Mt Victoria Toastmasters Club is a friendly bunch and to prove the point Jacinta brought a camera. The pics show us in our usual relaxed-mingling-mode during the tea break of a meeting at our Friends Meeting House venue.
Thanks Jacinta for these pictures!
Cheers Oliver
Hi all,
Last night was bring a plate night with members bring lots if tempting treats for our extended supper break. This was a very social time and followed on from our recent Restaurant meeting
So not surprisingly the theme was food/cuisine.
Table Topics was based around various food themes and the speakers really entertained us.
We had four prepared speeches two based on travel. Alana spoke of her travels around Europe and in particle the people that she travelled with. Sarah gave an account t of her visit to Turkey, especially Gallipoli and the military museum in Istanbul. This was an advanced manual speech and extremely well delivered.
The break was longer than usual so we could enjoy the food that people had brought. The atmosphere being very convivial.
After the break we had a second speech from Joey (CC-2), a very personal account of why she doesn’t like public speaking and therefore the benefits of speaking at Mt Vic Toastmasters.
We had an Icebreaker (CC-1) or first speech from Pia talking about her childhood and roots in Kawhia. Thank you Pia for introducing yourself to the club!
Two guests came along, one for the first time and one for the second, who wants to join.
The grammarian Nick came up with a challenging word of the night .Gustatory, which may not be a word at all!
Also of note were the very impressive evaluations, all of which were very helpful to the speakers and the audience.
So lots of fun and humour and a really good night at Mt Vic TM.
Cheers
Stevo, Chair for the night
On the 27th October we all met again for the 229th Mt Victoria Toastmasters meeting. The topic for the evening was “Hobby”. With summer coming up hobbies are on the rise again. Especially those that involve outdoorsy tasks and/or sports. The topic should motivate to re-kindle the interest in one’s own hobbies again. Russell M. presented us with the word for the evening, which was “Hobbinton”. Not easy to incorporate but throughout the evening it was used with Mark B. taking the “Toaster of the day” or his excellent & creative use of the word during his ad-lib Table Topics presentation!
Andrew P. ran the Table Topics this evening and brought some interesting hobby-props for the presenters to talk about. The top honors went to the frisbee that was covered in a floral design.
This was followed by four speeches by Mark E. “Why I like Big Day Out”, Mike W. , Mark B. “Waking a Sleeping Giant” and Nick W. “Sadako Saskaki”. All speeches were amazing and three speeches were from advanced TM manuals. This was a treat that we don’t often have in one evening. The fact that three speeches on the evening used the beamer, that was available, was unusual but fun too.
Jacinta ran us through the schedule for TM for the rest of the year and why it is important for us to partake in getting meetings sorted out early. One of the challenges of the night was the ever changing agenda, that would not come to rest. This is an issue as Jacinta pointed out and needs to get a bit better.
Matt H. then brought up the end of the meeting with poignant observations he made in his role as General Evaluator.
Thanks all for a great meet!
Oliver
Sarah did a nice write up on our Mt Victoria TM club meeting on the 18th August 2010 and I thought it would be good to share:
Dear All
I wish to congratulate Stephen Preston on his win of the Table Topics contest. As I was the 7th speaker I didn’t have the priviledge to hear how he tackled the topic ” New Zealand is still a little country”. Congratulations to all the participants. Stephen was the only speaker for the Humourous Speech contest talking about his experience of camping and a stormy night by the Manawatu River September 1986 and using the metaphor of the Star Ward trilogy. “Glorious Stuff..” Funny how the brain remembers the next day as it was school holidays and in that storm we took our family to the Wairarapa. We watched the rain from the motel Matador in Carterton. Then to get out we drove in rain through Gladstone and Martinborough beside amazing flooded paddocks and rivers.
I thank Russell Martin calmly guide the two contests through all the rigmarole of the rules and speakers. The guest who I sat nexrt too was amazed at how many people were involved with the management of the contests when they went out to discuss their roles. So a big thank you to all those participants.
There is an idea out there that we shopuld cooperate with another club to run contests so that the judges can have less running around their areas.
And now for the theme of Volunteering. I thank Jacinta who organised the meeting table topics for the warm up. We heard such wonderful experiences of how there are different ways to volunteer, from within the family, to managing teenagers on a sporting trip to Christchurch, the school science fairs and helping in a retirement home. And the big one for us is our time and energy for Toastmasters. It was interesting evening of awareness of others.
So those who weren’t there and everyone else mark in your diary, the area contest for the humourous and table topics speeches is the alternate Wednesday 22 September 7.30-9.30pm. Please contact Sarah Bate if you are able to help her with judging other clubs contests? She has several options.
It was an interesting evening and well done all participants.
Kind regards
Sarah
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 recognize Mike W as an ATM Bronze, a real achievement!
That was the first meeting under the new committee and it ran seamlessly.
Steve L
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:
Mt Vic Club members acknowledged on the night:
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
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 
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!
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!
We’re back into the swing of things at Mt Vic Toastmasters. A good mix lined up for early in the year, with plenty for new and advanced members alike: regular meetings, contests, and a social dinner outing too.
Upcoming meeting dates:
Feb 4th – Regular club meeting, to be chaired by Peter.
Feb 18th – Contest night. “Evaluation” & “International” speech contests. Come along to watch or to take part!
March 4th, March 18th, April 1st – Regular club meetings.
April 15th – Dinner meeting, held at a Wellington restaurant.
Look forward to seeing you there!
Club meetings fortnightly Wednesdays 7:30PM @
Friends Meeting House
7 Moncrieff Road
Wellington, NZ
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