Useful toastmasters websites for new members, timers, committee, visitors, finding clubs worldwide

BRADDELL HEIGHTS ADVANCED
FACEBOOK

MEETUP
TOASTMASTERS INTERNATIONAl

FIND A CLUB
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

NEW MEMBERS
https://www.toastmasters.org/membership/new-member-experience

SONGS
https://spinditty.com/playlists/Songs-About-the-Sun-and-Sunshine

STATISTICS
https://www.toastmasters.org/leadership-central/statistics-and-data-hub

TABLE TOPICS


TIMERS
https://www.toastmasters.org/resources/Timer%20Zoom%20Backgrounds

Useful Websites
https://context.reverso.net/translation/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/polygotcommunity
https://translate.google.com/

About the author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, which was meeting every Wednesday, now on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but 3rd Saturday afternoon on learncool.sg and possibly the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool

Incoming president Faith from July 1st 2020 could change dates and platforms so please contact the club.

learncool.sg

Or quicker to type and easier to remember: 

 tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

Useful Websites

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

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

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

https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

Online meetings, challenges and statistics

Facebook produced this memory photo for me to share.

This picture shows me at Tampiens Changkat advanced toastmasters of which I am a member. In Singapore. I am being presented with a ribbon for best speaker by the President, Vincent.

I am not sure whether this was a ribbon for best speaker, or an award for best topics and the club had run out of best topics ribbons. According to the wall behind I spoke in table topics.

Statistics
It would be interesting to have had compelte statistics for each club and each member. I would love to be able to say how many ribbons I had won and how many speeches I had given.

The club's statistics would be interesting too. The club has been going so many years, held so many meetings, had so many people pass through its doors, kept so many members from the first meetings, had so many presidents, each member had given so many speeches, won so many ribbons, entered so many contests.

If the club appointed a statistician or gave the job of keeping statistics to the club's PR person, that would make a fascinating and impressive record.

ChallengesA record of challenges would be interesting, too. How many times did the President, VPE and TMD have to cope with missing speakers?

Did they ever get locked out of the venue? We did this year 2020, because of Covid19.

About the Author

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

I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a travel writer and photographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a language evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

In addition to being a member of Tampines Changkat Advanced, and Tiarel,  I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg

Or quicker, tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

In Singapore we are on the same time zone as Malaysia, Hong Kong, and China (Beijing and Shanghai).

Please share links to your favourite posts.

The Challenges Of Online Meetings

Challenges Of All Meetings
First I'll give you the bad news, then the good news. Some of the challenges of online meetings are the same as those of in person meetings.

1 Somebody who said he would give a speech is too busy doing something else. (One rule is that they must check in early. A second is to tell you what meeting conflicts they have. If it sounds legitimate or important or unavaildable you can explain to the audience: John is on a flight from overseas and if he cannot call us that means his flight has been delayed. The third is to have a plan b. Find a substitute speaker.)

2 After all the efforts of the organizers, the numbers of audience members attending are disappointing. Why? Do you need more publicity? Better publicity? Or earlier publicity?

3 Some people arrive late at the meeting. Others leave early.
To take account of those who leave early, repeat or record early information for them. Get information from them before they leave. Ask them to leave contact details. Take a group photo.

Online meetings have their own challenges.

Problem - Sound
1 Sound quality can be erratic.
We started with Learncool. We tried Skype. We went back to Zoom. We wanted to know whether the problem was our end of the other end.

Eventually, by process of elinination, we discovered the solution to the problem and therefore the cause of the problem. When we switched off everybody else's sound to better hear the main speaker, the quality of the sound improved.

Meeting Program
Our second meeting was technically an improvement on the first. We had loaded up the program of the meeting onto the website.

Famous Quotations
I spent several hours creating the slides on Powerpoint to share.  My themes were study and work.  I had twenty quotations on these two topics. I found the quotations in two books I wrote, Quick Quotations, and Who Said What When.

The second of my books on quotations gave me the dates the person quoted lived and died. I went back to Wikipedia for portraits.

Feedback On What Was Good
The meeting was scheduled to end at 9 pm. But we had started late because of sound problems.

Janet said she enjoyed the fact that the topics were all on the same theme. She also enjoyed the language evaluation.

Shishir said he enjoyed the personal stories during the speechcraft, to illustrate the points.

Suggestions For Improvement
Add speeches and evaluations.

Do more publicity - such as a video. This can be made from recordings of the meeting.

By the end of the meeting we had fewer, so it was a pity we did not take a group photo at the beginning.

Fun Photos
However, we had great photos with stuffed toys. That was an idea I had copied from Singapore Online Toastmasters of which I am a member.

Meetings you can join:
Singapore Online Friday evening 9-12 midnight Singapore time
Harrovians Mondays 7-9 pm evening UK time
Braddell Heights Advanced  Wednesdays 7-9 pm Singapore time

These meetings are in English. Other clubs are in French, Spanish, Mandarin, bilingual English and Malay, Tamil and other languages.

Useful Websites
Toastmasters International Find A Club
https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker, trainer of speakers.  More on sound qulity in the next post. Please share links to useful posts.

How to Remember Names

If you read books on remembering names you will hear that Americans repeat a name three times.


Stories
Wedding Speeches And Names
In my book How To Be The Best Man I suggested that in the best man's speech he could comment on the names of the host or guests. For example, he could take the meanings of names. How many bakers and butchers and smith? How many blacks, whites, greens, silvers and golds? How many of the same name? Did he call the name Maria, and find that the bride and three waitresses ran over. (Or did the groom call the name Maria and find that his wife and three waitresses came running. How did he explain that to his new wife!) Endless possibilities to complement and describe the audience, remember their names, and remind the bride and groom and other guests of each other's names.

Names Of Guests At Toastmasters Meetings
In December 2016 I was asked when I arrived at a meeting to be the Table Topics Master. My job was to invite guests to vie a two minute speech on a subject of may choice, preferably the theme of the evening. I remember two of the guests. Two days later I can still remember their names.

The person on my right and the right of my photos of the evening was Earnest. I asked his name, which was Earnest, asked him to say the spelling, to be sure I had heard right, and then said, "Earnest, I earnestly entreat you to come up and do a table topic."

The guest on my left, and the left of my photos of the evening, was called Victor. I wondered whether I had heard correctly. I asked, "Is that Victor with a C or Victor with a K - can you spell it?" He said, "It's Victor with a c, V I C T O R." I replied, ""Victor, with a C, will you please come up and do a table topic - you may be the victor - you may be victorious!

Earnest was earnest but Victor was victorious. He won the ribbon.


Tips
1 Ask the name
2 Repeat the name
3 Check the spelling
4 Comment on the nationality, religion, language of the name
5 Ask the origin of the name or offer to trace it
6 Write down the name
7 Put the name in your phone
8 Photograph the person
9 Find their photo in the programme or newspaper or media
10 Make a joke or praise the name or find an alliteration.

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer.
Like my posts and pages, follow me and share my posts.
Read excerpts from my books and buy them from Amazon and Lulu.com

Singapore - voting day count down

Today has been voting day in Singapore. People working in offices have been given the day off. Voting is compulsory. If you don't vote, I was told, you are barred from voting in later years. The campaigns have generated a lot of excitement. The majority party is sure to get it. But one of the opposition parties might win a seat or two. Locals will be sitting up into the night watching TV and phoning each other agog to hear the news. The papers have been full of election news for days and this is likely to carry on. (Along with news about the haze.)

Election as a topic for talks
At Toastmasters clubs one of the table topics for impromptu speeches is likely to be something to do with the election. In the past month meetings have started with 'what will you be doing on election day' for every person to answer.

One of the speeches might be on elections. One speaker talked about electing a monitor at primary school, elections in China which he visited, and finally elections in Singapore.

Update:
https://sg.news.yahoo.com/singapore-ruling-party-popularity-tested-general-election-000458562.html

Angela Lansbury, BA, author, writer, speaker.