Valentine’s Day may be a holiday celebrated with roses and chocolates, but at our recent Toastmasters meeting, it took on a whole new meaning. With Sujanth as our charming Toastmaster for the evening, we explored the delightful and sometimes dark sides of love. 

Kicking off the night, Gordon introduced an intriguing twist to our table topics, diving into the shadows of Valentine’s Day. His thought-provoking prompts encouraged members to reflect on the not-so-sweet aspects of love.

Jinan, bravely sharing her fear of bees, recounted a painful encounter with a sting that had the audience both cringing and chuckling. Her heartfelt and humorous delivery won her the title of Best Table Topics Speaker of the night.

The evening took a more serious turn as we welcomed two inspiring TEDx speakers, Ryan and Ged, who delivered prepared speeches that captivated the audience. Ryan’s tale of mentorship was particularly poignant. He spoke about a mentor who initially guided him in door-to-door sales, only to later take $1,500 and cut off all communication. In a twist that showcased the true essence of friendship, Ryan shared how he prioritized reconnecting with his friend over the money lost, reminding us that relationships often matter more than material possessions. His heartfelt message resonated, earning him the title of Best Speaker.

The night, however, didn’t end there; evaluations followed with a love-themed twist. Imke stood out in this segment, providing valuable feedback on Ryan’s speech with such finesse that she was awarded Best Evaluator.As the night wrapped up, it was clear that love, in all its forms—be it romantic, platonic, or even the lessons learned from difficult experiences—was the heartbeat of our gathering. With laughter, inspiration, and a touch of vulnerability, we celebrated the complexities of love, leaving with a sense of connection and warmth.

Here’s to many more evenings of sharing stories, building friendships, and discovering the many facets of love at our Toastmasters Club!

January 8th: Embracing Kindness

The new year at West Herts Toastmasters began with an inspiring theme: Kindness, led by our Toastmaster of the evening, Enrica. The atmosphere was warm and supportive as we heard three powerful speeches from our talented members.

• Zoe delivered her second speech, My Love and Hate Relationship with English, as part of the Visionary Communication Pathway. She shared her personal experiences navigating the complexities of the English language, blending humor with heartfelt insights.
• Anita took on the challenge of her fourth speech in the Motivational Strategies Pathway with Saying What Needs to Be Said. She encouraged us to find the courage to speak up, even in difficult situations.
• Shad presented his third speech, Planning and Timing Our Best Years, on the Persuasive Influence Pathway, offering valuable lessons on making the most of life’s opportunities.

January 22nd: Mastering the Basics

Two weeks later, our meeting revolved around the theme: Advanced Skills Are the Basics Mastered, skillfully led by Toastmaster Paul. This session was packed with inspiration, milestones, and great speeches.

• Andrew made a strong debut with his Icebreaker speech, Starting Squash, on the Presentation Mastery Pathway. He shared his journey of picking up a new sport, proving that taking the first step is often the hardest but most rewarding.
• Ghreta took us on an adventure with Conquering Mount Aux Sources: A Journey of Perseverance and Triumph, painting a vivid picture of resilience and determination.
• Chris Baker, runner-up in the District 71 UK & Ireland International Speech Competition, left us in awe with his speech Unmasked to Be Seen, a powerful message on authenticity and self-acceptance.

Welcome to Our New Members!

West Herts Toastmasters is growing! We’re thrilled to welcome Sergey Tarabrin, Olga Korotkikh, and Ranjena Gohil to our club. We look forward to seeing you thrive on your public speaking journey.

As we move further into 2025, we’re excited for more inspiring speeches, personal growth, and the supportive community that makes Toastmasters so special. Stay tuned for our next meetings, and if you’re considering joining, now is the perfect time!

Two updates from last week. Firstly, our inspiring club member, Chris Baker, came 2nd in the District 71 UK & Ireland International Speech Competition. Such an amazing achievement – well done Chris!

In our club meeting, we were further inspired by the theme of change. Our contest winners were:

– Table Topics – Gordon

– Best Speech – Jay (as well as being his first icebreaker speech)

– Best Evaluator – Sujanth

Last night’s theme was ‘Easter Adventure’ with a focus on new beginnings. Table topics was hosted by Laura and covered a range of easter-related questions.

– Table topics Winner: Gordon; 2nd Place: Sam

We also had fun with our grammarian Ryan’s spin on the evening; rather than to try and use a specific word in the speeches, toastmasters had to incorporate the use of anaphora – ‘the repetition of a word or phrase at the beginning of successive clauses’.

Enrica won the prepared speech event with her speech entitled ‘The power of communication style’. Best evaluator prize went to Tracey.

Well done to everyone involved and have a great Easter! 🐣

Our next meeting will be on Wed 10th April. As always, guests are most welcome to join!
#ToastmastersUK

Last week’s meeting was themed around the idea of ‘stepping up’. In line with the theme a number of folks stepped into roles for the evening at late notice – thanks to those that did! Table topics delved into the realms of happiness and what it means to people, with some interesting and inspiring 2 minute impromptu speeches delivered by toastmaster members.

There were also three fabulous prepared speeches:

• Matt – Reach for the stars
• Stefanie – The Sofa Whisperer
• Ghreta – How to appreciate red wine!

Our winners for the week were:

• Best Speaker Award – Stefanie
• Best Table Topics Award – Rhys
• Best Evaluator Award – Ged

West Herts Speakers Club typically meet the 2nd and 4th Wednesday every month. However, on Wed 31st Jan we have an additional special event called “all about hat’s, be prepared, draw your role”. Roles will assigned on the evening, including speakers and evaluators! Guests are still most welcome to participate or watch the evening unfold. Come along!

A busy last few weeks at West Herts Speakers Club toastmasters club:

1. The West Herts Speakers Club Christmas Party last Thursday at @theharpendenarms !
2. A meeting double header with the themes of ‘Gratitude’ (in appreciation of Thanksgiving) as well as ‘Joy’.
   
3. Check out all our winners on our Facebook and Instagram feeds!

Our next meeting is on Wednesday 13th Dec at The Country Constitutional Club (St Albans) – guest are welcome!

For this event we enjoyed a spooky Halloween-themed evening at West Herts Speakers Club. There was a special table topics session led by Gordon in a panel-style format discussing everything and anything about pumpkins! 🎃🎃🎃

We also had 2 scarily-good, prepared speeches from Judy (Talking to Children About Death) and Nigel with his icebreaker speech (A dream come true).

Our winners this week were:

🏆 Best Speech – Nigel
🏆 Best Evaluator – Ged
🏆 Best Table Topics – Russell

Our next meeting will be on Wednesday 8th November with the theme ‘Cook Something Bold & Pungent!’. Guests are most welcome – see you there!

This week we hosted a full house for our humorous speech and table topics contest!

Our contestants amused us with their humorous stories ranging from being arrested in Germany, defining the three categories of people that live in St Albans, to the threat to humanity that is gangs of teenage boys! Enrica was our eventual winner, with Matt and Tanzim coming 2nd and 3rd respectively.

For table topics, contestants were asked to talk on the same topic ‘Home is where the heart is’ but moved to a separate room so as to not hear the speeches that proceeded their own. It was intriguing to see how varied the 7 contestants responses were for a simple but personal topic. Tracey won with the 3 reasons why she loves her homeland; South Africa. Paul and Rhys came 2nd and 3rd. Well done everybody and see you at our next meeting on Wednesday 11th October.

The theme of the week was trailblazing courage. Our table topics, led by Victor, ranged from owning a pet dinosaur and feeding young children to it (don’t ask!), a sales pitch for a new ‘Courage’ cologne, to the more serious topic of who has inspired you with their courage most in your life.

There were 2 speeches this week. Aparna’s parting gift was a 22 minute speech on how charge your life: 3 easy steps! It was inspiring and a tribute to her last 7 years before she departs to Dubai – good luck Aparna. 

Next was Rhys with Icebreaker speech entitled ‘One Degree, which focussed on the power micro habits can have on our every day lives.

The winners were:

Best Speaker – Aparna

Best Evaluator – Paul

Best Table Topic Speakers – Gordon

See you at the next session on the 30th July at 7.30pm for a special event; a candlelight supper.

It was all change this week, as we said a big thank you to our outgoing committee and a warm welcome to the new incoming team. Good luck to all the new committee members in their roles!
The theme of this week’s session, held on July 12th, was ‘Let’s get digital’ hosted wonderfully by Stefanie for the evening. We were treated to a wide range of table topics technical teasers by Andrei! This was followed up with three prepared speeches:

1. Mentors – Chris filled a vacant spot with 30 mins notice (huge thank you). Despite the lack of preparation he gave an accomplished and emotional talk on his own personal journey and the power of mentors to help turn things around.

2. The Surprising Intelligence – Enrica delighted us with her typical infectious and humorous presentation style. She talked about plants and their most surprising and subtle mechanisms for learning and surviving. We never knew plants could be so interesting!

3. It’s decided – this was Katie’s icebreaker speech. She told us about her life story of how she followed her heart to become a doctor and the lessons learnt along the way. It was quite amazing to think this was her first, of hopefully many, toastmasters speeches – well done Katie!

Our winners for the evening were:
🏆 Best Speaker – Katie (and icebreaker speech)

🏆 Best Evaluator – Ryan

🏆 Best Table Topic Speakers – Colin

Well done to all our winners!

Interested in joining in on the magic?

As ever if you would like to join us for an evening of public speaking magic please do contact us at westhertspr@gmail.com or use the contact form on the page navigation bar! We encourage guests and friends to attend (free of charge). Do contact us before hand so we can let you know what to expect.

Throughout this post I’ve referred to various roles across speeches, toastmaster, table topic master and grammarian (amongst many others). These roles are open for any member to pick, and provides an opportunity to practise their public speaking.

We meet at 7.30pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month at The County Constitutional Club – St Albans. The next West Herts session will be on Wednesday 26th July at 7.30pm.

With spring comes the showers, and at West Herts Speakers Club we had a shower of great speeches, laughter and improvement!

The session on the 10th May had the theme of ‘The Answer is Always Yes’ and was adeptly led by toastmaster of the evening Anita. She brought a unique blend of personal anecdotes, inspirational talks and a light touch to wrap it all together.

We heard 3 accomplished speeches;

① ‘Half-muted in a fish bowl?’ – Imke – a true songbird and master of vocal variety – opened up her personal journey to hearing more clearly

❷ ‘It is no laughing matter!’ – El Presidenta Tracey led us down memory lane paved with ruined dinners, mans pride and the battle of an 8-year old vs. baboon for pizza. Spoiler; the 8 year-old wins

③ ‘The Battle Within’ – Chris B took us on a powerful journey into the setbacks and hurdles facing adults who lived through traumatic childhoods. He ended with a great to call action; we must become aware of the unconscious!

Congratulations to the winners!

Best Speaker – Chris B

Best Evaluator – Paul and Jan

Best Table Topic Speakers – Enrica and Tanzim

With the spring showers comes the blooming of life. And so we had another successful night of growth, transformation and progress!

Interested in joining in on the magic?

As ever if you would like to join us for an evening of public speaking magic please do contact us at westhertspr@gmail.com or use the contact form on the page navigation bar! We encourage guests and friends to attend (free of charge). Do contact us before hand so we can let you know what to expect.

Throughout this post I’ve referred to various roles across speeches, toastmaster, table topic master and grammarian (amongst many others). These roles are open for any member to pick, and provides an opportunity to practise their public speaking.

We meet at 7.30pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month at The County Constitutional Club – St Albans. The next West Herts session will be on Wednesday 24th May at 7.30pm.

Back with a bang. January was a great month for West Herts Speakers Club, with both sessions seeing 10 guests including new faces, ex-toastmasters and friends & family.

The session on the 25th January 2023 had the theme of ‘Appreciate the good, and the good appreciates’ and was led by toastmaster of the evening Tanzim ie me! The overall verdict was a mix of improv and remixed agenda, but a great night none the less 🙂

We heard 3 accomplished speeches;
① ‘Does even this dark cloud have a silver lining?’ – Gordon delivered a personal journey of experimentation to keep the gas bills low this year! Pro tips; hot water bottles, thermals (I second this!) and blankets (and this!) will help you effectively save 67% on your bills.

❷ ‘What makes a great leader’ – Sam V explored the world of leadership. What stuck with me is this; “a leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.”

③ ‘The key to success, time’ – Sujanth deftly revisited a speech he gave last year around effective time management principles. If time is the only resource which you can never truly get back, then you must use that time effectively. Pro tips; time block activities and tasks on your calendar, use to-do lists (outsource your memory to a paper/digital tool) and the pomodoro technique (50 minutes work, 10 minute break, repeat).

Congratulations to the winners!
👏 Best Speaker – Sujanth
👏 Best Evaluator – Anita
👏 Best Table Topic – Ryan

Our club is at full membership, and the sign of guests who keep coming back, suggests we are all doing something right at West Herts Speakers Club.

Let’s keep it up!

Interested in joining in on the magic?

As ever if you would like to join us for an evening public speaking magic please do contact us at westhertspr@gmail.com or use the contact form on the page navigation bar! We encourage guests and friends to attend (free of charge). Do contact us before hand so we can let you know what to expect

Throughout this post I’ve referred to various roles across speeches, toastmaster, table topic master and grammarian (amongst many others). These roles are open for any member to pick, and provides an opportunity to practise their public speaking!

We meet at 7.30pm on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of every month at The County Constitutional Club – St Albans. The next West Herts session will be on Wednesday 8th February at 7.30pm.