Clubs To Visit In The UK, Singapore, or Worldwide, Whilst Newsletters From Home Clubs Echo Thank You Speeches

I wrote to a club in London:

Greetings from sunny Singapore 
(Actually - I use the over-used word actually correctly, to indicate modifying a platitude statement - it's no longer sunny, but after two hot, sweltering sunny days, cooling rain is welcome.) 

I am acquiring skills and experience to bring back to HOD and the UK. I am the sponsor of a forthcoming bilingual English-Chinese club. I just attended a Workshop on Club Growth. 

I have been attending a Toastmasters meeting several times a month. I am mostly language evaluator when I aim to be both instructional and entertaining. At the last meeting when I was Language Evaluator, I encouraging everybody in the room in unison to say third, not missing out the H! I pointed out that a turd is what you see in a toilet. That raised a laugh.

PROBLEM

I already have my credentials from Toastmasters. I am away for many meetings of my UK club. Why should I pay to renew membership if I am missing half the meetings?

 I get the Toastmasters magazine full of tips which Toastmasters are glad to share. That gives me my moneysworth from the proportion of my annual fee which goes to the USA. Being a member of two or three clubs means I am paying the USA twice or three times.

ANSWER

To make it worthwhile renewing my club membership, although I am absent, I would be glad to receive a club ‘newsletter’ or meeting summary. This can be part of the duties of: Vice President Public Relations, or Vice President Membership, or project 8 from Competent leader manual for a member, or a High Performance Project for somebody aiming to complete Advanced leader Silver, or Advanced Leader Gold or DTM, or Area Governor project for the Area, a sub-committee organising a rota.

It is merely irritating to hear praise devoid of facts, the news that you missed ‘a wonderful speech by so-and’.

However, I want one practical tip learned from my own club's meetings each month. 

How? Who would do it? 

'Nobody has time during their working day.’ 

(Phooey - the committee's WhatsApp messages go back and forth non-stop between the President, Membership secretary, Treasurer, secretary everybody!)

POSSIBLE TIME-SAVING SOLUTIONS:

1 The General Evaluator could send a one-liner or three sentence summary by WhatsApp 

a) during the meeting or 

b) during the break or 

c) on the train home. (This is done by American Marshall Cooper in Singapore.)

COPYRIGHT ISSUES SOLVED

2 Maybe the chief guest speaker (If none the TME) would prefer to send a quotation: 

eg "Speaker Bob Ferguson says, 'My top tip is …’ ” 

(That way nobody else is revealing the speaker's top secrets; nor off-the cuff possibly inaccurate remarks, ‘Half the audience - don’t quote me on this,’ nor mis-quoting). 

Secondly, the speaker could add their top tip from audience feedback. 

THANK YOU QUOTATION

3 A proper thank you speech by the Toastmaster of the evening, (a thankyou speech is a project in one of the advanced manuals) should incorporate something useful that the speaker has said. 

This sentence can be reused as the WhatsApp message.  The magic quotation forms part of the thank you speech, the thank you letter, and the club newsletter or WhatsApp message, or PR on Facebook or the club website.

UK CLUBS TO VISIT

If you are in London, visit one of the clubs in London, available morning until night, all year. There are breakfast clubs, banking clubs, business networking clubs, English, French, or Polish clubs.

In the UK I am a member of 

HOD Meeting at THE BRIDGE, HARROW, FIRST AND THIRD THURSDAY Evenings, PLUS An advanced club XL on another Thursday. Near Harrow and Wealdstone station.

HOD meeting in Harrow at the Bridge by the Leisure Centre near Harrow & Wealdstone station, London, England.

HARROVIANS meets near Canons Park Station, Edgware, in St Lawrence's Hall, behind St Lawrence's Church, first and third Monday evenings.

Harrovians in the large Hall near behind historic St Lawrence's Church by North London Collegiate School's park near Canons park station and buses from Harrow and Edgware, NW London, England.

In Singapore I am VPR for Braddell Heights Advanced toastmasters club, Singapore. 

If you are passing through Singapore, we meet first Wednesday evening at 7 pm and Third Saturday afternoon at 3 pm. Do visit us! The Community Cub is beside Serangoon MRT railway station.

Braddell Heights Advanced Toastmasters International Speakers' club, Singapore, the committee: Angela, Rachel, Maria, Marcus, Kan Kin Fung.

USEFUL WEBSITE

To find a club in the country where you live or are visiting on holiday or business:

https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club

Author, travel writer, photographer, speaker.

Follow me on Facebook, blogger.com and YouTube.

http://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.co.uk

French word of the day: clairvoyant - French speaking Toastmasters clubs - French translations

This word came up as word of the day at Toastmasters speakers' training club. I associate clairvoyants with con artists claiming to see the dead. However, I was most interested to hear the analysis of the word, clair as in clear, and voyant, as in voyeur, seeing.
   Interestingly, one of the examples of the use of the word given was: 'I am not clairvoyant.' (Followed by, 'However I predict you will soon get a job.'
   Tres bien. (Very good.)

If you are running a meeting, people are not clairvoyant. You have to tell everybody where to find the fire exit, toilets, the food, even the station to get home, and offer a lift. You have to tell them to turn off their phone, and turn it back on.

Toastmasters
   If you want to practise your French, you can attend a French speaking Toastmasters Club at home or at your destination. Members of Toastmasters International can buy a Toastmasters manual in French and several other languages.
   In Singapore you can attend a Mandarin speaking club. (Only recommended if you speak some Mandarin. I went to one assuming it would include some English but only one person spoke any English and I had to sit smiling politely most of the evening whilst not understanding a word.
  When I gave a speech in English to thank my hosts, I have no idea whether my translator understood anything, or simply made up what she imagined I might have said. I should have taken a sheet of translations in advance, plus a thank you speech translated with Google translate.
  In this sort of situation, you need a working phone, a spare battery, a downloaded dictionary, plus a few vital phrases including

Failing all else, follow the men to the toilet door and make hand over eyebrows sign for I'm looking.
Or make prayer sign, looking sign and hand washing sign.

English - French
Where is - the toilet: Ou est ... ( Failing all else - find the image of a toilet/ drinking glass, bottle, station, bus stop, car park, fire exit, fire extinguisher, doctor)
Thank you very much - merci beaucoup
Delighted to meet you - enchante (you might copy what the other person says)
My name is - Je m'apelle
What is your name? Qu'est ce que c'est - et votre nom madame/monsieur ?
Where is the station? Ou e s t la gare? V o u s  p o u v e z  m' a c c o m p a n e z? (You can accompany me)
I am going back to  / I am walking to - Je dois r e n t re  a ... Je marche v e r s
Can you give me a lift in your car? Est-ce-que  v  o u s  a v e z  u n e  v o i t u r e   Je  v a i s
Can somebody show me the way?
What time does this meeting end? A qeu elle h e u re   n o u s  i r o n s  f i n i  r? (At what time do we finish?)

Because of spellchecker, if you are doing a lot of translation, you might find it useful to print one page in English, then switch the computer language to French. Only do this if you speak fluent French and have somebody (family friend or nearby computer/phone shop) who can turn the computer back to English - write what you did to get the French, so you can reverse the process and get back to English.

I have given speeches and evaluated speeches in England, France, Singapore, China, Thailand, the USA, Australia and translated speeches at conferences in France and typed up speeches in correct English for speakers at conferences in India.

Angela Lansbury B A Hons, author, speaker.