November 22nd - last general meeting for 2013

Never mind the number - feel the quality! That adaptation is based on the title of a comedy on TV I think, and my version captures the spirit of the club's last meeting for this calendar year.

We may have been few, but the two speeches had considerable merit, and members came up with some excellent improvisations in Table Topics. The word of the day was 'lightning', which was relatively easy to incorporate into our speaking roles.

With the meeting proceeding at a good pace (though not lightning fast, which would have been too quick), we were able to spend a useful amount of time on club business at the end of the meeting. The next executive meeting is in early December and we members needed to have a chance to put in our thoughts on the topics that will be discussed.

Sandy gave her third or fourth speech, Project 4: Get to the Point, in the Competent Communication manual. Sandy certainly 'got to the point' as she presented a practice run-through of a speech she will be giving for work reasons in a few weeks time. The 'point' of her speech was to introduce the charity she runs, and how it sets about achieving its overarching purpose, and Sandy used her 5 - 7 minutes (actually Sandy spoke for six and a half minutes) to give us, her audience, an informative overview. Evaluating the speech later in the meeting, Peter noted many strong points and made one valuable recommendation.

Ann's speech was the first in the Competent Communication manual, the Icebreaker. Ann has done these 10 projects before and is redoing the manual now to revisit the techniques that the manual teaches. Noting that spring and the opening of a new Parliament both lead to a large amount of ice-breaking, she attempted to introduce the Canberra she knows, rather than herself. Ann's Canberra is noted for its people's volunteering spirit, its bushland, and the way its citizens show initiative in so many ways, from opening small businesses to government leadership on carbon neutrality and other issues.

Watch this blog space for announcement of the first meeting for 2014, which will be either the 31st January or the 24th (probably the 31st), and may be in a new room at the university.

Best wishes for a restful seasonal break and new year.

Report on Benjamin Toastmasters meeting 1011, 8 November 2013. A low turnout required Iaonon to rejig the agenda. Despite the low turnout the meeting was successful. Geoff provided word of the day - "support", at little notice. Speaker 1 was Keiko, doing project 4 from the Advanced Communication Manual - The Touching Story. Keiko gave a very moving story about some old school friends. It certainly brought a tear to my eyes, and the evaluator Dominic was also clearly moved. Keko's use of pauses was particularly effective. Ianon took on the role of TableTopics Master. Each speaker drew a coin at random, and had to describe what happened to them in the year of coinage. Geoff gave a rather rambling history of his year 2008. Dominic got to speak of the year he finished uni and was let loose on the world. Linda focussed on her photography in 2011, Keiko spoke of a positive change in her work, and Ainon got the happiest year of all - the year she retired. This class of topic actually turned out to be challenging for many speakers, as we couldn't all remember significant happenings from random years in the past. We already have a number of apologies for the next meeting, so everyone available should try and attend. Ann, would you be able to do the blog next time please? Regards, VPPR.

Summary of meeting held Friday 25 October 2013 Ianon was Toastmaster, again kicking off late because of late arrivals. She made a few small changes to the agenda, including substituting word of the day with a Tonic by Keiko. The Tonic was “everybody is lucky”, a way of looking at even bad events with an optimistic viewpoint. Dominic repeated his award winning humorous speech on “driving lesson lessons” – on the joys of teaching a child to drive, breaking the challenge into categories of movement, sound and ethics. Geoff then did the persuasive speech from the competent communicator manual, setting out to persuade the audience that climate change is good. Ann looked in shock at this heretical proposition. Geoff was not game to survey the audience to find if he successfully argued the case. This speech used some visual cues, and made reference to a current media issue – bush fire hazard, and personal experiences of Meryl. Sandy followed with a speech on Pandora’s Box – a discussion of early childhood trauma. This was a very interesting overview of the psychological impacts of early childhood trauma. This speech made effective use of the whiteboard and a prop – Pandora’s Box, with a symbol of hope. Time allowed only a short Table Topics session, with speeches from four of the ten people present. Both guests, Meryl and Mark, participated. Leona was the TT master, using picture cards as the topics. The first, given by Ianon, was on a basket of shells. Ianon spoke of her visit to a beach upon her arrival in Austrarlia, and how there does not seem to be as many shells on the beach these days. Ann spoke of her plans for Christmas, and pointed out how Christmas is not a time of celebration for everyone in Australia. Meryl spoke on what she packs in her suitcase – too much in short! And Mark finished with a talk on cars – which turned out to be a natural topic for him. Evaluations were constructive, with Leona giving the general evaluation. Meryl gave a rather creative um/ah report, declaring Geoff to the winner, with a count of 9 or 10. This is somewhat worse than Geoff’s recent efforts, but a solid improvement on his first speech, which was around 50!

Synopsis of the Benjamin Toastmasters meeting held Friday 11 October, 2013. The meeting got off to a late start due to late arrivals of members. As the agenda was particularly tight this week this meant the excellant Toastmaster, Geoff, had to run the meeting extremely tightly. Sarina was busy, firstly introducing word of the day 'slugabed", then doing the icebreaker, and also doing the um/ah count. Slugabed is a real word, at least according to the google search. Many speakers did get to use it, albeit pronouncing it "slugabug". The icebreaker was very well presented, and we certainly got to know more of Sarina. Ann was the first speaker up, doing a press conference project from the advanced communication manual.The topic was soil carbon management, but from a soil condition, rather than climate change perspective. The talk elicited some interesting questions, which needed to be guillotined to allow the meeting to finish on time. Following Serina's icebreaer SAndy ran an interesting Table Topics. Unfortunaltey not all members could participated due to the time constraint. Topics were: Views on zoos; One good reason for being late; Why is it good to be a slugabed; and Why Sunday os the best day.The evaluators gave good, useful feedback, with the general evaluator, oor (prospective?) mentor Linda reminding evaluators to have regard to speech objectives when evaluating speeches. Dont forget the Humorous Speech Competition this coming Saturday. Geoff;)

Report following meet of Benjamin Toastmasters on Fri 27 September 2013

The last meeting was an enthusiatic meeting, beginning with a Tonic by Keiko. The second speaker was Peter H., addressing the development of the Canberra water supply system, a topic I greatly enjouyed. Table Topics delivered by Carmen were fantastic: Which is more important? Intelligience or common sense? If you could choose one item of fashion from the past, what would it be? Plus other interesting topics. We had a number of visitors this meeting, including both visitors coming through personal contacts, and visitors responding to our on-line presnces. Please excuse spelling errors - I cannot see what I have written :( The web site is funny tonight.

Meeting update: Friday 13 Sept 2013 Benjamin Toastmasters held a lively meeting Friday 13 September at UC. Sandy did her "Icebreaker" - a lively discussion of her personal history, and therefore how she got to be who she is. Carmen gave a wonderfull speech describing the resources one may utilise when considering or planning to establish a new business. Leona gave an excellent, informative general evaluation. As a final note dues are now due, so we expect to receive emails about this. Regards, Geoff

Summary of meeting of 30 August, and reminder of judging workshop to be held Sat 14th September

We had low attendance at the meeting held 30 August, but nevertheless had some interesting, engaging talks. Keiko ran the meeting as Toastmaster,needing to quickly adapt the agenda due to the low attendance. Tabletopics Master was Leona, who drew the topics randomly from a stack of cards. This generated some interesting, lively, short talks. Dominic did another exercise from the CC manual, this time "get to the point". The talk was on one aspect of the GFC, and had a surprise conclusion. Keiko used the time freed up by the low attendance to practice gving a six minute talk. This was quite a moving talk. It was interesting that two of todays speakers independantly referred to the indirect effects of the second world war on their lives. I haven't heard this theme in Toastmasters before. Next meeting Friday Sept 13. Don't forget the free judging training from 1-4 PM Saturday 14 September. Registration is required.