A happy new year to all our members and guests and I hope the jolly fat man was generous this year. As usual, I’m expecting the next couple of weeks, to be the busiest time of the year for our club as people add improving their public speaking to their list of New Year’s resolutions. I wanted to highlight a couple of things and share a life-changing story of one of our former members:
- If you want to request a speech slot, please use D71, note I will only be scheduling 1 speech per person at a time so everyone has a chance. Use it or lose it.
- As many of you are aware; a successful meeting relies on all of our members helping out. I will be enforcing the club rule that after a member’s first speech, you must volunteer for a functionary role (grammarian, time keeper, evaluator, table topics master, toastmaster) before scheduling the next speech.
- If you are not a member, joining in January will cost £60 for those renewing and £100 for completely new members. Membership form can be downloaded at: https://cityoflondontoastmasters.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Membership-Application-2014-final.docx
A message from a former member:
“Dear City of London Toastmasters This is just a quick but very long overdue thank you email. In 2003 I joined City of London Toastmasters lost, depressed, completely lacking in self confidence. City of London Toastmasters welcomed me in and while I was only a member for about 9 months before I left London for Brisbane Australia, it was the start of something amazing. In that year I entered the Table Topics contest and made it through Area to Division and that was enough to create a passion for speaking and a love for contests. In Australia the 2013/14 contests at Area level have begun and I am entering the International Contest run for a second time in a row. When I moved to Brisbane I joined another club who were equally as welcoming, and under their mentorship I have risen to District Humorous champ and twice District Table Topics champ. But last year, my first serious run at International, saw me make it all the way to the International convention in Cincinnati. I placed 2nd in my semi final heat and I was awestruck! Whilst I may now represent another District on the far side of the world, I want to let City of London know that whilst your names and faces may have changed over the last 10 years, it was your club that opened its doors to this shy terrified girl and pushed me out into the world of ‘talk’, and you cannot begin to know just how grateful I am. City of London Toastmasters – thank you! Should I ever find myself in the streets of London again, I shall be sure to drop and say hi! ” – Kayt
On that note, I looking forward to seeing you in 2014; all the best
Ga Lok
