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MEETING ON 5 JANUARY 2009

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 05:53:22 +0700

Harrovians kicked off 2009 with a fantastic table topics session in which we would all vent our thoughts and feelings about the New Year.

The awards for the evening were :-

Best Table Topic: Lorna Burns

Best Evaluator: Alan McMahon

Best Speaker: Tony Dryer

MEETING ON 17 NOVEMBER 2008

Tue, 25 Nov 2008 22:36:12 +0700

Jo Hallas hosted an excellent table topics session focussing on how television affects our lives.

Sanjay was asked whether the Jonathan Ross/Russell Brand scandal was handled well by the BBC. He thought that everyone should be free to speak and give their views without fear of reprisal.

Joselyn’s table topic revolved around the popular TV program the X factor. He was asked which song he would perform if he was a contestant. Music is not the most important thing in his life. In fact, he said that he could actually live without music but if he had to choose a song to sing on the X factor it would be something he could really pour his emotions into.

Rod thought that there should be a cap on how many programmes from US that are shown on British TV as he considered that their outlook was very different from that of the UK.

Ruth spoke about the vast number of channels we have access to these days. She remembered the days when there were only 3 channels and thought that TV productions were of a greater quality in those days.

Kamlesh recalled aspects of advertising which antagonised him. He didn’t like the sponsorship of the Simpsons by Dominos Pizza.

Lorna also thought that there were too many ads on British TV. Our TV is becoming more like that of the US where sometimes it can take over 3 hours to see an average length film.

Michael was asked who he liked to be entertained by on TV that he wouldn’t have in his home. His answer was to this was the actor and presenter Stephen Fry because he is so intelligent!

Angela thought that TV trivialised world events such as the war in Iraq. Wars become more like a TV show or advertisement.

Alan provided us with an enlightened us as to why the Telly Tubbies song is helping us to become a global village!

We also two excellent speeches from Amit and Indra. Amit’s Icebreaker speech was entitled “Celebrity Maker”. It was a pleasure to hear about his life and there was some good use of humour.

Indra’s speech entitled “Peace in Our Time” spoke about wars throughout history, world events can shape our own lives, the concept of peace and why war may not be totally a bad thing.

Thanks to everyone for some enlightening and perceptive speeches this evening! See you soon.

HUMOROUS SPEECH CONTEST MONDAY 29 SEPTEMBER

Sun, 05 Oct 2008 23:23:36 +0700

What a wonderful evening! Some fantastic speeches and lots of laughter.

Warren was Contest Chair for the first part of the evening and we began with a Table Topics Contest.

The question put to our contestants was “The Right Words Transform Lives – What do you think?”

Angela used her ex-boyfriend as an example in her speech. In the past she had advised him to get some hair-dye and dye his beard. She had told him that he had suddenly grown rather large and should lose some weight. She believed that she could have made her suggestions more effectively using the Toastmasters “Commend, Recommend, Commend” Model. Her view was that “you should clothe your thoughts with the right words”.

Karl likes to be truthful but accepted that in certain situations you may have to stretch the truth and even tell a few lies particularly in the world or work if you want that promotion. In this situation manipulating your words is acceptable.

Kieran believed that words are one of the most powerful tools we have. Through the power of speech we can change lives and views as many great speakers have done in the past for example, Martin Luther King. Words must be carefully chosen and honed. Absence of words at certain times can also be important.

Maneesha told us of a time when she lost all hope and despite numerous setbacks a good friend kept her faith with the words “it will be alright”. Her friend’s belief and help providing a “shoulder to cry on” kept her going through those tough times. She didn’t know whether her friend truly believed the words but as she said “who cares – it the words that count”.

After the Table Topics Contest we had a short break. The audience and guests tucked into some of the luscious feast provided by Maneesha at the back of the room.

Linda hosted the second part of the evening.

Our president Alan gave Speech No.1 entitled “The Green Man”. Wearing an extremely startling pair of green shorts and a T-shirt he told us an eco-friendly story of how our actions in just small ways can impact the environment. In his view women have a larger carbon footprint than men and he proceeded to tell us to why this was with a very funny story. I’m not sure I was convinced about his argument of the differences between the sexes in terms of saving the environment but next time I go to buy my energy saving lightbulbs – I will bear this in mind!

Warren’s Speech No.2 was entitled “Warren Sheng” and was all about how we could take some of the positive attributes about being Chinese such as being good at managing money and become more Chinese ourselves. In his words “if you feel a need to be excellent and a need to stand out from the crowd – you too can be Chinese”. Warren appeared in the most incredible pair of highly patriotic USA cycling shorts. This outfit eclipsed even Alan’s Green Man Shorts and T-shirt in it’s retro styling and impact.

Speech No.3 was given by Angela who took us back stage for a look at some of her props. Many were familiar from previous speeches and some undiscovered. She let us in on the secrets of how these props help her to get her message across. I particularly like the cuddly toys that turn into a pillow – very useful when travelling! Also “the big hand” – which I remember from past speeches. Angela also continued in the same vein of incredible fashion breakthroughs with a particularly natty hat from which a yellow fish appeared to be escaping!

Competition winners were:-

Maneesha – Table Topics Contest.

Alan – Humorous Speech Contest.

The awards were presented by Chief Judge Tony Lazar.

Thanks to everyone involved in organising the contest particularly the planning committee Alan, Tony and Mandip. Maneesha for the catering. Sargent-at-Arms Alex, Contest Chairs – Warren and Linda.

Meeting Monday 15th September 2008

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 13:54:45 +0700

The evening began with our President Alan sharing two stories of how the course of two peoples lives were changed - in one instance by failure to tackle the fear of public speaking and in the other case by success in improving public speaking.

The first story concerned Alan's friend Dave who was studying English at University. Part of the course involved public speaking. Despite his wish to be a teacher, Dave just couldn't face speaking before an audience. He eventually dropped out of the course and for many years has worked as a barman. Sadly his dreams to be a teacher remained unfulfilled.

If only Dave had taken action and joined a supportive group such as toastmasters - his destiny could have been completely different. His dreams of being a teacher could so easily have become a reality.

The second story concerned an ex-Harrovians member - Sholom. Sholom was a rabbi. After regularly attending Harrovians the course of Sholom's life began to change.  Many members of his congregation commented on the amazing improvements in his public speaking. Soholm applied for a prestigous job at the University of Detroit and his application was successful! He now has his dream job and all because he took action one evening and decided to come along to toastmasters.

The evening's table topics session, was hosted by Kimlesh and Harrovians took advantage of the chance to air their views on the current affairs of the day. Indra told us about his understanding of the large Hadron Collider experiment. Maneesha explained why she believed that class is no barrier to progression in modern Britain. In her words “ballsy people just go for it”. Linda discussed fashion and why we should all be comfortable about what we are wearing and enjoy being either in or out of fashion. Shirley had an eye for a bargain particularly at the jumble sales at the scout hut at the end of her road.

There were two excellent speeches this evening.

Bookworm Kieran shared his love of reading with us in a fantastic Speech No 2 (Competent Communication Manual) . As he put very appropriately “mankind’s greatest invention is the written word”. Kieran had actually brought in his favourite books by authors such as Stephen King and Lewis Carroll amongst others. It was wonderful to learn his opinion about certain books, how they impacted upon his life and what they meant to him. The speech also made us think about why we may choose to read certain books at different stages of our lives.

Super Mandip’s Advanced Speech was entitled “The Entrepreneur Child” This speech reminded us that by changing our own mindset we can help our children to see a different life path other the 45 year plan that the Government wants us to follow.

Illustrating his point in a chart, Mandip enthusiastically explained that the challenge was to move from the Employee/Self employed section to Business Owner/Investor area.   His speech provided us with the inspiration to believe that this was possible and that our children can share our journey.

Well done to everyone who spoke this evening! See you all at the Humorous Speech Contest on the 29th September!

Meeting 1st September 2008

Sun, 07 Sep 2008 15:09:04 +0700

This evening Harrovians had the opportunity to improve their performance during table topics thanks to a highly entertaining and informative training session hosted by guest speakers from Athenians - Paul Carroll – assisted by Pam Bennett.

Through a series of special exercises Paul persuaded several hesitant table topics speakers – Amit, Kamlesh and Linda - to deliver a short table topics style speeches on topics such as their favourite film, book or holiday destination.

Paul gave us the following tips:-

Long Term:

-           Keep up to date with the latest current affairs and challenge yourself to speak about a subject from a certain point of view.

-           Treat all questions as table topics questions – so that you start to think in the order of introduction, body and conclusion.

-           Watch the professionals in action by listening to/viewing Prime Minister’s questions, Question Time, Newsnight, Any Questions (Radio 4), Just a Minute (Radio 4).

Medium Term (on the day of a table topic session) Glance at the news of the day – a good source of information would be the Metro newspaper (handed out free at tube stations).

Short term (during the table topics session)
-           Speak on the first subject which comes into your mind

-           Don’t worry about the length of the pause before you begin speaking as this always seems longer to you than the audience.

-           During the session formulate answers to all the table topics questions in your head.

After the break we heard two fantastic speeches from Angela Lansbury and Jo Hallas.

Angela’s speech entitled Restaurant Etiquette – Tips for Diners opened our eyes to the many differences and possible misunderstandings which can arise when dining around the world with people from different cultures. Angela used a wonderful array of props and great humour throughout.

She finished her speech with a quote from Abraham Lincoln “If this is coffee, please bring me some tea but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee”.

Jo’s speech entitled “On boarding Tarka” began with a quote “Dogs are not our whole life but they makes our lives whole”.

Her speech highlighted the many considerations and practicalities that need to be borne in mind before deciding on a dog as a pet and the life enhancing qualities that a dog can bring to your life. She also shared her own personal experiences of getting her first dog – Tarka a golden retriever.

Thanks to everyone who spoke this evening including Maneesha for her stunning premier performance as Toastmaster, Indra for evaluating the table topics training session, Warren for his Olympic themed general evaluation, Sanjay our Grammarian and Timekeeper – Kamlesh.

Meeting 18th August 2008

Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:25:56 +0700

The winners of this evening's voting were:-

Best Table Topics: Jan

Best Evaluator: Tony

Best Speech: Alan

Meeting 4th August 2008

Sat, 09 Aug 2008 04:32:17 +0700

Monday the 4th of August was an evening of new beginnings. Kieran and Sanjay began their journey along the path to competent communicator with two wonderful icebreaker speeches.   Ruth, Carl and Jo tackled the roles of Grammarian, Table Topics Master and Timekeeper for the first time. Well done to you all! It was also bring a friend/grab a biscuit evening and it was great to see so many new faces.

The meeting opened with Alan our president reminding us of a thought provoking quote by Aristotle “We are what we repeatedly do” and that in Harrovians we have the opportunity to practice speaking repeatedly in a number of roles. Mistakes are allowed and repetition will allow our confidence to grow. Alan welcomed our visitors Pat Bennett and Mike Robinson from Athenians.

Toastmaster Narran introduced the evening’s theme The Games that People like to play. Harrovians certainly seem to enjoy a wide variety of games – everything from Mousetrap to Squash!

The world of the day – set by our Grammarian Ruth – was Joyous/Joyously and everyone seemed to enjoy inserting this into their speeches and using it whenever possible.

Our Table Topics Master, Carl Wilkinson set the theme of Persuasion. The idea of this session was to get the speakers to persuade the audience to accept a particular point of view or argument. The first topic was the recent libel action by Max Mosley against the News of the World. We experienced Indra extolling the liberating delights of bondage! This caused much amusement. Francis gave a very effective counter-argument from the point of view of publicist Max Clifford.

The next topic was the film Casablanca and the aim was to persuade the audience that this was the best or worst film of all time. Howard masterfully tackled this topic. The film Casablanca is one of the greatest love stories and his short speech focussed on why love is a good thing, why we don’t have enough of it in this world, relationships and why we should have more films like Casablanca.

Kimlesh spoke next about how humour has changed over the last 20 years. Kimlesh is a great fan of Buster Keaton and in his opinion humour went downhill once they started putting soundtracks onto the movies.

Mo spoke about the quote “Life is a game of cards”. Although she wasn’t a card player she was keen to learn.

Charmaine’s speech centred around the quote “It is better to be beautiful than to be good”. She then had to describe what characteristics she looked for in people – someone with a good heart, warm spirit and attentive manner and used the wonderful quote “beauty is in the eye of the beholder”.

The final table topic was based around the quote by Leonardo da Vinci “The average person looks without seeing, listens without hearing and talks without listening”. Chetan gave a number of examples from his own life and experiences and asked us all to reflect enjoy and be patient.

A big welcome to our guests – Howard, Tracey, Ramaya, Katherine and Elsa who shared their stories of what had led them to come to Harrovians and their hopes for the future.

VPE, Mandip then spoke briefly on a number of new initiatives for Harrovians.

(1)   The Brain Storming Forum - this new forum has just been set up - postings are invited.

(2)   The Evaluation Committee - members have the opportunity to get involved and share the VPE role with others.

(3)   The Speakers Bureau - providing a platform to experienced speakers to speak to an external audience.

If anyone is interested in finding out more about any of these, please contact Mandip.

Our first speaker of the evening, Sanjay told us “The Story of Me and My Glasses”. He took us back to his childhood and an unnerving encounter with a gang of knife-welding boys at Harrow on the Hill Station on a journey to the opticians at the age of 12.

Speaker No.2 Kieran began his speech by asking us if we remembered our first love. Judging by the show of hands Harrovians are certainly a romantic lot! His poignant tale of lost love and regrets really tugged at the heart strings and resounded with us all.

Linda shared the trials and tribulations of packing for a holiday with us and provided us with a number of informative tips on how to get more into that suitcase!

Continuing on the theme of holidays, Lorna told the story of her “Adventures in Dorset”. Lorna certainly captured the magic and mystery of the beautiful town of Swanage.

A big thanks to our speech evaluators Mandip, Saley, Francis and Shirley for their observations, advice and encouragement.

A final thanks to Pat Bennett from Athenians for her well observed general evaluation. It’s always great to get a fresh perspective in the form of views of someone from another toastmasters club.

The evening finished with Alan inviting everyone to buy him a beer in the bar!

The winners of this evenings speeches were:-

Best Table Topic: Indra

Best Speech: Kieran

Best Evaluator: Shirley

Meeting Monday 21st July 2008

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 15:20:51 +0700

What an exquisitely entertaining evening! Toastmaster Francis West was his usual smooth, self assured self introducing our enthusiastic speakers.

Table Topics was hosted by Mandip Sohal. The session was based around the world of current affairs and speakers were asked to convince the audience of a particular idea or argument – very challenging and great fun!

We enjoyed 3 fantastic speeches this evening. Charmaine Smith told the poignant story of her daughter’s battle with Sickle Cell Disease. We wish her every success in setting up a platform to increase awareness of this disease.

Angela Lansbury gave a very entertaining and educational speech about poetry.

The highlight of the evening was Mo’s speech entitled Life Begins at 60. Mo wove a fascinating tapestry of the story of her life. She began by describing her 60th birthday. Throughout the speech she used lots of humour. Everyone loved the description of the unique use of a skateboard to wizz around the house to do the cleaning, decorating, fencing and gardening! She thoroughly deserved the best speech award.

General Evaluator Mike Robinson from Athenians provided us with a very insightful and entertaining report to round off the evening.

This evening’s winning speeches were:-
Best Speaker: Mo
Best Evaluator: Maneesha
Best Table Topics: Jan
Icebreaker: Charmaine

Meeting 7 July 2008

Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:00:33 +0700

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.

Meeting 16 June 2008

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 09:25:44 +0700

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.