Becky Piper
Published May 12, 2012 | 
Last Wednesday’s meeting was a flourish of international bits ‘n’ bobs as we played to our Europe themed evening!
Victor was TM and Jim told us a joke about the gender of computers in Spain; Kala ran some numerical table topics; Becky visualized Getting Social in a Digital Age; Laura got to the point of Volunteering; Paul vocalized a Times Riddle and Daniel P organized a speech around 3 Days in Rome.
Thanks to Victor, Paul, Sam, Daniel S, Yiorgos, Andy, Jim, Kala, Tim and Louise for taking on responsibility through roles and making this such a fun-filled meeting. Our word of the day was ‘Jingo’.
Awards: Best Speaker went to Laura and Daniel P, Best Humour went to Victor, Best Evaluator to Tim and Best Table Topic to Andy. Tim gave a Evaluator’s award to Paul for longest speech!
Club business: Jim and Yiorgos were granted permission to vote by proxy for the club on the Toastmasters International Reformation.
Date for your diary:
Wed 30th May 6.00-8.30pm: Cranfield Speakers 1st birthday party at the Social Club. Top class entertainment with ‘party game’ themed Table Topics sessions, BBQ food and salads, wine and juice – all for £10 per head. Invite a friend or two – non-members are welcome! Please let Jim know if you will be joining us, so that he can confirm numbers to the caterers.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 23rd May. Roles are available to be filled – contact Tim, who is to be Toastmaster for the evening.
Published April 28, 2012 | Last Wednesday saw several debut appearances for the various meeting roles – in line with our ‘First Time’ themed evening!
Daniel P was TM and Jim told us a golfing joke; Hemant shared with us What Makes a Successful Entrepreneur; Victor got to the point of How to Launch a Social Epidemic; and our guest, Gayna inspired us all with her competition speech entitled Heads or Tails, taking questions as part of her evaluation slot.
Thanks to Daniel P, Emily, Laura, Daniel S, Jim, Xiaojian, Becky, Atul, Louise and Nils for taking on responsibility through roles and helping this enjoyable meeting run smoothly! Our word of the day was ‘staggering’.
Awards: Best Speaker and Best Humour went to Victor, Best Evaluator to Nils and Best Table Topic to both Becky and Yiorgos.
Farewell and best wishes to Nils who is off to an exciting new role in Germany. Keep in touch, Nils!
20 attended with 3 guests.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 9th May, in the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. Speaking slots and roles available to be filled – contact Victor, who is to be Toastmaster for the evening with the theme of ‘Europe’.
For members who are currently without a mentor, but who would like to make use of this fantastic opportunity, please contact Becky for further advice / information.
Date for your diary:
Wed 30th May 6.00-8.30pm: Cranfield Speakers 1st birthday party at the Social Club. Top class entertainment with ‘party game’ themed Table Topics sessions, BBQ food and salads, wine and juice – all for £10 per head. Invite a friend or two – non-members are welcome! Contact Jim to book your places.
Members and non-members are warmly invited to join the North Bucks’ Nosh and Natter evenings at the Slug and Lettuce in Central Milton Keynes, where everyone is welcome and meals are half price! For more details please contact Louise.
Published April 13, 2012 | Mission accomplished by all secret agents involved in Wednesday’s super spy-themed club meeting!
Yiorgos was TM and we were treated to a joke involving firearms from our Irish Emily; Becky researched Our Amazing Technicolor Dreams; Emily won Best Speaker with her icebreaker – Home is Where the Heart is; and Nils gave us all Food for Thought with his speech about the power of infrastructure.
Thanks to Yiorgos, Paul, Jim, John, Kala, Richard, Daniel P, Louise and Tim for taking on responsibilities through roles and helping to make this mission possible before anything self-destructed! Our word of the day was ‘audacious’.
Awards: Best Speaker went to Emily, Best Evaluator to John and Best Table Topic and Best Humour to our guest, David!
19 attended with 6 guests.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 25th April, in the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. Speaking slots and roles available to be filled – contact Daniel P, who is to be Toastmaster for the evening.
Please be aware that, in order to better communicate what the club offers and to facilitate its promotion, the name Cranfield Toastmasters is changing to Cranfield Speakers.
For members who are currently without a mentor, but who would like to make use of this fantastic opportunity, please contact Becky for further advice / information.
Dates for your diaries:
Wed 30th May (TBC): Cranfield Speakers 1st birthday party (more details to follow).
Sat 14th April: Toastmasters Division G Competition at Cambridge Golf and Conference Centre – This event features the winners of each area within Division G and so the standard of the speeches will be very high. Cranfield members welcome – details on the Cranfield Speakers Facebook page or contact Jim for further information.
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Published March 31, 2012 | Eggstraordinary evening on Wednesday with Becky as a bunny-eared TM; Easter Table Topics from Daniel P; Yiorgos inspiring us with his 10th speech; Atul presenting the most dangerous animal on the planet; and Daniel S asking are we dying to try it or trying to diet?
Thanks to John, Andy, Nils, Hemant, Xiaojian and Kala for taking on responsibilities through roles and helping to deliver this evolutionary Easter meeting! John and Andy demonstrated their multi-tasking abilities and the word of the day was ‘catechize’ – meaning to question closely.
Awards: Best Speaker and Best Table Topic went to Atul, Best Evaluator to Andy and Best Humour to Daniel P!
13 attended including 1 guest.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 11th April, in the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. Speaking slots and roles available to be filled – contact Yiorgos, who is to be Toastmaster for the evening.
Please also note that the next 6 months’ subscription payments are now due (£36 please – what a complete bargain!) by the end of March for period Apr – Oct 2012. Payments can easily be made by bank transfer (ask Becky for bank details), or bring cash or cheque along to our next meeting on the 28th March. Please ignore this message if you’ve already paid up.
For members who are currently without a mentor, but who would like to make use of this fantastic opportunity, please contact Becky for further advice / information.
Date for your diaries: 23rd May Cranfield social event (more details to follow).
14th April: Toastmasters Division G Competition at Cambridge Golf and Conference Centre – This event features the winners of each area within Division G and so the standard of the speeches will be very high. Cranfield members welcome – details on the Cranfield Toastmasters Facebook page or contact Jim for further information.
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Published March 16, 2012 | Inspiring night on Wednesday with Paul as TM, Mother’s Day Table Topics from Nils, Becky spreading a little magic, Daniel P breaking the ice, Andy rambling as an amateur thespian and Kala comparing CVs to marmite.
Thanks to Hemant, Jim, Yiorgos, Tim W, Tim H, John and Daniel S for taking on responsibilities through roles and helping to create a fantastic meeting!
Awards: Best Speaker went to Becky, Best Evaluator shared between Tim and Yiorgos, Best Humour to Andy and Best Table Topic went to our guest, Marina!
17 attended including 3 guests.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 28th March, in the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. Roles available to be filled – contact Yiorgos or Becky, who is to be Toastmaster for the evening.
Please also note that the next 6 months’ subscription payments are now due (£36 please – what a complete bargain!) by the end of March for period Apr – Oct 2012. Payments can easily be made by bank transfer (ask Becky for bank details), or bring cash or cheque along to our next meeting on the 28th March. Please ignore this message if you’ve already paid up.
For members who are currently without a mentor, but who would like to make use of this fantastic opportunity, please contact Becky for further advice / information.
Date for your diaries: 23rd May Cranfield social event (more details to follow).
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Published February 25, 2012 | Last Wednesday’s meeting was our club’s Speech & Evaluation Contest. Paul led as Contest Chair and Jim took the role of Chief Judge. Judges were Jenny, Rose Marie and Paul. Timekeepers were Ian and Becky.
For the target speech in the Evaluation Contest, Tim delivered his speech entitled The Fidget, involving Christmas presents being dismantled and wires being stuck into electric sockets.
Evaluation contestants were Hemant, Victor, Daniel, Nils and Atul.
Congratulations to Nils who came 1st and Victor who came 2nd.
Paul kept us amused during the voting sessions with some table topics involving objects found at Roswell, where Rose Marie explained the first alien object and Paul introduced the second as an alien coffee maker.
In the Speech Contest:
Daniel delivered a eulogy, including quotes from Rudyard Kipling and insights into his childhood.
Louise followed – bright and breezy, pulling a snazzy suitcase and told us all to Lighten Up and lose the baggage.
Kala then explored 2012 and how to survive the hype, using various types of prediction: negative, positive, scientific and spiritual.
Congratulations to Kala who won Best Speech.
Paul delivered more entertainment during the voting session with table topics about strange sights, sounds, sensations and smells:
Daniel spoke of his wife’s flashing earrings; Louise of her noisy cat, Prajwal of being hit by a talking phone; and John of his early career experience, mucking out animals.
19 attended including 2 guests.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 14th March, in the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. Roles available to be filled – contact Yiorgos.
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Published February 9, 2012 | Yiorgos led the meeting, which will be known as the ‘feel the love’ edition.
Tim warmed up the audience with a woolly joke, followed by Valentine topics by Ashley, evaluated by Jim.
Victor talked about his dating disaster, Louise talked about the best valentines gift, a song from her son, Dan said he hated being single and won topics, whilst Carla, simply needed a hug.
There were many more hugs in the evening as the speeches progressed.
Paul told us about love, joy and anger, including bold body language, evaluated by Yiorgos (best speech). Nils led us through 4 heads of personality, with Daniel evaluating.
Atul and Hemant both broke the ice, evaluated by Tim and Jim.
Maissa was grammarian, Laura grunt counter and Victor multitasked doing the timer role and reading a newspaper at the same time.
Louise pulled the meeting together with a general evaluation, before Jim cajoled people into the competition.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 22nd February, back in our usual venue, the L&D Room, Bldg 33 at 6pm. This next meeting will be our club contest and although we now have enough speakers, we’re still looking for volunteers to be officials. Contact Jim or Paul for further info.
Evaluations and contests
Having won an evaluation contest, there are a few tips to consider:
- First of all, do read the judging criteria, found on the D71 website.
- Look for all the things you normally look for, such as triads, alliteration and good use of grammar.
- Be aware of pace and volume.
- When you feed back, imagination often pays off, as well as being demonstrative.
- Ask experienced evaluators how they do it.
Your club mentors are Louise and Tim.
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Published January 31, 2012 | John led last week’s meeting as Toastmaster and after welcoming members and guests, introduced the evening’s agenda and officials.
Nils kept time and Paul took on the role of grammarian, introducing the word ‘frangible’ as the word of the day.
Kala counted grunts and Yiorgos outlined the Toastmasters Leadership programme. Jim told a tasteful joke about how the angel got to be put on the top of the Christmas tree.
Mikael was Table Topics Master for the evening (with Louise evaluating) and invited participants to play the game ‘reverse jeopardy’, where he gave each participant a simple question to answer:
Tim told us who Rocketman is; Tom let us know which are the most dangerous animals in the world; Atul explained that the world’s toughest race was swimming; and Yiorgos described what colours are.
In the first of the prepared speeches, Becky (evaluated by Paul) gave her 5th speech entitled ‘Nifty Negotiating’ in which she highlighted the importance of engaging, understanding and co-creating.
Andy followed (evaluated by Yiorgos) with his 5th presentation ‘Don’t just listen, watch’, where he gave examples of how our body language has an impact on the message being conveyed.
Third speaker was Laura (evaluated by Tim) who delivered her 2nd speech about the difference between airlines and how low-cost airlines are able to offer their more affordable prices.
Finally, Victor (evaluated by Louise) educated us all with ‘What are dark pools?’ in his 2nd speech.
In his role as General Evaluator Yiorgos gave evaluations of the three evaluators, the meeting officials and the meeting as a whole.
On general club matters, Jim reminded members about the upcoming special event for all clubs within our Area – the International Speech and Evaluation Contest, which will be held on Wednesday 7th March.
In preparation for this contest, Cranfield will hold its own contest on Wednesday 22nd February. Members are invited to volunteer for the evaluation contest, where they will competitively evaluate a target speaker. Members are also welcome to volunteer to be the target speaker in order to gain valuable feedback from a variety of perspectives. Please contact Jim for more information.
Cranfield members are also welcome to attend the North Bucks club contest on 16th February at the Well at Willen and also their Tall Tales evening on 7th February at the Slug and Lettuce in Milton Keynes.
Please note change of venue for the next Cranfield meeting – 8th February meeting will be held in the CMRI (Bldg 38). The meeting on 22nd February will be back at our normal venue, the L&D Room in Bldg 33.
17 attended including 2 guests.
Awards:
Best Speech – Victor
Best Evaluator – Louise
Best Table Topics – Yiorgos
Best Humour – Andy
The meeting closed on time at 8pm.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 8th February at 6pm.
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Published January 14, 2012 | We kicked off 2012 with the first meeting of the year on Wednesday 11th January with Louise leading as Toastmaster.
Andy kept time and Becky took on the role of grammarian, introducing the word ‘resolve’ as the word of the day.
Yiorgos outlined the Toastmasters Leadership programme and Nils told a tasteful joke.
Viktor was Table Topics Master for the evening (with Jenny evaluating) and gave each participant a fictitious person’s name, of differing nationality, to speak about:
Becky spoke about her tennis playing school friend, Ashley spoke about her client with the unpronounceable name, Tom spoke about someone looking for oil at Cranfield and Paul spoke about his distant relation, John Johnny!
In the first of the prepared speeches, Tom (evaluated by Paul) gave his 3rd speech entitled ‘Innovation management’ in which he delivered different methods of being innovative via 4 envelopes (well, he ran out of time and only delivered 2 but who’s counting?!).
Jim followed (evaluated by John) with a presentation outlining the various roles within a Toastmasters meeting and within a club.
Third speaker was Tim (evaluated by Andy), who broke the ice and introduced himself to the group with his first speech.
Finally, Mick (evaluated by Yiorgos) enlightened us all with ‘The positive power of negative thinking’ in his 6th speech.
In his role as General Evaluator John gave evaluations of the three evaluators, the meeting officials and the meeting as a whole.
On general club matters, Jim informed members about the upcoming special event for all clubs within our Area – the International Speech and Evaluation Contest, which will be held on Wednesday 7th March.
In preparation for this contest, Cranfield will hold its own contest on Wednesday 22nd February. Members are invited to volunteer for the evaluators contest, where they will competitively evaluate a non-Cranfield speaker. Please contact Jim for more information.
Cranfield members are also welcome to attend the North Bucks club contest on 16th February at the Slug and Lettuce in Milton Keynes.
Please note change of venue for the next two Cranfield meetings: 25th January and 8th February meetings will also be held in the CMRI.
17 attended including 1 guest.
Awards:
Best Speech – Tom
Evaluator’s Award – Tim
Best Table Topics – Paul
Best Humour – Mick & John
The meeting closed on time at 8pm.
Looking forward to our next meeting on Wednesday 25th January at 6pm.
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Published December 14, 2011 | What a fun-packed evening we had tonight!
With Jim as Sergeant at Arms and Becky as Contest Chair, we had a special appearance from Santa via the magic of technology – see here so you don’t miss out on seeing the jolly old fellow:
http://youtu.be/J2ypFnt65hg
Whilst Tim kept time, Paul led a seasonal table topics session dishing out gifts here there and everywhere: a clock for Mikael; some straws for Louise; a banana case for Jim; some party bubbles for Tom; an oven glove for Becky; a plastic toaster for Daniel; a Xylophone for Tim; a glow stick for Ashley and some scissors for Karla.
We fed our faces with the delights that members and guests had contributed for the buffet and then resumed for Tall Tales where Louise, Maggie, Daniel, Ashley and Jim all recounted stories in a bid to fool the audience into believing their far-fetched tale was either the truth or a lie.
On club matters, Becky confirmed that the next meeting of Cranfield Toastmasters would be on 11th January and that there would be a change of venue for this and the subsequent 2 meetings. The venue for 11th January, 25th January and 8th February would be CMRI Gallery (Building 38).
Louise invited Cranfield members to attend two local Toastmasters Christmas events – the North Bucks Christmas Pantomime on Thursday 15th Dec. For more information, contact Jim Reynolds (jimreynolds@jrel.biz)
Awards:
Best Table Topic – Ashley
Best Tall Tale – Maggie
Fooled the most people with their Tall Tale – Ashley
Thanks everyone for your various contributions to tonight’s meeting.
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR!
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