Communicators) and Area 44 (Bedford, Cranfield, Milton Keynes Confident Speakers, Eldergate, North Bucks and Northampton.

                                              After Dinner Speaker, Bob Ferguson, DTM

The After Dinner Speech was delivered by Bob Ferguson, DTM, who thanked Wojtek for resurrecting the Area 20 Gala Dinner, and hoped it would become an annual event.

         Area Director, Wojtek with Award winners Jillian Haslam and Elizabeth Jordan

Area Director, Wojtek Zulja, presented awards to club members in three categories: Most Improved Club Member, Best Club Member and Best Club Officer. Herts members - Akhil Nair, Elizabeth Jordan and Jillian Haslam - were the proud recipients of the awards.

The 'Changing of the Guard' ceremony saw the outgoing officers across the handing over to the incoming officers. Division 'H' Director Steve Campion handed over to John Kendall and Area Director Wojtek Zulja handed over to John Allsop, represented by Nina Morozova.

Wojtek ended the evening by wishing everyone a happy and successful Toastmasters’ Year 2019 - 2020!

Reach Out

'Reach Out' was the title of speech that I presented at the International Speech contests at the Club, Area and Division level. I spoke about the way a young lad reached out to me on the ice-rink, the way my aunt reached out to me all my life and the way I reached out to her at the end of her life.


Whilst out running yesterday, I got to thinking about the many ways we, as members of our Toastmasters club, can reach out within our club and beyond.


The Club
Greet guests with a smile, a universal language of welcome.
The smooth running of a meeting depends on volunteers. Contact the VPE and volunteer to do a role. This not only helps the club but helps you to acquire a range of leadership skills.
Volunteer to be a committee member and help your club to thrive. Again, this present an opportunity to gain new skills and strengthen existing ones.
Volunteer to help organise club contests, take a role or be a contestant.
Reach out and share your knowledge with other members e.g. if you have completed a path in the new Pathways Educational Program share your learning with members starting Pathways.
Volunteer to be a mentor.


Beyond the Club
Visit other clubs and meet new members and see how other clubs run their meetings. Bring the best practices back to our club.
Offer to do  role at the club. Being the General Evaluator is a good role to chose as it offers the opportunity to provide feedback through fresh eyes.
Attend conferences and contests at Area, Division and/or District level and offer to do a role. The organisers will almost certainly be grateful, and you will learn a lot in the process.
Offer to help with community programmes such as Youth Leadership, Speechcraft, Freshers' Fairs, Hosting a stand at local Community Fairs and Open days etc
Offer to coach a failing club.
There are a growing number of global Virtual Toastmaster clubs and these offer opportunities to take on a role, attend meetings and see first-hand how technology is bringing toastmasters from around the world closer together.

I hope you will consider enriching your Toastmasters' journey and 'Reach Out'.

Contests - Worth Having A Go!

 


Dear Fellow Toastmasters


I am writing to share some learning with you following my recent participation in the International Speech and Evaluation contests at Club, Area and Division level.

The Division contests took place on Saturday 30th March. The winner of the International Speech contest was Gordon Adams (third from right in photo #1) and the winner of the Evaluation Speech contest was Vinette Hoffman-Jackson (second from right in photo #2). 

#1 Contestants, including Elizabeth Jordan and Surosh Pillay  receiving Certificates of Participation

#2 Vinette, Hoffman-Jackson, winner of the Evaluation Speech contest with Elizabeth Jordan

1. It's definitely worth having a go at contests. Why? You learn such a lot in the process: How to craft a speech with a great opening and close, storytelling, humour, tips to engage the audience and more.
2. Seek Help. Find an experienced Toastmaster who is willing to listen to a recording or watch a video and give detailed constructive feedback. Feedback from non-Toastmaster friends and family is also be helpful. Thanks especially to Bob Ferguson, DTM, Surosh Pillay (fellow Competitor), Olivia Hylton-Pennant, Phyliss Clark, Mundia Chitambala and Julie Kertesz.
3. Learn from others. There are scores of you tube videos of speeches by winners of the World Champion of Public Speaking. It's worth visiting clubs and hearing their contest speeches and it's worth offering to be a Test Speaker at contests and having your speech evaluated.
3. Video your speech. It's a great way to observe your body language and see if it matches your message. Listen to your message - is it memorable? Is there enough vocal variety? What's in it for the audience? Is it a gift to be treasured?
4. Invest Time in preparing for the contest. It's important to put time aside to practice, review, rewrite, consult and practice some more.
5. Start early! The Humorous Speech and Table Topics contests are coming up in the Autumn. Now is the time to start preparing!
6. If possible, practice speaking on a larger stage to a larger audience before a Division or District contest as these tend to be held at larger venues the ones we are used to our clubs and can be daunting.
7. Have your own ritual for keeping calm on the day e.g. breathing exercises or listening to music.
8. It's great to have support on the day. My husband supports me always. It was fantastic to have a couple of members - Claire Baker and Phil Carey - at the Division contest. Looking out in the audience and seeing their faces meant a lot to me. Good Luck messages from club President, Jillian Haslam, and from family and friends meant a lot.
9. Respect your competitors and wish them 'Good Luck' as you focus on your personal goal.
10. Whatever the outcome, celebrate your getting to where to got to, and know that tomorrow is another day.

A Night To Remember - Pathways One Year On!

There was much to celebrate at Hertfordshire Speakers Club tonight.

Twenty members and three guests listened eagerly as club President, Jillian Haslam, opened the meeting with a proud smile and shared the accomplishments the club had achieved to date. The most exciting news was the 100% enrolment on Pathways by club members - a first in District 71, perhaps.

On the first anniversary of the rollout of Pathways in District 11, the members of Herts Speakers were celebrating three significant successes.

1) Pathways Adoption

•100% of its members enrolled on pathways

•64% of its members have completed an Ice Breaker

•4 members have completed L1

•1 member has completed LDL5 and VCL3 and The Pathways Mentoring Program

 

The presentation of Pathways certificates were made by Wojtek Zulja, Area 20 Director, John Allsop, Area Director-elect and Vinette Hoffman-Jackson, Pathways Ambassador. The beautiful cake was cut by the two contest winners and shared to delighted members during the Network break. 

2) A President's Distinguished Club

The President of Hertfordshire Speakers was thrilled to announce that the club was President's Distinguished with 9 awards completed well before the end of the Toastmaster's year. This was a proud moment for the club which has a track record of achieving President's Distinguished status.

3) Contest Winners 

The third success celebrated this evening was having two members from Herts Speakers: Elizabeth Jordan and Surosh Pillay -  representing Area20 at the Division H International Speech and Evaluation contests on Saturday 30th March at Cranfield University.

 

 

The Area 20 Director, Wojtek Zulja, in his letter of thanks to the club President following the visit wrote: "Congratulations for the great achievement on the first anniversary of Pathways launch - I really liked your concept of celebration".

In other news from the evening's event:

The Toastmaster of the evening Bob Ferguson, DTM and Founder of the club, set the tone for a great evening.

The Best Speaker Award went to Bryan Chipchase for his Pathways Icebreaker Speech "Born Lucky". There were three other amazing speeches by Dara Caryotis, Claire Baker and Elizabeth Everington.

The Best Evaluator Speech went to guest, Vinette Hoffman-Jackson. The other Evaluators were Surosh Pillay, Emily Myers and Philip Carey.

Tonight at Herts Speakers was most definitely a night to remember.