Division Newsletters

By Alex McKee, President of Tube Talk Toastmasters Club

Years before joining toastmasters a Google search on how to become a more confident person led me to an article which listed joining toastmasters as one of its  recommendations. At that time I had never heard of toastmasters and thereafter read only a little about it.

When the time came several years later to make the effort to become a better public speaker Toastmasters was the natural choice. At Tube Talk Toastmasters Club there was ample opportunity to get involved and to help the club members grow and develop. Soon I was Sergeant, VPE, President and while fulfilling all these roles my public speaking skills grew as did my leadership skills and interest in toastmasters.

The public speaking skills I have developed have made it easier for me to share my life experiences and to inspire others with those experiences. The toastmasters experience have made me more comfortable in front of a large crowd – especially in that moment when all eyes go on me. I can much more easily stand in front of a crowd – and deliver. What’s more in a professional capacity I can more adeptly lead meetings and engage in a more poised manner in discussions with senior stakeholders. I am a more effective leader, listening better to colleagues and more enabled to give feedback in a more skillful way. 

And so my involvement in toastmasters has indeed made me a more confident person, confident speaker, confident leader! And I am hoping it will be the same way for many others. That is why as Area Director I will be working hard to inspire clubs and influencing them to enhance their ways of working so as to build confident speakers and leaders. To enable clubs to grow in numbers and to help ensure they are committed to providing top notch education programmes for their members. This will also be an opportunity for me to apply strategic thinking and test my communication skills out. I am up for the challenge and looking forward to it all!

By Monika Swiderska, Excalibur Speakers, Div L Area9

We live in a data-driven world. In the era of social media, online collaboration and internet. The information we are surrounded with plays bigger and bigger factor on how companies and organisations operate, and individuals live their lives. And most of that information is spatial, which means it can be put on a map. When you post a fancy picture of your favourite meal, you can tag you are in the local restaurant in Twickenham. When you are visiting your relatives in the countryside, you can mention that you are in the middle of Essex. And even if you are stuck on Central Line, you can post that you are in Tottenham Court Road station.

Toastmasters is not very different in that regards. We have an enormous amount of data. Data, that is location-bound and can be put on a map. If we think about our clubs, we immediately relate them to a location. A lot of them even draw their names from a place, for example: Covent Garden Speakers, Holborn Speakers or Ludlow Toastmasters. The clubs also have addresses, so we can easily put them on a map. And then, ask some questions. Where are most of the clubs located? Are they in busy business districts like City of London? Or perhaps in a cosy neighbourhood on the border of M25? How they are doing in terms of Distinguished Club Program points and membership base? Can this data tell us a story?

Being a Geographic Information Science Specialist, I look for answers for similar questions in my day-to-day job. But I am also a keen Toastmaster and I thought that with my GIS skills, I could help District 91 understand the spatial data better.

An immediate choice was helping with district realignment. Each year District Alignment Committee is tasked with aligning existing and new clubs based on their geographic proximity in order to maintain the strength of areas and divisions. That is a long process of analysis, discussions and consultations. The final proposal is then presented to District Council and voted on. This year, for the first time, the maps used by District Alignment Committee have been created using a professional GIS software called Quantum GIS (QGIS). 

GIS is a powerful visualisation tool, but it can be so much more. It is capable of storing multiple layers of information. In case of our clubs, before the data was visualised spatially, the Distinguished Club Program points and membership bases were added to the software. This helped District Alignment Team to understand the situation of the clubs better, but it also started to paint a spatial story.

The District leaders have always known that there are locations with bigger density of clubs like London (or in particular Canary Wharf) and locations where Toastmasters International is unheard of. Furthermore, there are areas where clubs do particularly well and places where they struggle. With the use of GIS we can start to quantify that information and try to spot patterns. However, that is just a step away from a colourful visualisation or a map. GIS is a science that is not far from Data Science. Thus, the analysis of clubs’ locations, population densities of towns and wards and overlaid transport links can draw an even more robust picture of our District and help us play to the advantages of our geography. This initiative is an ongoing project called “Atlas” and it is my High Performance Leadership project. As with every innovation project, it is full of trials and errors. However, so far it has been an amazing journey, in which I could link my two passions together. I am hoping that by the time I finish, I will be able to share my passion for maps and understanding of spatial data to tell a better story of clubs and members in District 91. So that, in turn, would help the District leaders to serve their members better.

By Sina Behbhani, HOD Speakers Club, DivL Area61

I would like to talk about a shared problem we all experience but we are too polite to talk about. Then I will explain how to support members through three stages of transformation in Toastmasters International.

Toastmasters provides a mutually supportive environment, but what does it mean and how can we practice that?

Have you ever been in a situation where you have received irrelevant evaluation or advice when you have carefully crafted your speech? You may think “So, didn’t they get it or I was not clear enough?”.  In my experience, both can be right.

There is no doubt that evaluation helps speakers, tremendously, to develop their presentations and the structures of their speeches, however, a speaker needs to be aware of the extent of adapting to the evaluations offered.

The truth is, even if you deliver a perfect speech, some evaluators will analyse and criticise you, somehow, because that’s what they are good at! There is no end to this criticism and that is completely natural because not everyone has the same taste. Also, it is not practical to take all advice and ideas on board, because evaluation may take you in a different direction every time. Accepting all evaluation can kill your style and confidence in my opinion!

In fact, many individuals may think that you must become like them and convert to their style to become perfect! They will criticise you until that happens (god forbid!) so, the question is, where should we draw that line?

If you have been long enough in Toastmasters, you know that every single person has a particular style just like yourself. The real art of mutual support is to help members find their own style and support them to achieve their own objective. Some people like to attend contests, some people like to deliver long informative workshops at their workplace and some like to become motivational and inspiring. That is why we have ten fantastic pathways to choose from. So the golden rule is to offer safety and support to each other.

I think one of the biggest mistakes in Toastmasters is that we do not emphasise an individual’s organic goals/choices and unintentionally redirect their efforts towards the contests. It is really important to understand why the individual has come to a club before starting his/her journey and how the club can serve that individual to achieve the desired goal. No one has come to Toastmasters’ to do speech contests, because before they join, they didn’t know such a thing exist! Let’s always remeber the true intention of the individual and remind them about it before converting them into contestants to make the club proud.

Such an attitude allows members to develop their style and that is exactly where members start the journey of success by going through three stages of transformation.

The three stages of transformations are gaining confidence, structuring the speeches and developing spontaneous speech. 

For the first stage, members need emotional support to be able to stand in front of the audience and perform their speech. as much as praising and compliments strengthen an individual’s confidence at this stage, technical evaluation, criticising and mentioning minor mistakes can obstruct an individual’s growth or make them back-off on the first step.

In the second stage, members start to build up a well-rounded and structured speech to impact, inform, inspire and influence the audience. As much as technical evaluation can strengthen members influential skills, diverting the individual from their main objective and offering competition centred evaluation can dishearten or confuse the member.

The final stage is when the individual has learned the techniques and is ready to talk about any desirable subject spontaneously on stage in a conversational style. Spontaneous speech provides opportunities for an authentic choice of words with the appropriate audience without rigid planning in advance. This is not an ‘unprepared’ speech, but it is the ability to present and lead with confidence.

Recognising and encouraging members unique flavour of topic and style on this final phase can strengthen the individual but pushing the individual to follow a rigid club’s structure can make the member uncomfortable and eventually leave the club. This, I saw over and over.

Experiencing fantastic support from my peers, I managed to reach the third stage. I also experienced the difficulties that unsupportive or contest centred evaluation caused in my journey.

Now, even though I happily perform my speech spontaneously, still I get the same spectrum of evaluation from members who have been inspired to members who try to make me like themselves and never satisfied!

I would like to offer one and only one piece of advice: You are unique. Become comfortable in your own skin! Speaking and leadership opportunities are presented to you in your everyday life, not only in competitions.

by Shaheen Jamshed Mufti, Early Bird Speakers, DivC Area45

Good succession planning in a club ensure the club’s longevity well beyond the departure of the current committee and make sure that the club can continue to grow, thrive and be run efficiently in years to come.

Good succession planning starts early and begins well before the end of this Toastmasters year (30^th June 2019).

Good succession planning makes sure that all members of the incoming club committee/leadership team have been well equipped with the necessary tools, knowledge and data to lead the club in the upcoming year.

It all begins with the current leadership team/committee members starting to talk to club members (both new and longstanding) regarding taking on roles in the upcoming Toastmasters year.

The following excerpt is taken from the role guide I created for my successor:

“As you approach the second half of your Toastmasters year, it is a good time to start planning for succession within Early Bird Speakers.

Request that members of your leadership team members to begin conversations with club members; encouraging them to consider leadership roles in the upcoming elections taking place in May. Perhaps, some of your team members might even consider standing for roles in the coming elections.

Remind your team to highlight the benefits of being part of the leadership team in Early Bird Speakers as well as the expectation of members within to serve on the leadership team (TMI Promise #6 : “To serve my club as an officer when called upon to do so”)

Liaise with your Immediate Past President who will also be the leader of the nominations committee*. Working alongside a small team, they will organise any workshops, the nominations process and the elections for the club.

Invite your team members to look out for potential successors not only for their respective roles but also for other roles within the rest of the leadership team as well.”

*This might vary depending on the club culture

Some clubs (particularly newly formed ones) with fewer members might struggle to appoint members to roles due to numbers.  Similarly, some members might stay on and serve in the same role for a couple of terms consecutively as the club grows. One way to alleviate ennui and prevent burn-out would be to ‘cycle’ the roles and have the leadership team members adopt different roles as they begin to ease in new members into those roles, whilst growing the club.

March/April – Creating Role Guides

Any company worth their salt in the modern world has effective systems in place to make sure that future employees, whether temporary or permanent, have all the relevant information they need for the role.

Likewise, it is advisable for a Toastmasters club to create role guides so that successors to each role will have a guide to refer to during the year.

Role guides can include:

-Information about the role’s official responsibilities from Toastmasters International

-Information about the role specific to the club

-Day-to-day activity, at the club and behind the scenes

-Login details and passwords for any relevant software/accounts being used

-Legal documentation (GDPR etc)

-Contact list (relevant to the role)

Also, the guide can be accompanied by a pack containing items relevant for the role, for example:

-Financial documents to the new Treasurer

-Keys, keycards and other bits to the new Sergeant-at-Arms

The TMI website provides the Club Leadership Handbook that provides useful foundations on how to perform roles. A dedicated role guide for each role within your club will capture the nuances and you build upon it over time; adding and removing elements where necessary. If a role guide already exists, then consider how it can be improved upon.

April – Election preparation (depending on the culture of the club)

According to the official TMI Club Leadership handbook (attached), elections should be carried out on the first week of May. April is typically a good time to begin preparing for the elections.

The person to lead and organise the elections may also vary, though it is usually the Immediate Past President. The handbook provides information on how to conduct those.

Club members interested in running for a role can reach out to the leader/organiser of the elections

May – Elections

Elections take place and the club committee/leadership team is elected into office.

May/June – the handover begins

After the elections, outgoing leadership team/committee members can begin the handover process; instructing the successor on what the role involves and other activity surrounding it such as Club Officer Training, etc

Role guide should be given to the incoming members along with the relevant official TMI documents.

The outgoing committee members can begin involving their successors with some of the tasks of the role so that when the time comes for them to fully take over on 01 July 2019, it will be more familiar.

Make sure that the names of the incoming team are submitted on the Toastmasters International website!

1^st July and onwards – A new year and continued advice/support

Once the new leadership team/committee has taken over, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the outgoing team will abandon them!

The outgoing team members can serve as advisors and support for their successor, providing guidance as they get acclimatised to their roles.

I’d also like to add that it might be a good idea to think about succession from the moment a new member is inducted and to be sure that they appreciate the TM Promise rule 6 and why it is important for the whole club.

All going well, the cycle continues and your club will continue to flourish!

3 point Summary:

1. Start talking to your club members about the roles available in the upcoming elections
2. Prepare role guides/packs for your successors
3. Be available to provide support for your successors once they are in office

I wish you and your club all the best in your upcoming elections and that your club and the incoming team have a prosperous year ahead.

By Warren Sheng, Harrovians Speakers Club, DivL Area61

I joined Harrovian Speakers Club in February 2006 because Toastmasters had been recommended in a careers book for women that I had read. (It was “Nice girls don’t get the corner office”. And what’s wrong with being a man but reading a careers book for women?!)

My reason for joining—and for remaining as a Toastmaster for so long—was not because I needed to do speeches at work but because it was a way to make new friends. As 20% of my friends are Toastmasters, this remains a valid reason to join.

Let me summarise my journey. Firstly, I have attended nearly every meeting except if I was on holiday. This is called getting value for money. Secondly, I have served in most roles including VPE, President, backup SAA, Treasurer, Area Director. Thirdly, instead of spending 13 years in just one club, I have also been a happy member of Tube Talk and London Business School. I am making slow motion progress towards my DTM award. Fourthly, I have entered speech contests at every opportunity except when I was Area Director. For some reason, you can trust an Area Director to oversee 4 clubs but you cannot trust him to enter a speech contest! My icebreaker speech in March 2006 was about my then recent working visit to Shanghai. I rehearsed this speech 40 times (a sign of dedication and madness). This was several more times than any other contestant. I duly won but I was disqualified as it was my icebreaker.

My greatest win was runner up in the 2017 District 91 Humorous Speech contest. Although I enjoyed this speech, it was tiring delivering it around 20 times, each with subtle changes. You can see the Division and District contest versions on YouTube, by searching for “Warren Sheng”.

What have been the benefits and pitfalls?

Benefits: I am a better speaker and evaluator. I have developed my dry humour. After around 1,000 meeting hours, it would have been hard not to improve.

I have gained many friends and enjoyed many speeches. I am more confident and I cannot remember accidentally saying “er” at a Toastmaster meeting since 2009. (The only exception was when I did a humorous speech about how to erm more effectively and in different languages.)

When completing application forms that require one to demonstrate good communication skills, I just state that I have won 12 speech contests. This is better than stating “I am a really good communicator…”

I have enjoyed Toastmaster meetings in other parts of London, and also San Francisco, Shanghai and Taipei, where I was the recent VIP speaker, doing a workshop on humour.

I have also photographed some Toastmaster events and will be photographing the District Conference in May. (Photography is my other passion. It’s also a form of communication, but without words.)

Pitfalls: Some speeches and meetings have been disappointing because the speakers made fundamental, avoidable errors including a failure to prepare. Some of my evaluations, which have many recommendations, have not been appreciated. Some of the audience hated what I said, even though I believed my comments to have been truthful and helpful. Toastmasters is sometimes too nice. And I prefer to be not too nice. I would rather be remembered than loved. I would rather be unpopular for speaking the truth than popular for using more flattery than is healthy. Sometimes, we need to hear the horrible truth “It would be good if you repeated this speech…” Nearly all speeches improve after feedback and changes. Very few speeches are delivered as a one-off speech. Martin Luther King’s celebrated “I have a dream” speech was given several times in slightly different versions.

Nevertheless, overall I am happy that I am a Toastmaster. It’s a place where I can meet people less than half my age (I am an ancient 59 years old) and people from very different walks of life including a rabbi, an ambassador, Muslims and Hindus. These encounters and friendships remain my most important reason for being a Toastmaster.