Peter Law DTM

Victoria Quay is in Area S32 of Southern Division in District 17 of Toastmasters International.  On Saturday April 28, Southern Division conducted contests to decided who would represent the Division at the District finals at the Convention on May 26/7.  Our member Peter was the Area representative for both contests.  He won them both.  Congratulations Peter.

Here is a brief account of the afternoon’s very satisfactory proceedings for Victoria Quay members.  It was held at the Bullcreek Community Centre in Hassell Avenue.  Further down this web page there is a Rotator with photos of each of the people mentioned.

Sergeant at Arms Greg Madden opened the session. Of course Greg is a member of Victoria Quay.

He introduced the Toastmaster, Vicky Post, Southern Division Governor.  She explained that for each contest the first two placegetters will go forward to the District 17 Contests.

The International Speech Contest Chair, Mark Small, explained the rules.

Gerry Prewett gave an Inspiration. He spoke about Perth Glory almost winning the Soccer premiership and left them with a message – Just keep practising and get lucky.

Mike Palmer and Peter

Then we had the 5 International Speech Contestants

Ian Hart from Area S35 spoke about “Dream a Dream”

Our Peter from Area S32 gave his “The Gift” speech

Marianne Law (yes, Marianne) from S33 shocked some with “Penises in Sudan”

Simon Frayne from S34 spoke about “Vision”

Mike Palmer‘s speech was “Strength and Love”

Peter was first and Mike Palmer was second

After the contest and presentation of participation certificates by Contest chair Mark, John Pawley gave a Convention Update.

Then we had afternoon tea coordinated by Ling Morton from Murdoch Southsiders club.

The Evaluation Contest

Mike Palmer, Jim Stephen and Peter

Ian Pickens was the Contest Chair and after reading the rules he introduced the test speaker, Ray Martin, who asked us “Who are you?”

The five evaluators were

Tom Bielski from S33

Charles Fisher from S35

Mike Palmer from S31

Jim Stephen from S34

Peter Law from S32

The three placegetters were Peter first, Jim second and Mike third. However, because Jim is a presenter at the District Convention he had to choose between that and competing in the Evaluation final. He chose to make the presentation, so third place Mike is our second representative.

After Vicky had thanked the helpers, John and Vicky conducted the Convention draw and a Raffle draw.

Mark Richards

Mark Richards, our District 17 Governor, and of course another Victoria Quay member, closed the Contests with a short speech. Of course he urged all those who hadn’t yet registered for the Convention to come along. Besides four Contests – Table Topics, Humorous (Peter is in that too), Evaluation and the International, there is a featured presentation by the current World Champion of Public Speaking, Jock Elliott, several other presentations, the District Council Meeting, the Saturday evening Dinner Dance, the Sunday morning DTM breakfast and many awards.

Mark told us that among the 86 Districts in the world covering a quarter of a million members, our District 17 is currently running fifth. Now that is something exciting for such a new District – we only began last July. We are only 40 member payments short of reaching an important target when we will be Distinguished, and if we can do it quickly enough we will be the first District in the world Distinguished. District 43 is hot on our heels with 80 payments to go – will we be first?

A great success

The contests were a great success and it wasn’t only for Victoria Quay. Peter was our representative in the Evaluation Contest but in the International he was representing our sister club, Netmasters. And in the Humorous Speech Contest he will be representing Armadale! Wow!! He gets around, doesn’t he? Let’s hope he wins the International and goes on to represent our District 17 (and Netmasters and Victoria Quay) at Orlando in Florida in August for the World Championship of Public Speaking.

Victoria Quay were well represented at the Contests. Besides Peter, Greg Madden and Mark, Christine, Greg Lynn, Neville, Glenis and David were there. Former VP Education Mark came along with his wife to support Peter.

Here is the Rotator with many photos from the afternoon

These are the people in the Rotator

Peter of course

Greg Madden

Vicky Post

Mark Small

Gerry Prewett

John Pawley

Ian Pickens

Ian & Ray Martin

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Report and Photos by

David Nicholas DTM
Victoria Quay Webmaster

Contest Chair Heljo Cameron
with Blanche MacQuinto

We held our Club final for the Evaluation Contest on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. There were three members in the Contest

Peter Law, Greg Madden and Blanche MacQuinto

Michele Naidu from Canning Vale Club was the test speaker. She spoke about St Patrick’s Day, with a very appropriate Irish accent.

Janet McNie was the Timer, assisted by Glenis Nicholas. And we had a timing disqualification!

Blanche was first, and Greg second.

Blanche will represent the club in the Area W21 final being hosted by Gateway on Tuesday evening, March 22nd. That evening will also have the Area final of the International Contest. Neville Simmons is our representative.

Christine Bonser
& Blanche MacQuinto

Besides the Contest we had two excellent speeches.

Christine Bonser gave her Competent Communicator 2 – An unchartered adventure – about exploring Kimberley waterways in a boat.

Andrew Bond gave his Humorously Speaking 2 – Live life on your terms. It was a serious speech with jokes.

Blanche was very surprised to win the Evaluation Contest as she is a very recent new member of Victoria Quay. She is so new in fact that when President Peter Law presented badges to two new members she was one of them, along with Christine. Christine and Blanche are shown reading and accepting the Toastmasters Promise.

Contest Chair Greg Madden
with Neville Simmons

We held our Club final for the International Speech Contest on Wednesday, March 2, 2011. It was a strong field with five members in the Contest

Paul Reilly spoke on Climate Change or Apocalypse
Peter Law – A Stroke of Luck
Heljo Cameron – Take a Risk
Neville Simmons – Watch your Words
Colin Hughes – What it is like living with a disability

Peter Law was placed 2nd.

Neville will represent the club in the Area W21 final being hosted by Gateway on Tuesday evening, March 22nd. That evening will also have the Area final of the Evaluation Contest. We are holding our club final on Wednesday, March 9.

On Wednesday, October 20, 2010 Victoria Quay hosted the Area W21 Humorous and Table Topics Contests.  There were contestants from Victoria Quay, Gateway and CSBP Kwinana.  It was an evening full of highlights for our club.

Peter Law

The big one

Our President, Peter Law, won both Contests.  He carried off the Humorous with his “Midlife Crisis – Leave it to the Professionals” speech.  The Table Topics subject was “The most memorable dinner party”.  He recounted a military party with the Governor and some unexpected under the table activities.

The supper

Some people say that the contest detail which sticks in peoples memories is the supper.  On that test, this was the most memorable contest I have attended.  Heljo Cameron and partner Alan superintended the arrangements.  Members brought along a plate – and the food on them was plentiful, tasty and attractive looking.  Thank you everybody and particularly Heljo and Alan.

The contest officials

Area W21 Governor Tim McNamara was the Toastmaster.  He was genial, relaxed and efficient.  His careful planning meant that the whole contest flowed without a hitch.

Mark Williamson

Heljo Cameron

Mark Williamson and Heljo Cameron were the Contest Chairs.  They were faultless in their accurate, mistake free conduct.

Judith Ingle and Greg Madden kept time scrupulously.

Glenis Nicholas and Andrew Bond were tally counters.  I’m sure they were fair, supervised by Chief Judge Sandra Morton from Cannington Communicators.

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Paul Reilly and Neville Simmons were the Usher – yes, it was a double act, and it worked well.

The Judges

Area Governor Tim McNamara with the Judges

Sandra Morton was chief judge.  She was assisted by Peter McDonnell, the W10 Area Governor from Stirling Toastmasters and a judge from each of the competing clubs – Victoria Quay’s Alan Smith, Martin Lindsay from CSBP Kwinana, and Sharon Wayland from Gateway.

The audience

Over 40 people were there with 17 of our current members and five Victoria Quay visitors.  You can get details of attendance from our regular weekly summary at Week 756.  The audience was very receptive and responsive to all competitors in both contests.

Where to from now?

Peter will represent Area W21 in the Western Division final to be held on Saturday afternoon, November 6.  Victoria Quay members will be there in force to support him.

Story by David Nicholas DTM
Webmaster

Richard Strickland was Contest Chair
Mark Richards was Chief Judge

There were 4 contestants, each of whom gave an excellent speech.  Only one could be selected to represent us in the Area W21 Contest to be hosted by Victoria Quay on Wednesday, October 20.

Peter Law

Heljo Cameron

Our four contestants were, in speaking order,

Andrew Bond

Peter Law

Genevieve Morrissey

Heljo Cameron

First was Peter & Second Heljo

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Peter will represent us at the W21 Area Final on October 20.

Mark Williamson was Contest Chair
David Nicholas was Chief Judge

There were 4 contestants, each of whom gave an excellent answer to the question “Do you like surprises? Why?”.  Only one could be selected to represent us in the Area W21 Contest to be hosted by Victoria Quay on Wednesday, October 20.

Peter Law

Shane Manns

Our four contestants were, in speaking order,

Andrew Bond

Peter Law

Joe Fry

Shane Manns

First was Peter & Second Shane

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Peter will represent us at the W21 Area Final on October 20.

During the year there are four Toastmaster Contests

Table Topics
Humorous
Evaluation
International

There are four levels of Contests

Clubs – Areas – Divisions – District.

Victoria Quay is in Area W21 of Western Division so our Contest sequence will be

Victoria Quay – Table Topics on August 18 and Humorous on August 25
Area W21 – Table Topics and Humorous on October 20 at the Fremantle Bowling Club
Western Division – Table Topics and Humorous on Saturday November 6
District 73 – Table Topics on May 22 and Table Topics on May 20 – both in Perth

Why would you compete in the Club Contest?

It’s a different experience to our standard Table Topics

• The time is 2 minutes, not 90 seconds
• All contestants have the same topic
• It’s a contest so you are competing against other members
• If you win you go on to other contest levels

The Contest Format

We have our usual meeting and include the Contests.

• With the Table Topics there will be speeches and evaluations as well.
• With the Humorous there will be Table Topics and perhaps an ordinary speech or two

The Contest Judges are our members not competing

• We have a Judging Workshop at the beginning so all our members can get training in judging
• One experienced member is the Chief Judge who supervises the proceedings

How do you enter either or both Contests?

All members are eligible. There are no other requirements. Tell Vice President Education David. Email or phone him on 0401 011 212

There were 4 contestants, each of whom gave an excellent evaluation.  Only two could be selected to represent us in the Area W21 Contest to be hosted by Gateway on Tuesday, March 10.

Neville Simmons

Lee Syminton

Our four contestants were, in speaking order,

Neville Simmons

Lee Syminton

Mark Williamson

Mark Hamilton

And the winners were
Neville & Lee
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Raf Cammarano

Toastmaster for the night was Glenis Nicholas

Contest Chair was President Heljo Cameron

Chief Judge was David Nicholas who presented the Judging Workshop

The Judges were all our members, but not the contestants of course

The Usher was Colin Dwyer

The Timer was Gail Jenkins

The Tally Counter was Ty Brydon

The Test Speaker was Raf Cammarano from Canning Vale.
Raf’s title was “The Essence of Simplicity”.
He had three main points

Find the core of the message
Make the most of the first sentence – the core
Use metaphors and analogies to engage audience emotion

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We had 4 Visitors and two of them took part in the Table Topics presented by Peter Law.

Next Week is the International Contest.

Again, we have a hot contest, with five contestants this time
Mark Hamilton, Colin Dwyer, Heljo Cameron, Lee Syminton and Neville Simmons.

Members, come and enjoy the contest as you hone your judging skills.

Visitors are very welcome.  You wont be disappointed with the fun we have and the skill our contestants display.