Summertime

Daylight saving changes the feeling at the start of meetings now. We don’t need lights for the whole hour and a half from 6-7.30 pm. It gives a bright start to the meeting which carried through.

Claire was Toastmaster.

Claire Lacy

Claire handled the role with great vigour. She is an expert in our standard format for introducing speakers, and at times she could have been introducing the President-Elect of the United States. But her energy was always appropriately tailored to the person and the role she was deferring to.

Glenis gave the Inspiration.

She told us about Lang Lang, the Chinese pianist who was featured in the opening to the Beijing Olympics. His parents suffered a great deal of deprivation during the Cultural Revolution in China, and they were determined to give their one child the best opportunity they could. He was given a piano for his 2nd birthday - that’s right, 2 years old - and started working with a teacher at 4. His parents drove him - you’ve been born with a great gift, but you have to work at it. And work at it he did, practising for 8 or more hours every day.

Colin Simons

Colin presented Table Topics

We are very happy to have Colin back with us. Family commitments with a daughter in Sydney have kept him away for most of this year. He told us the theme for Table Topics would be trees. He was inspired by Alan’s speech last week.

Tony’s question was What kind of a tree are you? It’s a weeping willow, with Tony, as he battles with Database Management at work.
Craig What kind of trees should we have in our gardens? Craig believes our gardens should match what we feel. So everything should fit a theme.
Glenis What advantage is there in having native trees rather than imported species? Glenis wants to preserve our native vegetation for its own sake, and particularly because they need less water and less pruning.
Frank Can we live with logging? Frank couldn’t reach a final conclusion. What we do is meet consumer demand. We want the paper, so we get rid of our native trees, and install plantations. Is that good? Probably not, but it’s what people want.
Gail How do we sustain the growth of our forests? Well, by stopping logging of course, by recycling timber instead of throwing it out, and by growing plantations.
Peta What do you think of airlines charging a voluntary fee for carbon offsets? Peta felt she didn’t know anything about this, so Mark spoke passionately - it’s just a big scam to fatten their own profits.

Gail presented the Tonic about monster fish in the Swan. The sceptics among us were silenced when she presented a newspaper cutting of a sturgeon caught in the Swan and released again. It was 11 foot long and had a 6 foot girth. It was a big fish!

Alan presented the Table Topics Evaluation.

Heljo Cameron

Heljo is back from her world trip, and resuming her quest for her Advanced Communicator Award. She was selling a product with the title Successful Accessories. It was a bag, a Peruvian product with amazing qualities. It can be used for shopping. It’s ideal for personal defence in dangerous situations. It’s an ideal umbrella. And to top it all, it’s an upmarket fashion statement. At less than $40, full price, it’s a bargain, but she offered it, this night only, for $20.

Peta evaluated Heljo.

Colin Hughes

Colin’s Humorously Speaking 3 speech was titled Rocking City Blues.
Colin narrated his experiences in Phoenix with his friend, Manfred. There was a lot of waiting around, and many disappointments. But the plane left on time!

Craig evaluated Colin.

David Nicholas

David’s CC 6 speech was titled Where do you come from?.
David began by clarifying what the question wasn’t about. It wasn’t a young child asking a parent about the facts of life. It couldn’t be answered with a run down of places you have lived in and come from. It asks about your personality. What kind of a person are you? and how did you get to be like that? From the many traits of personality he chose 3. Are we optimists or pessimists? Are we spenders or savers? And how do we handle anger from a close friend or associate? We were asked to look deep into ourselves. What are we like? How did we get to be like that?

Gail evaluated David.

Frank’s Highlights tested our listening skills. He dealt with sturgeons, Lang Lang, the Chinese Cultural Revolution, scepticism about carbon offsets, and the colour of the bargain bag. Alas! there more highlights than time to detail them.
Mark evaluated the evaluators.

Tony, the depressed weeping willow,gave the Timing Report.

Alan Smith

Alan evaluated the meeting.

President Gail closed the meeting. She welcomed Marina back and looked forward to her resuming membership.

She drew attention to the forward Agendas on the back page, and noted that David and Mark would be attending the District 73 Council Meeting in Melbourne this weekend.

Gail prepared the supper.

Another big meeting

Here are some highlights

22 people attended, again including Mark’s two sons, Tyler and Callan. As well, Jeremy, a Toastmaster from a few years ago, attended with his workmate, Setare.

Jeremy gave us the Inspiration.

Margaret gave her first speech to the Club - the Tonic.

Mark delivered a Workshop on Vocal Variety. It was mostly for our Speechcrafters, but it was a benefit to everybody.

Ben’s Table Topics picked up the style from Judith’s version of a fortnight before and took us on a challenging date with David’s imaginary niece Nicole.

Tammy deliver her Speechcraft Icebreaker speech on her road to “Motherhood”.

Cathy gave her 4th Speechcraft speech on “The ugly parent syndrome”.

Glenis gave an inspirational CC Speech 10 - “Know your own country” and completed the requirements for our Club’s Outstanding Member award. You can see the complete report for all our members on our Club Awards page

We had another spectacular supper.
It must be the Speechcraft Course which is the underlying cause for Alan’s wonderful choice of food.

Gail was Toastmaster, efficiently unobtrusive in the role, a model for all of us. Gail resumes as Vice President Education from next week, following the time she spent dealing with her mother’s death in Queensland.

Elections
We will be holding our elections for the July to December term on June 11. All members are eligible to stand for the 7 Officer roles. You can see a web page on toastmasterswa.net which explains the importance of our officers generally and details the responsibilities for each role. Go to Club Officers.

It was a big meeting

Here are some highlights

23 people attended, including Mark’s two sons, Tyler and Callan

John joined and gave the Tonic

Ben gave a passionate Inspiration about a horrible sight on the way to the meeting and how it is inspiring him with his medical studies

Sharmila and Cathy gave their Speechcraft Icebreaker speeches

Craig gave us his CC Speech 4 - the secrets of success, including the big one, underpinning them all

Judith told us a touching story about her friend Michael

Tony threatened us with singing if we didn’t answer his Highlight questions correctly. When we answered them all correctly he started to sing Starry starry night anyway

Congratulations to Pascale
Pascale was there to receive congratulations for being the only WA representative to be placed in the District 73 contests held in Lilydale, Victoria on the weekend of May 16-18.

The supper was spectacular.
Alan bought it and served it up. There was a great variety and plenty of each but there were only a few little bits left at the end.

Elections
We will be holding our elections for the July to December term on June 11. All members are eligible to stand for the 7 Officer roles. You can see a web page on toastmasterswa.net which explains the importance of our officers generally and details the responsibilities for each role. Go to Club Officers.

The Travel Gavel

The Travel Gavel is an award to the club whose members travel the greatest number of kilometres to the Convention. We had 4 members registered at the Convention - Alan Smith, Mark Richards, Claire Lacy and David Nicholas - one more than the next club in WA. There were 2 delegates from Busselton and 1 from Margaret River, but our members took the award.

District Officer of the Year

Alan Smith

Alan Smith is the District Treasurer. Because of the actions of two previous District 73 administrations, World Headquarters imposed draconian reporting requirements on Alan. This involved him in a complete recast of the District Budget which he had already prepared, and often tediously repeated explanations to members and officers who objected to the new rules. He was patient and courteous with them and eventually the new rules were accepted by all, not necessarily happily. No Treasurer before him had this kind of crisis and resulting workload. He turned out to be just the person for the crisis.

Alan will complete the requirements for his second DTM at the end of his term as Treasurer.

The Table Topics Contest and the International Speech Contest

Pascale Amberville-Colby

Claire Lacey

Pascale Amberville-Colby belongs to quite a few Clubs, including Victoria Quay. He is proud of his membership of our club, but in this case he was representing Subiaco Early Birds (one of the clubs we sponsored). Pascale was placed third in the field of 9 Contestants.

Claire Lacy spoke brilliantly, but was not placed in the first three. She was a bit disappointed immediately after the contest, but was reinvigorated by the warm praise she received from many of the spectators, including a great many from outside WA. This was excellent experience for Claire which she will be able to build on in the future.

District Public Relations Officer

Mark Richards District 73 PRO

The top 4 elected officers in the District are the

District Governor - Bernard Marmion from Victoria
Lt Governor Education & Training - Damian Chong from Tasmania
Lt Governor Marketing - Carrol Jones from Victoria
Public Relations Officer - Mark Richards from Victoria Quay in WA

It was a contested election, against a candidate from Melbourne, but Mark won easily after his vigorous election speech. Mark intends to carry out the role with energy and skillful application. When he does he will be the first PRO in at least the last decade to actually make a difference.

You can see from the way he dressed to receive his DTM award that Mark is going to make an impact.

Distinguished Toastmasters

David Nicholas DTM 5 times

Victoria Quay is the pre-eminent club across the District in many ways but the promotion of the DTM Award is where our leadership is most visible. Since we chartered our club in November, 1995, many more DTMs have been awarded to our members than any other club in the District. Last year we initiated the Double DTM award to encourage members across the District first to aspire to, work for and achieve their DTMs, and then to go on working in the organisation to achieve their second and possibly even their third DTM. Currently there are only 4 Toastmasters among the 2,400 members in the District who have at least 2 DTMs and 2 are from Victoria Quay - David Nicholas and Glenis Nicholas. Alan Smith will complete the requirements for his second DTM in July this year.

During the award ceremonies on the Saturday night, David Nicholas was honoured for his fifth DTM and Mark Richards for his first. Glenis Nicholas couldn’t be there to be honoured for her second. In his acceptance speech David urged members present not to regard the DTM as a terminating award, but to take up the challenge to work for Victoria Quay’s Double DTM award. Not suprisingly Mark announced he was going to, and afterwards several other DTMs present told David they had already started on the quest for their second.

Claire Lacy has won the Western Division International Contest

You can access a slide show of all the photos by clicking on any one of them. Try it.

Claire Lacy

Claire Lacy from Victoria Quay is the Western Division representative for the District 73 final in Melbourne in May this year.

Claire spoke on “Never let your brain retire”. She opened dramatically with “Beep beep beep beep…..” and then told of the death of Doris at 67, who had given up on life, and whose brain had shrunk. Use it or lose it, she told us dramatically. She followed this with stories of her grandfather who had sunk into depression and was ready to die, but recovered and lived for another happy 10 years. And then there was Doris, at 70 enrolling for another degree at University, energetic and vibrant. It was an excellent International quality speech because Claire applied the lessons of these three people to everybody in the audience - use it or lose it. Never let our brains retire. Live Life!

Claire told Chief Judge Mike Helm that she had been a member of Toastmasters for just 12 months. She was very grateful for the opportunities she had received at Victoria Quay, and particularly for the intense coaching for this speech she had received from Glenis and David Nicholas.

Judith Allan

Mark Richards

Two Contests were held - the International and the Evaluation. The Contests were hosted by Swan and Morning Star and held in the Midland Community Centre. The whole afternoon was brilliantly organised by W16 Area Governor Judith Allen on behalf of Western Division Governor Mark Richards.

Introducing the Contests Mark told us of the great success Western Division is enjoying this year. We have 4 new Clubs so far - WA Governors, Touch of Gold in Kalgoorlie, Cannington Communicators and Canning Vale. As well two Western Division Clubs are among the top 3 in the Distinguished Club Program in District 73 - Victoria Quay and Gateway. He urged us to keep up the good work and to enjoy the contests.

The Evaluation Results

Tania Park Evaluation 1st

Charles Fisher Evaluation 2nd

First was the Evaluation Contest with test speaker Wayne Brown. It was won by Tania Park from Jetty and second was Charles Fisher from Western Founders.

The International Results

Claire Lacey International 1st

James Park International 2nd

After the break for afternoon tea we enjoyed the International. First of course was Claire Lacey from Victoria Quay and second James Park from Jetty.

Monday, March 10, 2008

We started our speechcraft course last night. It was a great success.

There are 6 Speechcrafters - Glen, Yvonne, Diane, Colin, Marina and Saras.

Alan is the Coordinator and he was the Toastmaster for the night. He had help from Victoria Quay members David, Glenis, Judith and Mark and Gateway member Jeanette.

Glenis organised a sumptuous supper.

The meeting flowed smoothly and the Speechcrafters responded with great enthusiasm. At the end of the meeting in a feedback session Glen said how different it was for him to be at a training session which didn’t rely on handouts and Powerpoint presentations, but instead involved him directly in the action.

Glenis, Mark and Jeanette are not available next Monday night, so we would appreciate a few more helpers to come along and take a role. Speak to Alan or David if you can come.

Take advantage of a new feature in these reports. You can access a slide show of all the photos by clicking on any one of them. Try it.

The meeting was hot stuff - after a sizzling day

The meeting starts

The temperature was 37C for the day and at 6pm it was still 36 in Perth. We met at Tompkins Park in Applecross, next to the Melville Cricket Club Rooms. It was a hot day with a hot easterly and when Acting Sergeant at Arms Mark Richards opened the meeting we appreciated the shade trees. But the air temperature cooled down steadily as the meeting warmed up. Young cricketers walked past us on their way to practice in the nets, a spring in their steps. Towards the end of the meeting they trudged back again, lugging their bags of bats and pads.

Judith was Toastmaster. New member Craig gave us his Inspiration.

And then it was time for Table Topics

Claire was Table Topics Master

Claire

Mark H

She chose a love theme  - it was Valentines Day the next day. Our first speaker was Mark who was visiting - we don’t normally put visitors on first, but in this case it was OK because he had been a member previously in 2005.

There were 5 speakers after which Karyn gave us a brief Inspiration and Heljo did the Table Topics Evaluation.

We had 4 prepared Speeches

Amanda gave her Icebreaker - her first prepared speech to the Club. “Romance on the high seas” fitted the meetings’ romantic theme perfectly. She took us from falling in love with a bare chest and blue eyes in Nimbin to a 6 month journey on an ocean going yacht up the east coast of Australia. And that was the end of the romance! Mark gave the Evaluation.

David delivered his Icebreaker, “Waltzing Matilda” though this was for his 8th CC Award. Politics is his passion, and that morning he had admired a TV broadcast of Prime Minister Rudd’s Apology to indigenous members of the Stolen Generation, while 11 days before his grand-daughter Maltida was born. So the audience were invited to be surrogate Maltildas as he detailed some political ancestry. John Kirby, his Great Grandfather on his father’s side worked to bring in adult franchise in South Australia and helped his wife and 2 daughters to be the first women to vote at a democratic election in the Western world. Ray Henderson, his Grandfather on his mother’s side, a clergyman, stood up for his principles during the First World War and was sacked from his church. Lynn gave the Evaluation.

Gail

Pascale brought history to life, Speech 5 from the Story Telling Manual. “Amberville vs Scott vs Colby” took us on a tortuous journey. Ambervilles married Scotts (or perhaps they didn’t) and Ambervilles married Colbys. Later Amberville-Colbys ran into Valentine Day issues and lo and behold an Amberville-Colby married an Amberville-Colby who had a Scott mother. History wasn’t like this at school for most of us. Claire gave the Evaluation.

Gail also brought history to life with Speech 5 from the Story Telling Manual. Her history dealt with early contact from Dutch sailors with the indigenous inhabitants of Australia and New Zealand. Dutch sailors landed on the North West tip of Australia in 1906. They found few Aboriginals who displayed no aggressive tendencies towards them. However the New Zealand experience was quite different. When they appeared off the coast some canoes came out immediatley, and the numbers built up very rapidly. There were hostile encounters with some sailors killed. Gail discussed the consequences of these two different experiences. Lynn gave the Evaluation.

The grass, Kings Park, the river and the city

Colin presented the meeting Highlights. He had a bit of a battle with his notes in the wind. Mark evaluated the Evaluators. Lynn gave yet another Evaluation - the General Evaluation of the meeting as a whole. Judith handed back to Lynn yet again, this time in her role as President. She asked our two visitors for feedback. Alan was as appreciative as always - he is almost a member. Mark said he would come again next week when we are back at the Bowling Club, and will probably join again.

Then we shared around our food and drink and had a delightful time in the cool of the evening as the sun went down. Yes, it was cool - compared to the day that is.

Training for Club Officers is an important part of Toastmaster operations. There are two training sessions each year, the first at the beginning of the year and the second half way through.

This training is being organised for WA by one of our own members, Mark Richards, the Western Division Governor. He has set up two alternative opportunities for our Officers.

Saturday, 2nd February, from 12.30-4pm at the Palms, Corner Nicholason & Rokeby Rds, Subiaco

Thursday, 21st February, from 6.30-9.30pm at the Fremantle Bowling Club, Ellen St, Fremantle.

The training is being organised and run by WA Governors Club. Mark is the Club Secretary and Mentor for this important new Club.

Here is the program for the Thursday evening meeting.

6.30pm – 7.00pm Registrations
7.00pm – 7.10pm Welcome address from the Division Governors Mark Richards & Gil Alexander
7.10pm – 7.20pm Message from the District - Mike Helm – District Governor
7.20pm – 7.40pm Building Successful Clubs – Jeanette Farrar
7.40pm – 8.00pm The CL Manual - Ross Wilkinson

8.00pm – 8.20pm Break for Supper (on the way to breakout groups)

8.20pm – 8.50pm Club Officer Roles – small groups in break out areas – each officer group to be led by a person with previous experience in that role:

Presidents – Ross Wilkinson
VPE – Michael Malone
VPPR – David Nicholas
VPM – Steve Barry
Secretary – Judith Allen
Treasurer – Alan Smith
Sgt-at-Arms – Mark Richards.

8.50pm – 9.10pm Speechcraft in WA - Gil Alexander
9.10pm – 9.20pm New Clubs in WA, what it means to you. - David Nicholas
3.20pm – 3.50pm Area Council Meetings – Lead by Area Governors - Areas to set dates for Area Comps.
3.50pm – 4.00pm Close of Meeting - Gil & Mark
4.00pm CLEAN UP OF VENUE

Tony opened the meeting sharp on time at 6pm.

Lynn was Toastmaster.

David’s Inspiration handled the delicate matter of politics following the change of government last Saturday night. But this was tied to the birth of their first child, George, for former members Anne-Sophie Deleflie and David Rafftery. Anne-Sophie and David left us when they shifted to Canberra, but they have kept in touch.

Heljo gave us Table Topics. It was based on political themes. The 7 responders were all Federal Ministers charged with particular policy objectives.

Glenis’s tonic dealt with her childhood experiences going down the Donnelly River. Now she has an opportunity to retrace that with a river cruise.

Colin gave the first part of his Meeting Evaluation. Because he can’t use notes, he has to rely on memory alone, so he dealt with the roles of Sergeant at Arms, Inspiration, Table Topics Master and Toni.

David evaluated Table Topics. He commented on the energetic presentations from all speakers, which he saw as very appropriate to the political asks given the speakers.

Oliver delivered his Icebreaker Speech - My French Life. He told us that French people feel great freedom to express their real feelings about others, even when they are negative. But equally they are very accepting of other people expressing negative feelings about them. His evaluator Glenis expressed very positive feelings about his speech, although she suggested he needed to slow down and given particular space around the significant words and terms he used.

Mark presented his Advanced Speech from the Speaking to Inform Manual - Evaluation. Mark distributed the Pro Forma on Evaluation prepared by David, and as well had an outline on the White Board of significant elements to comment on in an Evaluation. He particularly recommended that our Evaluators make it their regular practice to include a summary to conclude.

Tony evaluated Mark. He commented on Mark’s Objectives,on his motiivational approach and the excellent way he demonstrated the points he was making.

Alan presented his CC4 Speech - Greatest Inventions. After detailing some great Australian inventions - the Aspro, the flight Black Box (which is orange), the Rotary Clothes Hoist and the Victa mower, Alan moved to some whacky US inventions to help people wake up in the morning and not turn off the alarm. He ended with his personal choice for the greatest invention - the power board.

Sharon evaluated Alan. She commended him for his short simple sentences and his swashbuckling rhetorical style, though she suggested that perhaps he could restrain his gestures at times.

Gail spoke from the Speaking to Inform manual. For her Abstract Concept she chose Taking the Moral Pulse. She detailed changes over the past 10-12 years in aboriginal health, School Leavers Week behaviour, drugs in sport, language and home invasions. She gave us a challenge. It’s up to us to our own moral pulse.

Mark evaluated Gail. He commended her for eliminating the ums and ers which previously occurred in her speaking. He suggested she could use notes, but still use both her hands for emphasising important points.

Alan quizzed us on the Highlights he found in the meeting. His personal choice for Phrase of the Night was Gail’s “The police are there to help the kids go as crazy as they like.”

Heljo evaluated the evaluators. She described David as a model for energy, Glenis as very expressive, Tony as energetic, Sharon having clear diction and a varied vocabulary, and Mark as powerful with excellent eye contact and a strong stance.

Judith’s Timing Report was efficient and brief, and took the mandatory exact two minutes.

Colin completed his meeting evaluation by dealing with Toastmasters Lynn, Highlights Alan and Timer Judith.

President Lynn closed the meeting. She presented our new member Olivier with his Member Badge. She reminded us again of the Western Division final for the Humorous and Table Topics which we are hosting on Saturday afternoon, December 1st.

Tony opened the meeting sharp on time at 6pm.

Alan was Toastmaster.

Olivier’s Inspiration dealt with his battle with dyslexia. As a 4 year old he still couldn’t speak and took a year of hard work from his mother to master it. Reading was even more of a challenge, which he answered with the help of a psychologist. He has had to battle and that’s why he has joined us.

Mark gave us Table Topics - just one word, carefully chosen for each of the six participants.

Gail’s tonic dealt with doing unto others what we would like them to do to us.

Heljo evaluated Table Topics. She handled all six speakers with confident skill. She is working to eliminate “otherwise” from her transition from the recommendations to the final commendations.

Claire presented her CC 5 speech - Mind and Body. She gave us a typical self deprecating account of what she learned from a Uni course on this subject. A typical comment was “They kicked me out of ballet because I couldn’t even do a roly poly.” Despite her derisive rejection of the course method based on a cube, and her confident expectation of failure, she came through with flying colours.

Colin evaluated Claire. He showed an excellent grasp of the CRC method, with lots of positive, affirmative commendations and a clear recommendation. His evaluator recommended he continue to improve his articulation by slowing down even more and using his lips, tongue and teeth even more energetically.

Gary presented his CC 8 speech - The root of all evil. Yes, it was money. Gary gave us a brief history of the origin of money with money changers and the way this has lead to the current exploitation of ordinary people by the banks.

Glenis evaluated Gary. She spoke clearly and energetically as she went through the CRC structure. Her evaluator recommended she include a final summary.

Pascale presented his Advanced Speech - State of Flux. He dealt with the three states of his ego, and ours. There is the ego - the actual self, the superego - the ideal self and the id - the darker self. He sat on a chair and took us driving with the three ego states.

Mark evaluated Pascale with his customary energy and careful, detailed analysis. His evaluator recommended he also include a final summary.

Colin mounted his soap box and lamented the lack of parking for major events in Perth.

Tony gave us the Highlights. He went through the meeting and quizzed us on our memory of what had occurred. He gave commendations for accurate answers and mockeries for the other kind.

David evaluated the evaluators. His comments are included above.

Gail came out the front to present the timing report. We finished early tonight, despite several people going overtime, with only 3 speeches instead of the usual 4.

Sharon evaluated the meeting. She was particularly impressed with Alan’s Toastmaster role and Olivier’s first Inspiration.

Gail closed the meeting, in the absence of President Lynn. She particularly drew out attention to the Western Division final for the Humorous and Table Topics which we are hosting on Saturday afternoon, December 1st. Western Division Governor Mark appealed for help with contest officials and got a very good response.
Gary