Special Guest, Vicky Lester, at our next meeting on 18th November

On 18th November, the wonderful Vicky Lester will be guesting at North Hearts Speakers. She will delight us all with his speech on “Toastmasters’ meeting roles”. Find out more about here and join us!

In Vicky’s educational speech about meeting roles, she will cover not only what each role entails, but how the roles map across to Pathways projects. You will find out how you can be developing your leadership skills at the same time as supporting your club and fellow Toastmasters by taking on these roles within meetings. Various supporting documents and templates will also be shared to help you in a role you are less familiar with, giving you the confidence to dive in and make a start.

Profile: Vicky Lester

Experience

Vicky Lester joined The Case Centre in 1991 and became its Deputy Director in 2008.

As Deputy Director Vicky works with the Director to set, deploy and implement the company’s strategy. She is also responsible for managing the organisation’s finances and overseeing the management team. Prior to her current role Vicky worked in many areas of the business, including sales, operations and systems.

Vicky regularly represents The Case Centre as a speaker at conferences and events around the world. She also enjoys reviewing and judging cases for a variety of case writing competitions.

Education

Vicky holds a Diploma in Management Studies from De Montfort University. She also completed the Business Growth Programme at Cranfield School of Management.

Volunteer experience / Personal development

Vicky joined Toastmasters International in 2004, a non-profit educational organisation that develops public speaking and leadership skills through a worldwide network of clubs.  Vicky has carried out a variety of leadership roles, including Club President (3 terms) and Area Director (1 term). She has led a Youth Leadership Programme and is aiming to achieve her Distinguished Toastmaster award early 2021. 

LinkedIn profile

https://www.linkedin.com/in/vicky-lester-3bba1720/


A special Halloween Toastmasters night🎃

Your Vice President Public Relations reporting on our zoom meeting on Wednesday 4 November. 

Great to have a cozy meeting in a cold November night before heading to lockdown in the UK.  We had two wonderful guests.

So much learning for everyone in fact this evening with two interesting, intriguing and informative prepared speeches – we heard about Amphibians from Enroy and getting out of your comfort zone with camping and trekking with Sean. 

It was a hugely friendly time with Helen as “Toastmaster” (equivalent to chairperson) for the evening – she brings something very special to the role with her openness and enthusiasm. We all felt looked after during the meeting and she kept us moving a great pace.

I ran a menti word cloud to find out about our Toastmasters’ experience. Here the result:


Well done to Vice President Education, Oliver, once again for taking on so many roles at the meeting at the last minute with Toastmasters being poorly or unavailable – he is doing a fantastic job. Great suggestion having Toastmasters displaying a Halloween theme related zoom background.

Our Vice President Membership, Mike, selected a fabulous word of the day: SURREAL. Our Toastmasters’ night was indeed FANTASTICALLY SURREAL.

Join us next time!

https://www.meetup.com/North-Herts-Speakers-Public-Speaking-Meetup/

About the healing power of humour

We are familiar with the use of humour to break the ice, smooth tension and challenge or confront people. We are less familiar with the power of humour to heal.

How do you establish connection with people, especially during these challenging times? When we may be feeling lonely and we may find it difficult to deal with PDD, or Public Display of Distress.

Some may use food to comfort themselves (a KFC family bucket!). Alternatively, some may choose to establish a connection and perhaps support others when they are having a difficult time.

How? you may ask. How about sharing the healing power of humour? This is the message of Ola Aralepo, our guest in the last Toastmasters meeting at North Herts Speakers club.

As a trained counsellor, Ola sees lots of similarities between counselling and stand up comedy. He is also a comedian in the stand-up circuit in London.

Comedians talk about difficult situations they have experienced. Some may think they belong on a therapist coach as much as they belong to the stage.

Ola advises that you need two ingredients to start sharing the healing power of humour: Time and Permission. 

Counseling and stand-up comedy are serious business and they require the investment of time. Ask any counselor and ask any stand-up comedian.

The healing power of humour also needs that you give yourself the permission to find the humour in the tragedy of life. 

Inspired by Ola Aralepo’s speech. Ola was our Special guest speaker at North Herts Speakers Toastmaster club on Wednesday 21 October 2020.

Rossana Espinoza, VP Public Relations.