Susan Rayner

D91 Great Western Conference 7-8 November 2015

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D91 Great Western ConferenceUPDATE:

For bookings and conference information visit greatwesternconf.toastmasterclub.org. Early bird prices are still available, but single-occupancy rooms are proving very popular, so book soon!

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To receive the Early Bird rates for District 91’s Autumn 2015 Great Western Conference, the hosts, Thamesdown Speakers’ Club, encourages you to register by emailing the Conference Organisers directly.

The Autumn Conference is over the weekend of 7-8 November, with a special evening of events for anyone arriving in advance on Friday 6 November.

What is included in the D91 Great Western Conference?

As always our conference will be packed full of exciting workshops and key Toastmasters events: the final of the D91 Humorous Speech Contest, the final of the D91 Table Topics Contest, the important District Council Meeting, Gala dinner, and networking with fellow Toastmasters from across UK South.

Where is the conference being hosted?

Our venue is The Marriott Hotel, Old Town Swindon. Swindon is a modern painting set in a gorgeous frame of scenic countryside and is 59 minutes by train from London Paddington. The Marriott hotel is a modern purpose built hotel with spa and leisure facilities attached.

What are the local attractions?

The town itself was home to Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s Great Western Railway. It’s still affectionately known as God’s Wonderful Railway – taking holiday makers to the English Riviera, clotted cream to Harrods and Selfridges, Cornish daffodils to Covent Garden Market and strawberries to Wimbledon.

The surrounding area is home to our ancient heritage: The Avebury Stone Circle and Silbury Hill, the Vale of the White Horse[s] and the Marlborough Downs. In fact that’s how we got our club got its name – Thamesdown being betwixt the Thames and the Downs. The land of chalk and cheese – from Salisbury Plain to the Cotswolds.

What are the D91 Great Western Conference package options?

Why not take advantage of the different packages? Sightsee on Friday and then join us for the pre-conference Friday evening buffet supper and entertainment. We are proud of our heritage and have named your conference packages after our most famous Engineers.

Early Bird rates are:-

The Brunel: Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday package: single occupancy for 2 nights’ b&b accommodation, access to all Toastmasters events, buffet supper on Friday and Gala dinner on Saturday, Saturday buffet lunch and Sunday roast carvery. £303.00. A shared room is only £224 per person.

The Churchward: the Saturday/Sunday package is £209 for single occupancy and £169.50 for shared accommodation.

We’re offering a partners package including a tour of the local Wadworth’s brewery, meeting Shire Horses Monty and Max who still deliver beer around Devizes, lunch and beer tasting session. On the Sunday we invite you to the Great Western Village home of the designer outlet shopping mall, the National Trust and STEAM (the Museum of Great Western Railway).

Register by emailing the Conference Organisers directly.

We look forward to seeing you there!

 

Pictures below are from www.visitwiltshire.co.uk

Avebury Circle from visitwiltshire.co.uk

worlds fastest train

Reflections of a Toastmaster two years after breaking the ice

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From Florian Bay, Area Director 2015/16

Florian with club President regalia June 2015As I came home from district officer training ten days ago, several things bubbled in my mind. Relief at having escaped a Martian tripod invading Earth. Empowerment at having reached another level in my Toastmasters journey in so many different ways. Finally, thoughtfulness at the journey taken so far, just over two years on from my icebreaker in Cheltenham Speakers.

It first heard about Toastmasters in early 2007, through some American self-help tapes I had purchased while studying in Bath. A quick search sadly only yielded a club whose meetings finished after the last train back to Bristol and Bath. But always wanting to become a better public speaker, a seed had been firmly planted in my mind. One evening in March 2013 while living in Gloucester, the search made a few times since 2007 was made again. “Oh there’s a club in Cheltenham, I could get the bus there after work on Tuesday!”

I still remember the first meeting I attended. It was the club’s speech and evaluation contest. One of the speech from this evening, ‘Beautiful people’ is still in my mind, especially the speaker’s fantastic vocal variety and use of rhymes. A fortnight later I was doing my first table topic. A fortnight after that, I was a paid-up member. The humble but oh so important role of timekeeper was mine one a month later. June 4th arrived and with it my icebreaker ‘Once upon a Franco-British dream’. A work placement in Scotland meant a pause in the journey, but the bug was there with desires of attending the Glasgow club one hour away by train suppressed with difficulty. In September 2013 the news was confirmed, I was due to be in London from October onwards! Less than a week after arriving, I attended and joined London Olympians, followed by St Paul’s Speakers in November.

Read more

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.