Charter Celebration

An our Meeting #1044 on Nov 25, 2015 Victoria Quay celebrated 20 years since our official beginning in Toastmasters.  We were chartered on Nov 27, 1995, though we first met – on Victoria Quay of course – on April 15, 1995.

It was our standard meeting format – which means it was absorbing, educational and fun.  In those 20 years we have modified the Toastmaster standard meeting format.  We have added items and eliminated others.  The following will give some idea of how it works in practice.

Sergeant at Arms.  Of course Sergeant at Arms Ilija opened the meeting sharp on 6.00pm after he had given first a 5 minute warning and then a 2 minute warning.

Toastmaster.  PeterL ran the meeting with a relaxed style that was always accurate and kept us moving through the Agenda.
[PeterL?  Our 3 Peter members were all present.  They are Peter C, Peter H and Peter L.]

Inspiration.  Our first speech was, as almost always, an Inspiration.  This Inspiration was from one of our inspiring original Founding Members – Glenis Nicholas DTM.

Table Topics.  This was led by another original Founding Member – David Nicholas DTM.  David managed to include all our visitors to speak in Table Topics

• Sunil – a former member who has been travelling
• Jeni – another former member who has been working down south
• John Drake – our Area S32 Director
• Robyn Richards – married to one of our members and the District 17 Immediate Past District Governor
• Marianne – married to one of our members
• Tom Bielski – the District 17 Public Relations Manager
• Leonor Ragan – the District 17 Program Quality Director

Tonic Our Table Topics Evaluator has quite a challenging task – to deliver Evaluations for each of the TT speakers almost immediately. So we slip in a 1 minute Tonic to give the Evaluator plenty of time to prepare! Colin has been a member for 14 years and has inspired us all with his determination, his energy and the skill which led to his Distinguished Toastmaster Award in July.

Table Topic Evaluation. Keith is never self-effacing but he is always perceptive and helpful, as he was this time.

The Four Prepared Speeches

An Icebreaker.  Tracey‘s speech was not quite an Icebreaker, because on the previous Saturday she completed a Speechcraft course we ran.  She had visited VQ (that’s what we often call our club) previously and had joined so our VP Education, PeterC, gave her this opportunity at this special meeting.  (All our meetings are special – some, perhaps, slightly more than others.)

An Advanced speech.  Pauline spoke from the Entertaining Speaker Manual

Another Advanced Manual speech.  Saman read out aloud from the Interpretive Reading Manual

Back to the CC Manual.  Dave gave us a Speech 6, working on his Vocal Variety

Evaluation.  Shona evaluated Dave’s speech.  All our Speech Evaluations are delivered immediately after the speech.  Experienced visitors are often worried in advance at this, but our members work hard and succeed in delivering competent, helpful feeding to the speakers, basing their response on the CRC method – Commendations, Recommendations and a final Commendation.  Shona gave an excellent demonstration of how it is done.

 

The Soapbox  This is definitely one of our innovations, coupled with Highlights.  We alternate these 3 minute speeches between successive meetings.  The Soapbox gives an opportunity to sound off on an important, and sometimes very controversial, topic.  Highlights are just that – a member’s view of interesting and/or memorable times from the meeting.

General Evaluation??  We place a very great emphasis on Evaluations.  That is why we have split the normal  General Evaluation into two parts – Evaluating the Evaluator and the Meeting Evaluation.  There are two advantages to this.  The first is the obvious one – we never miss feedback to our evaluators.  The second is also important.  It splits a 10-12 minute address at the end of the meeting into two 5-6 minute addresses.

Evaluating the Evaluators  Alan Smith, our 3rd original Founding Member, gave excellent feedback to our Evaluators.  It functioned as a workshop on Evaluation principles and practices.

 

 

 

Timing  Yes, of course Andrew delivered the Timing Report.

Meeting Evaluation  PeterH dealt with all those who hadn’t received evaluations to that point – the Sergeant at Arms, the Inspiration, the Table Topics, the Tonic, the Soapbox, the Timer, the Toastmaster of course and an overall assessment of the meeting.  Peter is a big man and his evaluation was comprehensive, helpful and to time.

Some Awards  District 17 Program Quality Director Leonor Ragan took the opportunity to present District Awards to some of our members.  The first was an achievement award to our 3 Founding Members, all of whom have contributed significantly beyond our club to the success of Toastmasters in WA.

 

 

 

Triple Crown  Members who receive 3 or more personal awards during the year are presented with a recognition pin.  Leonor started with visitor Marianne, then called out 3 members – PeterL, David and Colin.

Close the Meeting  President Dean gave a heartfelt statement of the honour he felt had been given him in being the President of such a great club.  He called on Vice President Education PeterC to outline the next two meetings.  Peter went through the notices on the Agenda second page.

Dean  thanked the visitors and invited them to come again whenever they have the opportunity.  He closed Meeting #1044, our Charter Celebration.

Supper  We provide a light supper at the end of each of our meetings.  We know that this is a very powerful bonding time for members as we chat together and an extremely effective recruiting method as visitors mingle with our very friendly members.  We have always been one of the strongest recruiting clubs in WA.  We have never had less than 20 financial members.  It is usually over 30, and recently has been in the 40s.  Supper is a key part of our success.

If you would like to visit us and experience one of our special meetings
Just come to the Fremantle Bowling Club any Wednesday evening from 6.00-7.30pm
[Except during our end of year break from Dec 25 2015 to Jan 20 2016]
You can always email me or ring on 0401 011 212