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
