CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1115 – Tuesday 25th October 2011

Meeting commenced a few minutes behind time

Presidents Welcome – John welcomed Tanya after an extended absence and Chris and Natasha after their overseas trip.

Apologies – Peter, Paul M, Glen H, Meghan and Mark..

Chairman First Session – Daniel

Reading of the Mission of the Club – Natasha.

Word of the Day [Prudent] Chris (Grammarian)

Introductions – Daniels topic for Introductions was ‘How did you hear about Toastmasters’ provoking a surprisingly diverse range of responses.

Agenda Update – Kimberley

Leadership Manual Evaluations – Brett had about 5 Manuals to complete for participants in the evenings Leadership roles.

First Speech Session was led by Natasha as Toastmaster and introduced Bernard with his assignment – Vocal Variety – with a speech entitled: “My Brother-In-Law Ted”. Bernard delivered a very personal and emotive story outlining the struggles experienced by his Brother-In-Law in getting to Australia and adapting to the radical new way of life here. It was an exceptionally well delivered and thought-provoking story told in a sincere and poignant manner. In many peoples view it was Bernard’s best speech to-date.

Natasha then introduced Sam with his speech assignment – Speak to Inform – entitled: “Oils ain’t Oils” where Sam drew on his career experience as a Solicitor to deliver a highly informative and detailed insight into a number of legal issues that confront us.

Kimberley Evaluated Bernard’s speech with great warmth and expressiveness that reflected the subject while focusing on the objectives of the speech.

Sandra gave her first speech Evaluation of Sam’s speech using the Praise, Improvement, Praise formula to great effect. 

Break

Chairman Second Session  – Juliet

Toast – John presented the Toast mindful of the time of the year with exams and in particular those students sitting the Higher School Certificate. John went to the issue of the lifespan importance of the HSC with a toast to: “Life after the Higher School Certificate”.

Second Speech Session was led by Brett as Toastmaster and introduced Tanya presenting her Ice-Breaker Speech for a second time: entitled: “My Escape from Vietnam” where Tanya re-countered the harrowing story of her families flight from the dying days of the Vietnam War. For those of us that had heard this speech before it remained as vivid and gripping as the first time and speaking from the heart, provided an ideal vehicle for Tanya to deliver a highly emotive account of those days in her childhood.

Tanya was Evaluated by Bernard who provided some excellent observation and critique as well as being able to relate to the highly emotional tenure of the presentation.

Table Topics – was presented by Sam with a very different take on providing the speakers with a topic prompting line. This time the first line from a reasonably well known novel which had to be expanded upon to build a 60 second presentation. This concept worked exceptionally well inspiring some very interesting evolutionary storylines.

The Evaluators were Glenn D providing his unique wit and humour to his astute observations and Natasha with some textbook Table Topic Evaluations.

Umms and Ahs – John

Grammarian – Chris (with a fair number of people using the Word of the Day)

Big Ears – Kimberley

Timers Report – Kimberley (with Tanya’s assistance)

General Evaluator – John

Forward Planner – Kimberley

Guests Comments – NA

Announcements – Final call for Name Badge Upgrades and Dinner Meeting in November.

President’s Closing Remarks – John stressed the importance of having Leadership Manuals completed and keeping track of and individual members keeping track of their progress.

Meeting Closed – A little bit overtime at 9:25pm.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 8th November – Normal Meeting
Tuesday 22nd November – Normal Meeting
Tuesday 29th November – Speech & Dinner Meeting
Wednesday 14th December – Area 6 Combined Christmas Party