As chair, I challenged everyone when taking on a new role, to research it, find out why they are doing it and even how they could be doing it better.

Tonight we had four speakers:

Jacinta gave a very, inclusive speech on selling your best asset. You are your best asset – make the most of it.

Peter finished his 10^th speech from his Competent Communicator manual – Congratulations! For this speech we were transported to a night of people watching on Courtney Place.

Victor reminded us about the upcoming referendum. Going through the history of the two questions we will be asked, their relevance and importance.

Alana’s speech was about the New Zealand Travel bug. We now know how many of us are travelling and were we are all going. She recommends everyone to register on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Safe Travel Website http://www.safetravel.govt.nz/ when going overseas so you can be found if anything goes wrong.

Thanks to all those who joined in the Who am I??? event

Chair Rachelle

Thanks Jacinta for these pictures!

Cheers Oliver

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

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

Plans for the future are to include more information for budding TMs and people that want to inform themselves about the club. I also expect that we’ll have more input coming from TM-Chairs going forward, so that Toastmasters that couldn’t attend can catch up a little on what was in the meeting.

So I hope you all like the new site and let me know if there’s anything you want to contribute!

Oliver

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

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

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.

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 5×5″.

Gareth took the floor and exercised his body language and vocal variety with a very good introduction to what “StrongLifts 5×5″ 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. 5×5. 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.