CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1110 – Tuesday 9th August 2011

S@A Paul M, called us to order and handed the meeting over to Glen H as Chairman for the first half of the meeting, while John presented his Opening Comments and Guest welcome.

We had formal apologies from Philip, Juliet, Brett, Dai Fei, Paul V and Rino, but welcomed Mark as the evening’s Visitor.

Edmond read the Mission of the Club and Meghan presented the Word of the Day – Assimilation – in her first role as Grammarian.

As part of the round of Introductions, Glen H posed the question; What we do if we had won Masterchef, extracting yet another plethora of interesting responses.

VPE Kimberley had a fairly significant Agenda Update to manage while Natasha took on the role of the Leadership Manual Evaluations.

Kimberley was also the Toastmaster for the first session and introduced Katrina with her first Ice Breaker Speech. The observation of numerous ‘old hands’ within the Club is that these Ice Breakers are getting better all the time and Katrina’s excellent first speech was no exception. Katrina shared with us a potted history of her life and shared very courageously her sense of terror and getting up in front of groups to speak, while at the same time portraying an air of confidence and boldness.

Kimberley then dutifully introduced herself as the second speaker, presenting an excellent overview of the Toastmasters Leadership Roles and how a Club both functions better and provides the opportunity to members to build their own speaking and leadership skills by participating in the Toastmaster Leadership program. It was a very timely presentation at tis stage of our new Toastmaster year.

Katrina was very expertly Evaluated by Peter Crosby who brings such a depth of experience to Evaluation which is most valuable for a first time speaker. John who as President added his support to the excellent points that had been made in Kimberley’s speech critiqued Kimberley’s presentation.

After the Break S@A Paul reconvened us, while Glen H remained in the role of Chairman for the second half. Daniel proposed a highly appropriate and timely Toast to Nancy Wake (The White Mouse) following her passing in the previous week.

Natasha was Toastmaster for the second Speech Sessions and introduced Glenn D with his Speech #7 (Research Your Topic) with a very insightful speech entitled: “The Man who did not care about the colour of the Cat”. The subject of Glenn’s speech was Deng Xiaoping the former Premier of China and his economic reforms. You always learn something new at Toastmasters.

Glen was Evaluated very astutely by Chris.

Bernard was Table Topics Master and ran the segment very closely along competition lines in order to permit members to get a feel for competition conditions. 8 participants were escorted from the room and brought back in one at a time to… “Explain why they had crashed their friends Ferrari into their garage door”. The results were an extraordinary array oh hilarious responses, from insurance brokers to very benevolent friends and dysfunctional neighbours. At one point Glen H had us all in search of an oxygen mask from laughing so much. An excellent warm up for the competition.

Paul M (who was also a participant, along with John were the Evaluators lending lots of helpful hints in the lead up to the competition at the next meeting.

The rest of the evenings Evaluations were conducted very smoothly and proficiently by Paul M (again) with the ums and Ahs. Meghan with the Grammarian Report acknowledged a number of diligent members incorporating Assimilation into their speeches and comments.

Bernard undertook the task of Big Ears while Chris reported on his activity as Timer for the evening. John concluded the Evaluations with the General Evaluation providing an abridged observation of all those who had not been Evaluated during the course of the evening.

VPE Kimberley provided both information and encouragement to participants in the Competitions as well as future meetings with the Forward Planning Update and we received some very positive feedback from our Visitor Mark in Guest Comments.

John concluded the meeting by both offering his regrettable apologies for the Competition Night but encouraging all participants to give it a REAL go – and all non-participants to come along, form a highly valuable and receptive audience and willing assistance on the night. 

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 23rd August – Club Humorous and Table Topics Competition 2011

Tuesday 6th September – 

Area 6 Humorous and Table Topics Competition 2011 at Burwood Community Centre

Tuesday 13th September – Normal Meeting

CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1109 – Tuesday 26th July 2011

Sergeant @ Arms Paul M called us to order and handed the meeting over to President John for his Welcome and control of the meeting to Past President Brett as Chairman for the first half of the meeting.

In his welcome John acknowledged Christian visiting from Hunter’s Hill Club and Special Guest speaker Dave Griffiths from Parramatta Club. John also welcomed both new member Edmond and returning guest Rino. Formal apologies had been received from Peter, Paul V and Glenn D.

Rino took on the task of Reading the Mission of the Club and Grammarian, Natasha presented the Word of the Day; Attrition.

Brett kicked off Introductions with a very insightful topic asking; what we believe we are the world’s best at. It evoked a very wide range of ideas and getting us all on our feet, thinking and speaking.

VPE Kimberley undertook an Agenda Update and Brett took on responsibility for the Leadership Manual Evaluations before handing over the First Prepared Speeches segment to Toastmaster Dai Fei who introduced 2 speakers.

Firstly Natasha presenting Speech #7 (research your Topic) delivery a very emotive speech entitled “When I was a Child in Kenya” in which Natasha retold a number of stories shared by her mother while growing up in this West African country. Stories that were full of pathos and divergent memories.

The second speaker Dai Fei introduced was our special guest Dave Griffiths the Winner of the 2011 District 70 International Speech contest. Dave is due to fly to the states in a week or so to challenge speakers from all over the world with his award winning speech “Ticket to NYC”. A truly dynamic and exceptionally well-delivered speech centred around his time at the Royal Military Academy Duntroon, where he had undertaken Officer training. With highly charged encounters with General Cosgrove Dave provoked us to consider our own endeavours when it comes to (NYC) Not Yet Competent and how dealing with this situation can be applied in our lives.

Natasha was very meticulously Evaluated by the highly experience Daniel and Glen H had the onerous task of Evaluating Dave. Both had some excellent advice mixed with insightful observations. Glen in particular advised Dave in regard to the pace of his delivery when being mindful of his impending American audience’s ability to comprehend the Aussie accent.

Following our Break, Edmond courageously took on the mantle of Chairman for the second half and in his first ever participating leadership displayed excellent organisational and leadership potential.

Mindful of the recent bad news in Norway, Paul M, presented the Toast to ‘All the good people out there!”

Chris was Toastmaster for the second session of speeches and introduced Josh with his 7^th Speech: Your Body Speaks, with a speech entitled; The Secrets of Karate. Josh delivered some great dry humour combined with some revealing facts based on his experience with a number of martial arts experiences from his younger years.

The second speaker was Philip Bendeich who delivered the 5^th in a series entitled Specialty Speeches, in which Philip read the iconic words from Martin Luther Kings’ speech; “I have a dream”. A truly remarkable speech in itself – these words will forever be embossed in history.

Josh was evaluated by John who shared not only an appreciation for martial arts, but also for Josh’s delivery style and colloquial manner of explaining a topic that lent itself to the objectives of his speech. Philip’s delivery, which he was required to read from text, with appropriate expression and fervour was very eloquently Evaluated by Juliet.

Table Topics was managed by John who challenged members to face the inevitable task of explaining the inexplicable – or defending the indefensible. Speakers were required under near competition conditions, to justify a series of hypothetical scenarios predominantly based around some very abstract decisions in relation to colour. Starting with some more experienced members and working toward including very new members and guests the emphasis was to have people up on their feet who had not had any other speaking commitments for the evening.

The Evaluators were Dai Fei for the Odd numbered speakers and Paul martin for the Even numbered speakers both doing a sterling job of keeping track of a very busy sequence of speeches.

The evening’s broader Evaluations were conducted by Megan for the Um’s and Ahs Counter and Natasha as Grammarian having set us a very challenging task with the Word of the Day. Sam delivered a good throwing arm for Big Ears and Kimberly had meticulously managed the evening’s Timers Report. 

The General Evaluation was the responsibility of Glen H summing up what had been a very special evening. Forward Planning and Announcements closed off the house-keeping before John conducted a short interview with special guest Dave Griffiths seeking answers to some key questions regarding nerves and practice, befor joining the entire membership in wishing him every possible success in the States at the Annual conference.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 23rd August – Club Humorous and Table Topics Competition 2011

Tuesday 6th September – Area 6 Humorous and Table Topics Competition 2011 at Burwood RSL

Tuesday 13th September – Normal Meeting