What a fantastic evening! The membership is so full energy and positivity I am sure that this will be one of the most successful years for Harrovians.
The evening began with our Toastmaster Mandip Sohal welcoming the newly elected Committee.
Harrovians new president Alan McMahon thanked former president Tony Lazar for his efforts over the past year.
For the next couple of hours, Harrovians enjoyed an evening of sparkling entertainment beginning with a lively and stimulating Table Topics Session hosted by Tony Lazar. Well done to Indra, Khandee, Mo, Kieran, Angela, Carl and Shirley for your wonderful speeches which certainly got the evening off to a lively start.
We were then treated to two contrasting and entertaining speeches.
New member Ruth’s Icebreaker Speech vividly described how she made her dream a reality by opening a teashop in Middlesex. This uplifting speech highlighted how, with self belief and vision, it is possible for us all to achieve our goals. Ruth used gentle humour describing day to day life running the shop and the colourful characters who regularly dropped in to sample her delicious cakes with intriguing names such as “The Sinner From Pinner” and “Naughty But Nice”.
Warren Sheng’s Speech from the Advanced Speaker Manual took the form of a public relations exercise in which the aim was to successfully field a range of hostile questions from an audience. The speech introduced the scenario of the Government introducing a compulsory savings account for UK citizens. A lively debate ensued in which Warren defended the proposal with skilful use of humour and tact as well as managing to avoid a drenching by Shirley!
This evening President Alan McMahon welcomed 3 guests to Harrovians – Carl, Tim and Peter Taylor.
Winners of the evening’s votes were:-
Kieran – Best Table Topics Speaker
Angela – Best Evaluator
A final thanks to this evenings Timer - Sanjay, Grammarian - Khandee and evaluators Alex (Table Topics), Indra (Ruth’s Speech) and Angela (Warren’s Speech).
The evening finished with us all enjoying some much appreciated cakes home-baked by Ruth.
Hello Harrovians.
It has been a while since our last posting on this blog.
Many things have been happening in the background. to make the club better causing this absence.
As the old club committee's year draws to a close, the new committee will take over officially from 1st July 2008. Many of the old committee have agreed to carry on in different roles, ensuring consistency and continuation of the good work to date.
Monday's meeting is the penultimate for this old committee - and what a night it was! You can certainly see the improvement in the standard of speeches and evaluations - "Good Evaluations = Good Clubs".
The evening started with the intimitable Toastmaster Warren Sheng, who presented outgoing President Tony Lazar with a diamond studded bottle of Port, and a gold plated "To My Dad" bar of "Tobarlone" (could never get my tongue or keyboard around this word!) for incoming President Alan Mcmahon, that Waitrose had discounted by 110% especially for Warren.
Thank you Warren for this wonderful gesture. You are in danger of losing your thrifty image!
Tony loved the new superb new programme printed in glorious technicolour so much that he forgot his lines and ran out of time! He was red lighted off by Timer Naran Patel.
The energetic Karl Howe came on as grammarian with the Vigourous word of the day.
A thoroughly enjoyable table topics ensued, ochestrated by newest recruit, table topics master Chetan Vekaria - an excellent job for the first time, carried out with confidence like an old pro - seems like we have another potential speaker in the making.
As always, Lorna Burns provided the concise, yet to the point evaluation of the table topics speakers. Well done to Jo Hallas for winning, and Guest Karl for excellent table topics - they loved the stage so much, not even 'fingers on the buzzer' Timer Naran could get them off!
3 superb speeches followed from 'kitchen knife krazy' Maneesha, 'get the bar stewards' Indra, and 'flying high' Super Mandip. Following in Alan's footsteps, Mandip has now also completed his first 10 speeches.
3 excellent evaluations followed from Alan Mcmahon, Anthony Mcguigun and Shirley Holmes.
The colourful General Evaluator Angela Lansbury waxed lyrically about the evening, with a insightful evaluation of those who had not been evaluated. Angela had arrived at the club early to give a training on evaluations before the meeting started - very appropriate.
The winners were:
Table Topics - Jo Hallas
Evaluation - Shirley Holmes
Best Speech - Maneesha Sharma
Competent Communicator - Mandip Sohal
A special Gold Award for Angela, an advanced speaker, who has now completed over 40 speeches.
Also congratulations to Alan Mcmahon who completed his 10th speech at the last meeting and is also a Competent Communicator.
I am really looking forward to the ultimate meeting of the old committee on 30 June. Make sure you are all there, or you will miss a cracking meeting.
What an evening! A full house! A buzzing atmosphere! Some of us had to stand at the back to ensure we did not miss out on the action. My head is still spinning!!!
We had well over 30 people at the meeting on Monday night; you knew it was going to be a great evening.
Karl Howe took up the challenge of being the Toastmaster of the evening for the first time, and delivered the seasoned performance of an experienced Toastmaster. We all knew what cars we were - I am the Hummer 2 (and I have the picture to prove it), presence, class and luxury - what are you! A superb example of good preparation and introducing guests. We should all take leaf out of Karl's book on this one. Well done to Karl for entertaining us and smoothly flowing the meeting.
Warren Sheng's tabletopics were sublime, and covered a variety of topics from the Telegraph - a treat for all you avid readers of this broadsheet. Quality topics to which the participants had plenty to say - we could not get them off the stage!!! I have heard that there is new bug going around Harrovians this year, diagnosed as the "ILPS" bug - "I Love Public Speaking!" Beware it is infectious!!!
What a rare treat to have 3, yes 3, advanced speeches, from Naren simplifying the mysteries of credit card security, from Saley the illogically logical, and the in rhythm and rhyme Angela. I am looking forward to the next meeting.
The speech ribbon went to Saley for a fantastically prepared, delivered logic conundrum - an actor in the making!
The table topics and the evaluator’s ribbons both went to Khandee - this must be a first - 2 ribbons in one evening - and he is making a habit of collecting ribbons.
Don't forget the club competition on Monday 31 March. Volunteers are needed to help organise this evening - please Let Tony Lazar know your availability.
Harrovians are hosting the annual gala dinner for the Area this year, to be held on 6th July this year. Details and the menu have been emailed to everyone, and are also downloadable from this site. This will be an excellent opportunity to meet, socialise and network with other clubs in the area. Book early to avoid missing out later.
What night of blessings! It was a night of class acts and performances. The improvement in the members of the club was startingly evident - Harrovians is certainly a club on the up at the moment.
Everyone had a superb evening of being blessed as the theme of the evening was expertely strung together by our toastmaster, Warren Sheng. A near perfect performance on how to carry out this role. Warren was well prepared and had done some good planning for this role... and managed to get into a suit - very smart indeed. He remarked afterwards how wearing a suit changes the way you feel - for the better.
Naren, our table topics master, lead an exemplary table topics session. This was another well prepared role. He has obviously being studying the best practice area, and reading the manual! Well done to Naren for such well thought out and pre-prepared topics, giving a feel of real quality to the meeting.
Could the prepared speeches match this? Wow the speeches were superb, all well prepared and thought out, with real message, and a training speech on "evaluate to motivate".
The best speaker was Mandip, with the training speech "evaluate to motivate". See this in the best practice and speeches area. All members should watch this and take notes.
"better quality evaluations = a better club".
See you all at the next meeting on 3 March.
Love is in the air!
An amorous evening - with scented candles and red table cloths. The room was certainly set up for the biggest event in February! An action packed, friendly Harrovians evening!!! The room was packed out, with no spare seats, in heavy anticipation, and light banter. Some of you might be thinking Valentine’s Day. Well at Harrovians, the theme for the evening was about romantic moments – a pre-cursor for the big day.
What a wonderful performance and command of the stage by Toastmaster for the evening, Lorna Burns. A magnificent example of how to carry out this role for a first time. Lorna performed like a pro, and never showed signs of nerves. She immediately introduced the theme of romantic moments.
Naren, our philosophical time keeper, kept the role on time, and pushed the meeting along nicely.
Our Grammarian, Linda – a fantastic effort, set an example of how to do the Grammarians role. For those of you who are yet to take on this role, I would recommend watching Linda in the best practice area.
Another first – Karl Howe as the topics master, a superb table topics section, in keeping with the theme for the evening – romance!!! Quality questions, answered with matching quality by the participants.
During the second half, another first, the icebreaker for Colin. Brilliantly entertaining and warming to Colin. Well done Colin.
Khandee gave Harrovians a short lesson in Japanese, and discussed the intricate bathing habits in the Oisen – the Japanese public bath. Those of you who weren’t there missed a gem of a speech.
Alan with his account of a long lost and forgotten battle, showing how you can to overcome great difficulties, especially at work! Superb delivery Alan!
Warren gave an intriguing and insightful account of how similar Toastmasters and the Church really are. By the end, we were not sure if we were sitting at a Toastmasters evening or in a church.
The evening was rounded off by Rod Sloane’s direct and considered evaluation.
The best speaker ribbon went to Khandee. See his speech in the best practice area.
Make sure you attend the next meeting, and get in your speaking or functionary role in fast, as these are getting booked up well in advance. Bring your friends and relatives too.
See you all at the next meeting on 18th Feb.
Mandip Singh Sohal
What an evening!
Full of excitement, a new way for Table Topics, full of quality speeches and a superb General Evaluation.
Anthony McGuigan was a smooth operator as the Toastmaster for the evening, and what a confident performance he gave - we were in safe hands.
Terry Logan, aided by Linda Williams, stepped for the Time Keepers role for the first time on his second visit to the club ! Well done to Terry and Linda.
Khandee came in as the sublime Topics Master, and we had to work hard to impress him in conversation - his approach was a first, and very imaginative.
During the second half, 4 high quality speeches, 2 at the last minute - well done to both Karl and Mandip for this.
Mandip gave a hugely impressive factual talk about the work of his charity, the United Religions initiative - UK.
Sonal followed this with her experience of attending another toastmasters club in Switzerland, where they tap on the table when the word of the day is heard, and have dinner during the break! Bring your sandwiches to the next meeting!!
Karl lit the evening with his talk about energy saving light bulbs and encouraged us all to think about changing our bulbs as the humble light bulb would be no more after next year.
Lorna gave a delightfully colourful account of her daughter's pet hampster, who kept getting lost at home, and had major surgery at the Vet's.
A superb evening rounded off by Kate's brilliant and insightful general evaluation. Kate was impressed by Harrovians, and so were we!!! Kate is going for her advanced leadership award, and we whole heartedly support her on this.
The best speaker ribbon went to Lorna Burns for her story about her daughter's pet hampster.
A final thanks to Anthony for the delicious organic carrot cake for all of us on his return to Harrovians, his second home - if you did not attend, you missed out on a special treat !! All I can say is that Anthony can returns to Harrovians at the next meeting with some more cake, and the next, and the next......
These evenings keep getting better - a sign of great hings to come this year. See you all at the next meeting with some of your friends and relatives.
Mandip Singh Sohal
A wonderful start to the year! Alan McMahon stood in as Toastmaster because Saley had injured his wrist ice skating!
He conducted the meeting and continued the theme of New Year’s resolutions with his usual humorous panache.
Thank you to our visitors from London Athenians, Kate McNeilly and Mike Robinson.
Kate gave us a splendid demonstration of the grammarian role (soon to be viewed on this website) and Mike Robinson delivered a very interesting and informative General Evaluator speech.
Ribbons were awarded to:
Best Table Topics - Richard Lawrence
Richard who was a guest, gave us a highly entertaining table topic on a misspent youth even including our venue in the speech.
Best Evaluator - Anthony McGuigan
Anthony gained another ribbon for evaluating since his return for his evaluation of Shirley Holmes’ speech.
Best Speaker - Shirley Holmes
Shirley delivered a powerful and moving speech from the storytelling advanced manual.
There was a great atmosphere and energy for the first meeting of the year. Everything bodes very well for the future.
Tony Lazar.
The meeting on Monday 3 Dec was one the most enjoyable ones I have been to for a long time. It had everything - new innovations, great speeches, a superb table topics and the Harrovians war cry!!!
Tony, our lazar sharp President - always inspirational, and positively encouraging - superb opening and really laid the scene for the evening.
Alan McMahon, the super slick Mr Toastmaster himself did a fantastic job of keeping the evening both smooth and enjoyable - that was a really professsional job Alan - well done!
Lorna, the Grammarian - absolutely spot on with the word of the day and her report - her teacher training has worked wonders for this role!
Maneesha - wonderfully courageous to especially make the effort to come in with a cold and really rocked this role - she was brilliant and had us all singing and about with the golden oldies !!!
Karl came forward with an icebreaker - on the second evening has attended - WOW !!!
Narren - with an advanced speech - blasted his last attempt into the universe - that man is going places!
Francis, cool and calm as ever - the first ever Harrovian to use a powerpoint presentation to deliver a speech - we are definitely running into the 21st Century.
Mandip the "SuperMandip" shook the club with a rip roaring war cry that could be heard in the concil chambers of Harrow Council - luckily none of the councillors were injured!
Anthony, on his return to the club with the table topic evaluation gave a master class in evaluation - if weren't there - it was a real gem.
Saley the Super Stud - a polished and slick general evaluator had us swooning and relishing every word....
Tony presented the winners of the evening
First timer - Karl
Best table topics - Indra
Best Evaluator - Anthony
Best Speech - Mandip
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