Tonight was the first of our contests for the year with the Table Topics competition. We had four contestants, Joe Fry, Andrew Bond, Shane Manns and myself. The question was ” Do You Like Suprises and Why?” We all had a fair shot at the topic and the competition was close. I was lucky enough to pull off a win on the night. The thing about Table Topics is that sometimes you can crack a subject that suits you and sometimes not. You can head down the wrong track and get stuck during your speech and sometimes it just flows. Well done to everyone that stepped up to the challenge.

Tonight we also had a couple of first timers. Jo Kramme stood out the front and gave us an excellent mouthwatering topic on food and wine which ended with the statment  “Eat drink and be merry for tommorrow you may die(t)”. Well done Jo you are already on your way to being a confident speaker.

Timothy Neo gave his Ice Breaker speech. He spoke on his life and what his family meant to him. He broke his family life down into Committment, Love and Pain and how they all wove together to give him a fulfilling life. Well done Timothy, we look forward to many more speeches.

Tim Mcnamara then gave us a speech on his obsession with time and watches. Seems ever since he scored a fob watch as part of his Grandfather’s estate at the age of 11, he has been obsessed with time ever since. Apparently his wife believes he is obsessed to the point of freakness.

Other members took up the roles to ensure a good meeting was had by all. Well done Neville for timing again. Next week is the Humorous Speech Competiton. We have six starters so it should be good.

Keep on Talking (with Purpose).

Cheers!

Pete Law

Tonight went exceedingly well and included five  visitors. Shane Manns was our first time Toastmaster for the evening conducting the night with great confidence, excellent job Shane.

May Pye set off the evening with her inspiration on why she left her job and took up her dream of studying psychology. Glenis Nicholas provided a workshop on Moments of Truth, this is where the club members look at how they think their club is tracking. I look forward to the stats.

Table Topics Master for the evening, Neville Simmons, got us all thinking with some challenging topics. Sai, one our guests for the evening defended the Comb Over Hair Style and somehow ended up frying an egg on his head. Tony told us why Sun Tsu was the greatest leader of all time (at least in his computer game world anyway).  Allan gave his policy for the Raving Mad Loony Party and Mark told us why the Vuvuzela should be used in every government department each day to arouse all public servants. Richard discussed how to integrate Aliens (from Mars) into our society whulst Arjun, another guest, talked about introducing a new Day Dreaming Public Holiday on 1st of Mar each year.

Timothy Neo gave us some thinking time by providing us with his tonic, apparently he backed his car into his wife’s best friend’s car.  Not Happy Timothy.

Project speeches were next with the first speech being provided by me titled Don’t Stress, hopefully I got my message across even with my attempt at humour. Next was Ty Brydon with his speech titled Solution Man. This was where Ty gave an insight on how to refresh ouselves by taking time off and going on holiday. I’m hearing you Ty.  David Nicholas then gave a speech on Oscar Peterson the famous jazz pianist and obviously David’s musical hero.

One of the key elements of the night are the evaluations we all recieve. This is a key part of our meetings and enables us all to improve and grow as Toastmasters. Thanks to all those that evaluated and provided the other support roles for the evening.

Victoria Quay Toastmasters Club is a supportive and learning organisation and we look forward to hosting any visitors who are interested in attending to see what we do. Remember Toastmasters is an organisation the focuses on self improvement for the  individual.

Regards

Pete Law

Always a good night at the Victoria Quay Toastmasters Club because you never know what you are going to hear in the speech grab bag. Every night is a good night. The club continues to roll on with almost a new member signing up every week.

Our Toastmaster for the evening was Doug Shannon, a first timer as TM but a polished performance everyone was impressed with.

Judith Ingle provide the inspiration on positive ageing.  Aim to parachute at 100 years of age and you probably will.

Mark Williamson was our Table Topics master putting out some very challenging topics that had a few people hoping they weren’t chosen. David, a winner of many awards spoke on the Award that was hard to Swallow. Judith spoke about the Chef with more than one bun in the oven. Karina wanted us to show her the money. I spoke on running for PM with only good looking people allowed to vote and Tim talked about Melbourne Storm in a tea cup. Some good attempts with out there subjects.

May Pye  provided us a humorous tonic on how she became top dog at school.

Then we had our project speeches. Glenis Nicholas kicked off with an Ice Breaker on her great morning and evening walks with the dogs (and David). Lee Syminton provided us with a speech on Heaven and Hell noting that we all have choices on how our life turns out. Karina Acosta spoke about The Right Exercise Choice and the course she is doing as a Pilates instructor. I am ready to join Karina. Andrew Bond’s talk was titled Das Boot which referred to a small boating disaster he recently suffered with his mates whilst on holiday in the Eastern States.

Neville Simmons provided Highlights at short notice, Shane Manns stepped up to his first evaluation, always scary for the first time but a job well done. Joe Fry also conducted his evaluation of the evaluators, another tough gig but again a job well done.

All in all another good night finished off with our traditional supper. See you all next week.

Another good night at the club. Going to a Toastmasters meeting that runs well gives you a boost and refreshes your ‘chi’. Most people I know can show up tired from work and walk away recharged. This is one of the great outcomes we get from attending.

Karina Acosta was our Toastmaster. It was her first time and what a fantastic job she did keeping the meeting going, well done Karina.

Doug Shannon got us going with an inspiration on organising and removing clutter from our lives to enable us to focus on the important things; two minutes worth listening too.

I gave a workshop on the Distinguished Club Program and it looks like Victoria Quay is well on its way to being a President’s Distinguished club based on the response from the members.

Our Table Topics master David Nicholas centered all his questions around food. Ty talked about Redhot Chillies and curries to give him a boost. Genivieve spoke of her fastfood regrets everytime she eats it. Sam spoke of her Tuna experience from some years ago that she has never been able to replicate. May spoke of healthy food with all the bad stuff removed leaving no taste. Denis spoke of lambs fry and bacon, yuck. Judith discussed self cooking and Greg’s favourite fruit was grapes because it made wine. All excellent responses, good clear voices, good use of humour and well done to our first timers Sam, Denis and Greg.

Tonic was from Ty who told us how glad he was to be back at the club after being away for a few months (welcome back Ty).

Project speeches were excellent with Shane Manns leading off with his CC1 Icebreaker Speech titled ‘The Road Less Travelled’ Shane went from Birth to present breaking many bones and injuring himself on the way. I now know that Shane loves to read books on self improvment. You have come to the right place to continue the journey Shane and I look forward to many more speeches.

Colin Hughes, one of our very competent speakers and long time member, gave a very funny speech titled ‘Working Career’ on his interesting job choices over the years. He is now looking for a new one if any one out there is interested.

Tim Mcnamara’s humourous speech titled ‘Under the Coathanger’ turned out to be a speech on how 80 swimming records were broken in the North Sydney pool, between 1956 and 1970. If you can believe this, it may have been a well respected chinese pool attendant named Wen Chen who lost his arm in a pool cleaing accident in 1955 (I did say IF you can believe it). Good one Tim.

All our other members were there conducting the other roles of evaluators, highlights, timing and of course the very important after meeting supper.

Well done to all, another great night.

Another great Night at Victoria Quay Toastmasters. Mark Williamson was the Toastmaster for the night who kept the meeting ticking over with his usual engaging style. Mark Richards provided us with an inspiration on what our club and its members can achieve.

Welcome to Timothy Neo who not only told us how good the food is in Singapore, particularly Chicken Rice, a favourite of mine, but he signed on as a member that night. Well done Timothy and welcome aboard, I look forward to hearing from you a lot more during your time at Vic Quay.

Table Topics was from me, Peter, giving speakers a minute and a half to talk about childhood dreams. Not their dreams of course but the ones I cooked up for them. All did a sterling job. Joe as the Lone Ranger, Colin as a Deep Sea Fisherman, May a Champion Bagpiper, Alan as a Rock Guitarist and poor old Tim as a Fairy Princess. Well done to all.

Heljo Cameron then got cheeky and palyful with her advanced speech on the yellow crested, red chested, yellow speckled, long legged, short wing blip bird. She had us all chuckling with the hybrids, hand drawn pictures and questions.

Then it was Gail Jenkins turn with her advanced speech on Health Lifestyle and Work at a manufacturing firm. We all wanted to join the firm as Gail was offering up some fairly juicy and much sort after perks.

David Nicholas provided us with a speech on the Competent Leaders Manual. An important but often misunderstood manual by first time users. David was able to articulate the importance of the manual for achieving and teaching us leadership goals.

Our Area Governor Tim McNamara, also a member of Victoria Quay, conducted a small Club Officer Installation Ceremony to thank past Committee members and introduce the incoming Team. Well done to Tim also for taking on the duties of the W21 Area Governor.

Shane Manns, one of our newest members stepped up to the plate and did a very credible first time job with timing. Not scared to use the buzzer either, well done Shane I am looking forward to your speeches.

All in all another good night at the Club. Thank you to our outgoing Committee Members, Heljo Cameron, Alan Smith, Glenis Nicholas. Thank you to Mark Williamson, Neville Simmons and David Nicholas for backing up and putting their hand up to stay on the Committee

Vic Quay meetings are great and it keeps me coming back.