MEETING No: 1093 – Tuesday 26th October 2010

Guest Editor: Dai Fei

The meeting started at 7:15pm as usual with the following regular items:

Call to Order by Daniel.

President’s Welcome by Brett.

Chairman 1 was Daniel.

The Mission of the Club was read by Chris.

Word of the Day – Quixotic – was given by Sam.

Introduction: All members and visitors briefly introduce themselves.

Agenda update: Chris made a few changes due to the absence of 4 members.

Guest Welcome by Natasha (Guests: Paul, Sandra and Gavin).

Leadership Manual Evaluations by John.

The first Prepared Speech SessionToastmaster was Bishnu. He introduced Dai Fei and John (presenters), and evaluators Peter and Kimberley.

The second speech session Toastmaster was Gary, who introduced Bishnu and Glenn, and their evaluators, Natasha and Brett.

Dai Fei presented Speech No: 8 Competent Communication (CC) – Get Comfortable with Visual Ads with her speech title: How Images Express Meaning. Her presentation highlighted a paper which she presented at an international conference in UK. Later her paper was selected and published in an academic book. It involved the analysis of text and images in making meanings for social events.

In Peter’s evaluation, he commented on Dai Fei’s presentation as passionate in what she believed in with interesting content and confidence in delivery. Improvement - use projector remote control and computer screen to avoid facing the back to the audience.

Bishnu presented Speech No: 6 CC – Vocal Variety with speech topic – Self-Esteem. Bishnu discussed in depth the importance of self esteem and strategies on how to maintain and develop such person attribute to enhance the performance of one’s life in general and in different work and social situations.

Natasha appraised Bishnu’s speech, it was well prepared and delivered. Natasha also referred to the objectives in the manual and suggested area of improvements – a clearer structure of arguments with stronger conclusion.

John presented Speech 5 of the Entertaining Speaker Manual – Speaking After Dinner with topic - Customer Care. Through the tale of his organisation of a family holiday and the journey through an eventful trip he introduced the importance of customer care. Due to the messing up of tickets and delay they were compensated by a gift voucher from the travel agent. Highlighting the difference between Customer Service and Customer Care.

John always presents his speech with a variety of voices and vivid body language. Again, we found his speech interesting and entertaining. Very often his story was echoed with laughter.

Kimberley gave a comprehensive feedback. She highlighted John’s talent in storytelling with good examples. Improvement: John could have introduced the topic of Customer Care a bit earlier in the story. But this is a very minor point.

Glenn presented Speech 4 CC – How to Say It with topic – Converted by Stone Cold and the Hitman. Glenn maintained a calm and natural style in his story telling. He is a gifted writer and his presentation captured the audience’s attention with intensity. He vividly described the match between Stone Cold and the Hitman in an epic, and for Glenn a highly memorable World Championship Wrestling Match.

In Brett’s evaluation, he made the point that he would make sure to watch the match himself after the meeting as he was so inspired by Glenn’s descriptions. He praised Glenn’s well structured presentation. Glenn could improve the posture of his stance and not to swing the body from side to side.

The Table Topics was prepared and presented by Peter who asked various questions of ‘IF ......’ including the following: If you have a visitor in Sydney what place would you take him (not exact words), or if you were 13 again what would you tell the boy in front of you? If you could visit someone in the past, who would you like to see?

In answering her question, Natasha told us a secret of how her romance first developed with Chris. She was invited to Sydney and Chris took her to the Blue Mountains and the Opera House. These are the two places she would take her visitors.

Brett was happy and contented with his life so he told his imaginary self at the age of 13. ‘Boy, you have done well. Do not change anything. Do exactly what he had done in life’. What a lucky man! Well done Brett with your success. Gavin said he would love to meet his ancestors as he could not imagine how hard life was to come to Australia to start a new life.

These are only few examples of the Table Topic Session as there were about 8 people talking about the ‘If....’ situations’.

The odd number was evaluated by Gary and evens by Daniel. Both evaluators were thorough and encouraging. It was fun as always when we have the Table Topics.

The meeting moved to the Ums and Ahs count by Dai Fei. All did well with very few counts. Grammarian and Word of the Day was undertaken by Sam, Big Ears by Glenn and Timers Report by Chris. Most people are on time. Daniel was the General Evaluator. As always Daniel gave positive feedback on each role and some areas of improvement as well. Thank you Daniel.

Before the meeting was concluded the visitors made their comments – enjoyable, have learned new things – will join Concord Toast Masters Club. 

The meeting was concluded at 9:25pm.

Here I would like to thank Daniel for his dedication to the Club. He always arrives early and sets up the table and other equipment for the meeting. Also he makes sure all tables the chairs are put back to the way it was before our meeting.

May I make a suggestion: Please stay behind or we take turns to arrange the tables. Many hands make the work much lighter.

NEXT MEETING 

Tuesday 9 November 2010

Special Mention of Special Speech

There was a very crucial omission in the last posting. 
The Editor overlooked a spectacular speech presented by Glen H in presenting his 10th Speech from the Competent Communicator Manual – under the heading of ‘Inspire Your Audience’ with a speech entitled: Rivers of Gold, Streams of Tears. 
In this highly emotive speech, Glen drew on some personal connections to outline the hypocrisy and duplicity of many Clubs and organisations who present themselves as having social responsibility and community involvement, while making vast fortunes out of instigating misery and social disfunction through gambling and irresponsible service of alcohol. Glen also touched on the media and political manipulation used by the tobacco, alcohol and gaming industries. 
It truly was a motivating speech and Glen charged the audience – to do something. To write to their politicians of all persuasions and challenge their duplicity in being so accepting of the political donations as well as the lobbyist’s spin from these powerful groups.
Glen was very ably Evaluated by Sam who not only gave a very positive assessment of the speeches structure, but also of its power and motivational character. 
Again the Editor does apologise for the oversight brought about by the many changes that were required in the order of the evening.

CONCORD WEST MEETING No: 1092 – Tuesday 12th October 2010

Wow, where has that last fortnight gone?

Our last meeting was back up in the old boardroom to make way for a one-off booking in the restaurant and despite a slight drop in numbers we had a fabulous evening.

We kicked off promptly at 7:15pm with a General Welcome from our VPE Chris standing in for President Brett who was among the apologies for the evening including Peter, Rowenna and Paul M. Chris combined his Welcome with his first role as Chairman for the First Session.

Sam read the Mission of the Club followed by our round the table Introductions.

Chris then walked us through a fairly comprehensive Agenda Update and Glen H took on the task of Leadership Manual Evaluations. John as Grammarian for the evening, introduced the Word of the Day – Circumvent. As there were no Visitors or Guests to Welcome we moved straight into the First Prepared Speech Session.

Bishnu was Toastmaster for the First Speech Session and presented a meticulously managed segment in his first role as Toastmaster. Excellent. Adam presented Speech No: 8 – Get Comfortable with Visual Ads – with a riveting Speech entitled ‘Why’ in which Adam challenged us all to think about “Why we do what we do”. Questioning what motives us to do what we do. Another vibrantly delivered, well-researched and captivating presentation that included a seamless use of both laptop and projector, in a manner we have come to expect from Adam.

The second Speaker was Dai Fei who presented Speech No: 7, Research to Inform and took us on an in depth investigation into “What Makes an Experienced Writer”. Dai Fei as always conveyed a deep passion for her topic and provided some very thought provoking insights and examples.

Adam was meticulously Evaluated by Natasha who demonstrated a growing expertise in analysis and observation in her critique. Dai Fei was Evaluated by Daniel who as an ‘old-hand’ always passes on some invaluable hints and standards of application in presenting an evaluation.

We went to the break a few minutes ahead of schedule and were reconvened by S@A Daniel who handed the Second Session to Chairman Dai Fei.

Daniel delivered an impassioned Toast to the Australian Athletes for their hard work and achievements at the recent Commonwealth Games.

Gary took on the mantle of Toastmaster for the Second Session and Introduced Paul who was delivering an unusual format in a Speech entitled “The Successful Negotiator” in which he introduced some comprehensive guidelines for negotiation techniques before presenting a role-play with John. Paul was the Customer seeking to reach an agreeable leasing contract with John, the Lessor, of imaginary commercial premises. Although some general outline had been discussed prior to the presentation the role-play was to be as realistic and impromptu as possible. To conclude, Paul sort feedback and critique from the audience. The time frame was of course extended beyond the normal speaking time.

Paul (and John) were Evaluated by Adam, who brought some very insightful observations and points for improvement to the exercise in his appraisal of the segment.

Adam then returned to the lectern as Table Topics Master introducing a very unique and highly entertaining segment in which 2 participants were called upon to role-play scenarios given to them by Adam. The results were outstandingly creative, exhaustingly funny and of great benefit to participants and observers alike.

Gary was a school principal attempting to advise parent Bernard that his son was out of control (and borderline psychotic) will Bernard vehemently defended his son’s actions as merely anal and quite acceptable. The result was outstanding in terms of response and delivery.

Glen H (left) doing a sterling job of dismissing a remarkably calm but very unhappy customer played by Bishnu (right)

The second scenario was Glen H as the recalcitrant shop-keeper dealing with a very calm but extremely focused Bishnu, as a very dissatisfied customer returning a faulty product. This segment delivered some absolute gems from both participants and Glen certainly gave John Cleese a run for his money as the ‘Basil Faulty of retail’.

The final segment was a Boy Scout, Sam trying to convince a very crotchety ‘senior citizen’, Daniel that he Sam, wanted to provide some form of assistance to Daniel with the alterior motive of earning a vital Scout Badge. We witnessed a Boy Scout who definitely has a future career in the law as he ‘put his case’ to a constantly unimpressed and disinterested returned servicemen. An total riot!

Dai Fei and Chris who struggled with their on-the-spot observations, because they had been breaking up in laughter throughout what was an absolute corker of a Table Topics segment, but managed to deliver some very helpful evaluations.

The evenings concluding Evaluations included Ums and Ahs by Glen H, Grammarian and Word of the Day announcement by John. Big Ears by Sam and Timers Report by Natasha who pointed out our continuing struggle with keeping to time.

It is interesting that so many relatively new members have moved past the challenge of speaking for long enough – to be having to focus on keeping down to time, a clear indicator of improving confidence in such a short period of time.

Bernard tackled the onerous task of General Evaluator for the first time and delivered a very detailed and carefully constructed observation of a very busy and highly energised meeting.

VPE Chris took us through the Forward Planner before stepping into the role of presenting Closing Remarks on behalf of President Brett.

NEXT MEETING 

Tuesday 26^th October 2010

MEETING No: 1091 Tuesday 28th September 2010

Our ‘Bring-a-Friend Evening got underway very punctually at 7:15pm.

Club President Brett combined his General Welcome with his later scheduled Guest Welcome acknowledging visitors including: John Y, (Dai Fei’s brother), Paul M, Darren (Kymberley’s husband), Punnada (Natasha’s friend), Rachel (Brett’s guest), Catherine (Chis’s colleague) Queenie (Bernard’s girlfriend) and Lesley (Paul V’s wife) and Josh returning for one final visit and joining tonight. A very encouraging response to this new initiative of the Club’s Executive.

Apologies were acknowledged from Peter C, Tony Z, Rowenna and Philip B.

Dai Fei Chaired the First Session very ably introducing Adam who read the Mission of the Club before handing over briefly to Natasha (as Grammarian) for the Word of the Day – Rigmarole.

In the Introductions, Dai Fei asked us to fantasize about how we would spend an unlimited amount of money, should it come our way, provoking some wonderfully sublime indulgences. Predominantly everyone would be off overseas in a heartbeat.

VPE Chris navigated us through some Agenda updates while Brett took on the task of completing the Leadership Manual Evaluations for the evening.

Paul V was Toastmaster for the first Speech Session and introduced and managed this task with the hallmark of experience one would expect.

Kimberley presented her first Speech – The Ice Breaker – providing us with an insight into her life through her love of shoes and golf. Kymberley was vey ably Evaluated by Natasha confirmed that this was an excellent first speech and an Ice Breaker that sets a new benchmark both in its narrative, structure and very smooth presentation. Well done.

The second Speaker in this first Session was Gary who presented a highly informative technical presentation from the Competent Communicator Manual Number 4 – How To Say It, with an intriguing title; Don’t Risk It – Use Protection. Gary provided a very succinct warning about the dangers of over exposure to noise and the potential affect on our hearing. This excellent presentation was thoroughly Evaluated by Glen H standing in at short notice for a late apology.

We went to the Break just ahead of time and resumed the Second Session under the Chairmanship of Glen H.

Dai Fei presented the evening’s Toast very fittingly paying tribute to the Australian Athletes competing in the upcoming Commonwealth Games.

The Toastmaster for the second session was Dai Fei who introduced Chris making a somewhat impromptu speech, his seventh, from the ninth Competent Communicator manual – Persuade with Power – with a speech entitled; 5 Golden Rules. Chris provided us with a sequential process for saving for our financial goals, outlining some excellent – free – financial advice. Chris was very appropriately Evaluated by another of our fiscal members Paul V.

John H was then the Table Topics Master and set a very challenging range of ‘Worst Case Scenarios’ for each speaker to provide their response as to how they would either deal with the personal disaster or indeed explain how it was not in fact a problem for them. Following a more formal ‘competition like’ structure, each speaker was asked to come up to the front before being given the topic. The outcome saw some very creative and humorous responses evolve.

Glenn D and Bernard undertook the very challenging roles of Table Topic Evaluators for the first time and did a very impressive job.

The rest of the evenings Evaluations followed with Daniel attending to the Umms and Ahs Counter. Natasha investigating the use of language and the Word of the Day as Grammarian. Big Ears was unveiled by Brett in his inimitable manner. The Timers Report was presented by Chris before Daniel was back at the lectern delivering a comprehensive General Evaluation. Forward Planning was managed by VPE Chris and all the Visitors and Guests responded with some very encouraging Guests’ Comments. The meeting closed with the Closing Remarks from our President Brett.

Next Meeting

Tuesday 12th October 2010

Date for Diary

Phillip Division Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest
Saturday 9th October at Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club.

Regrettably our Club and Area 6 Winner (Peter) is unable to attend.

So our Area will be represented by the Area 6 Runner Up from another Club.

Also Look Out For

Wednesday Evenings ABC1 at 8pm
Strictly Speaking hosted by (Chaser) Andrew Hansen
http://www.abc.net.au/tv/strictlyspeaking/
Previous Programs can be viewed on iView.

MEETING No: 1090 Tuesday 14th September 2010

Despite a number of apologies from some regular attendees including Philip, Peter, Chris, Rowenna and Kymberley we had a very well attended meeting with a formidable group of Guests including; Isobel, Josh (returning to his second meeting), Jessica, Belinda, Nhung, John B and Gavin who has belonged to another Toastmasters Club in the past. Of special note we also welcomed Brett’s mother Lindy who was visiting from the south coast.

We were delighted to welcome them all.

We missed our Sergeant-at-Arms, Daniel calling the meeting to order as he was marginally delayed by a flat tyre. Past President Paul got us underway with a brief word of Welcome and handed over to Natasha as Chairperson for the first half of the meeting.

Glenn D (with 2 n’s) read the Mission of the Club and Brett (as Grammarian) presented us with the challenge of utilising the word – flounder – in our various opportunities throughout the evening as Word of the Day.

Natasha asked us to think about the beginning of a new Season and extracted a variety of thoughts on the subject as part of our Introductions. Natasha then stood in for our VPE Chris to undertake the Agenda Update before Dai Fei very capably handled a very demanding Guest Welcome.

The Toastmaster for the first Speech Session was Sam who set on a very clear example by carefully explaining procedures to our Visitors. Sam introduced 2 Speakers and their Evaluators.

Speaker One was Dai Fei who presented the 6^th Project from the Competent Communicator Manual – Vocal Variety – in a speech about the basis of the Chinese Language. Utilising an overhead projector Dai Fei intrigued us with the seeming complexity and uniqueness of her native language in a highly informative and intriguing presentation.

Dia Fei was Evaluated by Glen H (with one n) who gave text-book Evaluation in third person and referred to the Objectives of the speech with great engagement and solid points for improvement.

The second speaker was Glenn D (with 2 n’s) who presented Project 3 – Get to the Point – with an intriguing speech title of ‘Back Flipping and Bending Over Backwards to Add Just One Letter’. Glenn took us on the roller coaster ride he has experienced dealing with the monumental difficulties of trying to realign the spelling of his first name. Glenn with two n’s. It proved to be both a fascinating and highly amusing insight into the machinations of government and related authorities dealing with a confusion of identity.

Glenn D (no, that’s enough….) was very capably Evaluated by Gary (with one y) who clearly had both very much enjoyed the speech and observed and listened carefully.

We went to Break a few minutes ahead of time.

The Chairperson for the second half of the meeting was Gary who handed over to Brett for the Toast. Brett delivered a procedurally flawless Toast to our Past President Paul outlining the achievements of the Club under Paul’s recent stewardship.

Toastmaster for the second Speech Session was Dai Fei who once again provided very good explanatory coverage and introductions to the Speakers and Evaluators.

First Speaker was Sam delivering his first speech from the Advanced Communicators Manual – The Entertaining Speaker. Sam’s speech entitled – The Art of the Put Down – was a veritable banquet of great (mainly) political putdowns delivered by some of the great exponents of the ‘Put Down’ over the past 100 years. A riveting and highly contagious presentation, which saw Sam deal admirably with his need to engage the audience while referring to accurate quotation notes.

Sam was evaluated by Paul who is known to be a keen observer of the ‘quotable quote’ and delivered an exemplary Evaluation.

Daniel was a last minute replacement for Table Topics Master and as to be expected delivered the segment with meticulous protocol.

Daniel challenged us with the need to speak about a variety of charitable causes in response to our (imaginary) Employers favoured cause. This provoked some fascinating responses and really fulfilled the core purpose of impromptu speaking. We were also delighted that a number of Visitors took up the challenge. Well done.

The Evaluators were Natasha and Sam who met the complex task of evaluating a diversity of speakers and topic treatments with great finesse.

The evenings final Evaluations were undertaken by Glenn D as Umms & Ahs Counter, Brett as Grammarian, Glen H as Big Ears and Bishnu recorded the evening’s Timer’s Report. John H rounded of the evening with a comprehensive General Evaluation before the Guests were invited to pass comment on the evening.

We are encouraged that they all expressed an interest in returning for another visit and warmly invite them to do so.

Brett closed the meeting by paying tribute (in his absence) to Peter’s success at the recent Area 6 Humorous Speech Competition and to Natasha for her sterling representation of Concord West Club in the Area 6 Table Topics Competition.

Next Meeting – 

Bring a Friend Night – Tuesday 28^th September 2010

Date for Diary – 

Phillip Division Humorous Speech and Table Topics Contest Saturday 9^th October at Dooleys Lidcombe Catholic Club where Peter will be representing Area 6 and Concord West Club.

CONCORD WEST WINS AGAIN!

Congratulations to Peter for his victory at the recent Area 6 Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest. Peter took out first prize keeping a long running tradition of success at Area Competition alive. Peter will go on ow to represent Area 6 at the upcoming Philip Division Humorous Speech Competition to be held on Saturday 9th October.
Congratulations also to Natasha who competed in her first ever Area 6 Competition and very ably represented Concord West Club in the challenging ‘Table Topics’ category. 
Also thanks to those from our Club who attended to lend their support to our competitors and gain a useful insight into Area Competition standards.

Congratulating Peter on his victory: Punnada (a friend of Natasha), Natasha, and visitor Dai Fei from Concord West Club

INAGURAL FIFTH TUESDAY OF THE MONTH SOCIAL DINNER – TUESDAY 31st AUGUST

The Masters: (LtoR): John, Chris, Gary, Lyndel, Daniel, Natasha and Glenn D scooped the pool at the Trivia Night breaking an all time new record for the highest percentage of correct answers.

Last Tuesday evening a dozen of our members plus some guests gathered at the Concord RSL Bistro for our inaugural Social Dinner evening held on the fifth Tuesday of the month. The group included our Area Governor Pauline and our District Governor Phillip.

The Blue Flame Bistro turned on a typically generous and highly satisfying menu of great value.

What was unknown was that this evening was a regular Trivia Night at the RSL Club and our members joined in with gusto. We split into 2 teams – The Toasters and The Masters.

A series of 2 sessions of 12 questions had one of our teams (The Masters) making a very impressive stamp on these first, more generic questions. Now one could be a tad cynical here, but the third session of 10 questions are posed by a guest from the floor (in advance) and last night a male nurse structured some highly clinical questions to what appeared to be a room significantly full of various nursing staff from Concord Hospital.

However, ‘The Masters’ had a ‘secret weapon’ in the ’guise of Lyndel, a former nurse of considerable experience. (Knowing the 11 organs of the gastro intestinal track and what a Sphygmomanometer is was a big help).

With our significant lead from the first 24 questions under our belt, we blitzed the evening winning by a substantial margin and taking away the $40.00 Club Gift Voucher for our efforts. Something we should be planning to utilise in the near future.

An entertaining and somewhat challenging evening had by all.

A well attended inaugural Social Dinner. (LtoR): Philip, Lyndel, Brett, John, Chris, Gary, Daniel, Natasha, Pauline, Susan (a friend of Dai Fei), Dai Fei (hidden), Bernard and Glenn D.

AREA 6 HUMOROUS & TABLE TOPICS COMPETITION

We wish our two entrants in this Saturday’s Area 6 Competition, Peter (Humorous Speech) and Natasha (Table Topics) all the very best in their rounds and do encourage any members who can make it along to support our entrants to do so and be inspired by the next level of competition.