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.