David Nicholas DTM

Clubs in our District 17 are organised into Areas and Divisions. There are 3 Divisions – Central with 4 Areas, Northern with 4 Areas and Southern with 5 Areas.

The 3 Division Governors for next year, July 2012 to June 2013, will be elected at the District 17 Council Meeting being held at the The Vines Resort, Verdelho Drive, on Saturday afternoon, May 26, 2012. I have nominated for Southern Division Governor, along with John Palmer and Allan Burt.

Eligible voters – I want you to vote for me

Eligible voters are the Presidents and Vice Presidents Education or their nominated Proxies of our 62 Clubs, and the 20 current District Officers. I am asking all voters present at the Council Meeting to vote for me because

• I have vision and drive which will benefit members, clubs and areas in Southern Division along with the whole District.
• I have successful experience in the role of Club Officer, Area Governor and Division Governor
• I am committed to active service for Toastmasters clubs and members,

Vision and Drive

It has been my vision during our time in District 73 that one day we would have our own District in WA.  For that to occur we needed many more clubs and with considerable help from other enthusiastic members I have set up 20 new clubs in WA.  Now that we are in our first year as our own WA District 17 I envisage us becoming much stronger in the Perth Metro Area and in the country.  Division Governor is a key role which will give me the opportunity to help build the strength of Southern Division and District 17.

Experience

During my 17 years in Toastmasters I have held all Officer positions several times. I have been an Area Governor 3 times, each time achieving the highest award of Presidents Distinguished.  I have been the District 73 Area Governor of the Year. I have been a Division Governor 3 times, each time Presidents Distinguished.  I have been the District 73 Division Governor of the Year.

I have 6 DTM awards – Distinguished Toastmaster – the highest member awards.

 Commitment

I belong to and am an Officer in each of 9 Toastmaster Clubs in WA, 5 of which are in Southern Division. I belong to and am an officer in clubs in 4 of the 5 Areas in Southern Division

• S31: Armadale Vice President Membership and Treasurer
• S32: Victoria Quay Vice President Membership
• Netmasters Vice President Education and Vice President Public Relations
• S33: Western Founders Vice President Public Relations and Treasurer
• S35: WA Governors Vice President Public Relations

As well, I am the District Webmaster. I maintain a weekly service for Club and District Officers which summarises current Toastmaster International reports of Member Awards, Distinguished Club Awards and Division and Area Governor Awards.

I have the vision and drive, the successful experience and the commitment to fill the role of Southern Division Governor with distinction to the benefit of the members and clubs in the Division.

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

Separator

Separator

Separator

Separator

Separator

Report and Photos by

David Nicholas DTM
Victoria Quay Webmaster

We had a break over Christmas and the new year.  Now our meetings start again on Wednesday, January 18.  Our new Vice President Education, Greg Lynn, will be sending out the program very soon.

Coming up in 2012

It will be a mix of the new and the old.  There will be new members – in fact during the break Hugh joined and will be at the meeting on January 18.  There will be visitors.  Several have contacted us during the break and will be coming along to see how we function and how they will benefit from joining us.  It’s alway a pleasure to experience the Icebreakers from our new members as we learn fascinating things about their background and their hopes and aspirations.

Our current members will be continuing their progress through their Speech Manuals and lifting their skills as they do so.  Awards will be completed.  Honours will be received.  Perhaps some of the Bowling Club’s overhead fans will be replaced or serviced.  Perhaps.

The website will be redesigned

Yes, it’s a great website already, but it can be better, particularly to bring it more into line with the Toastmasters International rebranding exercise carried out in 2011.  It will take about a month, but don’t be surprised if the appearance changes.  It’s a new year – we need new approaches.

We have some new Club Officers

Have a look at  the webpage showing our Current Club Officers. Three of the Officers are new this term – Greg, Heljo and Tim.

Our Officers will be attending Toastmaster Leadership Institute training in February. Apart from the benefit in their knowledge and experience, this will give us our tenth goal in the Distinguished Club Program. Our Club is the only one to have a completely unbroken record of all 10 Goals in the Program. We will be maintaining that this year as well.  You can see us leading the way in our District at Successful Clubs 2001/12.

What are your goals for this year?

We all have our own reasons for joining Victoria Quay Toastmasters.  Make certain you get what you need from our club this year.

Posted by David Nicholas DTM
Victoria Quay Webmaster
Vice President Membership
0401 011 212

These are for the term from January to June 2012

President Neville Simmons ACB	Vice President Education Greg Lynn CC	Vice President Membership David Nicholas	Vice President Public Relations Christine Bonser CC
Secretary Heljo Cameron ACS	Treasurer Denis Sullivan	Sergeant at Arms Tim Keats	Immediate Past President Peter Law ACB

Peter Law

Yesterday Southern Division held its finals for the Table Topics and the Humorous Contest.

Peter won the Humorous Contest with his speech “How I saved the spirit of Christmas”.

Our members might remember that Peter didn’t win the Victoria Quay club contest – he went over time!! Fortunately he won the Armadale club contest and then the S31 Area Final. So technically he didn’t win the Division final as a Victoria Quay member. We don’t care! He is our member too, so …

Congratulations, Peter

Rod took photos of most or the 35 people present.  There is no photos of Rod – he is Christine’s partner.  Thank you, Rod

You can expand the photos in the Gallery below by single clicking them and return to the Gallery with another click. We had quite a few visitors.

Image Gallery for this page

Webmaster David

Not only will Speaking in Public offer you this thrill it will enhance your ability to speak with confidence and poise.  This can be achieved in a very short time as a member of Victoria Quay Toastmasters Club.  However, what you should do first is come along for a visit, no pressure to speak, no pressure to join.  You will hear interesting, inspirational, funny and touching speeches from our members, and all on one night if you are lucky.

Toastmasters has a structured program that would fit anyone’s needs, from the Supervisor/Manager wanting to enhance their skills to an absolutely terrified individual who would rather die than get up and speak in front of people.  If you learn and practice in the positive environment we have created at Victoria Quay you can develop at your own pace.  We have competent speakers who took four visits before they could even bring themselves to say a word in front of other people.

Come on down and check us out on a Wednesday night at 6pm at the Fremantle Bowling Club.  We don’t bite, we’re just thrill seekers hungry for that next speech, and you can be too.

See you there  fellow Thrill-seekers.

Cheers!

Peter

What fantastic people we have attending.  I and the other members of the Victoria Quay team have learnt so much from the speeches and stories of these outstanding people already.  To hear stories of their lives, history and aboriginal culture first hand is amazing.  Their stories are told simply but with this simplicity comes power, a real lesson for all.  It is a fun relaxed group and we are always able to have a laugh through the sessions.

As a matter of fact the group has liked the training so much we have other people wanting to join this session however we have had to hold it at 11 participants. Our latest  participant, Vincent, is a year nine sight impaired student who stood up during impromptu speeches, spoke about his dogs and then backed it up with an impromptu ice breaker on his life story. An inspirational and impressive young man.  Some of the attending ladies spoke of  their lives growing up in large families and the difficulties they faced during these times while others told us of exciting things they have done.  The participants have provided  some of the best Icebreaker Speeches we have heard and everyone is looking forward to their next speeches.

Stephanie Riley, a truly amazing  young lady herself,  has put together the ‘No Parents Left Behind’ program which Speechcraft is a small part of.    Thank you to Heljo, David, Glenis, Christine, Marianne, Judith, Andrew and Greg who have been able to assist.  I am sure they will all tell you they are richer for the experience.

More to follow later.

Cheers!

Peter

Heljo’s partner Alan can’t join Victoria Quay because he is a very active member of the choir “Showtime Chorus”.  Sometimes he is able to come to our meetings, but we don’t see enough of him.

Now we can see him and hear him with the choir on Saturday afternoon, June 18 in Shelley.

Download the Flyer to get all the details.

Family&FriendsConcertFlyer2011