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

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.

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.

My name is Heljo Cameron and I was the club president for the last financial year.

When I joined Toastmasters I thought it was only about public speaking, yet I have found that it is a lot more. For me, Toastmasters is the ultimate personal growth experience and it is a lot cheaper than the personal growth workshops which I attended in my younger days.

Without going into too much detail about the things which I have learnt or am still learning (there are so many), I have provided a list, which I hope is self-explanatory. Even so, you may wish to come along and talk me about these things:

• Overcoming fear.
• Learning to have more interesting interactions with people on a one-to-one basis.
• Expanding my mind – looking at things in new ways.
• Overcoming self-doubt.
• Being flexible and stepping in to do things spontaneously.
• Being able to be brilliant one day and less effective the next and not berating myself with self-destructive criticism.
• Increasing my self-esteem.
• Thinking more quickly.
• Being more concise.
• Overcoming the fear of winning/learning how to win.
• Overcoming the fear of losing /learning how to lose.
• Being committed on an ongoing basis, even when cold, hungry, tired or unprepared.
• Realising that it’s not all about me.
• Working in a team towards common goals, yet at times doing things for myself, such as competing against my team mates.
• Finding out that when I compete, I am really only competing against myself.
• Discovering the times that I am most creative.
• Being given a licence for experimenting with new ideas and new ways of presenting things.
• Being really listened to.
• Improving my analytical skills.
• Allowing others to support me.
• Learning how to be more supportive towards others – encouraging and motivating them to help them meet their goals.

The Victoria Quay club has always been successful and I believe that certain people who founded the club are superb role models and make the club as wonderful as it is. I am still in the process of learning to be the mentor and coach that I would like to be.

Last year shortly after I became president I was unable to speak effectively for two months as a result of an operation. Club members gave me much needed support and allowed me to carry out minor roles before I could speak properly again. I believe that the fact that I was a Toastmaster and had to re-learn to project my voice actually helped me to regain my ability to speak. I thank everyone who supported me at that time and even those who have joined since – all you have left you own particular mark on the club.

Thank you Victoria Quay for an extraordinary year!

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.

I am Andrew Bond, the new Vice President of Public Relations at Victoria Quay. I answer to two names, Andrew or ‘Bondy’.

As someone who is not used to having such grand titles bestowed upon me, I find making my first entry as a VP somewhat daunting. However, I actively sought out this responsibility to serve the club, so I might as well begin by sharing my experiences of Toastmasters.

Victoria Quay has been running in the vibrant port of Fremantle, week in week out, since the mid 1990s. Over the past 15 years it has seen countless members come and go – some pillars of the local community, others transients and free spirits – whilst playing a vital role in setting up a number of new Toastmasters clubs in and around Perth.

Today, thanks to the efforts of clubs like Victoria Quay, our not-for-profit organisation is thriving in Western Australia. Many people, like me, are attracted by the promise of improving on their public speaking. It is a skill which has countless applications in day-to-day life: from improving your joke-telling ability to sounding more confident in a job interview – and getting the job!

We meet every Wednesday at 6pm in the function room at Fremantle Bowling Club – home of the famous ‘four minutes fast’ wall clock. Guests are welcome to come along with no obligation to join. The group size is typically around 15 people.

I’ll always remember how welcome I was made to feel when I first walked in as a guest. Although I was daunted by the quality of the experienced speakers, the atmosphere felt relaxed and informal. This and the friendly attitude of the members persuaded me to sign up, and soon I had the confidence to begin my first speaking projects. Now, just three months later, I already feel like a more polished and assertive speaker.

The meetings are very well structured, allowing as many people as possible the chance to speak. The Sergeant at Arms prepares the meeting room, greets the guests and ensures the meeting starts on time, whilst the Toastmaster introduces all the speakers and acts as a genial compere.

Throughout the evening, each member gets evaluated on their speaking and given useful suggestions for improvement. The feedback is always structured around a commendation, a recommendation and another commendation, thereby building the person’s confidence whilst providing them with fresh insight.

Guests are welcome to participate in Table Topics and deliver a short unrehearsed speech in reply to a random question. The green, yellow and red lights facing the speaker indicate when time is up. Many guests get a taste for speaking and have trouble sticking to the time limit!

The secret of public speaking, in my brief experience, is that there’s no right or wrong way of doing it. Just relax and be yourself. With a bit of practice, you’ll be surprised that the skills you thought you were lacking were there all along.

These are the results

President Peter Law CC	Vice President Education David Nicholas DTM	Vice President Membership Neville Simmons CC	Vice President Public Relations Andrew Bond
Secretary Mark Williamson CC	Treasurer Mike Maguire	Sergeant at Arms Geraldine Morrissey	Immediate Past President Heljo Cameron ACB

We hold our elections every six months.  However it is very common for officers elected for this six month term to complete a full year.  It is common but not necessary.

The elections for this six months will be held at the meeting on June 3, 2010.  This has been advertised widely at club meetings.  There are already several nominations.  It is quite OK for a member to nominate for any position, including those with a current nomination

The Officer roles and current nominations are these

President Peter Law
Vice President Education
Vice President Membership Neville Simmons
Vice President Public Relations David Nicholas
Secretary
Treasurer Mike Maguire
Sergeant at Arms Genevieve Morrissey

You can see a summary of these roles at Club Officer Roles

Victoria Quay has its own special way of honouring members.  Where most clubs give a single award for Toastmaster of the Year at the end of the year, we recognise many members for their achievements.

We have a set of criteria which awards points for various activities, mostly within the club, but also in the wider Toastmaster community.  Currently at May 5 we have 2 Outstanding members – Alan Smith and David Nicholas – and 4 High Achieving members – Heljo Cameron, Gail Jenkins, Peter Law and Neville Simmons.  By June 30 we expect to have  4 or 5 Outstanding Members and 4 or 5 High Achieving Members.

You can view a record of this year to date and the 4 previous years at Awards

Have a look at our Poster