On 16 January 2013 Riverside Communicators held its unique storytelling event – The Cooper Cup.  12 members prepared 5 minute stories. As you might expect the subject were varied and ranged from the serious to the hilarious.  Our audience voted for their favourite stories.  The top three storytellers were: 1st Dorothea Stuart, 2nd Errol Williamson, 3rd Glen Savage.  Previous years’ winners include: Pilar Sibbick, Caine Free and Glen Savage.  We were very proud of the overall standard and the fact that new members joined in to the fun.  The audience were inspired and we heard some excellent stories in the impromptu table topics session which followed the Cooper Cup.  More stories, of course!  

On Wednesday 5 September 2012 The Terrace room at York House was packed for the Riverside Communicators 2012 Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contests.  Expertly chaired by Errol Williamson our speakers rose to the challenge and gave their best.  Natalia kept the audience members on their toes right until the end of evening with a highly challenging and entertaining table topics session. In the Humorous Speech Contest our winners were: 1st Place Glen Savage, 2nd Place Sonia Aste, 3rd Place Jean-Michel Chapon In the Table Topics Contest our winners were: 1st Place Glen Savage, 2nd Place Dorothea Stuart, 3rd Place Caine Free.   Pictured left to right: Caine, Jean-Michel, Dorothea, Glen, Sonia, Errol and Club President Chris Hayes A big “Thank you” to our Chief Judge Area 29 Governor Chris Jolly, his team of judges and all the club members who kept time, counted votes etc etc. Please join us for the

Join us on 5 September 2012  for our annual Humorous Speech and Table Topics (impromptu speaking ) Contests.  An evening of hilarity and a display of quick wit!  Contestants will include seasoned and new members – all having a go at making us chuckle and wowing us with their ability to answer an unexpected question without hesitation. When and where?  7.15pm for a prompt 7.30pm start. The Terrace Room, York House, Richmond Road, Twickenham TW1 3AA And next?  Our winners will go on to compete in the second round of the contests  on 8 October 2012. They’ll be challenging the winners from other West London Clubs at 7pm Upstairs function room,  The Hop Poles, 17-19 King Street, Hammersmith W6 9HR.

From Chris Hayes On Monday 11 June  I visited one of our nearby sister clubs Epsom Speakers.  Dorothea also came along to be General Evaluator for the evening. Epsom Speakers treated us to some excellent speeches: an Icebreaker and three advanced speeches all from different advanced manuals. The Topics session was great fun and yes…I did talk about Formula 1! A big thank you to Epsom speakers for a really entertaining evening packed with some outstanding and very funny speeches. As a newly elected President it was really useful to meet and learn from their outgoing president James Burke who has done a fantastic job developing the club. Chris is pictured with Penny Williams (incoming President for 2012/13) and James Burke (President 2011/12).

The 2012 International Speech and Evaluation contest is fast approaching! The Riverside competition will be held at York House on Wednesday 21st March. The winners of each competition will represent the club at the Area 29 contest to be held on 28th March 2012. Take up the challenge and sign up for these contests on Clubplan. Even if you don’t take part, put the date in your diary. Competitions are a great way to inmprove your own speaking skills by listening and learning from others. There are 2 criteria for entering the contest. One: You must be a member of good standing i.e. a paid up member, and someone whom participates in the club actively Two: You must have completed at least 6 speeches from the Competent Communicators manual. Sign up on clubplan to take part or for other functionary roles. You can complete a project from the Leadership manual

Andrew Klimaytys M: 07931 317 563 E: Click here Dorothea Stuart M: 07930 634 047 E: Click here

The 2011 International Speech and Evaluation contest is fast approaching! The Riverside competition will be held at York House on Wednesday 16th March. The winners of each competition will represent the club at the Area 29 contest to be held on 21st March 2011. Take up the challenge and sign up for these contests on Clubplan. Even if you don’t take part, put the date in your diary. Competitions are a great way to inmprove your own speaking skills by listening and learning from others. There are 2 criteria for entering the contest. One: You must be a member of good standing i.e. a paid up member, and Two: You must have completed at least 6 speeches from the Competent Communicator manual. Sign up on clubplan to take part or for other functionary roles. You can complete a project from the Leadership manual by helping organising the contest or acting

First place: Caine Free Second place: Dorothea Stuart Third place: Imants Krezins Congratulations to all contestants including our three winners!

  The recent succesful Storytelling workshop was tinged with a little sadness as the club said goodbye to Geetha. Geetha who has served on club committee said that she was looking forward to the move as she would be nearer to her parents. We wish Geetha well and hope that she will keep in touch.

  Glen Savage produced another spectacular performance at the Area 29 Finals. Not surprisingly, he brought the Area trophy back to Riverside Communicators.

Glen Savage had a clean sweep winning both competitions. He will now represent the club at the Area 29 Finals.

Pilar Sibeck (left) won the inaugal COOPER CUP for Story Telling with her yellow rabbit story. Dorthea Stuart (right) placed 2nd and Gray Standen (middle) 3rd.

Franco Vaccaro won again! He will go on to the Division B contest on Wednesday 29 April 2009. All of Riverside will have their fingers crossed for yet another success.

Franco Vaccaro won first place with his International Speech entitled ‘Control Freak’. The Evaluation contest winner was John Craddock, with an evaluation of our mystery speaker, Martin Berry, President of Woking Speakers.

WEDNESDAY 1ST April 2009 Riverside Communicators competed with one another to win first prize in each contest, and go on to the Area, Division and District contests, and who knows, even to the grand finals! Winners: International Speech Contest: 1st Place: Franco Vaccaro 2nd Place: John Craddock 3rd Place: Jim McCluskey Evaluation Contest: 1st Place: John Craddock 2nd Place: Franco Vaccaro Franco and John will go forward to the Area 29 contest on Monday 20th April at The Haven pub, (upstairs function room), 1A Haven Green, Ealing Broadway W5 2UU (directly across from the tube station).

WEDNESDAY 4TH MARCH 2009 At Riverside we learn by doing and we improve by evaluation. Every speech and every meeting role is evaluated. The formula we use is Commend, Recommend, Commend, a sort of praise sandwich with a constructive criticism filling. The workshop is aimed at helping us all to improve our evaluations. It will be led by Andrew Klimaytys and other advanced members. Some of us will put all this learning to good use in the Evaluation Contest on Wednesday 1st April.

WEDNESDAY 10TH DECEMBER 2008 If you like parties and you’d like to bid for members’ services and talents, such as tea, with cakes & Spanish conversation; paintings and prints; two hours of ironing; an NLP session; etc., don’t miss this evening of fun and games! The Terrace Room, York House. Ј5 gives you entry, a free first drink, an auction programme and a chance at winning the prize draw of dinner for two at a famous London restaurant.

6th October 2008 Humorous Speech Contestants – that’s Jim McCluskey with the dark shades Table Topics Contestants – Celia Jones bang in the middle Both did a fantastic job representing our club at area level. Unfortunately, we didn’t win, but Jim did place 2nd, with his funny ‘mobile phone on the bus story’.

24th September 2008 Humorous Speech Contestants Table Topics Contestants And the winners are…Celia Jones for Table Topics and Jim McCluskey for the Humorous Speech Contests

8th September 2008 International comedian Rainer Hersch [left] and humorous speaker / broadcaster Jeremy Nicholas perform together A full house learned many useful tips and techniques from this hilarious comedy duo on how to make your audience laugh long enough so you can stick some food for thought in its mouth – useful that, for humourous speech contests!

25th June 2008 Riverside Communicators’ 10th Birthday Cake Andrew Klimaytys club founder looks resplendent in his toastmaster outfit Another club founder Jean Cooper also celebrates her 80th Birthday Bertie Ekperigin dazzles her audience with a speech on the laws of attraction Riverside Communicators members enjoy a memorable celebration

14th April 2008 Riverside Communicator’s Zahid Bashir accepted the challenge of giving the test speech for the Area 6 Contest Night, hosted at London Cardinals in Victoria. Zahid greatly appreciated the quality of speech evaluations that he received from the highly experienced contestants. Zahid receives his certificate of appreciation from Area 6 Governor, Dave Sellman

31st March 2008 The 2008 Area 29 International Speech Contest and Speech Evaluation Contests were hosted by West London Speakers in Hammersmith on Monday 31st March. Chaired by Darren Mothersele (Vice President Education, London Athenians) and Dorothea Stuart (Area 29 Governor) the contests were well received by an enthusiastic audience. The five clubs from Area 29 were represented in both contests and we are proud to announce that the winners were: Area 29 Toastmasters Contests International Speech Contest First Place: Jean Cooper, Riverside Communicators Second Place: Alistair Schreiber, London Athenians Third Place: Jai Jayaraman, Trojan Speakers Speech Evaluation Contest First Place: John Craddock, Riverside Communicators Second Place: Kate McNeilly, London Athenians Third Place: Kimra Argus, West London Speakers 2008 Area 29 Toastmasters contests participants

26th March 2008 With seven contestants in each of two contests, Riverside Communicators held a truly exceptional Contest Night. The audience and contestants settle in 2008 Club International Speech Contest The final results were: First place: Jean Cooper Second Place: John Craddock Third Place: Zahid Bashir 2008 Club Speech Evaluation Contest The final results were: First Place: John Craddock Second Place: Bertie Ekperigin Third Place: Jenny Betts John Craddock with Bertie Ekperigin The first place winners Jean Cooper and John Craddock will go on to compete in the next round – the Area 29 Contests on Monday 31st March 2008. We wish them both good fortune. The overall standard of both contests was excellent. Our appreciation and thanks go to everyone who participated.

2nd December 2007   Congratulations to Anna Hemmings, world champion marathon canoeist who won the BBC London Sports Personality of the Year Award with a huge percentage of the votes. Anna was formerly a member of Riverside Communicators and we pride ourselves in having helped her as she developed her skills as a motivational speaker.

4th November 2007 Riverside Communicators together with London Corinthians hosted an event at the world famous Speakers’ Corner, Hyde Park, during the afternoon of Sunday 4th November 2007. Organised by Kim Horner, President London Corinthians and Dorothea Stuart, Area 29 Governor, it gave our London Contest winners Andrew Klimaytys and Jonathon Palmer an opportunity to practice for the UK and Ireland Table Topics (impromptu speaking) and Humorous Speech Contest finals to be held 9-11 November 2007 in Harrogate. They both performed extremely well in a testing situation and handled the hecklers with great aplomb. We wish them both good fortune The event was also an opportunity for a number of club members to speak for the first time at Speakers’ Corner. Riverside speakers included Sue Kennedy and Trevor Stokes who gave great performances from the soapbox. Well done to everyone!.

17th October 2007 The Div B (All London) Humorous Speech Contest and Table Topics Contest were held in Victoria, hosted by London Corinthians. We are very proud to tell you that the Winner of the Div B Table Topics Contest was our very own Andrew Klimaytys. The competition was formidable, however Andrew gave a virtuoso performance answering the question as to whether recycling was worthwhile. His impact, fluency and creativity were phenomenal and he was acknowledged a worthy winner by the packed audience. Andrew Klimaytys 2007 Winner of Division B Table Topics Contest Jonathon Palmer from London Corinthians also gave a great performance with his speech ‘Trav-Hell’ to win the Div B Humorous Speech Contest. Both Andrew and Jonathon go through to the District 71, All UK & Ireland Contests in Harrogate in November 2007.