CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1112 – Tuesday 13th September 2011

With Toastmasters International having just introduced their new Branding, the Editor sees this as an opportune time to restructure the regular meeting Blog Posts into a more comprehensive – and probably easier to digest format.

Meeting commenced at 7:15pm

S@A – Paul M.012.

Presidents Welcome – John congratulating our recent participants at the Area 6 Humorous and Table Topics Competitions as well as a vote of thanks to the excellent level of participation by members of the Club in helping to Host the Competition evening.

Apologies – Peter, Meghan, Natasha, Edmond and Katrina

Welcomed – Mark (New Member tonight), Cameron and Jane

Chairman – First Session – Philip

Reading of the Mission of the Club – Kimberley

Word of the Day – [Invincible] Daniel (as Grammarian)

Introductions – The Topic for the Introductions was ‘Finals’ giving rise to a great diversity of impressions, experiences and aspirations in the regular 30 second warm up.

Agenda Update – Kimberley

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

First Speech Session was led by Mark as Toastmaster and introduced Bernard doing his 5^th Speech – Your Body Speaks – with a title – A Friend in Crisis – in which Bernard courageously shared a recent and highly charged situation of a friend going through an extremely tough emotional time.

Bernard spoke with great conviction and suitably poignant pace and demonstrated deep concern about the situations leading up to the revelation of this crisis and concluded with some deep convictions of how he and a mutual friend will deal with this situation in the days and weeks ahead. This was definitely Bernard’s most outstanding presentation to date.

Sam who was clearly impressed by Bernard’s subject matter, delivery and conviction presiding over an excellent Evaluation of Bernard’s speech.

Break – 10 minutes

Chairman Second Session  – Glen H

Toast – Glenn D presented a very unique insight into especially historic days and how people who have birthdays on such occasions can often be forgotten. His Toast was very ably executed to: “People whose Birthday is on a Historic Day”

Second Speech Session was led by Paul V as Toastmaster and he introduced Josh delivering Speech No 7 – Research Your Topic – with a title of: “Who Are You?”

Josh provided a structured and well-prepared outline of the Myers-Briggs Personality Indicator. Even for those who had heard of, or even participated in a Myers-Briggs assessment this was a highly informative and well-presented refresher on the assessment process and the outcomes that come from this universally renowned Indicator.

Josh was evaluated by Paul V who unpacked the elements of the Speech with precision and insight.

Table Topics – presented by Sandra in her first ever role as Table Topics Master. Sandra presided over one of the most creative Table Topics implementations we have seen in sometime. Sandra had a range of cotton swabs doused in different fragrances and each speaker was asked to evoke a story, memory or mood after sampling one of the odours. The results were stunning, diverse, amusing and even quite poignant, demonstrating how powerful our sense of smell can be in evoking responses.

The Evaluators Bernard and Daniel for the odd and even numbered speakers respectively, provided excellent observations, advice and encouragement in their summation of these impromptu speakers.

Umms and Ahs – Paul M

Grammarian – Daniel (about 4 people using the Word of the Day)

Big Ears – Brett  

Timers Report – Kimberley

General Evaluator – Chris

Forward Planner – Kimberley

Guests Comments – Jane and Cameron

Announcements – Belated presentations and motions of thanks were made to outgoing Past President Paul V and outgoing President Brett

President’s Closing Remarks – John made reference to encourage members to make speeches and track their Leadership Manuals

Meeting Closed – 9:15pm

AREA 6 HUMOROUS & TABLE TOPICS COMPETITION – Tuesday 6th September 2011

CONCORD WEST CLUB MAINTAINS ITS STRONG RECORD OF COMPETITION

Concord West Competitor Glen H being presented with his Runner Up Certificate in the 2011 Area 6 Humorous Speech Competition by District Governor Michael Said ACS

Concord West Toastmasters Club was represented by Glen H in the Humorous Speech Category and Chris S in the Table Topics Category. Competing against 5 other Clubs in our Area; Yaralla, Burwood, Burwood Telecom, RailCorp and Smooth Speech.

Both Glen and Chris took out the Runner Up Positions in their respective categories.

The evening was hosted by Concord West Club at the Burwood Park Community Centre in Burwood and was very well attended. area Governor Vanessa who was the primary organiser of this years competition had taken a successful gamble on breaking with the tradition of holding the Area Competition on a weekend, instead opting for the Tuesday evening.

Concord West Competitor Chris S being presented with his Runner Up Certificate in the 2011 Area 6 Table Topics Competition by District Governor Michael Said ACS

CLUB HUMOROUS & TABLE TOPICS CONTEST – Tuesday 23rd August 2011

Area 6 Governor Vanessa presenting Glen with one of his two First Place Awards at the 2011 Club Humorous Competition and Table Topics Competition

This is one of our 2 Semi-Annual Contest Nights throughout the year.

This year the Editor was unable to attend the Club Competition so a more comprehensive outline of the evening is not possible. Plus the normal meeting’s Agenda is dispensed with so this is simply a summary of the Competitors and some photographic records of the evening.
In the Humorous Competition the Competitors were:

• Chris
• Juliet
• Josh
• Glen
• Meghan

Toastmaster: Kimberley

Area 6 Governor Vanessa presenting Chris with one of his two Runner Up Awards at the 2011 Club Humorous Competition and Table Topics Competition

In the Table Topics Competition the Competitors were:

• Chris
• Paul
• Natasha
• Glenn
• Glen

Toastmaster: Daniel 


Head Judge Area Governor Vanessa.


The Winners were:
Humorous Speech:
Glen
Chris (Runner Up)


Table Topics:
Glen
Chris (Runner Up)


As the Winner of the Club Humorous Competition Glen is also the second recipient of the Tony Spragg Commemorative Trophy for Humour in memory of our former Club member.


Shortly after the Competition Glen graciously relinquished the winning position for Table Topics to Chris providing an opportunity for them to both compete at the Area 6 Competition next week.

Congratulations not only to our Winner and Runner Up but also to all our Participants for having a go. Well done.

Glenn, Natasha and Paul receiving their Table Topics Participation Certificates from Daniel who officiated as Toastmaster for their Competition.

Josh, Juliet and Meghan receiving their Humorous Speech Participation Certificates from VPE Kimberley who officiated as Toastmaster for their Competition.

UPCOMING EVENTS

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: 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

CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1108 – Tuesday 12th July 2011

Our newly appointed Sergeant @ Arms Paul M called us to order in is his first meeting in that role. Paul M handed the meeting over to the newly appointed President John for his Welcome and control of the meeting as Chairperson for the first half of the meeting.

We welcomed Rino as our only Guest for the evening. Formal apologies had been received from Bett, Paul V, Philip, Katrina and Vicki.

Sam stepped in to read the Mission of the Club and Paul M presented the Word (phrase) of the Day; Carpe Diem.

Chairman John asked that Introductions be kept to a brief and basic introduction in order to make provision for a special Change-Over Night supper to be held at the Break. The newly appointed Vice President Education, Kimberley undertook an Agenda update and Chris took on responsibility for the Leadership Manual Evaluations.

A special segment had been set aide for the presentation of Certificates of Appreciation to the outgoing Executive Team including: Brett; Past President, Chris; Vice President Education, Natasha; Vice President Membership, John; Vice President Marketing/PR, Glen; Secretary, Peter C; Treasurer, Daniel; Sergeant @ Arms and Paul V; Immediate Past President. The Meeting acknowledged their fabulous contributions to the Club.

Dai Fei was Toastmaster for the first speech section and introduced Paul M with a thought provoking second speech on the topic of our mining resources from the Competent Communicator Manual #2 entitled; It Will Be Gone Forever! Paul delivered an excellently researched and emotively presented address on this highly topical issue.

Paul M was very ably Evaluated by Bernard in what is still one of his earlier evaluations following the Praise, Improvement, Praise formula to great effect.

We went to a break slightly earlier just as an array of hot finger food and tea and coffee was delivered to room. This longer one-off Break provided a rare opportunity for Members to chat informally and just added to the special nature of the evening.

S@A Paul called us back to order a little later and handed the meeting to Glen H as Chairman for the second half. Dai Fei led the evening’s Toast with a very evocative tribute to young drivers getting their drivers licence.

Daniel was Toastmaster for the second group of speakers introducing Meghan with her Ice Breaker Speech #1 – Introducing Myself. Meghan presentation, structure and delivery were extemporary for an Ice Breaker and had her audience in the palm of her hand. Well done.

The second speaker was Peter C with the second speech from the Advanced Communicator Manual – Storytelling. Peter took us all on a wonderful journey with the adventures and memories of his families beloved old Tarago (people mover). It wasn’t just an example of a highly experienced speaker, but a thoroughly enjoyable tale that captivated his audience.

Meghan was enthusiastically Evaluated by Glenn D and Peter by Dai Fei, both demonstrating increasing confidence and development in the arduous technique demanded of Evaluation.

Peter C stood in as a late replacement to present a slightly reduced Table Topics segment and followed a very sound technique of having experienced members on their feet first, followed by lesser experienced speakers while ensuring that those who had not had much speaking opportunity were involved. Peter also used a tried and tested them of having each speaker deal with an abstract topic provided just moments before.

The evenings final Evaluations were carried out by Peter C; ums and Ahs counter, Paul M; Grammarian with a pleasing number of speakers using the word of the day. Big Ears was presented by Sandra and the Timer’s Report by Natasha. Kimberley delivered the overall General Evaluation providing quality feedback for those participants who had not been evaluated.

Rino delivered an impressive Guest’s Comment and following a number of announcements regarding some special upcoming events, John concluded the meeting with his closing remarks.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 26^th July – Guest Speaker Dave Griffiths

Dave is preparing to go to the US to represent District 70 in the World Championships. This is a meeting not to be missed and would be a great night to invite Visitors and Guests

Tuesday 9th August – Normal Meeting

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

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

CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1107 – Tuesday 28th June 2011

Daniel called us to order in what will be his last meeting as Sergeant at Arms as the Toastmaster year comes to an end. Daniel handed the meeting over to President Brett for his Welcome and control of the meeting to Dai Fei as Chairperson for the first half of the meeting.

We welcomed Edmond who advised that he is formally joining the Club and Natalie as a guest of Brett’s and the return of Lyndel visiting from Hunter’s hill Club. Apologies were received from Natasha, Chris and Vicki.

Bernard presented the Reading of the Mission of the Club and Dai Fei pre-empted her other role as Grammarian for the evening by presenting the Word of the Day; Proliferate.

A significant Agenda Update and Leadership Manual Evaluations followed introductions.

Glenn D was Toastmaster for the first speech section and introduced John who spoke from the Advanced communicator Storytelling Manual No:2 – Let’s Get Personal with a speech entitled; A Very Personal Journey, where he recounted his experiences both good and bad with Public Speaking in the past and concluded by encouraging members to apply themselves to the Toastmaster’s challenges.

The second speaker was Josh who delivered speech No:9 from the Competent Communicator Manual; Persuade with Power with a Speech entitled; Ultimate Health and wellness. Speaking from a knowledgeable position in Food science, Josh provided quite a wake-up call in regard to the things we eat and the way in which we apply ourselves to maintaining good nutrition and health.

John was very ably Evaluated by Kimberley and Josh by Glen H. Both of whom have great prowess when it comes to balanced and encouraging evaluations that are both incisive and motivating.

After the Break, a very busy Glenn D assumed the role of Chairman for the second half and introduced Kimberley who presented the Toast for the evening.

In the role of Toastmaster for the second half, Glen H introduced Daniel who continued an emerging theme of health for the evening with a speech entitled; Permanent Medication providing a vivid insight into the pain and discomfort he had suffered recently and urged us all to carefully consider monitoring our health more closely.

Bernard then presented Speech No:4 from the Competent Communicator manual How to Say It; with yet another health related story; Say Okay and be Healed. In it Bernard related a very recent and graphic account of having severe pain relieved by agreeing to Acupuncture which on the outset exposed him to a personal terror – needles.

Both speakers were again very capably Evaluated by Brett and Glenn D, following the best course of Praise, improvement praise, each with their own very unique styles of delivery.

Juliet lead the evening’s Table Topics with yet another interesting and varied format. On this occasion Juliet had a series of scenarios written out in advance and asked speakers to come up and give an account of our response to those scenarios. Then the preceding speaker would select another topic at random and then appoint someone they deemed appropriate to respond. 

Another intriguing season of unpredictable and well-developed responses ensued.

The final Evaluations of the evening were kicked off by Lyndel who despite a quite debilitating does of laryngitis managed as Ums and Ahs Counter. Dai Fei pointed out some interesting issues of Grammar, both good and bad. Josh challenged our listening skills and his throwing arm in awarding treats for the Big Ears segment.

Brett delivered a well-monitored Timers report and Paul M rounded off with his first ever General Evaluation in a very unique sequence focussing first on the member participants and looking at all their roles during the evening’s meeting. A highly commendable and creative approach.

Following Guest Feedback a special presentation was made by Vice President Education (elect) Kimberley to outgoing President Brett on the completion of both his Advanced Communicator Bronze and his Advanced Leader Bronze at upon the completion of his second level of Communication and Leadership Manuals. Well-done Brett.

Brett then concluded the meeting with his closing remarks.

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UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 12^th July – Executive Change Over Evening & Supper

Tuesday 26^th July – Guest Speaker Dave Griffiths

Dave is preparing to go to the US to represent District 70 in the World Championships.

This is a meeting not to be missed and would be a great night to invite Visitors and Guests.