Contests, Contests, Contests, Christmas! (meetings 1036 and 1037)

On Friday 28^th November, we had the first of two consecutive contests being held at the Benjamin Club at UC.  It was the Speech Evaluation Contest.  This involved a test speaker, in this case Toastmaster of the Year, Peter, speaking for 5 to 7 minutes and the three contestants evaluating the speech.  Contestants were Lili, Nicole and Karina.

Peter commenced his speech after bringing in and arranging boxes full of props at the front of the room.  The topic was Health and Safety.  Peter clearly had, not only great experience in speaking, but also great experience in his topic.  His speech was informative, yet entertaining at the same time.

Meanwhile, the contestants being newer speakers, considered carefully how to evaluate such a good speaker.  The aim of evaluation is to provide constructive feedback while maintaining an encouraging and inspiring balance.  This is an all important aspect of Toastmasters’ supportive environment and a skill definitely worth developing.

The next meeting on 12^th December will be our International Speech Contest at club level.  The “International” aspect of the contest is that the winners at national level compete internationally.  However, the standard of speakers in this contest, even at Area level, is very high.  I can’t imagine how good the international speakers are!

So if you have been considering checking out Toastmasters, our next meeting is a great introduction.   It’s a great chance to see what it’s all about without committing to participation.  And it’s pure entertainment!

After that we break for Christmas and New Year until the 30^th January 2015.  So if we don’t see you at the next meeting (although we hope we do!), have a happy silly season and we’ll see you in the New Year!

Special 90th Anniversary Meeting on 31 October (meeting 1034)

This meeting was a reflective one where we heard from some of our more experienced members and talked about how we got here and where we are going in Toastmasters.

The first speaker was Ianon, who told us about her role as VPE (Vice President Education).  The role is essential in the running of the fortnightly meetings.  Hopefully when we have agenda setting via the website running smoothly, her role will be much easier.  Ianon concluded by encouraging members to be involved in a leadership role and progress on their leadership programs.  As well as the benefits to individual members, many hands make light work and each role will be more manageable.

The second speaker was Peter who told us about Safe Driving, starting with outlining his vast experience as a driver.  He emphasised keeping both vehicle and driver well maintained and treating driving as a risk management job.

Ever hardworking Ianon was not only First Speaker, but Table Topics Master at this meeting.  She chose a number of table topics from the Toastmasters website.

• What would you say to Toastmasters Founder, Ralph Smedley?  – Linda said why weren’t women included from the start?  It seems hard to believe looking back that women were ever excluded – good question Linda!
• What will our Club be doing in 10 years?  Nick, who hasn't been around for all of the last 10 weeks, let alone years, gave the best answer he could.  Hopefully we will still be learning and winning competitions.
• Keiko talked of her own history with Toastmasters.  It’s hard to believe she started out as a poor speaker, but easy to see how she became addicted to a program that works so well for her.
• Which Club would you visit? John said he would like to visit Brazil, as Toastmasters has not really taken off there, and share the benefits of experience and give them some support.

The following week we had a Committee Meeting.  One point from the meeting I would like to share is that the Mentoring Program is really getting started.  You can make as much or as little of the program as you like, but I can see a lot of potential in it.  Let’s get into it and really make it work for us!

The next meeting is on Friday the 14^th of November.  Unfortunately coinciding with the Staff Services Fair where we will have a stall, so a couple of us will be there.

Coming up we will have the Evaluation Contest at the meeting of 28^th November and the Club Speech Contest  on 12^th December.  Then we will have a break and reconvene on 30^th January.

Have a great meeting and I’ll see you at the contests.

Icebreaking and Parenting on 17 October (meeting 1033)

At this meeting we heard speeches about how events of your childhood can shape who you are, and how parenting philosophies can applied across the board and help shape children and adults alike.

This was another HUGE meeting.  We had 12 attendees again.  Welcome to Amelia who attended as a guest.  Regular guests and members John Burge, Lili, Jacky, Nicole, Esther, Peter, Nick, Karina, Linda, Geoff and Nicolette also attended.

We learned a bit more about our new member Esther as she spoke about how events of her childhood shaped who she is today for her Project 1 Icebreaker.  Growing up in a rapidly changing China she shared everything with her family and later she shared with 7 girls in modest quarters.  Though these experiences she learned to share and have sisterhood spirit and not material possessions.  She also learned to be passionate about food and other resources.  We were all impressed that Esther presented her Icebreaker without notes!

Karina then followed with her Project 3 speech, Why Parenting Does Not Stop With Children.  She introduced her own version of triple P parenting – Positivity, Proactiveness and Parameters.  She explained how we need to look after one another and look out for each other.  Also that we get out of people what we put in, including ourselves.

Table Topics was again entertaining.  Nicole gave us an interesting range of topics to speak on.  We heard about social networking, money vs emotion, planes and pollution and a futuristic house design.   John and Geoff demonstrated the structure and confidence of speaking experience and Nick and Nicolette entertained us.  We even had a chance to hear our guest Amelia speak.

Finally, John Burge (Area 17 governor) gave us some direction and advice on the future of our club.  We are aiming to increase the membership of our club and his advice was that we should aim for 20 to 25 members (that’s about double!) and have weekly meetings.  Hopefully by then we will be able to locate a bigger meeting room that is as nice as the one we already have.

The fun all starts again at the next meeting on Friday 31^st October.  This will be the special 90th Anniversary Meeting (and also Halloween).  Don’t miss out!

A Huge Meeting on 3 October (meeting 1032)

I have been away for a few weeks, and wow, what a difference!  The meeting on 22 August was very quiet, and this one was nearly a full house!!  We had special guests John Burge (area 17 governor) and Dee, as well as members and regular guests Ann, Keiko, Karina, Dominic, Esther, Peter, Lili, Ianon, Jacky and Nicolette.

The meeting started with Jacky presenting word of the day, which was “Kangaroo”, a word which was to be used as often as possible in the following speeches.  After explaining the regular meaning of the word, he explained the original aboriginal meaning was “I don’t understand you”, which neatly illustrated that white Australians also faced a language barrier long ago.

The first speaker of the meeting was Ann, who presented her Project 3 – getting to the point, with a speech called "Everyone can be an Ecologist".  She explained that being an Ecologist meant being observant of the environment around you and how we can all do it in our everyday lives.  We can notice patterns, interrelationships and sequences, occasionally getting those “ah-ha moments”.  Doing this would improve our observational skills and free and open our minds.

The second speaker was Dominic, who was presenting his Speaking to Inform project from the Advanced Communication Manual.  His speech was a collection of reflective epiphanies inspired by “Top Five Regrets of the Dying” by palliative care nurse, Bronnie Ware.  These were:-

      1.      I wish I had lived true to myself – not given up on my dreams without good reason.

      2.   I wish I hadn't worked too much – missed kids growing up and developing relationship with partner.

      3.      Being true to feelings – being nice to others

      4.       Staying in touch with friends – you don’t remember things, you remember people

      5.       Happiness is a choice

Finally we had Table Topics where Peter described his first car which was a Ford V8, Nicolette told us she doesn't garden and prefers a natural setting, Linda expressed there are times for both quiet and crowded, noisy occasions in her life and Jacky explained the secret to the work/life balance was to work efficiently and then forget work outside work hours.  Also Ianon told us the greatest global challenge of our times is war and that when we are at war everything else cannot be managed, and John gave us a very dramatic explanation of why lowering speed limits does decrease fatalities.

The meeting ended with a formal presentation to Peter Herbert of his Toastmaster of the Year award. Congratulations Peter!!

A great time had by all.  The next meeting will be Friday 17^th October.  See you all there!

Leadership and Debate (meeting 1029)

A busy time of year for many, we were low on numbers but still managed to have a lot of fun.  Keiko dreamt up an inspiring agenda for this meeting.  We had Keiko, Peter, Karina, Lili and Nicole and welcomed back Jacky.  Also we welcomed new speaker, Nick.

Lili started us off on Table Topics.  She asked Nicole what she would like to be if she were an object, and Nicole’s answer was a white board because of all of the information and knowledge shared on them.  Lili asked Peter what he thought of the budget, to which he provided a very diplomatic answer without strongly aligning to one opinion or another, a speech enviable of some of the cleverer politicians.  She asked Nick what past challenge has made him stronger, to which he related a very personal story.  It was great to start to get to know him so soon, even before the Ice Breaker speech!  Jacky shared how much he liked Canberra even though he has only been here 3 months and finally, Karina told of how she would tell her 10-year-old self to be confident of her abilities and know she was in charge of her future and not a victim of her circumstances.

Karina then shared some of her learnings and thoughts arising from recent Leadership training, a session that was intended to be interactive but time did not allow this.  She reminded people of what a good thing we have in Toastmasters, which is essentially a very effective low budget professional development course, and how to keep our Club successful we need to ensure our leadership strategies not only draw in new members but keep the experienced ones.  She summarised the 10 goals of the Distinguished Club Program and suggested we establish a mentoring program, introduce some tangible rewards and explain our program more clearly to new members.  Finally she encouraged more people to attend Leadership Training in the future as it is a very valuable course.  Feedback would be welcomed in coming weeks, and we may set aside some time to discuss some of the ideas raised.

For the final part of the meeting, Keiko demonstrated how much fun tangible rewards are, when she lead a debate session.  Sets of two speakers at a time were called forward and given a topic for debate and then randomly selected to support either positive or negative.  We heard why money gives you happiness with Nicole on the positive and Peter on the negative.  We heard why TV is a bad influence with Nick on the positive and Karina on the negative.  And why it is good if you don’t have to eat food with Jacky on the positive and Lili on the negative.  The winners could choose from a range of treats with labels most of us couldn’t read. J

A challenging session for those of us who had to argue a position we didn’t believe, and an excellent exercise in quick thinking, speech structure and conviction of delivery.

The next meeting is on Friday 5^th September and the room will continue to be Building 9 Room C18 until further notice.

Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests on 8 August (meeting 1028)

This was a meeting with a difference. All current members had the opportunity to speak in a competitive environment (friendly of course) in front of judges from other clubs. The judges were Nicola, Jim and John Burge (Area 17 Governor). We also welcomed a guest, Jacky and new member, Esther.

Before and after the contests, Keiko, in her usual inspirational manner, encouraged participation by our guest and new member who were not in the contests. We were able to get to know a little more about the new people by asking them questions of our choosing.

The contests began with our single entrant to the Humorous Speech competition, Dominic, who told us why marriage and communication was not so much a laugh but a scream! He told us why men are like horses and women are like snakes, and why when the children grow up we are left without much to say to each other. He left us with the lasting words of advice “say nothing and keep saying it!”

Next we had the Table Topics contest in which Peter asked us to speak on “common sense is the basis of true happiness”. This proved to be a challenging topic for many of us, and being involved in the contest, I did not hear many of the contestants speak. However I did have the pleasure to hear Geoff speak. He was well spoken and relaxed, his speech had a clear structure and a couple of examples. By the end we were convinced of the truth of this statement, and he went on to win the contest.

The next meeting is on Friday 22nd and we are back to our usual format (agenda will be out soon). Following our promotional UC market day stall this week, we hope to see a few new faces. :-)

Table Topics Tornado on 25 July (meeting 1027)

With some excellent advice from Ianon on Table Topics last meeting, and the Table Topics Contest on this week, it was the perfect time to have a Table Topics Tornado!  Everyone gets not one, but two opportunities to participate, and there were visible improvements between the first and second rounds.

Table Topics Tornado is a game where each person gets chosen at random to speak for approximately two minutes on the topics of the Table Topics Master’s choosing.  Then each person gets to evaluate the person who speaks after them, so it is not only a great opportunity to practice speaking, but a great opportunity to practice evaluation.  In the second round, a second Table Topics Master choses speakers in a different random order, and then the speakers evaluate the same person they evaluated in round one.

Peter was Table Topics Master in the first round, with a range of interesting questions including “Is something funny a way of being serious?”, “Do things go wrong at the last moment?”, “Is a cough something you cannot help, or something other people do to torment you?”, “What is the language of friendship?” and “Does money talk and is the secret to hold it long enough to hear what it is saying?”.

Keiko was the second Table Topics Master who put each of the speakers in a situation they needed to describe a reaction to.  These included “When you opened the door, what happened?”, “Mirror, mirror on the wall…”, “Mum, Mum!” (tug on the leg), “Money. You open your wallet and you have a lot”, you receive an award for “Best Australian”, “You have an invitation to meet Tony Abbott at Parliament House” and “Here is your new bike!”.

It was a pleasure to hear the more experienced members speaking – Ann with her grand gestures, Peter with his captivating tone and pace variation, Dominic with his insightful observations and detail and Keiko with her passion.  But, best of all was seeing the newer speakers performing so well.  Lili spoke confidently on both of her topics, but Nicole wins most improved showing us a glimpse of her future as a highly engaging speaker.  Also, guest (and soon to be member), Esther amazed us all with her natural speaking talent.  I (Karina)  had a great opportunity to speak about my children – twice!

Thank you to Ann for organising the Table Topics Tornado and Peter and Keiko for making it so fun.  Also thank you to Nicole our new Sargent at Arms and Dominic, our new President.

Our next gathering is this Friday 8^th August and it will be our Table Topics and Humorous Speech Contests.  Almost everyone in the club are contestants, so we would welcome any audience who would like to come and see what it’s all about.

Fascinating Talks at 10 July Meeting

As is often the case, we had an over 80% attendance of members at our meeting, plus a very welcome visitor. We were all treated to two excellent speeches and a very fun Table Topics. 

First, our new Sergeant at Arms, Nicole opened the meeting. Then Ianon (our new VPE) pointed out that the latest Toastmaster Magazine had useful articles on Table Topics. She went further to give some advice on giving Table Topics speeches including  1) go with your gut! 2) pay attention to the question, and 3) if you can’t speak on the topic given, associate! Change topics.  With the annual contests in Table Topics and Humorous speeches just weeks away, this advice has very good timing!

The first outstanding speech came from Karina (our new VPPR), who was tackling project 2 in the Competent Communicator manual (a project about speech structure). Karina gave us three reasons why dance is an excellent activity which builds confidence, organisational and leadership skills, and (less surprisingly) physical fitness. Karina does Morris dancing as a hobby, we heard, and she has learnt confidence from dancing in front of audiences, and leadership from organising and managing dance events and displays. There was a bit of psychology in the speech too, when Karina outlined the left-brain/right-brain benefits. In her evaluation of the speech, Linda commended the good organisation and structure of the speech, and its intriguing insight into an activity few of us have taken on. Linda admitted she had never heard of this form of dance before, leading to the recommendation not to assume your audience’s knowledge.

Then we were treated to a narrative when Dominic (our new President) gave his first speech on the Advanced Communicator Bronze track. Dominic completed his CC in April, and is now working on the Speaking to Inform (advanced) manual.

Dominic took us all, metaphorically, up Mt Ainslie at 5:30 am on a foggy frosty Canberra morning without a torch, to illustrate the opportunities, challenges and pitfalls of having a Strategic Plan when you are running a business. We learnt how the goals of the plan guide your first steps, and how you can go far astray and fall if you lose sight of that plan and its goals in the fog. It’s lonely at 5:30 am on Mt Ainslie (a large well treed and shrubbed nature reserve reaching 840 m or so in altitude). It’s lonely also in your new business and you need to have that plan to hold on to and keep you on track. Then, once you have achieved the peak for the first time, you think it’s going to be easy, but that frosty track, though now a bit clearer in the dawn, is full of pitfalls if you don’t keep that plan as your guide. In evaluating this speech, Peter had only commendations – the first time in 4.5 years of hearing him evaluating speeches that I have not heard him have anything to recommend. 

Baran, our newest member, then took us back to films we might or might not have seen, and giving examples from Back to the Future, Star wars, and others posed us problems to answer in Table Topics. This was such fun, I am surprised we still managed to complete the meeting in about 1 hour. Nicole gave a brief general evaluation before closing the meeting.

The next gathering, on 24 July, will be a different style. It will be practice in Table Topics, which Ann calls a Table Topics Tornado. Everyone gets a topic, and there are two rounds, with a brief verbal evaluation and two written evaluations for each speaker.

Then on 8 August we have our club contest in Table Topics and Humorous Speech, to find our representative for the Area contest coming up very soon afterwards. 

Really, possibly the final post from me - new VPPR takes over from tomorrow

Hi all all, our new VPPR takes over from tomorrow.  I have handed over the keys, so expect some some changes from hereonin.

PLEASE NOTE THAT ROOM 9C18 IS ONLY BOOKED FOR THE NEXT FEW WEEKS.  WATCH THIS SITE FOR UPDATES!


The committee had its hand over today, where past committee position holders handed over to new committee position holders.  It seemed to run fairly smoothly to me, with a clear handover from officer to officer - much better than I have seen at other times.

Anyway, back to the main point of this post - last week's meeting.

Dom was SAA and Toastmaster, and did an admirable job.  Agenda check was pretty smooth.  I think Ianon stepped in to provide word of the day (leadership), which Peter managed to use many times in the meeting.

Anne did an advanced communicating on TV talk.  Geoff did his second last CC manual talk, and is thinking of ways to bring his learnings from that talk into his final CC manual talk.

Nicole came up with a great set of table topics:
 - asking Keiko, have you ever been to Melbourne, and if so, what did you think of it?  Keiko gave a great response based on her brief stop at the airport!
  - Linda responded to the question of if you could, would you go back to a happy or sad moment in your past and change it.
  - Peter described the sort of product he would like to buy in a market.
  - Dom gave a humorous assessment as to whether driving is dangerous.  Obviously it is the slow drivers who are the problem.
  -  Fortunately Iannon, rather than I, had to answer the last topic - What book has influenced you most, and why.  Her answer gave a lot of insight into Ianon, as well as a moving insight to her broader background.

Time I went to bed, so I'll skip the rest of the meeting.   signing out ....  :)

Final post for 2013/14

Actaually, the penultimate post.  What I woud really like to know is if these posts help!  Coud readers please, this time, post to indicate if they have read, so we know if it is worth contining the fortnightly blog!

Anyway, last weeks session went quite well.  We had two ice breakers - Baran and Lili - presented in different, engaging ways. Both talks were very interesting, and gave us insights to the speakers histories, motives in life and personalities. 

Anne gave a great a series of TableTopics questions.  She gave each speaker a different question, and asked how they would respond, and act to the situation.  This was a great set of questions.  I even enjoyed the question I received.

Regards,
outgoing DPPR

Blog for last Thursday's meeting

Last fortnights meeting was held on a Thursday as 1/2 the club had a meeting at the usual Toastmaster's time.  The meeting was held in room 9C18, which was a better room than we have been having.

Fortunately future Friday meetings will also now be held in room 9C18(ie building 9 level c room 18).

The meeting got off to a slightly late start.  Peter gavve the Mission Statement from memory.  It would be a good idea to put the Mission Statement back on the agenda to help those Toastmasters who memorised it.  Karina quickly rejigged the agenda to allow for speaker one's absence.  Ianon gave an inspiration of the day rather than a word of the day - no one can whistle a syphony, it takes a whole orchestra to play one.  That is how we run the Toastmasters club.

Keiko gave a very engaging, animated speech on effective evaluation.  Nicole did her second speech from the CC manual.  The improvement in her speaking since she started with Benjamin was obvious.  She gave an interesting, and moving, speech on the differences between Chinese students in China and international students in Australia.

Baran came up with great Table Topics:
Nicole spoke on the difference between the education system in China and Australia.
Karina spoke on how she manages stress.
Ann spoke on whether she believed that if kids watch TV all day they have less vocabulary than if they don't.  She argued, contrary to the context behind the question, that TV can in fact improve vocabulary.
Peter spoke on what should be done to reduce the number of homeless in Canberra.
Geoff spoke on what he thought would be a better system of government than our current system.
Dominic gave an open-ended philosophical response to the question of he he wanted people to believe in something, what would it be?
Dominic then gave an excellent appraisal of Keiko's speech.  Ann gave an excellent appraisal of Nicole's speech, focusing on the educational content and presentation style.
When giving the questions Baran also gave some context as a preamble to the question.
Peter gave a generic tabletopics evaluation, addressing eye content for all speakers, then moving around, body language and finally the speech structure.

Next meeting will Friday 13 June at 12:30, room 9c18.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Alert: change of day and room for last meeting in May

We are having our meeting on Thursday 29 May, instead of Friday 30 May, as a once only change. 

And Karina has managed to make a once-off booking for us in room 9C18.

Building 9, level C, room 18,
12.30 - 1.30 Thursday 29 May. 

We look forward to seeing everyone then. 

Table Topics: a fortnightly chance to exercise imagination!

Lili organised the Table Topics at our 16 May meeting, last week. She took a highly original approach which worked successfully, allowing for plenty of imagination, humour and good feelings. Lili asked us all to write a secret on a slip of paper. Then she collected the papers up into a box and passed them back out to us, making sure we didn’t get our own.

‘I nearly drowned when I was young!’, was one secret. ‘I always wanted to be a pilot!’ was another. And what about ‘I found a gold nugget!’? There were 8 of our (now 12) members at the meeting, and almost all the secrets were equally intriguing.

To respond to these topics, the speaker first had to guess which of us had written the secret, and explain the reason for the guess, and then to elaborate on their own secret (after it had been spoken about). The guessing and reasoning were very humorous, and often quite stilted. In contrast, as soon as speakers began to explain their own secrets they became fluent and passionate. What a great way to run Table Topics, giving us all a really different experience from normal. Congratulations Lili.

Our President, Ianon, also welcomed Lili as one of our new members, with a short speech.

The rest of the meeting followed a more usual course. Peter offered 'Leadership’ as our Word of the Day. Then Ann had a go at presenting an organised speech (project 2 in the Competent Communicator manual) about ‘Running a display’. She suggested three objectives: (i) know what outcome you aim to achieve via the display (e.g. greater awareness of the organisation?, or more people registering for an upcoming event?, or…); (ii) present a simple clear message that will achieve that outcome; (iii) aim for minimum effort (e.g. only a few small handouts, and a banner fronted by a knowledgeable rep., rather than piles of books, things for sale, etc.). Having just three main points helped Ann to keep the speech organised!

Next meeting, 30 May. 

Yet another icebreaker! 2 May 2014

We had one of our usual well-attended and exemplary meetings on 2 May, with only one member absent. We welcomed guest Baran, who has also visited the club previously. Nicole gave her first speech, her ‘icebreaker’, which was well prepared and told us about her life in Australia so far. She has lived in several cities and found them all different. She appeared remarkably relaxed, speaking without notes for most of the time!  Dominic’s evaluation was very positive, including one recommendation. Karina then offered a set of challenging Table Topics, which gave impromptu speaking opportunities to everyone who was not otherwise speaking at the meeting. Topics included: Your favourite animal?, Do you like uncertainty?, Is formal education better than informal?  Geoff gave the table topics evaluation, including an evaluation of his own topic.   

The meeting on May 2 included election of the club’s office bearers for 2014-15 and the distribution of the annual-general-meeting reports for 2013-14. Linda, our new member who is also currently President of the ANU’s ‘University Club’, conducted the election. There being no competing nominations, no voting was required. The new officers will be listed on the club details page nearer their start date of 1 July.

Next meeting is on Friday 16 May. 

Meeting of Wed 16 April 2014 - two icebreakers!

This fortnight's meet was held on Wednesday due to the Good Friday public holiday.  It started a little late as some members had trouble finding the different room. Geoff played dual roles of SAA and Toastmaster, and also rescued some members who couldn't find the room.  Lucky we had mobile phones!
Karina gave the first icebreaker, titled Life, Love & Learning.  It was an interesting philosophical take on her life, and certainly let us get to know her better.  She had a lot to say and went well over time.  Lili gave the next icebreaker, explaining how she accidentally became a hydrologist.  This gave us an interesting insight into another culture.
Nicole gave three interesting table topics:
  - Karina was asked to assess whether a private tutor is a stable job, giving a well reasoned response.
  - Ianon was asked about her favourite colour, and what feelings or moods it causes her.  This was a very apt question for Ianon, and she described the feelings associated with a number of colours.
  - Peter H was asked if interpersonal relationships are very important, and how do you establish them.  He argued that such relationships are important, and described ways of establishing a variety of relationship types.

Peter then gave the general evaluation, usefully educating the new members about the commend, recommend, commend approach to evaluating speeches.
Overall it was a fun meeting.

Blog for Meeting of Friday 4 April 2014

But first, a reminder that the next meeting is planned for Wednesday 16 April, in room 2C7, due to the Good Friday holiday.
The meeting got off to a mixed start due to unplanned absence of the Sergeant at Arms, who was injured in an accident.  His colleague, who brought the box of "stuff", inadvertently left the timer, name tags, gavel etc behind, which had been removed from the box.  Nevertheless, the meeting went ahead as planned.  Overall we had 10 members and visitors present.  With 10 current members we meet the TI requirement for club membership. Unfortunately we have lost experienced member Leona, who is directing her energies to another club. Nevertheless we still have a number of experienced members, which is great for training new members.
The first speaker was absent.  Keiko gave a very moving advanced manual talk about Atomic Bomb victim Sadako and the 1000 paper cranes.  Very poignant for me, as I took my family to the Hiroshima peace park and museum last holidays, where we saw many tales of bomb victims, and the statue of Sadako.  With no first speaker, new member Nicole was able to run a longer Table Topics session.   Again we had some fantastic topics - I wish I could come up with such thought provoking topics.  Peter H. was asked what he thought about fashion.  Visitor Baran was asked whether experience was more important than knowledge, given that many University graduates cannot find jobs.  Lili was asked which country she would most like to visit, and why.  (An easy question for her, as she hasn't been home for three years.)  Geoff was given the scenario that  he had a contract with God giving him superhuman powers, but that if used them to assist find Malaysian Airline flight 370 he would lose the powers.  He was asked if would he use the powers to assist find the missing flight.  He argued that he would not use the powers to assist find the missing flight.  Linda was asked what she would do about scarce resources.  Keiko then directed a topic at Nicole - "I am interviewing you for a job.  Tell me why I should hire you".
It is great to see that the new members are already showing improvement.  Indeed feedback to me is that I have shown great improvement over the last 18 months.

Benjamin Toastmasters meeting of 21 March 2014 at University of Canberra

This meeting was again a small ome - nine present, including three visitors.
Geoff stepped up to act as Toastmaster.  Leona replaced the no-show first speaker with a great introduction to speaker roles - targeted to visitors and new members, but also illuminating for me.
Ianon gave an informative speech on High Performance Leadership - based on the six dimensions of leadership:
 - Vision and values
 - Direction
 - Persuasion
 - Support
 - Development
 - Appreciation
Ianon focussed on the last two dimensions.

Dom was Table Topics Master.  He provided four thought provoking topics.  Peter addressed the question as to whether too much is spent on sport, and if sport has lost its connection with the community.  Karina spoke to 'if you could sing, who would you be?' - an easy one for her since she turned out to be a singer.
Lili addressed accent/communication issues, and Nicole spoke about what she might like to change (or not change) about her childhood.
The speech evaluations from both Peter and Karina were great, and great models for future evaluators.

All in all another fun meet.  :)

Benjamin Club hosted the Belconnen area speaking contest, 15 March

As you know, from the post two-below about our internal club 'International speech' contest, Toastmasters clubs hold competitions to find their best speakers.

The six clubs in the Belconnen area, ACT, competed on Saturday 15 March at University of Canberra's Retro Cafe to find the best speakers to represent our 'area' in 'International speech', and also in 'Evaluation' - two separate competitions.
Our club, Benjamin, was the host, making all the arrangements (thanks to our capable and very experienced President, Ianon). Judges for these contests are invited from across the district to ensure impartiality; all the competing clubs also contribute volunteers to fill the various other leadership roles laid down in the formal guidelines for running Toastmasters contests.

The International speeches tackle topics that are inspirational or thought provoking. The audience of about 40 at Retro Cafe heard a smorgasbord of very good speeches, each lasting between 5 and 7 minutes. There was: how public speaking helps a person frame how they address controversial topics even within the family (Dominic); everyone is capable of good and bad or unexpected behaviour (Tami); the inspiration of a mother overcoming enormous challenges to raise five sons (Tony); awkward colleagues can be found in all types of workplaces (Mike); how little we really know about coffee and its background until we research the fine print (Chris); and some life-changing experiences in Cairo (Angela).

After a tea break, we heard from 'target' speaker Sangeeta, whose speech was then evaluated by the six contestants in the Evaluation contest. Sangeeta benevolently discussed features we have all noticed in the various generations we belong to. In particular, we heard how Gen Y differs from older gens, and there were a good many 'ah-ha' moments! Each contestant made notes during the speech. Then they were ushered to another room, given a few minutes to refine their thinking and notes, and brought back one by one to speak their unique 2-3 minute evaluations.  

The afternoon concluded with announcements of the winners of the two contests (in both, Dept-of-Immigration Club = First; Kippax Club = Second), presentation of certificates and the winners' trophies (personal and perpetual), and the drawing of the contest raffle.

Benjamin Club is very grateful to UC's Coop Books and also to UC's Mizzuna Cafe, which between them generously donated four of the much-desired raffle prizes.

*The ultimate winner of the various levels of the contest (club - area - district - division) will represent NSW and ACT at the even-higher-level contests overseas for the ultimate title of World Champion, later this year. (That's why it's called 'international'.)

Meeting no. 1017 - 7 March 2014

This meeting began in a rather dishevelled manner, as the two scheduled speakers were unable to speak, and we had five visitors. Nevertheless, the meeting was quickly turned into a fun, productive meeting. In place of speeches Leona (I hope my recollection is correct about the organiser of this) arranged a round-robin talk. This was surpisingly fun. Our new member Karina was Table Topics Master, and came up with some great topics, including some on-the-fly to fill in time because of the missing scheduled speakers. Karina's topics were: 1.Learning from our elders helps avoid making mistakes in our lives. Give an example of advice given to you by your parents that turned out to be wrong, or a mistake they made that helped you learn to avoid making the same mistake. 2. They say that the problem with elections is that whoever you vote for, you get a politician. Can you think of an alternative? 3. What is your ideal getaway and how do you deal with day to day stress? Any stress-busting tips? 4.Some compare having a pet with having a child. In what way is this true or not true? 5.Once the National gallery displayed 3 black paintings as modern art. What is the purpose of modern art? Does it make the world a better place? 6.What does home mean to you? 7.Competition. Is it healthy? Keiko's table topics evaluations were as usual informative, incisive, and a valuable model for us to use in the future. Thankyou. Overall, I was pleased that we had a productive meeting, despite the unexpected problems at the start. VPPR.

International Speech Comp

Friday 21/2/2014 was the Benjamin International Speech Contest. A few members had other commitments, so turnout was relatively low. Geoff gave a fantastic speech on why people should get back into gardening ( ;) ) . Dom however won the day with his moving speech on why he joined Toastmasters, and how improved communication skills helped in broader family communications. Our special thanks to the judges who gave up their valuable lunchtime: Jim Arnold (Chief Judge) and Linda Merrin. Table topics was used as the filler during administration of the competition. New member Karina gave a good description of how to use an older style camera, while visitor Lili gave an interesting verbal description of links between the features of spider webs and the WWW. Other members present also contributed. Next meeting to be a standard meeting!

First meeting in new room at UC room 7A51

First meeting in our new room The new meeting room we have been assigned (7A51) is much larger than the Boardroom at Building 15, and at the moment this part of Building 7 is quiet during our meeting time. Most of us found the room before start time of 12.30, and once everyone was present there were 12 of us. We had three visitors: Ward Penman, as well as Karina and Linda. Ward explained the purpose of his visit. He is a Toastmasters Ambassador at present, one of several who are going to all clubs to outline a new program currently being devised. Its designers aim to deal with new (and old) challenges noted with the current first-stage program and its dual streams of ‘competent communication’ and ‘competent leadership’. So many Toastmasters now carry everything on their tablets and phones that the new program is being adapted for use on them too! However, non-tablet-savvy people will be able to use the printed manuals if they choose to. We also enjoyed two speeches by club members. Dominic tackled a controversial topic in a non-controversial way, through talking about reactions to the pros and cons of gay marriage as discussed within his own family. By distancing us, the audience, because we are not in his family, he was able to outline a range of personal, community and extreme responses that can crop up when this topic is raised, without generating any heated reactions in this room. The talk was well structured and fluent, used good presentation techniques (gestures, stance, vocal range, eye contact, etc.), and left us with something to think about. Sandy’s 7 minutes were devoted to a practice version of a longer speech she must give soon to an influential audience. Sandy was fortunate that Ward, an extremely experienced Toastmaster, was her evaluator. His comments will be very helpful as she prepares her actual presentation. There was time for just five table topics questions, posed this week by Carmen. They were all interesting questions. These were: Which is worse, failure or never trying?, Telling little white lies is OK?, Remember the the first time you ever used a computer?, Would you break the law to save a loved one?, and , what would you do differently if you knew nobody would judge you? Such interesting topics make the meeting interesting. Next meeting, 21 February, will be our internal club contests, assuming we have more than one contestant for the two sections: International Speech, and Evaluation. See you there.

2+0+1+4 = 7, the number of the building we meet in this year

Happy new 2014, Toastmasters!

We are meeting this year in Building 7, level A, room 51, and we look forward to having many visitors and new members from among the university staff and students. 

The meetings are on Fridays, fortnightly from 24 January. So the next on is on 7 February, and at 12.30 - 1.30 as usual. 

At the first meeting on 24 January, although it was a few hours before the start of the Australia Day long weekend , most of our members were present. We welcomed two guests: Karina and John, both of whom have been or are members of other clubs. There were two speeches and a thought-provoking collection of table topics, with Dominic as Table Topics Master. Word of the day, appropriately enough, was 'goals' - and Peter didn't mean the soccer type. 

Keiko is working on the storytelling manual, which is one of the advanced series. She told us (as is often the case with her stories) a tear-inducing tale. It involved one person's good turn coming back in full measure or more, 25 years later. Keiko is a wonderful story teller. She speaks from the heart, wastes no words in painting a complete picture, and her pauses give amazing power to the story as a whole. 

Geoff then gave us a hilarious account of bureaucratic inconsistencies, with numerous examples, all different, of situations where you might expect, logically, the government officer to do one thing, but something quite different happened. There were nods of agreement around the table, between laughs, as we remembered similar occasions in our own lives. 

The table topics really made us stop to consider, before answering. One example: Do we want our kids to be totally obedient or do we want them to be independent thinkers? What a question! All the topics were like that, and everyone had a topic. 

Carmen evaluated the table topics - the first time she has been an evaluator - offering us valuable points for improvement.

This was a very happy meeting - which is normal for Benjamin - and we look forward to a great year. 

Contests: 

Benjamin's internal contest for International Speech and Evaluation will be at the meeting on Friday 21 February.  Everyone is welcome, whether club member or visitor. 

Our club will then be the host of the Area 17 contest, which will be on 15 March, a Saturday. The Area contest is between all six Belconnen clubs, and all our club members will be needed to help with the various jobs needed to run this level of contest.

Next meeting: Friday 7 February, 12.30 - 1.30, Building 7, room A51. 

Building 7 is at the top left of the map (see the 'Meetings of..' page), and room A51 is on the Ginninderra Drive side of the building, on the ground floor.