Mount Victoria Toastmasters

All about the Learning Curve (#221)

2010-07-13T10:59:00.007+12:00

What a great meeting last night (meeting No. 221)! Very well run by Jacinta and lots of humor. The topic was all about the "Learning Curve".

This was also the overarching topic of Sarah's Table Topics.And we had 5 great 1-2 minute speeches on how it affects us personally in everyday life.

Good to see an Icebreaker from Tony.

We had three guest as well as Marc, who became a new member of our club.

Good to be able to recognise three members who have completed five speeches and especially to recognise Mike W as an ATM Bronze, a real achievement!

That was the first meeting under the new committee and it ran seamlessly.

Point A to B - Transportation

2010-04-30T22:45:00.000+12:00

What a fantastic meeting last Wednesday.

The theme of the night 'Point A to B - Transportation'. It was carried out through some excellent topics and speeches during our Table Topics guided by Gareth. Some interesting stories across the broad, from fascinating journeys, to frustrating journeys, to mental journeys or just getting plain lost!

There was some interesting and lively speeches throughout the evening. The first speaker was Victor who gave us a thought provoking speech on the relationship between New Zealand and Australia, and where thinks could go in the future. Watch this space. The bright side is, if we are 'one unit' they wont be able to steal anymore ideas or celebrities off poor old NZ.

Robert was the next speaker, with an somewhat abstract, but informative and funny speech regarding eating utensils. A great use of props captured people's attention, and some interesting recipes to share with the group, including peas and honey.. hmmm, don't know if you sold me on that one Robert. However, it was interesting how people have developed their eating habits around utensils, and visa versa.

The next speech was Laura Ice Breaker. For a first speech it was confident, clear and well structured. I am sure Laura has much to offer the club in the future, that is if it isn't a passing phase... star signs aren't real though are they Laura? I'm sure she will be back!!

The fourth speech was Steve P, who as always, captured the audience from start to finish. A very relevant speech to all toastmasters, I found it particularly useful personally, presentation skills are highly important in many professions. Another great speech by a talented TM.

As well as the set speeches, there was excellent reports from the other roles too. Evaluations provided some great recommendations for all of us to take home - after all, the road leading to the goal does not separate you from the destination; it is essentially a part of it. For us Toastmasters our destination is to be entertaining, engaging and confident speakers, long
may the enjoyment of accomplishing that goal continue. Bring on the next meeting.

Ryan O.

Restaurant meeting at Oriental Thai

2010-04-15T20:14:00.002+12:00

What an enjoyable evening last night at the Oriental Thai Restaurant. Fantastic company, stimulating conversation, exciting speeches, a lot of fun and some delicious food and drink. Excellent combination.

When I arrived at 6.40pm there were already a lot of people there sitting down at the big table that had been reserved for our group... that swelled to about 25 of us by 7.00pm - a very good turn out. After welcoming everybody and identifying the apologies and guests, the theme of the evening was highlighted - dining out - and people were encouraged to take the edge off their appetite with plates of entree edibles being distributed along the table.

Once people had had an opportunity to have a nibble the agenda was re-engaged and Rebecca was invited to take the floor and take us on a foray into the world of food with her table topics... Rebecca gave us some sound advice, encouragement and inspiration to... Eat real food, not things that look like food; preferably plants; and, eat in moderation. With this in mind we delved into the table topics:

Matt was selected to deliver the first table topic - on "look like foods", and with his usual quick wit and excellent sense of humour and ocassion *Matt *revealed his secret of being a man made of pizza boxes... a pizza lover... More specifically a Domino's man. Matt went on to explain his passion in more detail and certainly kicked the topics off well with plenty of humour and laughter - a good sign.

Nick came next with his story of the "most shocking meal" and, once again, the audience was entertained with his mirthful anecdotes from his student flat days and his flatmates masterful mince mixtures with food colouring added. Nick definitely painted some visual images that both humorous and left many of us reflecting on our student days and food experiences.

Laura, our newest member, was then given a warm welcome as she was asked to tell us of her "favourite meal*" and expand upon when it may have been... Laura quickly grabbed the topic and introduced us to her mum's lamb roasts, which were a Sunday regular and something that she really enjoys when she goes home still. We learned a bit more about Laura in the process too - it is always enjoyable getting to know more about our fellow toastmasters and Laura is no exception.

Antony then regaled us with a story from a trip to Rhodesia a few years back where he had had an "interesting eating experience" to say the least. After painting some fantastic visual pictures of the place and the wildlife, and the dung beetles, we then heard about Antony's potato experience when he picked up a piece that had slipped from his plate, only to discover he now had one of those beetles in his mouth. His imagery with words was so strong you could almost feel it.

Next up was Mike W. who added some "international flair" with his recount of his time in Italy and the fantastic food, atmosphere and experiences he had while there... Italian being one of Mike's favourite
styles of cuisine we heard about the cannelloni meal at his 21st and were pulled into his story with his obvious enthusiasm for the subject and the experiences he had there.

Finally Bronwen took us to Sydney where she had caught up with some friends for dinner at a Greek restaurant and enjoyed the delights of the food and the people and the atmosphere. Bronwen shared her passion for the ocassion with a very strong display of vocal variety which certainly worked to make the table topic enjoyable and finish the table topics session strongly.

Now that Rebecca, and her table topic victims and volunteers, had done such a fine job in warming up the audience for the big speeches to come, the floor was handed over to Mike to introduce our first speaker for the evening, Ryan, and his icebreaker speech entitled "Lessons, obsessions and recessions".

Ryan gave us a great introductory view into his background and some of the insights that have shaped him. Born to farming life in Gore in 1986, Ryan had an entrepreneurial start early, having his first business at the age of 17 in the firewood trade where he had 12 part time workers in his employ. His interests included the outdoors & hunting (he shared an interesting goat hunting expedition with us), snow boarding and water sports - these he termed his "obsessions". Ryan went on to university at Massey
in Palmerston North where he got his degree in Environment and Resource Planning. He went on to take up a role as a town planner in Queenstown, however the recession hit and his job was axed so he moved on up to
Wellington where he got work for Beca where he got selected in a team of 4 to work on the biggest project in Australian history - the Brisbane Link Project. Unfortunately, after 5 months at Beca the recession once again took its toll and his role was axed. He now works for Landlink and is thoroughly enjoying his role as the sole planner there. Ryan shared the lessons he has learned in life so far with us: Never burn your bridges; understand people; you are who your friends are; and, back yourself. Thanks for a great icebreaker Ryan - it certainly kept us all involved and not only gave us more of an appreciation of who you are, but also had some great messages to share.

Steve L. followed on from Ryan to introduce Simon, who was giving us a speech from the advanced "Speaking to Inform" manual, with his speech titled "Future Proofing" Simon started by ensuring everybody was in a position that they could see his speech - a great way to ensure he had our attention... Once he had
captured that he then went on to give us some very sound advice on the important things in life and ensuring you are able to "Future Proof" yourself to ensure you were in a position to handle challenges and go on enjoying the opportunities you have. *Simon *shared some valuable thoughts on retirement and the impact that a loss of work can have on you through some personal stories that really taught lessons. The four key concepts that he wanted us to take on board were that we should look after our health and treat our bodies well, eat well, sleep well and keep our bodies and minds active and exercised; we should look after our family and always make sure we have time for them... and not just our immaediate family, but out wider whanau - personal family and close friends; we should look after our wealth - not only in the bank, but in our skills - be aware of them and open opportunities to let them work for us; and fourthly, we should look after our others - become a part of the wider community. Certainly a thought
provoking speech with a lot of good ideas and stories shared with the support of personal experiences.

After Simon's speech it was time to enjoy the main meal and dishes of rice, beef, pork, fish and vegetarian thai dishes were delivered and social networking went into full force with everyone enjoying the opportunity to interact over a nice meal. After about half an hour Bronwen then was given the opportunity to introduce Gareth, who was about to give his number three speech from the project "Get to the Point". His speech was titled "StrongLifts 5x5".

Gareth took the floor and exercised his body language and vocal variety with a very good introduction to what "StrongLifts 5x5" are, and why we should think about trying them ourselves. Gareth has, for the past three weeks, been on a new exercise plan and he gave a persuasive speech to encourage us to follow in his footsteps. The *StrongLifts* are a series of exercises for the gym designed with muscle mass improvement in mind. Using two different programmes of exercises (#1: Squats, Bench Press, Inverted Rows, Push Ups and Reverse Crunch; and #2: Squats, Overhead Press, Deadlift, Pull-Ups and Prone Bridges) using the rule of 5 sets of 5 reps. 5x5. With these alternating workouts 3 times a week, with each subsequent session
increasing weights by 2.5kg, the aim is to get fit and look fit through progressive loading on short efficient workouts where you can push in with power and strength. The benefits? Muscle gain and fat loss (even when resting), strength gains, improved motivation and better health... all very good reasons to encourage us to take up *Gareth*'s challenge.

Oliver then had the pleasure of introducing our final formal speaker for the evening, Victor, who was giving his second speech from the Competent Communication Manual, Organising Your Speech. Following the theme of the evening *Victor *had chosen to take up the challenge of good foods and bad foods and explain some of the things to look out for in our fast foods and pre-packaged foods. Having a look at some
of the tricks of the trade that the food industry uses to hook us into their food products, Vistor then encouraged us to eat together, eat fresh food and cook our own food wherever possible as this minimised the bad stuff. Victor' speech was very relevant, informative and tied in well to the points that had been made earlier throughout the evening.

After the final speech it was time to see how well we had all been listening, observing and evaluating the words, speeches, topics and thoughts that had been conveyed in the main meeting throughout the evening. Agata Kesy had been taking notes all evening and selected a good range of testing questions to interrogate us with. Agata approached her task in a positive fashion and everyone responded equally positively - and obviously the evening must have been both entertaining and engaging as the answers
flowed easily.

Then it was almost time to wrap up the formal part of the evening, however not before a couple of specials were added to the menu.

Firstly, Jacque was invited up to accept the trophy and certificate for the Area E7 International Speech competition which she had won on 24 March. Jacque was also congratulated for her excellent performance at the Division E conference last Saturday where she represented both the club and the Area exceptionally well with her speech, "When the Small Things Become the Big Things".

And finally, to wrap up the evening a toast was raised to Sarah. Not only is Sarah an inspiration in her positive approach to the club, her indefatigable smile and energy for the club, always being one of the first there to help out... organising many social events, like our dinner last night... and giving some very interesting speeches. But she is also the longest serving member of Mt Vic Toastmasters. Sarah was there at the first meeting of the club back in 2001 - two years before it chartered. Sarah was involved as the club built numbers to reach the charter levels required, which it did in 2003, and has continued to take a prominent role in promoting it in the 215 meetings at the club since then. Well worth recognising and thank you Sarah.

That all done, it was time to wrap up the official side of the meeting and encourage people to continue networking and enjoy a cup of coffee or tea.

Overall, a very enjoyable evening and I look forward to the next dinner meeting, probably in about 3 months time :)

Stephen P.

Contest season...

2010-03-25T22:14:00.008+13:00

It has been something of a Toastmasters 'contest season' in the last few weeks!

Our club contest night was held on March 17th. There were two contests on the night:

The International Speech Contest (a prepared speech, 5 to 7mins) - won by Jacque, with her speech "The little things are the big things."

The Evaluations Contest (an on-the-night evaluation of a guest speaker's speech) - won by Garth, with his evaluation of Derek's test speech.

Club winners go through to the represent at the inter-club Area level, and have the opportunity to go through further knockout rounds at regional and national level.

Last night, Garth and Jacque represented us at the Area contest, and both did our club proud:

- Garth placed second in the Evaluations contest

- Jacque won the International contest, and will go through to the next round divisional contest.

Plenty of our members have also had supporting roles throughout the contest season, making it all possible - organising, judging, chairing, marshalling, timing, tally-counting - you name it, plenty have chipped in - a big thankyou to you all.

We're looking forward to the divisional round - go Jacque!

First meeting for 2010

2010-02-17T08:01:00.000+13:00

3^rd February Mt Victoria Toastmasters met for their first meeting for 2010. The meeting was chaired by Anna Potts who had selected the theme: Summer Daze. It was great to see so many people back from their holidays, looking relaxed and ready for another year of achieving their goals with Mt Vic Toastmasters.

We started the meeting with the word of the day from Grammarian Peter W. who challenged us to use his chosen word "romance" throughout the meeting. Next Victor O. came up and introduced the table topics theme of school days – where he invited a few speakers and asked for volunteers to speak about their reminiscences of their days at school. We had six speakers who shared vignettes of their school life.

Jacque T. introduced one of our advanced speakers Sarah B. who spoke about the Wot Wots and life at the Weta Cave. We were introduced to Spotty Wot, one of the main characters from the popular pre-school children’s TV programme – The Wotwots.

Peter A. arrived at the front with more than his usual flair to introduce a dramatic interpretive reading from Mike W. Mike got into the spirit of his performance with fake painted blood on his "cloak". Listening to Mike I felt the hair rising on the back of my arms.

Just before the supper break Matt H. gave a thoroughly excellent evaluation of the table topic speakers and the table topics master.

After supper we warmly invited our guests who had joined us for the meeting and they got up and introduced themselves. It was great to have them here with us.

Bronwen T. got up and introduced Rebecca E. who was going to giving us her fourth speech in her Competent Communicators manual. Rebecca gave us a simple explanation of the differences between Japanese acupuncture and Chinese acupuncture.

Russell M. Club President, got up at the business session and gave us a few upcoming dates to add to the diary – the Evaluation and International Speech Contest on 17^th March and the Restaurant meeting on 14^th April. He also invited anyone to attend the upcoming club officers' training.

Stephen P. was brought on at the last minute to introduce and evaluate Gareth D.’s speech. Thanks Stephen! Gareth gave his second speech from the Competent Communicators manual and gave an interesting review on the latest movie – Avatar - encouraging us to go and see it in 3D, if you haven’t already seen it.

Garth B. led an interactive and stimulating listening post session to check our critical listening skills and memories throughout the meeting.

Peter W. got up to let us know how well we used his chosen word and Robert G. gave us the timekeeper’s report.

We look forward to the next meeting in a fortnight’s time where Mike W. will be chairing.

Thanksgiving

2009-12-10T01:19:00.000+13:00

On Wednesday the 25th of November, Mt Victoria Toastmasters celebrated Thanksgiving in our very own toastmasters style. Using Thanksgiving as the theme, Bronwen ran an excellent table topics session, asking participants to recall various aspects of their lives they were thankful for, such as a piece of music, a person, or an event.

Robert G. was our grammarian for the evening and introduced us to the word "martinet", as well as treating us to an exciting display of martinet like behaviour.

We had three very well prepared and presented speeches from Oliver, Sophie and Matt. Oliver gave us speech number 2 from the CC manual and explained to us how to structure a speech using the method of mind mapping, and included a very comprehensive mind map of his first speech, then surprised us by pointing out he had had Rebecca put his mind map for this speech on the back wall; and had actually used it to deliver his speech while we the audience were none the wiser.

Sophie told us a wonderful story, drawing us in and sharing with us " The End of the Affair". Sophie touched us with her descriptions of her time in Wellington, explaining how her relationship with Wellington had began, grown and evolved. She then outlined the adventure she is to undertake next year, working in South America.

Matt replied to Dan's speech of a few meetings previous, and refuted the benefits of personality typing in a very humorous yet thought provoking manner.

As well as three speeches we were fortunate to have Steve P present an educational on Evaluations. Steve gave a very detailed discourse and introduced us to the use of OAR: Objective, Action and Review.

Agata and Mike did us proud in the Sergeant at Arms role with a great selection of chocolate biscuits.

Thanks to our evaluators: Victor on table topics; Peter, Antony, Steve L, giving prepared speech evaluations; Rebecca keeping us to a timely basis; Anna testing our listening skills; and Garth as general evaluator.

My special thanks to everyone present at the meeting for making my first experience chairing a Mt Victoria Toastmasters Club meeting so enjoyable.

"A thankful heart is not only the greatest virtue, but the parent of all the other virtues." Cicero

Sarah B.

Explore

2009-11-23T23:54:00.000+13:00

The well-read and well-travelled bunch that we are, tonight’s theme was well embraced and we heard some great stories of exploring places and interests.

Table topics chair Peter W set the scene with a lucky dip bag of exploration- and travel-related props. In true table topics spirit, some prompted an impromptu response and others were acknowledged then set aside for something altogether different! Highlights were Steve L’s classic tale of misunderstanding in a Spanish hospital; Sophie Y baking for her weekly hand clinic at Wellington Hospital, and Matt H’s dead-pan evaluation of his own table topics speech.

We had a double treat with not one, but two icebreakers. Gareth D stepped up to give the first speech of the night and delivered a composed, engaging and well paced speech on some of his formative experiences and how they led to him becoming a computer programmer. Agata K gave a confident and animated icebreaker speech on her travels, love of her motorbike, and encouraged us to all visit Poland. Very well done, and we look forward to more speeches from you both!

Sarah B delivered a dramatic monologue from her Advanced Manual, using material from Hamlet. This was Sarah’s first speech as a newly transferred member to Mt. Victoria Toastmasters. I personally enjoyed Sarah’s speech for its performance qualities and for her giving us a different type of speech to enjoy. Thanks Sarah!
Congratulations to Bronwen T who delivered her 10th speech thereby completing her Competent Communicators manual - well done! In her ‘persuasive speech’ Bronwen addressed the subject of discrimination, and strongly urged us to think particularly about subtle ways in which we and others might make judgements without thinking carefully or considering other perspectives.

First time guest Andrew S introduced himself, and seemed to enjoy the evening. We hope to see you again soon Andrew! I thoroughly enjoyed my first meeting as chair, and the different perspective it gave me on the meeting, the speakers, and indeed the club. A big thanks to my mentor Russell, for his guidance and help. And thanks to everyone with roles tonight.

A final reflection: I found Bronwen’s speech all the more compelling for being personal, open and honest. As Steve often says, toastmasters is not about the speeches, it’s about the people. It struck me how empowering it is to acquire the confidence to express ourselves, not just about things in which we have a passing interest in toastmasters speeches which, after all, are designed to teach specific speaking skills, but in matters that are close to our hearts and minds.

-Dan P

Mentoring

2009-11-22T01:12:00.001+13:00

When you join Mt Vic Toastmasters as a new member, you will be assigned a Mentor.

A Mentor is an experienced Toastmasters who will assist and guide a new member, typically for their first three speeches.

The benefits to the new Toastmasters are:

someone to ask questions and to explore speech writing ideas

to receive feedback in addition to feedback from speech evaluators

to learn new skills and to and refine your speaking skills

Some new Toastmasters are very confident and perhaps don't require a lot of mentoring, others may be less confident and really value having a guiding mentor.

One of the real strengths of Toastmasters is feedback. This comes in the form of evaluations of your speeches and from comments and advice from your mentor. Feedback enables us to grow and develop our skills and confidence.

So, you are not alone at Mt Vic Toastmasters!

-Steve L.

Restaurant Meeting

2009-10-29T08:51:00.000+13:00

On Wednesday 30th September we had a change of venue to our regular meeting at Friends House and met with family, friends and partners at Piccolo Restaurant. At Mt Vic we try to have a restaurant meeting at least every quarter eating at a local restaurant in Wellington. Sarah Harper, our Sergeant at Arms, had organised and booked the restaurant for 30 of our members.

The meeting was chaired by Anna Potts who set the meeting theme of ‘Spring has sprung’ in reference to the Spring Tulip Festival in the Botanical Gardens the weekend before.

Tom Stacey, restaurateur and owner, spoke during the meeting about the
early beginnings of Piccolo and introduced the ordering system as plates of
fresh olives and bread and hummus were being carried to each table.

Gareth, one of our newer members, took the grammarian role and introduced the word of the evening to the club. This was closely followed by Sarah B. who introduced table topics with a set of thought provoking questions. We had a variety of guests and members participate with great enthusiasm and humour in this session.

As our entrees were cleared away and orders were being prepared for main
courses, our first set of prepared speeches got underway. We were in for a
treat as we had two icebreakers (i.e. two new members who were giving their first prepared speeches from the Competent Communicators manual) – Oliver and Victor.

Oliver introduced himself giving us a non-technical explanation of what life is like as a testing manager in a large IT company in Wellington. He spoke with humour and obvious enjoyment about his day job and gave us an insight into some of his other passions in life.

Victor gave an insightful speech on the importance of having a voice and a
good command of English. He spoke about starting school in New Zealand with no English as his parents were both Polish and had only recently arrived in New Zealand during WWII. It was an upbringing that was to influence his life in a variety of career paths that he has held up to now.

Peter W got up and delivered his fourth speech from the Competent Communicators manual and spoke about his recent adventures in Latin America and some of the etiquette and unspoken rules (or looks!) involved in asking a girl to dance in Brazil. Who knew the complexity of signals you could possibly be sending across the tango floor.

Tom and his staff then delivered our tasty main meals – which were well received. As we were finishing our sumptuous main meals Tom introduced the dessert menu, for those of us that had room to fit in a little something sweet.

Stephen P, our Area Governor got up from the floor and delivered an educational - a speech on leadership opportunities that Mt Vic members
could get involved in at club-level. He explained how participating in a
wide variety of club activities could lead to achieving a competent leadership award. Inspiring us to cross the chasm with two planks laid out supporting each other, he took us through the areas in which we could grow and develop alongside our speaking roles.

Bronwen delivered a humorous and diverse set of listening post questions in which we all participated - all of us trying to recall different areas from the evenings’ proceedings.

As the evening drew to a close, the Chair thanked all the guests, family,
and friends for coming along and participating in the evenings’ festivities. We hope you can join us at our next Mt Vic Toastmasters meeting. Ciao!

Leaving things to the last minute

2009-09-30T12:47:00.000+13:00

Such was the theme of the night and so it was no surprise that Matt, our grammarian for the night, decided to pick the word "procrastination" as the word of the night. Except that he got bored half-way through writing it down and all we had to work with was "procras" :)

In any case, it was a fun evening, many thanks to Anna who took over at the last minute and organised the whole meeting, making my job as chair very easy.

After a short introduction which I prepared at the last minute, on my way from work to the Friends Meeting Hall, Jacinta produced a table topics theme which turned out to be very inspiring: it was all about breaking through obstacles.

Second came Sarah who took us with her on a journey into Eastern Nepal where she had to run away from a tiger. Followed Sofie who told us all about how hungry she was after a very demanding bike ride down from Arthur's Pass.

Then came our more medically-inclined members. Marie reminded us about the importance of taking a first aid class and Rebecca explained why she decided to become an acupuncturist and how she only has 785 years before she becomes a master in her profession.

Finally, the meeting ended with Mike's reading of a short story from Marcovaldo by Italo Calvino. Visit the library if you want to read the rest!

Thank you to all of those who made this meeting such a pleasure to chair and remember, you're not putting things off, you're practising structured procrastination :)

Table Topics and Humourous Speech Contest

2009-09-01T10:07:00.000+12:00

Just a reminder about the contests at the Mount Victoria Toastmasters club this Wednesday, 2 September.

Just so everyone knows what this night is all about:

Everyone in the club and guests are strongly encouraged to come to what is always an exciting night - whether or not you want to enter.

All paid up Mt Vic TM Members can enter.

Humourous Speech Contest is a prepared speech contest.

Table Topics Contest is obviously impromptu.

See you there!

Russell M.

Mt Vic Toastmasters Celebrates its 200th!

2009-08-23T10:18:00.000+12:00

Yes our 200th meeting was held on Wednesday 19th at our usual venue. What a great night, with a very full turn out.
Special guests included:

David C. DTM, Dividon E Governor

Ray W. DTM, former Distinguished District Governor, Club Sponsor

Mt Vic Club members acknowledged on the night:

Mieke W., Club Mentor

Antony Z., former Area E7 Governor

Russell M., Mt Vic President 2009/10

Ray gave a 10 minute history of the club since its first meeting in 2001 and
he acknowledged fellow club founder the late Collin Perfect. It was great to
hear of our pedigree and lineage. A very humourus and some what irreverent
look at Toastmasters as only Ray can. A very stimulating presentation that
was enjoyed by all.

The Club's Charter Members, Sarah H. and Steve L. as well as Ray
were introduced to the club.

Mieke then ran an excellent Table Topics (this is where Toastmasters and
guests speak off the cuff for two minutes).

Mieke asked for some of the more experienced Toastmasters to provide their
recollections such as the most memorable speech that they gave or heard, who
was the most inspiring speaker, and what do they consider to be the
benefits and personal value of the Mt Vic Toastmasters' experience.?

This in effect became a series of testimonials and tied in very well with
the theme of the night. Thanks Mieke.

Matt H delivered his second speech, The Beagle Boys, about Charles
Darwin and the Origin of the Species. He covered 4 billion years of life and
evolution on earth, and the 200 hundred years since Darwin visited the
Galapagos Islands, all in just over 7 minutes. A very intesting speech
indeed!

After the break Jess M, a new member, provided her first speech, the Ice
Breaker, where she introduced herself to us. A very accomplished first
speech with very good graphics ands photos about her life in Wellington,
suburb by suburb. Thanks Jess and great to have that first speech under your
belt.

The next speech was an advanced speech by Mark B., who commemorated our 200th by designing a cocktail, the Mt Vic 200, a variation on the Martini theme.
This was very humourous and very well prepared, and so appropriate for the night.

The evaluators, Bronwen for Table Topics , Simon for Matt, Susy for Jess,
Peter A. for Mark , and Jacinta as the General Evaluator all excelled themselves and really got into the spirit of the night.

In fact Peter's evaluation of mark was so funny that it was almost living theatre!

So well done to all those who participated and to our visitors and guests, two of whom said that they wanted to join our thriving club!

Mt Vic is 200! Mt Vic TM is in very good heart!

Now let's have one of Mark's Martinis to celebrate!

Steve L.
Mt Vic TM 200 Chair

Evaluate to Motivate - part 2

2009-05-29T11:11:00.001+12:00

Below is a copy of the Evaluation educational session I took last night.

Some good tips came from the discussion that followed too, thanks everybody that chimed in.

What are your tips for a good evaluation? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Five Points for Evaluating – from Toastmasters International

Show your interest

- be encouraging

Consider speaker’s objectives

- before

- in evaluation

Personalise your review

- What I saw

- What I heard

- What I felt

Evaluate the speech, not the person

- in your language (do Third person)

- in your content (their speaking, not their values or beliefs)

Evaluate to Motivate

- honest, sincere praise

- positive reinforcement

- ‘Do more of’ & ‘Add to’

Nick’s thoughts on evaluating

· Explain the "How". Use this structure: ‘Noticed that the speaker…’ –> ‘The effect that had was…’ –> ‘Consider doing this…’

· Avoid whitewash & gushing

· Be clear, be bold – not Tiny/Wee/Maybe

· How – be specific, give examples

· Watch for generalities – e.g ‘The speaker drew them in.’ Ok, but How was it achieved?

· If you can, model it

Others’ thoughts?

Evaluate to Motivate (part 1)

2009-05-27T11:12:00.001+12:00

We've had resounding feedback from our members earlier this year on the importance of quality feedback. So, this is part 1 of a two-part post on the topic. Here's part 1 - an overview...

Good evaluations are a crucial part of what makes our club strong. A good evaluation motivates the speaker to improve, provides valuable thoughts & tips for all members looking to improve, and is in itself an entertaining and motivational speech.

The nature of Mt Vic TM's evaluations also feed our club's culture. They're positive, good humoured and genuine - that's the Mt Vic Way.

So, how can we ensure that the club consistently has high quality evaluation speeches?

Just like the art public speaking, good evaluators aren't born - they're made. There are specific skills to construct an effective evaluation. For example:

- Be encouraging

- Consider the speaker's objectives

- Personalise your review

- Evaluate the speech, not the person

- Evaluate to motivate

This all seems straightforward, doesn't it? It is. The art is in the *How*...

Come along to our club night this week for an educational session on how to Evaluate to Motivate, and hear more about the *How*.

Conservation

2009-05-16T02:32:00.000+12:00

May 13th Club meeting

by Sarah H

I really enjoyed Larissa's decision to continue with the theme of conservation. And what an outcome, each speaker added with such an interesting facts, opinions and experiences that it seemed like a debate. Two suggestions for everyone were to look at a DVD of a film "Earth" and the other one was to consider all of the world's population as vegetarian and what impact would that have on the environment. It was fascinating.

Five well prepared speeches, were presented. Peter talking about his interest of "Star trek" with wonderful imagination and knowledge... Two Icebreakers, Sophie and Dan introducing themselves, based on their passion for their work as a natural progression over the years of study. I wish them well as they move through the Competent Communicator Manual and look forward to more interesting speeches from them. I hope they enjoy the Toastmasters experience. Rachelle spoke about the impact and contact of the influence of names for people, animals and places. It was thought provoking about the spelling and use of words as labels to communicate as in texting with a fading battery. Bronwen also intrigued us with her speech about colours, so informative, facts just kept on coming and each one as interesting.

But that wasn't all for this attentive audience. Mark gave us the final challenge to make each introduction as memorable as those speeches.
From the chatter during the break it's a social occasion and getting to know the next speaker and about their speech to prepare for the introduction through email seems to me a natural way, rather than relying on the 5 minutes before the evening meeting to learn about the "what's next" of the speech.

So in all it was a fascinating and challenging meeting.

Sarah

Roster for May to July 09

2009-05-02T04:10:00.001+12:00

Garth has put together the speaking roster for meetings through to July (copied below). Please let Garth know if any changes are needed.

Date:	13.May	27.May	10.Jun	24.Jun	8.Jul	22.Jul
Chairperson	Sarah Harper	Larissa Banks	Simon Harrison	Susy Corney	Bronwen Turner	Jacque Treeweek
General Evaluator	Mark Berge	Jacque Treweek	Jacinta Zogg	Bronwen Turner	Larissa Banks	Nicola Smith
Table Topics Master	Larissa Banks	Dan Pringle	Sofie Yelavich	Mieke Wensvoort	Peter Williamson	Andrew Plimmer
Table Topics Evaluator	Jo Woods	Russell Martin	Jacque Treeweek	Anna Potts	Andrew Plimmer	Peter Agnew
Speaker 1	Dan Pringle	Susy Corney	Sarah Harper	Larissa Banks	Dan Pringle	Steve Lawton
Evaluator 1	Simon Harrison	Andrew Plimmer	Marie La Flamme	Jo Woods	Russell Martin	Antony Zogg
Speaker 2	Peter Williamson	Garth Bloomfield	Peter Williamson	Garth Bloomfield	Sofie Yelavich	Andrew Plimmer
Evaluator 2	Peter Agnew	Bronwen Turner	Francois Marier	Nick White	Peter Agnew	Nick White
Speaker 3	Sofie Yelavich	Francois Marier	Club AGM	Sarah Harper	Susy Corney	Anna Potts
Evaluator 3	Anna Potts	Steve Lawton		Mark Berge	Marie La Flamme	Jacinta Zogg
Speaker 4	Bronwen Turner	Anna Potts		Teri Anderson	Mike Wareham	Bronwen Turner
Evaluator 4	Peter Taft	Mieke Wensvoort		Mike Wareham	Sarah Harper	Dan Pringle
Speaker 5	Rachelle Winefield				Mark Berge	Peter Williamson
Evaluator 5	Nicola Smith				Peter Taft	Mieke Wensvoort
Educational		Nick White	Steve Lawton	Russell Martin
Listening post	Marie La Flamme	Peter Williamson	Peter Taft	Jacque Treeweek	Anna Potts	Jo Woods
Grammarian	Teri Anderson	Sofie Yelavich	Andrew Plimmer	Dan Pringle	Simon Harrison	Marie La Flamme
Time Keeper	Susy Corney	Peter Taft	Teri Anderson	Andrew Plimmer	Nick White	Francois Marier
Assistant Sergeant of Arms	Garth Bloomfield	Jacinta Zogg	Peter Agnew	Peter Williamson	Nicola Smith	Mark Berge

An evening in Casablanca

2009-05-02T00:09:00.000+12:00

[caption id="attachment_222" align="alignright" width="240" caption="Casablanca evening (photo credit: milamber)"]

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On Wednesday night we packed out Wellington's Casablanca restaurant with plenty of members, partners, friends & guests, for a thoroughly enjoyable meeting over dinner.

Russell chaired the evening's proceedings, setting a relaxed and entertaining mood right from the start.

Jacqui facilitated the table topics session to warm up the crowd, asking them to reflect on a few of their favourite things...and the crowd responded strongly, with plenty of volunteer speakers from members & guests alike. Great to see people really getting into the impromptu speaking - well done to all.

Steve grabbed the attention of the audience with a highly entertaining speech, from the public relations speaking programme. The project brief for Steve this time was to deliver a PR speech to a "hostile audience", so we readied our best frowns and heated heckles to hear out Steve's contentious proposal: to fill in Wellington harbour. Outrageous - and plenty of laughs all round, but Steve managed somehow to keep a straight face, even through the Q & A session.

Dinner was a feast of Moroccan food - we all tucked into a variety of brochettes, couscous and tajines (mine a delicious fish tajine).

I closed off with an after-dinner speech recalling a famous tale set in Morocco: Aladdin and the Magic lamp. I decided to freshen the story up and spice liberally with modern culture, an idea inspired by Morocco's Yassir Chadly.

All in all a very enjoyable night, over some good food in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere. Special thanks to Russell and Steve who organised the night, and to our friendly host Ben & the team at Casablanca.

Next meeting - April 15th

2009-04-08T02:04:00.000+12:00

Our next Mt Vic Toastmasters meeting is on April 15th, to be chaired by Steve.

The theme is: "Travel" ... there are plenty of stories possible on that topic, I'd imagine!

Scheduled speakers are: Francois, Peter, Anna, Andrew & Teri.

Look forward to seeing you there :)

Auspicious History

2009-03-20T11:05:00.000+13:00

Garth chaired last night's Mt Vic Toastmasters meeting, with the theme: "Today in History" - a theme that always seems to bring forth an eclectic array of events... and the 18th March was no different:

1673 - Lord Berkley sold his half of New Jersey to the Quakers

1891 - Britain became linked to the continent of Europe by telephone

1911 - North Dakota enacted a hail insurance law (yes, protection specifically from hail)

1986 - Buckingham Palace announced the engagement of Prince Andrew to Sarah Ferguson

Which spurred on numerous speakers to recall their own 'moments in history' - including Mike's recall of the night that man first walked on the moon: an auspicious event, surpassed only by Mike & his wife's engagement that same night! Celebrated by a walk along Oriental Parade, to gaze up the beautiful full moon :)

Wonderful stories and engaging speeches last night - well done to Bronwen, Francois, Mark and Mike - who took us from the Siberian Valley, to the plight of the Tasmanian Devil in Australia, to the global reaches, processes, procedures & practices of Toastmasters International - and back to good old Pauatahanui!

Enjoyed something from the meeting, or want to give some feedback? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Go go gadget go

2009-03-06T11:08:00.000+13:00

"Gadgets" were the theme for the evening at last night's meeting - so energetically chaired by Peter T.

It was a superb Chairperson's effort, producing a "full involvement" meeting : where every person at the meeting contributes with a speech of some type, whether prepared or impromptu. It's always a thrill to hear so many different points of view!

Excellent to see our brand new members Peter, Sofie and Dan all striding forward to deliver well considered, well structured speeches - and in each case, the speech was off the cuff. Well done to you all.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 18 March, to be chaired by Jo, with rostered speakers of: Bronwen, Francois, Teri and Mark B.

Looking forward to it!

Dip back into it

2009-02-20T00:39:00.000+13:00

See you at the next meeting, on Wednesday 4th March, 7:30pm.

Our rostered Chairperson is Peter Taft and rostered speakers are Marie, Joyce, Garth, Anna and Steve.

All welcome - go on, dip back into it!

Last night's meeting - impressive!

2009-02-20T00:23:00.000+13:00

Thanks to all at last night's 'contest night' - a smoothly run and very enjoyable evening.

Special thanks to Mieke for chairing the contest so proficiently and warmly, to Russell for hosting a lively table topics session (featuring topics such as "bitter rain" and "dazzling sunshine"!) and to our guest judges from the Public Services club: Tony, Olivia & Alex.

Thanks also to Linda for giving us a very impressive speech on the art of Claude Monet. And congratulations to Garth for delivering an equally impressive, winning Evaluation of Linda's speech, in the Evaluation contest.

Great to see some new & prospective members coming through - welcome to the club Peter Williamson (that's now three Peters!). Look forward to hearing that icebreaker speech sometime soon :)

Contest night.... coming soon

2009-02-14T01:51:00.001+13:00

It's contest time again - our next club meeting, on Wednesday Feb 18th, will feature the Evaluation Contest and the International Speech contest.

Come along to see our club members take on the challenge of Evaluating a 'test speech', and hear the International Speech entries.

All welcome - feel free to come along as a guest - we look forward to seeing you there!

The role of 'General Evaluator'

2009-02-09T06:20:00.001+13:00

Summary of the role of 'General Evaluator'

Evaluates the evaluators.

Evaluate table topics evaluator.

Evaluates everyone in the meeting who have not already been evaluated.

Consider the following questions when you are required to evaluate:
- Have you motivated the speaker?
- Did you given appropriate commendations and recommendations (based on speech objectives)?
- Did you identify what, why and how in your recommendation/s to the speaker?

Before the meeting

Ring/Email the chairperson to check on any special issues about the meeting (not always necessary).

Review agenda to see what is likely to come up.

Prepare paper for taking notes.

At the start of the meeting

Arrive in good time; see if chairperson and ASA arrive in good time to prepare room.

See if there have been any changes to the agenda.

Did the meeting start on time? Did the ASA greet guests and obtain their contact details?

During the meeting

Write notes on performance of all those who are not otherwise evaluated: Chairperson, ASA, Timekeeper, Grammarian, Table Topics Evaluator, speech Evaluators.

Did the meeting run according to the agenda? If not, were deviations explained and well managed?

Did people explain their roles and then act according to those explanations?

Was the atmosphere positive and helpful?

Presenting the evaluation

Avoid spending too long evaluating any one role

Don’t include too many recommendations for any one person - one or two will be enough for a person to take in and focus on

Be positive, but do provide constructive suggestions for improvement. (Not "The meeting was poorly controlled", but "The meeting might have flowed more smoothly if Peter had reminded people to keep to the times on the agenda.")

Speak in the third person - address the audience, not the individual.

The role of 'Assistant Sergeant-at-Arms'

2009-02-09T06:14:00.001+13:00

What a strange title for this role! But the ASA plays a very useful role to make sure our club nights are enjoyable and go smoothly. Here are some guidelines for the ASA at our Mt Vic club nights...

Summary of the role of Assistant Sergeant at Arms

Host for the evening and support for the chairperson.

Responsibility for ensuring that room is set up.

Responsibility for having equipment available.

Welcome guest/s (record contact details in the visitor’s book).

Ensure guests are looked after by other toastmasters.

The supper is prepared and served efficiently.

The room is left tidy and clean afterwards.

Before the meeting

Ask the chairperson who has the key and who will be opening up.

Obtain milk before the meeting.

Before people arrive

Arrive at least 15 minutes before start of meeting - try to get physical arrangements finished before anyone else arrives.

Arrange the chairs into rows with a space down the middle of the floor.

Check that special equipment is there; find it, if necessary.

Get equipment boxes from cupboard in kitchen.

Set out the banner, visitor’s book, pen, name tags, Timekeeper's lights and Chairperson's gravel.

Set out the tea, coffee, milo, sugar, milk, cups and biscuits and ensure there is sufficient for everyone. If supplies are low - advise the Sergeant at Arms.

Ensure the hot water heater is switched ON.

At the start of the meeting

Greet guests at door; invite them to enter their contact details in the visitor’s book.

Remember to hand out name tags to those who have them.

When called on by the Chairperson: Welcome the guests - by name. Include special mention of guests with specific roles such as General Evaluator, Contest Judge or Area Governor.

Sit near the door to greet latecomers (quietly).

During the supper break

Bring the hot water kettle to the supper table.

Unwrap biscuits and serve the supper.

Ensure that the guests are being looked after.

At the end of the meeting

Farewell visitors.

Tidy room and move the chairs back around the edge of the room; pack up the equipment box.

Ensure that the timer and all the name tags are packed away in the plastic box.

Put things back in the box that they came out of -this makes it easier for the ASA at the next meeting.