There was a good turn-out at the 976th Benjamin Toastmasters meeting held on the 18th of May 2012 (also the 33rd meeting at the University of Canberra) - with 11 members and guests attending (Peter I, Peter H, Ianon, Carmen, Dat, Julio, Dominic, Tom, guests Iain and Jim and visitor Geoff), and apologies from Ann, Keiko, Robyn, Ele, Bernice, Yuyu and Claudia.

The meeting got underway with a speech by guest Iain titled "A Toastmaster is born". Iain gave an interesting view of how, when employed as a political candidate and attending a rural show to spread the word of the party, he was asked (or, more to the point, told by local organisers) to give a short speech on the party’s policies, etc. Iain described how with only a short time to prepare he had to organise and then deliver a speech to a large audience. Being placed in this situation, Iain sought a forum to help develop his public speaking skills, and hence a new Toastmasters member was ‘born’. I think everyone can attest to a time when we have been required to deliver a speech at short notice in front of an audience. Having an organisation like Toastmasters affords us the opportunity to build confidence and speaking skills.

Next up was Ianon. Ianon gave a very useful speech on "How to use your Competent Leadership manual", thus meeting one of her own required leadership-manual tasks. For me, as a new member myself - and I'm sure others are in the same boat - gaining a better understanding of how to use the manual and progress through its tasks and projects was of great help. For a new member, browsing through their manual without thoroughly reading the requirements, it could seem a daunting task to get all the required roles completed for each project. Ianon helped clear up some misconceptions about the requirements of the manual, for new and old members alike.

Moving on from the speeches, the next item was Table Topics. Dat was Table Topic Master for the day and had obviously planned ahead with his theme "What it means to be an Australian". Being a club which has people from a variety of cultures and backgrounds, there was a range of responses to Dat's questions. In all, four people had the opportunity to give their impromptu responses in regard to what it meant to be Australian.

Evaluations followed. Peter H evaluated the first speech of the day by Iain. Peter highlighted the strengths in Iain's well thought-out and delivered speech, and provided some useful feedback in relation to body language which I'm sure was useful to all of us. Julio then provided a good appraisal of Ianon's speech, similarly highlighting the strengths, while also providing useful tips for using props in a speech.

Carmen gave a good review of Table Topics questions and speeches, usefully summarising the topics and the speakers' individual strengths and weaknesses for future reference. It was then over to our experienced guest Jim to provide a general evaluation of the meeting. Jim highlighted some take-away points for future and gave a good assessment of the overall meeting. Dominic then gave a breakdown of the timings for all components and speeches throughout the meeting. Tom provided the "Um"-"Ah" count and in doing so gave himself a few extras for good measure, but as Peter H later said to us all, it’s better not to pressure yourself if you make a mistake, but instead use it as a tool to make yourself a better speaker in the future.

Finally the meeting was wrapped up on time (not a bad effort considering we were a little late in starting).

The next meeting will be held on the 1st of June

Until next time!

Peter I
(SAA elect)

A happy club is a strong club (and vice versa)

On Friday 4 May, we welcomed two invited guests and four visitors - Niki, Nicky, Amber and Dom!

One invited guest was Mike Phoenix, from Woden Lunchtime club. (Mike is actually standing for election as Governor of the Toastmasters Monaro Division for 2012-13, though he didn't mention that at the meeting.) Mike's speech was called 'It's not rocket science', and it was on the theme that a happy club is a strong club or vice versa.

Mike is a very advanced Toastmaster, and he demonstrated good technique, involving us all in his speech by asking our expectations of happiness in a club. We agreed that we feel happy because we are able to give prepared and impromptu speeches often, in Benjamin Club.

Continuing, Mike gave alarming, though anonymous and, I hope, fictional, examples of clubs where members are restricted from giving speeches, and can take 6 - 10 years to work through the Competent Communicator manual! In some clubs, he told us, the members do not listen to the evaluations of their speeches, and don't show noticeable improvement in their presentation technique. Happily he was able to contrast those examples by mentioning a Toastmaster he knows of who has completed the 10 manual speeches in 6 months, demonstrating improvement all the way because he listened carefully to his evaluations and applied the points for improvement. So, clearly, fast progress is achievable if a person is keen. Phew!

Peter Herbert (currently our club President) was the other main speaker for the meeting. This time he took us into the world of industry and particularly electricity, and the dangers of not keeping up with modern safety rules but instead thinking to oneself, "But we've always done it this way". Death or injury lie on that path, we were told. Peter's point was that for best practice (in anything) you need to use the right tool for the job (e.g. the correct size spanner, not multigrips) and with the right method.

Before the speeches, Peter Ibbott had given us a Word of the Day. His word was 'incongruous', and it turned out to be a great choice, with many of us managing to include that word or its opposite when we had a chance to speak. Peter had clearly read the CL manual and not only knew what was expected but did everything, filling nearly the allotted 2 minutes. Well done!

Friday's meeting was unusual because we needed to hold the elections of club officers for 2012-13 in the middle of it. These elections happen only once a year, fortunately, because they (probably always) take longer than you hope. Not all the nominees accepted nomination on Friday, and as a result two positions remain unfilled for now.

Newly elected for 2012-13 were: Ianon as the Vice President (VP) Education; Robyn as the VP Public Relations; Peter Herbert as VP Membership; and Peter Ibbott as the Sergeant at Arms. Yuyu will continue as Treasurer. President and Secretary are yet to be decided. The new officers take on these roles on 1 July.

We squeezed in a short Table Topics segment, with Yuyu giving interesting questions to our newest members Dat and Peter Ibbott, and three of our visitors. Yuyu used two general themes: what is good about the club and where could there be improvements?; and is it 'better' to choose a job with high pay (including fly in fly out conditions) or one with a stable home life and/or interesting subject matter? We are so pleased when visitors and new members are willing to stand up and speak on these and other impromptu topics. Impromptu speaking for 1-2 minutes is not easy, and they all managed well.

Evaluations followed. Area Governor Jenny, our other invited guest, evaluated Peter's speech, comprehensively showing us his strengths, and including some points for improvement. Claudia similarly found plenty to commend in Mike's speech, and something to recommend. Both those men are Distinguished Toastmasters, and it is good for the rest of us to see that even after years of experience a speaker can be offered points to focus on for an even better speech next time.

Mike then evaluated the Table Topics questions and speeches, giving helpful summaries to all the speakers in that segment.

Finally, new member Julio did a good job as he earnestly tackled the evaluation of the whole meeting; that is, all the parts that had not yet been evaluated. Again, this is not easy. Then he called on Dat to report on the times taken by each person for each contribution, and Ann to report the counts of everyone's use of "Um" and "Ah" - which showed that while newer speakers used those words relatively often, the experienced speakers used them not at all!

All in all, another happy, if long, meeting. We look forward to the next one on 18 May.

Ann
(VPE 2011-12)