Meeting 900

Victoria Quay Meeting 900 was on September 18, 2013

Meeting 1 was on April 17, 1995

The first meeting of Victoria Quay Toastmasters was held on Victoria Quay, in the CY O’Connor Centre.  The 900th meeting was held in the Fremantle Bowling Club, at our Venue for more than 10 years.

It was a great meeting.  Here is a brief report with some photos.

We had hats.

Thanks to recent member Josef – he bought along about 50 hats he just happens to have.  Everybody could choose one – a very few declined and others took them off again during the meeting, but they certainly gave it style.

Josef gives former member Nicky her hat

Peter Carrie, our Sergeant at Arms, opened the meeting.
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That’s Josef again, Timer for the night, with a few members and guests

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Alan Smith DTM

Glenis Nicholas DTM

Alan Smith was Toastmaster.  He is a Founding Member, there on Victoria Quay on April 17, 1995.  He has attended almost, but not quite, every one of the 900 meetings.  And he has a Double DTM.  Wow! Alan.

Glenis Nicholas gave the Inspiration.  She also is a Founding Member, there on Victoria Quay on April 17, 1995, and like Alan she has two Distinguished Toastmaster Awards.
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Christine Bonser

Cliff Boer

Christine Bonser presented the first set of Table Topics.  Christine was our President last year when she led us to our thirteenth successive President’s Distinguished Toastmaster Award.

Then Cliff Boer gave the first formal speech – My Victoria Quay.  Cliff is a former Victoria Quay President too, but as well he has the distinction of being the only West Australian to win his way through all the heats to the World Championship of Public Speaking.  That was when we were in District 73.

Theatre Sports

Cliff followed his speech with a presentation of his Theatre Sports.  He only had 20 minutes on our packed program but that 20 minutes was surprising, challenging and entertaining.  Members and visitors responded to his challenges.  There are many photos.

Cliff Boer presented a new version of his Theatre Sports. These shots show him in action.

Here are some shots from our members practising various Theatre Sports

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Cliff’s clear message, repeated from his earlier speech, is that effective communication works best through entertainment.  And we were entertained.

Mark Richards DTM

Dean Humphrey

Mark Richard then gave the second speech – Bye Bye Fear – Hello Fun.  Mark joined Toastmasters and Victoria Quay in 2001 and has worked his way through club membership,  club officer roles, and successive District Leader roles culminating as the first District Governor of District 17 when we left District 73 to become a District in our own right in WA.  Mark’s speech material revealed clearly that he has learned a lot from Cliff Boer.  Mark has received 3 DTM awards.

Dean Humphrey presented a second set of Table Topics.  Dean is our Club Secretary
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Kjersti Vinje

Kjersti Vinje ran the Hats Contest.  Kjersti is a member of our Celebration Committee which organised the meeting.

She joined Victoria Quay in June this year. She has been very active and besides attending most of the regular Wednesday night meetings, she has also taken part in most of the Thursday evening Overflow sessions.

“Volunteers” explained why they chose the hat they were wearing, and why their choice should win the contest.  It was won by Nicky, a past member who had the distinction of being the eldest person present.

Andrew

Jervynna

Colin

Leonor

Nicky

There were 8 contestants. There was only space for 5 here. The others will be part of the big rotator at the end of this post.

Anders Liveroed

Anders Liveroed delivered his Icebreaker Speech – Ambitious Cyclist to Chiropractor.  Anders has come from Norway to study Chiropractic at Curtin University.  He joined the club two weeks earlier.  Anders has the distinction of being the tallest member ever to belong to the Club.

Victoria Quay has had a rapid increase in membership in calendar year 2013. An amazing list of 26 new members joined the club this year and took our September total to 47. Some didn’t stay long, which is always the case. Of course we regret losing relatively recent arrivals, but that is part of the cycle of growth and renewal which we have mastered.

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Robyn Richards DTM

Robyn Richards delivered the final formal speech – Me!  Do That?  Robyn is the Lt Governor Education & Training for District 17.  She is the second ranking District 17 Leader and represented District Governor Pascale Amberville-Colby.  Pascale was unable to attend but sent a very warm appreciation to our Club, which will appear in the current District Newsletter.

Victoria Quay was the first Toastmaster Club Robyn visited, checking up on what Mark did every Wednesday night.  She has attended many of our special events.

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Peter Carrie

Greg Lynn DTM

Peter Carrie, our Sgt At Arms, presented Highlights & Phrases, a Victoria Quay alternative to Grammarian.  At Victoria Quay we rigorously avoid all negatives.  We only focus on positives and how to improve, so we dont use Grammarian or its even worse cousin, Um and Err Counter.

Greg Lynn Evaluated the Evaluators.  This is another Victoria Quay initiative which is being adopted by quite a few clubs.  Instead of one person Evaluating the Meeting for 10-12 minutes, we give 6 minutes each to two members who Evaluate the Evaluators or Evaluate the Meeting.    Last year Greg was the S32 Area Governor and received his DTM in July this year.

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Josef Hewber was Timer and he presented his very lengthy report.  Of course he had a rather spectacular hat

President’s Distinguished Club with 10 Goals – again!!

Christine Bonser made a special presentation.  As last year’s President she handed over to Dave Finnimore, this year’s President, our President’s Distinguished Ribbon, for our thirteenth such award.   Our first was in the year 2000/2001, which was the year the Award was first set up.  Glenis was our President that year, and we have achieved that award every year since. Since 2002, Toastmasters International have a kept a list of the clubs which have received the award with all ten goals each year and among almost 14,000 Clubs in the world, we are one of only 48 Clubs to achieve that.

Founder David Nicholas

Finally David Nicholas, that’s me of course, Evaluated the Meeting.  Instead of dealing with the many individual parts of this particular meeting, I commented on the distinctive elements which our Club has introduced over the years.  We have an Inspiration at the beginning of the meeting instead of a President’s address.  Evaluations are given immediately after the prepared Speeches.  The Table Topics Evaluator does get a one minute Tonic to prepare the Evaluation.  The Highlights and Phrases section replaces Grammarian, Word of the Day and Um and Ah Counter.  And of course we split the meeting evaluation into two sections – Evaluate the Evaluator and Evaluate the Meeting.  All these changes have been tested over time and are part of the reason  we have been so successful as a club.

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President Dave and Cliff

Dave Finnimore, our dapper President, thanked Cliff Boer for his entertaining Theatre Sports.  He acknowledged our former members, our visitors and our eminent District Officers, Robyn Richards and the Public Relations Officer, Leonor Ragan.  He closed Meeting 900 on time.

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Story by

David Nicholas DTM
Victoria Quay and District 17 Webmaster
and Vice President Membership

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Here are some photos taken at the 900th. They display in random order. I’m sorry if I didn’t get you this time.

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