New Guests Attend Spooky Meeting on Friday 13th February (meeting 1039)

What a big week it has been for the club. On Wednesday (11/2) we had a stall at the University’s market day where we promoted our club to the broader university community. We talked to lots of interested people about what Toastmasters is, and what it can do for them. Thanks to Karina for organising the day, and to all of the members who helped out in the lead up to the day, and on the day itself.

At the meeting on Friday Lili presented her third CC speech titled ‘Where life is easier’, comparing living in China to living in Australia. It was a very informative and entertaining speech. Ianon gave us the word of the day, conscience, after the commonly misused words article in the January edition of the Toastmasters magazine compared conscience with conscious. We had a Friday the 13th themed table topics session led by Linda, where our six guests had a go at answering questions on hosting a Friday 13th party and movie night, and other dates considered spooky, including Tuesday the 13th, and Friday the 17th.

Our next meeting will be on Friday 27^th February. We hope to see you there!

How to Survive a New Year (meeting 1038)

Welcome to a New Year! Our first meeting of the year was held on 30th January.  This was a meeting in which Peter spoke of comfort and Dominic spoke of disaster.  A meeting in which we all had the opportunity to speak in an extended Table Topics.  We welcomed the new VPPE, Peter Herbert and tried out our new web based agenda sign-up system (http://benjamintoastmastersorg.toastmastersclubs.org/agenda.html) for members.

The Word of the Day was “comfortable” and how Dominic managed to use that word in his key speech entitled “How to Survive a Disaster”, I’ll never know.  Dominic presented yet another smooth and stylish speech so that we could all know what to do to survive a disaster.  He structured the speech very well giving a background, a specific example and some very sound advice.  Prepare!

Ianon introduced a wide range of Table Topics including New Year’s resolutions, plans for the future, reflection on the past and preparing for and surviving disasters.  Table Topics speakers were Lili, Karina, Nick, Dom, Linda, Peter and Geoff.  It was very enjoyable listening to Nick quickly developing speaking style and particularly enjoyable hearing Lili’s good news.

Our next meeting is on Friday the 13^th.  Maybe some spooky theme may pop up, who knows.  Members, don’t forget to sign up on the Agenda page at the website – link above.

This Wednesday we will also be at the O’Week Market Day, so if you are not already a member and want to have a go, please come and talk to us.

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.