Lane Cove Toastmasters
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Newsletters
About us_________________________________________________
Lane Cove Toastmasters Club held its first demonstration meeting on June 1, 2005 at the Meeting House Community Centre in Lane Cove. In March 2006 Lane Cove Toastmasters was chartered as a Non-profit community organisation with Toastmasters International with 21-members.
All 240 Toastmaster Clubs in NSW & ACT are managed by an administrative entity known as District 70. The Clubs in District 70 are grouped into 8 Divisions, with each Division having a number of Areas. Lane Cove Toastmasters club belongs to Area 47, a group of four clubs, and it is the only community based club in this Area. Throughout the year regular competitions bring the champions from club contests into area, division and District 70 competitions.
The club has been very successful for members. Many have secured new careers and more senior positions based on the strength and confidence of their improved public speaking skills through regular attendance and active participation in club meetings. Typically, in June 2008 an ex-member Tom Cho, who moved to London in 2007, wrote this email
"I just wanted to drop you a line to say I gained a lot out of doing Toastmasters last year.
We arrived to find the UK slowly heading into a recession, and the famed financial sector laying off thousands of people each day. Going to interviews and getting a job definitely wasn't going to be easy in this climate even if you were a local, let alone a 'migrant worker' like myself...
However after a year of 'Toastmasters, I found going to interviews was a breeze - I am much more confident, polished and very capable of 'selling myself'. I am now one month into working for a bank and doing the type of work that I always wanted to do; Gerri too is working - she as lawyer for a local council here."
Membership Profile____________________________________________________
The Lane Cove Toastmaster's membership at the beginning of 2009 stands at 17 and our average meeting attendance varies between 15 - 25.
Member ages range from their 20s up to 70 years and come from a wide socio-economic, linguistic and culturally diverse background. The majority of people join Toastmasters to improve their business communication skills, others for special purpose such as an impending wedding, 21st or family celebration where they know they will be required to give a speech.
Members can request mentoring if they have a special purpose speech they need feedback either in a one-on-one process and/or in a group evaluation.
Most people join a Toastmasters because the thought of having to speak in public terrifies them!
Newsletters ___________________________________________________________
JULY 2008
The philosophy of Toastmasters makes any club no matter where they are in the world familiar places to hang out with a group of total strangers, knowing that you all have the same purpose for being there. In July our President Saeed Fassaie while on holiday in the USA took time out to visit and be warmly welcomed by the Dunwoody Toastmasters club in Georgia. They are a fantastic bunch of people who generously shared information about their club programs.
APRIL 2008
April 16th - Meeting Chair invited the 20 attendees to comment on the theme of “When all is said and done, what counts at the end of the day…..”. which after introducing themselves they contributed suggestions like
“8 hours of good work”, “love & gratitude”, “more time with the family”, “able to walk out of work at 5pm and know that everything on the To Do list has been done”, “what I have learnt”, “that every day counts”, “warm family around you”, “we can contribute”, “love being home, seeing partner and having a good night,” and “being able to live in the moment.”
Michael Wright presented a speech from the Advanced Toastmaster Manual (ATM) (Time 16min 30 sec) the Professional Speaker, No. 1 – Keynote Speech. The title of his speech was “Why are you here” which profiled and provided us with lovely and often humorous vignettes from each of his 10 speeches from the Competent Communicator (CC) manual (the first you complete in Toastmasters). The depth and breath of his subject matter was truly impressive as he described each speech. He also engaged the audience by asking each to write on supplied paper why they were there, and then read their responses back to the audience to demonstrate our common themes and purposes for each person who comes to Toastmasters.
Melody Braithwaite’s evaluation complimented Michael on inspiring others through his own example, and the fearlessness with which he tackled any subject matter for his speeches. He even gave a speech on Blogs, and he does not own a computer. While the introduction was a little disjoint, the body of the speech was outstanding as was his conclusion. The length of this speech meant that the audience had to be kept engaged so changes in presentation style and less reliance on reading notes would have improved the energy during that all important 3rd quarter - but overall a wonderful speech.
Saeed Fassie was our second speaker for the evening (Time 10 mins 11 sec) – extending material from an earlier inspirational speech with his title “You can Fly”. The speech’s theme was around how beliefs and values are merely the projections of our mind, such as people thinking 13 is an unlucky number. He promoted the idea of changing the focus of your mind. He quoted Stephen Hawkins the severely disabled English cosmologist and physicist
“ It is a waste of time to be angry about my disability. One has to get on with life and I haven't done badly. People won't have time for you if you are always angry or complaining.” Saeed concluded his speech by saying Hawkins with virtually no mobility even speech, fulfilled his dream of going into space and experiencing weightlessness.
Andrea Duffy once again demonstrated her outstanding evaluation skills by providing feedback without a manual for a guide. She complimented Saeed on his ability to “say less is more”. He utilised excellent pauses to allow the audience to absorb key points. His own belief in the material communicated itself to the audience. Saeed unfortunately went over his estimated time of 7mins.
Table Topics was hosted by Andrea Duffy, with a diverse light and very entertaining selection of surprise subjects which inspired wonderful audience responses - such as an earliest memory "being in a playpen and contemplated that this may be responsible for her dread of enclosed spaces", favourite movie - ‘Gone with the Wind’; if one had her time over she would be a "celebrity shopper for the Stars"; one being happiest when he "was outdoors breathing fresh air and feeling the sunshine"; on winning a million dollars he would "buy a house and set up a charitable organisation"; the challenge most likely to take on would be "to learn to play golf this year"; a dream job would be "a Rock n Roll Star and ride around in limousines with girls and have fun!:
Our Um Counter complimented everyone on the huge improvement since the last meeting where the low count of everyone reflected their consciously avoiding failing into filling in gaps, or making time for thought by saying “aagh”.
The Listener/Grammarian asked questions about what was said and challenged the audience to recall facts and highlights of a jam packed meeting.
Meeting finished slightly early at 8.35pm.
April 2nd - Meeting attendance was 14 with introductions on the theme of "One habit I would like to create for myself is…..".
The object of Pet Peeves is to vocalise dissatisfaction with something, and our speaker expressed her annoyance when a pleasant drive down a road is often spoiled by the sight of beautiful old trees being mangled and misshapen due to powerlines.
The Listener/Grammarian
tested the recall of participants to be active listeners e.g. What did
Francesca see down the road? The Listener/Grammarian role also notes how
people use words and figures speech to convey their message, and statements
made by speakers during the meeting which included
- "dreams that dance across Africa landscape" "renew
bonds that are so special to us" and "crime unspeakable"-
- "unconscious brain activity"
- "a sense of drama with your voice"
- "drew us into her world"
In lieu of Table Topics (impromptu speaking for one minute) we had a vigorous Impromptu Debate on the topic "We have too much choice..". The room was arbitrarily divided into those for and those against the motion. Each person was given 2-minutes speaking time. The first minute to refute the previous speaker and the second to introduce new material or support material presented by a previous speaker on their side. Heckling and interjections were permitted. Participants agreed that it was an enjoyable, interesting and entertaining segment, and to have more in the future.
Our Toastmaster introduced our speakers and evaluators with an overview that emphasized how our vocal tone (pitch, volume, rate, etc) was five times more likely to influence our audience as the content.
Elizabeth William's speech (Time 6min 33 sec) was from the Competent Communicator Manual No. 5 Vocal Variety, titled "Family Fix" about her recent trip back to South Africa to see family and friends. Andrea Duffy evaluation included comments like" A lovely speech - a personal story, which meet the speech's purpose where her vocal variety including a sense of drama, which softened with the remembrance of kinship and emotions." Her organisation beautifully linked the beginning to the end, and Elizabeth used silence and pauses really well to allow the audience to ponder the ideas and images she created. Elizabeth also demonstrated good contrasts between soft voice and a strong authorative voice.
Melody Braithwaite's speech (Time (9 mins 15 sec - overtime!) was from The Competent Communicator Manual No. 9 Add Impact with Props titled "Unconscious Brain Strategy" which described a program she is currently doing call "Photoreading" which claims to use the unconscious part of the brain to read up to 25,000 words per minute. Evaluated by Lloyd Bowling who praised use of a number of props in different ways, she managed to draw the audience into wanting to believe that this program could deliver on its promises. Points for improvement included a recommendation to reduce her material as speech went too long - a full 2 minutes over time.
Diligent counting our ums and aaghs showed all speakers had dramatically improved since our last meeting. Maximum counted for one person was 8 ums with many recorded no ums or aaghs.
Meeting finished
slightly early at 8.25pm.
March 2008 Meetings
19th March - Meeting attendance was 12 with Introductions on the theme of “If granted unlimited resources, I would give myself permission to…”.
- - …do all the things I’m dreaming of doing with passion
- - …work only on what he wanted to work on
- - ….relax, spend unlimited time doing nothing and opening (herself) up to see what happens
- - ….experiment! Try things Out. Travel the World, change jobs
- - ….go to Paris – do a 6-mnth creative writing course there, Learn to speak French
- - ….do more charity work both locally and internationally
- - …..buy myself a plane and visit every country around the world – explore the incomprehensible and reach for the impossible
Table Topics (impromptu speaking for one minute) was based around the theme of movies – how do you think you would have gone being given one of these topics!
- If you were able to choose an actor (male or female) to become, who would that be and why?
- What was the best movie you have ever seen and why?
- Are modern movies still creative or are they just copying old themes?
- What was the best (real or imaginary) creature you’ve seen created for the movie?
- Who saw and remembers Citizen Cane (1941)? Why do you think it is most famous and highly rated film of all time?
- What type of movie as in adventure or romance (chick-flick) do you most enjoy?
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Our Toastmaster introduced two speakers who were both choosing to do speeches came from the CC Manual No. 2 “Organise your Speech".
Kate Bradbury’s speech ‘The Importance of being KB’ (Time: 7 minutes) focussed on the challenges and delight of being an indulgent “Aunt Flossie” to her niece and nephew. Kate’s speech was evaluated by Saeed Fassie who complimented Kate on the use of vivid words, rhetoric devices and avoided jargon and wonderful vignettes from her experiences. Kate enhanced the delivery with her voice, body, eyes, and adaptive facial expressions. The audience could feel what a wonderful loving aunt Kate was.
Lloyd Bowling’s speech: ‘Tough Enough’ – (Time: 8 mins 50 seconds) the speech and title was prompted by a casual remark in a pub, when someone asked “At what point, Lloyd do you get tough with your staff?” Lloyd described a strategy of Management by Objective to answer this question. He gave us scenario examples using members of the audiences in “typical” work situations, and what we can do. He ended with the Stephen Covey quote: “Motivation is the fire from within.” Lloyd’s speech was evaluated by Swantje Lorrimer, who complimented Lloyd on his voice, the organisation and use of interesting examples and his ability to engage the audience.
Our Um/Aagh Counter surprised many speakers who in the past were very good, but during this meeting lapsed back into old habits - the maximum counted for one speaker was 40, 5 speakers with average of 10 ums.
Meeting finished on time at 8.30pm.