What is happening in Division B?

Area B8

Here you will find five brilliant clubs – Clapham Connectors, Legacy Speakers Brixton, London Victorians, Phoenix Speakers, and Tube Talk Toastmasters, supported by the Area Director Lucy Rosa.

Phoenix Speakers prides itself on its welcoming and multinational membership. Although their last meeting was an intimate affair given the summer months and the ‘zoomed out’ state that many of us find ourselves in, thanks to Zoom Tourism the club still attracted many guests, including a Peruvian from Lima, who joined the usual roster of Americans, Austrians, Australians, Canadians, Ghanaians, Spaniards, Vietnamese and even an occasional UK native.

London Victorians is a vibrant weekly club just a stone’s throw from Buckingham Palace. Throughout the pandemic they continued to meet every Tuesday at 18:30 online (even when Zoom fatigue started setting in), hosting guests from all around the globe, and even welcoming the one and only Toastmasters International President Peck for the final meeting of the year! On 3rd August, London Victorians took the first step into a brave new world, returning to their home in the Grange Wellington Hotel for their first in-person meeting since March 2020. Needless to say, the meeting was a roaring success (even if everyone was a little rusty at real public speaking!). London Victorians now meet one week online, one week in person.

In the year 2002, Tube Talk Toastmasters, a London Underground company club was spawned by a member of Riverside Communicators Toastmaster Club located in Richmond, West London, on her leadership journey. Tube Talk can be described as a small club with about 26-30 members – about the size of 2 cricket teams during a match. If you don’t understand the analogy, you can research the phrase “when you are out you are in; and when you are in you are out”. It is said that Tube Talk punches above its weight, always hitting sixes, always knocking over wickets, and that its members love a challenge and are always about mixing in all things Toastmasters.

Some years ago, while we were enjoying a District 71 Conference in Sligo, Ireland, the infamous Icelandic Volcanic dust cloud crisis occurred. All flights around the world and Europe were affected, including the return journey to London. The whole of Tube Talk and other colleagues formed a “travel service” to plan the journey back to London, via jet foil to Holyhead in Wales, overnight accommodation, and then trains back to London. As time progresses, what opportunities will you grab from the prospects offered by change to mark your history?

Icelandic-Volcanic-Dust-Storm-masters

Area B18

This is a home of four fantastic clubs that the Area Director Joy Brollo looks after this year and tells us about.

104 Debaters is the only Toastmasters club in London specialising in the art of the debate. There is a specific emphasis on team work, team dynamics and team coaching. The debates are won not by individual speakers, but by the entire team, where members need to work and speak as a team.

Centurion Toastmasters kicked off the new Toastmasters year by earning DCP points for attending the valuable corporate COT sessions. Besides that, they organised a special Table Topics session dedicated to potential new members and there is a Pathways & EasySpeak workshop coming up in October, making sure that new and tenured members take advantage of all the Toastmasters benefits.

Zig Zag Toastmasters is one of the newest clubs in Division B. A happy snappy club with fun meetings that last just one hour, Zig Zag Toastmasters prides itself on running fun and innovative club meetings that fit into a lunch break. They are especially glad to have the support of VPE Roz Etwaria, “Jedi of Pathways”, District 91’s reigning Evaluation Contest champion and Table Topics first runner up. She has come up with some really interesting meeting roles and formats. The whole club is excited for their Table Topics and Humorous Speech contest which will be at 12pm on Friday, 8th October.

London Cardinals, established in 2004, one of the best clubs in the Area, has achieved President’s Distinguished status yet again in 2021. A club run by friendly professionals who really care about each member’s progress and development. All their meetings are fun and organised with passion and love with a new theme at each meeting. The theme gets picked up within all the roles of the evening starting with the Sergeant-at-arms, the President, the Toastmaster and the Table Topics Master, which brings together a great collaborative experience for members and guests who are always welcome.

Area B6

Area B6 is proud of its clubs London Athenian Speakers Toastmasters Club, London Corinthians Toastmasters, London Olympians Speakers Toastmasters Club, and West London Speakers Club. Special mention of London Athenians, one of the President’s Distinguished clubs, that had a successful Humorous Speech Workshop on 10th August 2021 welcoming 66 guests.

Area B9

Hear from Washington Gwenzi, Area Director.

Like everyone else, clubs in Area B9 (Berkeley Square Speakers Toastmasters Club, London Business School Public Speaking Club, Paddington Toastmasters, The Workshop Speakers) have been affected by the global pandemic. While there have been challenges in adapting to the new world, clubs have also taken advantage of the opportunities presented by the digital world. Some of the clubs have gone truly international by linking members from various parts of the world. One club built and successfully launched their website which has boosted their online presence. The pandemic has also inspired the clubs to be creative and try out new things – e.g., Table Topics prompted by images, mind games, drawings, music, art etc.

Going forward, clubs in Area B9 have started or are looking to holding hybrid meetings where some meetings are in-person and others virtually. This is to ensure continued use of virtual skills that have been acquired in the last 18 months as well as maintaining a global membership for some of them. The Humorous Speeches and Table Topics contest for Area B9 is on Thursday 18th November 2021 and clubs are currently busy organising their club contests.