What is the difference between a sponsor and a coach in Toastmasters International?

I asked Eli, who is the Treasurer of a Toastmasters International club in Singapore.
He told me, 'The sponsor gets the 20 members needed to start a club. A coach helps a club with fewer than 8 members to get another 5 perhaps in 6 months or a year.'

Eli has also helped clubs based in Community Club buildings. Some clubs give a room free to a Toastmasters Club. Others charge you.

Eli said, 'You have to see it from their point of view.  Are they spending money or saving money by giving you a room. First you must present yourselves as professionals, not amateurs. Then you must offer to mc their large events to save them from needing to hire a DJ.'

Glossary

m.c. master of ceremonies

We Coped With Flooding, Now Be Prepared - For Snow - Problems and Solutions from cars to clothes and food

Flooding
Last time when we had flooding, in 1984, in the Harrow area, public-spirited people were in Hatch End main street, called The Broadway, with their 4 by 4s, towing cars which were stuck in the floods. We have lots of cars and trucks and people stuck doing nothing who would be only too glad to help.

Commentators say Torbay and Exeter are fully gritted and lack of snow clearing in London, England, and elsewhere is due to mismanagement.

So, for snow preparedness, we need these actions:
1 Volunteer co-ordination.

2 Sponsored grit.

3 Cheap devices to buy or hire to attach to vehicles which would otherwise be stuck.

4 Not everybody can rush out and buy and fit grips to boots and winter tyres. We need systems on cars which deploy automatically to suit snow or clear snow.

5 We need shoes with two modes, or winter attachments, so you buy the boots or shoes with a removable snow and ice weather undersole.

6 When will somebody invent a cheap device which anybody can fit on cars and vans and trucks so that the big companies like Tesco with large vehicle can do their part in clearing roads in front of them.

7 All car drivers should be able to buy or hire snow clearing shovels which can clear snow off as they drive down their own front drive and the side roads so the first light sprinkling of snow doesn't set to ice. No good clearing the M4 if I can't even walk from my front door to the road and down the road to the shops, nor or drive down the road to Tesco.

What do other countries do/ Canada, for example? What do ski resorts do?

What can you do?

1 Salt / suitable grit on your doorstep and the path and that of elderly neighbours. (Order online.)

2 Check your shoes and boots for waterproof and gripping underneath. (Or Order online.)

3 Get home delivery of food.
In the UK home delivery from:
Amazon (if you already have Amazon Prime.)
Morrisons
Ocado - £20 off first shop (over £80), and free delivery.
Tesco
https://www.ocado.com/content/20-off-your-first-shop-

4 Plan car-pooling.
Put blankets in car. Plus a pillow or neck pillow.
Fully charge phones.
Take phone charger which attaches to car to keep mobile phones fully charged.

Food
Pack thermos of hot drink or soup.
Pack a cheese or vegetarian sandwich.
Wear warm clothes in case you are stuck in car.

Information
Tell family where and when you are going.
Entertainment
Take music, book or entertainment, for sitting in a traffic jam, or waiting for yourself or another in hospital.
Clothes
Wear warm clothes in case you are called outside to help somebody else, or to move a fallen tree or branch in your drive, or across the road in front of your car.

5 Meetings And Events - Plan B
Arrange for somebody nearby to leave notice on door of meeting if it is cancelled.
Move meeting to a pub which has a supply of food and drink in case you get snowed in.
Arrange at which time events will be cancelled so people further away don't set off an hour early to find that the event is cancelled half an hour before it was due to start.
Arrange backup meetings - two people living nearby can meet each other at one person's house, so the one with the big vehicle travels less far and the one with the least equipped vehicle does not have to travel at all.
In case the heating fails, organisers might carry in their cars spare small fan heaters.

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Drunken Escapades - don't do it - here's why

Problem
On holiday people get drunk. Celebrating, people get drunk. Then, alone or in a group, they do things which seemed like a good idea at the time, not so good a day or two later.

Drunk or sober, before taking any actions, ask yourself:
1 HOW DO RESPONSIBLE PEOPLE & HEROES ACT?
Would this action be done by any responsible person such as, (choose your favourites) my parents, my school teachers, the head of my school, my country or state, the HM The Queen?
Don't be an anti-hero if you can be a hero.

2 DO AS YOU WOULD BE DONE BY
Would I be happy if somebody else did this to me?

3 NEWSPAPER REPORTS
It used to be said, 'a lady should get her name in the newspapers only when she is born, when she marries and when she dies'. How will I feel if this is reported in the papers or on the internet and known to the next person giving out honours or jobs?

4 NO HONOUR AMONGST THIEVES?
If somebody else did this and I allowed them to do it, do I risk them claiming that I did it, in order to save themselves from loss of status, being put in prison or worse?

5 PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE
Can I safely suggest to somebody else that they might refrain from this action, to protect them from regrets and punishment and to protect an innocent third party?

6 YOU ARE A REPRESENTATIVE
Do I owe it to my family, friends, colleagues, sponsors, bystanders, members of the same sex, race, religion, nationality, to protect our reputation?

7 CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES
Actions have consequences. For you, your family, your colleagues, nearby acquaintances, people at a distance. Like stepping on a butterfly in the short story, everything has consequences. Consider the consequences.

8 HAVE SECOND THOUGHTS
Instead of' it seemed like a good idea at the time', you might find that 'on second thoughts, it did not seem such a good idea'. You would then save yourself and lots of other people lots of trouble.

9 FAMILY FIRST, LAWYERS LAST
Your family come first, not the people looking for work or a story or entertainment. You can entertain with your successes and skills. Believe me, if you refrain from a bad action, the lawyers won't go hungry. And journalists will be able to find something else to write about.

10 WRITE YOUR OWN EULOGY
Set a good example to others. Everything you do, even running across the road when the light is red, can inspire children and adults to copy you, at the time, immedately afterwards, or later. What do you want on your obituary? Not errors of judgement! Only good things!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5434151/Canadian-athlete-coach-fined-taking-car-Olympics.html#comments

Angela Lansbury
Travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Edinburgh Festival, Edinburgh and Scotland

Problems and Answers
First problem - I lost two hours of work on this post when I accidentally worked on a second opening of the page, then closed the first page which over wrote the later version. I then tried revert to draft which went back to the even earlier version. So, from now on, you will get my posts saved as I write the first draft.

1 When to go?
EDINBURGH INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
4 Aug – 28 Aug 2017

ROYAL MILITARY TATTOO
4-26 Aug 2017

New Year's Eve Dec 2017


2 Where to stay
My friends stay at the same hotel each year and book for the year ahead. That's why the central hotels are all booked up. You may have to go to latebookings.com and find something in your price range. Then book a more central hotel for the following year.

If you go by car, you can stay out of the city centre. If you are a group, try a self-catering place. The great ones I looked at were over £300 but slept four.

If you miss the Edinburgh Festival, consider booking New Year's Eve.

3 What to do and see
Performances, Plays and Performing

4 Stopover between Edinburgh, Scotland and London, England
I stayed in York for a night at a hotel which specialises in a wine theme and a large cellar restaurant, Hotel Du Vin. We travelled by car and made stops on the way up and back to see one of several places associated with Scottish hero Bruce and the spider. (See later post.) Also Lockerbie (see later post.

5 Any Comedy courses?
If you pay for a one day or two day or one week comedy or acting training course which ends with a performance in Edinburgh you then get invited to a post production party in London where you might meet a talent scout.

Going Solo
It's expensive to hire a venue for a night. To get an audience you need one or more of these:
A sponsor. A charity. Mum and Dad. Your savings. A theatre or orchestra or arts grant or city or country grant or student or university group.
Advertising budget for newspapers, free newspaper, posters, flyers.
People to hand out flyers.
Pub alongside with existing clientele.
Two nights or more so that those in the audience enjoying night one will come back on night two or send their friends.
An existing huge fan club or access to huge media circulation
A really wacky idea which gets lots of newspaper publicity.
A big name star to perform or endorse you.
Prior performance.

Who can perform? Actors in skits, plays, stand up comedy, open microphone shows, bands, poetry readings, small music groups, choirs and orchestras, singer-songwriters, musicals, ballets and dancers, street performers.
Alongside may be sellers of relevant books, souvenirs, tee-shirts, related to performances and to Edinburgh or Scotland.
Going With Groups
Look for comedy and acting courses. They end with a show. Just one night.

A huge group of students or others whose families will all pay a little for the performance.
A student group from a religious organisation sponsored by the church or synagogue, either on a topic or theme they like, or to create a fellowship of like-minded people.

Remember to record your comedy online for advance publicity and post-event publicity for the next year.

Invite the press to attend. Send a free ticket. Send a flyer for publicity. Take out an advertisement. Send them a photo or a video link. If they are too busy to send a photographer, offer to call at their office in costume for a photo with the reporter. You can take a selfie with your smart phone or laptop or theirs.

Tips & Websites
Edinburgh Festival
www.edfringe.com
http://edinburgh.org
https://www.latebookings.com//
www.lateluxury.com
https://www.visitscotland.com

Author, Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

Liverpool Street Station, Kindertransport memorial

This is the memorial on the concourse, the central area of the station. I was surprised it was so small. We had walked past it without noticing it, on an inconspicuous corner. When I started checking in Wikipedia I discovered that there is a second memorial outside the station. Other statues depicting the children are in Berlin and elsewhere.

Kinder is german for child. Transport is transport. The German language has more compound words than English.

As you can see from the plaque, the children arrived at Liverpool station. They had boarded trains in Europe, at Prague (Czech), and Vienna, Austria, to escape the Nazis. The children came from Germany as well. It was 1938. The lucky ones were just in time.

The word sponsors refers to the fact that the British government required £50 per child, a lot of money in those days, to cover costs. British people, Jews, such as the Rothschilds, and other benefactors, such as the Quakers, had to find enough money, which I thought was to cover the costs of schooling and other expenses for each child, but according to the Wikipedia article it was expected that the children would later need fare money to travel to rejoin their parents, which, alas, never happened.

Sir Nicholas Winton organised the children's escape and lived to a grand old age. Read about him in Wikipedia.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Winton

You can read more in the book: Into The Arms Of Strangers.

Photos copyright Angela Lansbury, 2016.
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.