District 91 Council Meeting 9 May 2015 – final documents, information and actions

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Dear DLT, Division Governors, Area Governors, Club Presidents and VPEs

Here is the final information for the council meeting this Saturday 9 May 2015:

1) Attached are the amended documents ref the Alignment, and also the District Financial Report for March plus the Available Funds document. Division_B_2015-16_Alignment_Proposal_for-DC_v02; Division_K_2015-16_Alignment_Proposal_vf; Div_L_Alignment_Proposal_final; D91_March_Report_2015; D91_Available_Funds_31st_March_2015

If you have any comments or objections to these documents, please let me know by close of Thurs 7 May 2015.

2) If you cannot make the meeting, please send in any apologies, by close of Thurs 7 May 2015.

3) Members who have passed away – please send me the details (name, club and any background) by close of Thurs 7 May.

Here is the original email with all the details:

You are invited to attend the District Council Meeting on Saturday the 9 May 2015 at 11.05am at The Grange City Hotel, 8-14 Cooper’s Row, London EC3N 2BQ. (*All members are most welcome to attend*, but voting is restricted – please see below).

Members of the District 91 District Council are Club Presidents, Club Vice Presidents Education, Area Governors, Division Governors and District Leadership Team members.(Assistant division governors and assistant area governors are copied in for information only. They are most welcome to attend but will not be able to vote).

Proxy voting: In order for our District Council to conduct business, there needs to be a quorum of a third of all Club Presidents and Vice Presidents Education (VPEs). Therefore it is really important that each President or VPE either attends or looks for a member in good standing from their club to carry their vote (a proxy). If you are sending a proxy, please complete the form Proxy_Form_Spring_2015 and give it to the person you want to carry your vote. Note that other District Council members cannot send a proxy, just club Presidents and VPEs.

The proposed meeting agenda: Is attached D91_District_Council_Agenda_20150509_v1 along with supporting documents, the proxy form, and the additional documents already described:

• Previous meeting minutes (from the Brighton conference Nov 2014) 2014_11_01_COUNCIL_MINUTES-2
• Nominations Committee Report District 91 Nomination Committee Report 2015
• 2014/15 Mid-Year Audit Report Mid_Year_Audit_final_20150314
• Motion: Autumn District 91 Conferences Motion_Autumn_Conferences

Registration: All members of the District Council who plan to attend the Council Meeting must register with the District Parliamentarian at the credentials desk in advance of the Council Meeting. All proxy holders must present their proxies in paper form (ie. print out and complete the attached proxy form) for validation at the credentials desk.

Motions: The District Executive Committee will prepare motions to be presented to the Council (7:15pm for 7:30pm Friday 8 May at The Grange City Hotel).

The Conference: The Spring Conference is in the heart of London at The Grange City Hotel. If you’ve haven’t already booked, visit www.spring-conference.org/2015Tower
I look forward to seeing many of you soon.

Best wishes,

Susie Bloor

District 91 Secretary Click here to email Susie

William Hagerup K59 Area Director 2015-16

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William Hagerup K59 Area Director

William Hagerup, ACB CL

William came to England from Norway in 1997. A published writer in Norwegian, he is currently writing his second novel in English. He works as Senior Associate Editor for McGraw-Hill Financials in Canary Wharf, and it was through this company’s corporate club, Speakers’ Corner, that William came to Toastmasters in May 2012. He won the Area Humorous Competition that year, became VPE in 2013 and President in 2014. As he takes over as Area Director his focus will be on raising the profile of TM in the public’s mind and ensuring that members are lifted up through quality mentoring.

Clubs in Area K59:
• Speakers’ Corner (William’s home club)
• CitiCriers
• London Trustmasters
• Lewisham Speakers Club
• Meridan Speakers Club
• Stratford London Toastmasters

D91 Spring 2015 Tower Conference Workshops

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From the Spring 2015 Tower Conference Team

D91 conferenceIn our last blog post we introduced you to our keynote speakers. Today we’d like to introduce you to the leaders of our Spring 2015 Tower Conference workshops.

The great thing about a Toastmasters district conference is that it’s packed to the brim with useful workshops. Pick and choose which ones you’d like to attend, depending on your personal needs.

Every workshop is either on the Leadership or Communication track.

Saturday morning 9 May

There will be two workshops running alongside each other, both starting at 09:55.

09:55 ‘Centred, calm, connected – vital communication when the heat is on’ by Richard Fallon, City Limits Speakers and voice and communication skills trainer.

09:55 ‘Could you be a leader?’ will be run by Bob Nisbet DTM, current Division H Governor.

12 noon ‘Understand your audience. Understand your content.’ Julie Gould, Early Bird Speakers, and editor at Nature Publishing Group, will show us how to communicate our topic to our audience, however complicated or technical it is.

Saturday afternoon 9 May

After lunch two workshops will again run side by side at 14:00

14:00 ‘Handle Q&As with confidence’ by Paul Carroll, expert debater and impromptu speaker, founding President of 104 London Debaters.

14:00 ‘Leadership in the workplace’ by Liz Hobbs DTM, charter member of Tube Talk Toastmasters, currently spearheading the design and implementation of a project knowledge management system across Transport for London.

Sunday 10 May

Two workshops will start at 10:20 – giving you time to recover from Saturday night’s gala dinner!

10:30 ‘Speaking without words – the power of silent communication’ by Lynne Cantor, Excalibur Speakers, District Evaluation Champion 2012

10:30 ‘Create dialogue in difficult situations’ run by Khaled Matlagaitu, International Director to the Board of Toastmasters International (2013-2015, Europe, Africa and West, Central & North Asia).

11:30 a further two workshops take place simultaneously:

11.30 ‘Improv for Toastmasters’ by Ian Hawkins Early Bird Speakers and speaking coach and Al Cowie Early Bird Speakers and expert on performance skills.

11:30 ‘Creating future performance through coaching’ will be run by Charlotte Hitchings, Cardiff Toastmasters and Voice of Wales, immediate past Division J Governor, Accredited coach with extensive business experience.

Followed by a final choice…

12.15 Trainers bureau showcase with Andy O’Sullivan, London Public Speakers

12:15 Chris Boden, Maidenhead and Reading Speakers, District International Speech Champion (2014) and District Evaluation Champion (2011) will be running a workshop ‘From Inspiration to Celebration’ to help us turn our Toastmasters speeches into masterpieces.

In summary…

With ELEVEN workshops to choose from over the weekend, you’re guaranteed to leave the conference with masses of ideas to implement.

Detailed information about the Spring 2015 Tower Conference workshops and speakers can be found at http://www.spring-conference.org/2015Tower/ along with the full agenda for the weekend.

World Champion of Public Speaking in London

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From Andy O’Sullivan

Wed 27 May 2015. 6.30pm – 9pm. Indian YMCA, Mahatma Gandhi Hall, 41 Fitzroy Street, London W1T 6AQ

Dananjaya Hettiarachichi World Champion of Public Speaking in London

 


Come to his workshop: “Bring out the Champ in you!”

A comprehensive 2 1/2 hour learning experience with Dananjaya Hettiarachichi, drawing from over 10 years in competitive public speaking.

The focus of this workshop is to provide you with on and off stage strategies which you can adopt immediately with ease, to
take your speaking game to the next level

Read more and book your place here:

http://www.eventzilla.net/web/event?eventid=2139070203

 

Laughing, Learning and Inspiring: All in a Toastmasters day in Winchester

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From Richard Blackman Area 46 Governor

Area J46 International Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest

Toastmasters from Reading, Basingstoke, Winchester and Southampton gathered for the Area 46 spring conference and international speech and evaluation contests on Saturday 11 April 2015. Location was the Badger Farm Community Centre to the south of Winchester. It was the perfect sett(ing) for an energising and entertaining toastmaster day.

During the first half of the day participants were treated to an interactive workshop on humorous speaking led by toastmaster and award winning presenter and humorist, Alan Donegan. Entitled “Have the Audience Rolling in the Aisles: How to Add Humour to Your Speech”, the workshop itself generated much laughter. We went home inspired and more knowledgeable in the construction of jokes, and with many images etched in our minds. Elephants on the UK’s road network, backside slapping at supermarkets, business uses of roadkill, and the pleasures of gardening all resulted in laughter!

Then the contests…

The speech contests, the more serious business of the day, took place after a convivial lunch of eating and networking. Both contests were smoothly and professionally chaired by Steve Vear, with Dorothea Stuart as Chief Judge

Pictured at the top of post: All eight contestants with Contest Chair and Area Governor (Back row left to right: Debs Wallace, Andrew Keevil, Alex Reid, Steve Vear, Ken Amy, Eric Skates; Front row left to right: Gerard de Jong, Saday Appan, Richard Blackman, John Spry)

The Area J46 International Speech Contest

First up in the International Speech Contest was Debs Wallace (Basingstoke Speakers) with a personal story of how toastmasters had helped her overcome enormous disbelief. She was followed by Eric Skates (Wessex Speakers) on taking a step of faith based on his experiences over the past decade in Uganda. Third in the sequence was Gerard de Jong (Reading Speakers) with an entertaining personal story. Ken Amy (Hamwic Speakers) completed the quartet of area finalists with his speech in praise of toastmasters, given dressed in a luminous “counter-cultural tutu”.

The Area J46 Evaluation Contest

Testing the speakers in the Evaluation Contest was a target speech given by Russell Streeter, President of Solent Speakers in Fareham. Based around sailing and containing a message for his son, Russell’s great speech challenged the contestants to develop their analytical skills, but also more importantly to give the speaker some recommendations on how to improve an already great speech. Our four contestants, Andrew Keevil (Wessex Speakers), Saday Appan (Basingstoke Speakers), Alex Reid (Reading Speakers) and John Spry (Hamwic Speakers) all lived up to the task giving some excellent evaluations.

And the winners were…

Area J46 Evaluation winner John Spry Apr 2015First place in the Evaluation Contest went to Hamwic Speakers’ John Spry, with Saday Appan as runner up. (John pictured left with Richard)

First place in the International Speech Contest went to Reading Speakers’ Gerard de Jong, with Eric Skates as runner up.

As ever at a toastmaster event all the participants went away as winners, having achieved so much. That said only those judged to be in first place qualified for the Division J finals in Swindon on 19 April. Book your place via https://www.facebook.com/events/1610758622469993/

Area J46 International Speech Contest Winner Gerard de Jong Good luck to John and Gerard in Swindon!

(Gerard pictured left with Richard and Steve)

A big thank you goes to Wessex Speakers for their organisation and hosting of a great day.

Thank you to our photographers Diane Chamberlain, Margaret Amy and Peter Jagger.