2ND ANNUAL AREA 6 COMBINED TOASTMASTERS CHRISTMAS PARTY

Another great night organised by Host Club Yaralla Toastmasters saw a good 40+ folk from 3 local Toastmaster Clubs get together for a very enjoyable end-of-year celebration. 

Along with a rolling Table Topics ‘storyline’ which challenged a number of folk from all the Clubs, we enjoyed good company, enjoyable food, relaxing drinks and a visit from Santa. 

Plus we had the pleasure of Christmas Giving with a ‘Wishing Tree’ style collection of Goodies to be distributed by the Benevolent Society. 

A big thank you to Yaralla Toastmasters for another great evening.

Area Govenor Pauline also took the opportunity to formally present our very own Peter Crosby with the Area 6 Humorous Trophy for his success in this year’s Area humorous Speech Competition.

CONCORD WEST TOASTMASTERS MEETING No: 1095 – Tuesday 23 November 2010

A slightly abridged overview of our last formal meeting which was very well attended with 19 regulars and 2 visitors.

Daniel called us to Order at 7:15pm sharp and was followed by our President Brett’s Welcome and the Chairman for the first Session; Bernard kicked us off asking Paul M to Read the Mission of the Club.

Chairman Bernard then challenged us to recount our ‘Worst Bad Haircut’ with our Introductions. There were no apologies and a very succinct Agenda Update managed by VPE Chris. Peter C took on the task of the Leadership manual Evaluations.

Gavin presented the Guest Welcome to Marilou and Juliet.

Sam was the Toastmaster for the First Prepared Speech Session and introduced Chris who delivered a riveting speech No:7 entitled “Pandemic, Coming to a Cinema Near You”. Daniel very ably evaluated Chris.

The second speakers was Dai Fei who delivered speech No:9 entitled “Dancing is Good for You”. So good in fact that Dai Fei had us all up on feet tripping the light fantastic. Brett provided an encore performance with his Evaluation of Dai Fei’s presentation.

Following a very punctual 10-minute break, John was chairman for the Second Session and handed the floor to Sam for The Toast, who presented a very timely dedication to ‘The Rescuers’.

Bishnu did a sterling job in his first role as Toastmaster for the Second Session of speeches introducing Josh with an excellent explanation of the banking system in his speech entitled “The Goldsmith’s Tale”. Josh very capably evaluated Gary.

Adam was Table Topics Master for the meeting and as is to be expected of Adam, challenged us with a Fortune Cookie scenario which provoked some very humorous and surprisingly ‘deep’ responses including participation by our Visitors.

John Evaluated the Odd numbered speakers, while Bernard Evaluated the Even numbered speakers. Great fun!

The evenings wrap up and Evaluations were undertaken by a variety of members. Sandra tackled her first Ums and Ahs Count. Gavin had taken on Grammarian and Word of the Day ‘Mollycoddle’ while Dai Fei had been working on her throwing action in distributing incentives for good listeners with her Big Ear’s Report.

The Timer’s Report was delivered by Glenn D and the General Evaluation was eloquently presented by Paul V.

The night concluded with very favourable Guest Comments and the President’s Closing Remarks. There was a reminder regarding the upcoming Combined Area 6 Christmas Party at Concord Bowling Club on Wednesday 8^th December.

NEXT MEETING Tuesday 14th December 2010

CONCORD WEST CLUB’S NEW BANNER

It was decided at a recent Club Executive Meeting – in the absence of any sign of our original Club Banner – to re-order a new Banner. It was therefore fortuitous that our new banner arrived the same night that our Area Governor Pauline was visiting our Club and permitted her to partake in a small formal unfurling of our new banner. The banner reminds us of just how distinguished the Concord West Club is as it was one of the very first Toastmaster Clubs to be chartered in Australia back in 1962. Which means we are on the cusp of our 50th Anniversary in 2012.

Past President Peter (currently Club Treasuer 2010-11) and Area Govenor Pauline presenting the new Club Banner to the Club at the meeting on 26th October 2010.

INAUGURAL PRESENTATION OF THE TONY SPRAGG CLUB HUMOROUS TROPHY

It was very fitting that this year’s Winner of the Club Humorous Speech Contest held last month Daniel be the first recipient of the Tony Spragg Trophy. This award is in memory of our dear friend and fellow Toastmaster who lost a short and tragic battle with cancer earlier this year. Tony himself had been a past winner at both Club and Area Level in the Humorous Speech Competition and is fondly remembered for his uniquely dry sense of humour and remarkably complex anecdotal tales.
Daniel being a very long serving member of Concord West Club had known Tony throughout his entire membership and was very proud to be the first to accept this now Annual Award.

Daniel (left) being presented with the Tony Spragg Trophy by Club President Brett (right)

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