CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1114 – Tuesday 11th October 2011

We welcomed back a number of Members who have been away on holidays and had another well-attended meeting.

Meeting commenced at 7:17pm

Presidents Welcome – John welcomed 2 Visitors Nick and David as well as Bernie Fisher current President of Erskenville Toastmasters and a member of RPA Toastmasters. Bernie is also better known as the audio genius who wires up Contestants at Division Competitions.

Apologies – Natasha, Chris, Philip, Meghan and Paul V.

Chairman First Session – Mark

Reading of the Mission of the Club – Bernard.

Word of the Day [Smackdown] Glenn D (Grammarian)

Introductions – For the Topic of the Introductions we were asked to consider the comparative significance of both Isaac Newton and Steve Jobs. It provoked some astounding and didactic responses but one of the most insightful observations came from one of our Visitors, David who drew the link between the 2 men as being – the apple!

Agenda Update – Kimberley

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

First Speech Session was led by Glen H as Toastmaster and introduced Daniel with his assignment – How to say it – with a speech entitled: My Favourite Books. Daniel very enthusiastically embroiled us in the drama, intrigue and violence of a famous Australian crime writer’s series of icon Australian crime novels.

Glen then introduced Paul M with his speech assignment – Get to the Point with a Speech entitled: Culture Shock in which Paul took us on a roller-coaster ride of moving overseas for work and adapting to local customs both domestically and professionally.

Bernard Evaluated Daniel’s speech with great incite and ever increasing confidence providing praise and points for improvement.

John Evaluated Paul’s speech using the Praise, Improvement, Praise formula applied to what he observed, what he heard and how he responded to an excellent speech. 

Break

Chairman Second Session  – Katrina

Toast – Bernard presented a timely Toast to the Socceroo’s and their current involvement in the World Cup qualifiers.

Second Speech Session was led by Sam as Toastmaster and introduced Juliet presenting

a very uplifting speech entitled: Change. Juliet revealed the need for change when you take the huge step of immigrating to a new country, settling in and finding work and adapting to the significant and sometimes subtle changes you have to deal with along the way.

Kimberley then took up the challenge of delivery a ‘standby’ speech fulfilling the assignment – Your Body Speaks – with a speech entitled: Around the World in 8 Days. Kimberley took advantage of very recent personal experiences in relating the humour, frustration and drama of travel, transport and car hire in Germany.

Juliet was Evaluated by Brett providing both well considered praise points as well and some minor points for improvement while demonstrating how Juliet’s speech and subject matter was a great model for addressing the specific nature of the speech objectives. 

Glen H Evaluated Kimberley’s excellent speech, which by its structure, delivery and level of development, defied the fact that it was virtually an impromptu presentation. Glen utilised his dry sense of humour in relating to his travel plans to the same region in Europe in a very short period of time.

Table Topics – was presented by Paul M who presented each speaker with a different Ink Blot and challenged them to present a response that included what they thought it was – and how it made them feel.  

The Evaluators were our Guest, Bernie and Mark for the odd and even numbered speakers provided careful observation, advice and encouragement in their Evaluations. Bernie being an old hand reminded the Speakers that it is important to listen to – and respond to the question put by the Table Topics Master in order to both respond appropriately and to assist with making your response easier.

Umms and Ahs – Edmond

Grammarian – Glenn D (with record number of people using the Word of the Day)

Big Ears – Glen H

Timers Report – Edmond

General Evaluator – Peter C

Forward Planner – Kimberley

Guests Comments – David, Nick and Bernie all provided some very positive comments and observations of the evening’s proceedings and we look forward to seeing them at future meetings.

Announcements – Combined with Closing Remarks

President’s Closing Remarks – John reminded the Executive of the meeting to follow and encouraged all members to plan their speeches and put their names down for the Forward Planner. We have just 4 more normal meetings to the end of the year.

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

CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1113 – Tuesday 27th September 2011

An unusual meeting that was well attended despite the unusually large number of regular members that were absent.

Meeting commenced at 7:15pm

Presidents Welcome – John welcomed our Area Governor Vanessa and explained some of the reasons behind the large number of absentees and thanked Paul M (in his absence) for coming in earlier to set things up despite not being at all well and then needing to head home to recoup.

Apologies – Kimberley, Philip, Natasha, Chris, Peter, Brett, Jane, Juliet, Glenn D, Paul V and Paul Martin

Welcomed – Area Governor Vanessa from Yaralla Club

Chairman First Session – Sam

Reading of the Mission of the Club – Mark. Who it should be noted was just one word off attaining Philip’s challenge of reciting the Mission of the Club from memory. A feat that has a nice bottle of wine on the offer from Past District Governor Philip. Well done Mark!

Word of the Day [Didactic] Meghan (Grammarian)

Introductions – The Topic of the Introductions was ‘Are we a Nation of Whingers?’ prompting some very didactic responses from all members present.

Agenda Update – John

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

First Speech Session was led by Daniel as Toastmaster and introduced John doing his 2nd Speech from the Advanced Communicator Manual – Story Telling – with a title – The Story of the Old Man who made withered trees to blossom – in Japanese – Hanasaka Jiisan.

John provided some background of how Japanese Folk Tales have been retold and illustrated in children’s storybooks and gave an overview of the underlying themes employed in these tales. John using the storybook John retold this unusual tale filled with intrigue, greed, envy, murder and mayhem.

Meghan Evaluated John’s speech in one of her first Speech Evaluations, demonstrating both keen listening skills and analytical observation, with advice for improvement.

Break

Chairman Second Session  – John

Toast – Mark

Second Speech Session was led by Sandra as Toastmaster and introduced Edmond presenting his Ice Breaker Speech No 1. Edmond tackled a seemingly straightforward topic in a highly informative and original manner talking about why he joined Toastmasters he took us back to high school science presentations and the fears we could all relate to. Edmond’s first speech caught everyone by surprise with what was a polished and well-prepared speech that was presented with surprising confidence and finesse. A great job!

Edmond was evaluated by Bernard who provided an excellent Evaluation of an Ice Breaker offering tremendous encouragement and sincerity in responding to such a fabulous first speech.

Table Topics – was presented by Josh who challenged each participant had 60 seconds to expand upon the notion of being the ‘World’s Best…’ in the nominated field, activity or pursuit he presented to them. We had everything from the world’s fastest to the most flexible and everything in between. The results were as diverse and surprising as the challenges themselves.   

The Evaluators Glen H and Vanessa for the odd and even numbered speakers provided excellent observation, advice and encouragement in their Evaluations.

Umms and Ahs – Mark

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

Big Ears – Josh

Timers Report – Edmond

General Evaluator – Daniel

Forward Planner – John

Guests Comments – Area Governor Vanessa thanked the Club for its efforts in hosting the recent Area Humorous and Table Topics Competition and announced the dates for next year’s Area 6 International Speech  Contest on Tuesday 13^th March 2012.

Announcements – Members were reminded about replacement Name Badges

President’s Closing Remarks – John encouraged Members to keep track of their Leadership manual Evaluations

Meeting Closed – A few minutes after 9:15pm

UPCOMING EVENTS

Tuesday 11th October – Normal Meeting

Tuesday 11th October – Executive Meeting to Follow Normal Meeting

Tuesday 25th October – Normal Meeting

Wednesday 14th December – Area 6 Combined Christmas Party

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